We Are
Arab American.

The breakthrough of the Oslo Accords wasn’t to be found in its details. Rather it was in the opening sentences, in which the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized one another’s legitimacy as representatives of two separate peoples and as negotiating partners.  

As we approach the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords, there will be commentary galore about how the accords failed. There’ll be predictable finger-pointing. Some of it will ring true, but most will miss the point. 

When I attend next month’s meeting of the Democratic National Committee, it will mark my 30th year as a member of that body. As an Arab American and one of the longest serving DNC members, I have a story to tell.  

If we’ve learned anything during the leadup to the 2024 Republican primary contests, it’s that the Republican Party no longer exists—either as a body that represents, organizes, and governs its members and candidates, or as a policymaking entity that shapes the ideas around which Republicans coalesce.  

There has been a great deal of commentary about a possible US-engineered Saudi-Israel normalization agreement: what it would actually do; whom it might benefit; and, most importantly, whether any such arrangement is even possible given current political realities in the US and Israel. A Saudi-Israel agreement would, no doubt, be consequential, but to introduce a touch of reality, let’s look at some of the exaggerated claims that have been made.  

In the days that passed between the death and burial of Sinéad O’Connor, there was an outpouring of praise for the Irish singer. News accounts and op-eds in major media in the US and Ireland made note of her courageous and prophetic voice. If there is a lesson to be learned from Sinéad’s life and the reactions to her passing, it is the importance of calling institutions and nations to account for past sins and the benefits that can accrue to future generations when such a reckoning occurs.  

On August 4, 2020, I was bracing for my 53rd wedding anniversary—the first following the death of my wife, Eileen—when news broke of a massive explosion in the Port of Beirut. Thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, stored in the port’s grain silos, detonated causing the largest non-nuclear blast in modern times. The death toll was 240, with more than 7,000 injured and 300,000 left homeless.  

At the recently concluded NATO summit, while member states displayed continued resolve to provide Ukraine the material and political support needed to counter Russia’s assault, they would not agree to Prime Minister Zelenskyy’s demand to an expedited Ukrainian entry into NATO.