Press Room

AAI in the News

Mideast Policy is Out of Focus

By Mark Maymik
The Plain Dealer
Posted on Saturday November 15, 2003

Most of the nine Democratic presidential candidates are failing to debate the one issue that has preoccupied every White House since the end of the Vietnam War: the Middle East conflict.

James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, made the charge yesterday during a speech at The Cleveland City Club. He also called on the Democratic candidates to do more to challenge the Middle East policy set by Bush and his advisers, whom Zogby referred to as the “neo-conservatives.”

As for the Arab-Israeli conflict, very little debate has ensued,” said Zogby, whose organization rallies Arab-Americans to vote and organize around political issues.

Zogby, who works with the Democratic National Committee, said that only Dennis Kucinich has tried to challenge Bush’s Middle East policy. “He proposes the most dramatic and developed challenge to the tenets of the neo-conservatives,” he said.

He pointed out, though, that none of the other candidates is listening to Kucinich because, Zogby said, the front-runners don’t consider him a threat. “Dennis speaks and the others ignore. As a result, there really has not been a substantive debate.”

Zogby said that most of the debate on the Middle East has been focused on whether the United States should have invaded Iraq with or without the support of other large nations. But the debate, he said, must also address whether the United States can establish democracy in Iraq and “whether it is our job to do it.”

Zogby said candidates should be challenging the administration’s Mideast policy, which he said “turns a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians” and imposes no sanctions against Israel when it violates tenets of U.S. peace proposals.

He also used his speech to attack the U.S. Patriot Act, created after 9/11 to make it easier for the government to investigate suspected terrorists. He said the government has “lowered the bar” on human rights. He complained that the United States is using the act to target immigrants from Muslin countries and violates civil liberties.

“It undercuts our credibility to be leaders in human rights and supporters of democratic reform when we don’t practice what we preach,” he said.