16
Mar
2008
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When the dots don't connect …

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So many things have been happening that are disturbing. But more disturbing is the inability to make sense of them all, to connect the dots. Maybe just writing them might help comfort the afflicted:

OBAMA’S ARAB CONNECTIONS:
Barack Obama’s biggest problem has to do with Arabs and the Palestinians. This week, he was hounded by two controversies. The first is his connection to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, whom I know well. Rezko is a Syrian-born American businessman who owned small fast food restaurant chains (Panda Express and Papa John’s Pizza) and a building renovation company, REZMAR, in partnership with a Jewish American. Several years back, I was instrumental in getting the Illinois Ethnic Coalition to recognize Rezko’s company, REZMAR. Afterall, it was unusual for an Arab and a Jew to be working together so well.

Rezko entered political fundraising in the early 1990s, helping me to raise some money for a campaign for a seat on the Illinois General Assembly in what many considered a “suicide” run (an American political term for an impossible office to win). I raised about $68,000 or so (*all publicly disclosed, including about $7,000 or $8,000 from Rezko and his connections. It helped even though I didn’t win — I came close :)

But as Rezko’s interests in politics expanded, he went from backing Arab Americans for public office to raising money for mainstream American politicians, including local legislators, senators and governors.

Today, Rezko has been accused of misusing his clout, tying campaign donations to political jobs, and schemeing to skim money from projects. Much of the allegations surround two other co-conspirators who are also Arab, a Palestinian from Chicago whose former candy company was linked to a Methemphatamine ring linked to two Arab-owned car dealerships named Ali Ata. And a businessman named Abdulhamid Chaib. I also know Ata well, a decent man with entre to a lot of clout through another Arab American business leader who has ties to Saudi investors. Ata was never tied to the methamphetamine ring, except through a relative who ran the store.

All three have been indicted and are at the center of an ongoing trial now taking place in Chicago that has dragged Obama’s name through the mud.

Then, there is Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who has said some outrageous things, including some good things. For example, he has said that White America infected African Americans with the HIV virus. Outrageous but something many African Americans believe. And, he has said that America has been attacke dby tewrrorism but has backed terrorism against many other people around the world, including the Palestinians.

Of course, bring up the Palestinians in an American presidential race and candidate’s go berserk, as does the pro-Israel lobby and their congressional supporters. Naturally, Hillary Clinton’s people and mainstream journalists — coincidentally many Jewish American journalists — jumped on Obama, challenging his ties to Rev. Wright.

When does someone else’s opinion actually become your opinion? Doesn’t matter. Hillary Clinton will probably pull a “George W. Bush” and steal the election away from the African American Christian with the Muslim father and grandfather and Muslim middle name, Hussein. She’ll probably use her beltway clout to push the “Super Delegates” — delegates who are not elected by the voters but rather are often elected or former elected officials appointed by party honchos. (I can smell the cigar smoke wafing from under the door of the smoke-filled room.

Facebook controversy:
Clearly, Facebook has surpassed MySpace as the premiere internet social networking medium. It has far more to offer and it isn’t owned by a rightwing fanatic. Once mainly a place for college students, it now includes everyone. And it reflects the rest of the world. And the rest of the world, as we know, has issues with everything, including, of course, the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Recently, Facebook members who said they live in West Bank settlements like Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel, had identified themselves as living in “Israel.” Of course, settlements in the West Bank are illegal, under international law observed by most nations, and accepted by Israel law which is bolstered by the power, money and clout of the United States. Facebook decided that the location had to change to “Palestine,” which was recognized as a territory during the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization which abandoned revolution to manage a government. They managed the government poorly, as we all know. But then, no government manages itself well anywhere and most governments are plagued by charges of corruption. Palestine. Israel. And, the United States.

Anyway, in all fairness. Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel are not in Israel. They may be eventually if there is ever peace and Israel trades land for the settlements. But until then, Facebook is being fair, in my opinion. Although I wonder how long that will last before they are pressured or boycotted to change?

Gaza/Sederot killings:
Hamas kills civilians and Israel kills civilians. But while they both do the same thing, that is where the agreement ends. Hamas blames Israel for the killing of civilians and Israel blames Hamas for the killing of civilians. They never blame themselves. And that should bother moderates. Hamas is a terrorist organization and firing rockets into Israel is an act of terrorism. But, why is Israel not also a state terrorist when it kills civilians? Well, Israel has a better pR machine which argues that they don’t intentionally kill civilians. They only kill them by accident. I don’t accept that. They may not go out of their way to kill civilians, but they don’t go out of their way to avoid killing civilians either. More than half of the 120 Palestinians killed were little babies, children, mothers, fathers and grandparents who were civilians and non-combatants.

Obviously it is an issue because the United States Congress, which also always blames Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims for atrocities, never blames Israel for anything. And they adopted a partisan resolution denouncing Hamas but more importantly — which I suspect was the real purpose of the resolution — they excused Israel’s killing of civilians.

Of course, in a fair world, observors of the conflict would point out that many Israeli civilians are armed settlers. They don’t all wear uniforms but many Israelis in and out of uniform carry weapons. How do you tell them apart? Israel’s army is a citizen army. And the army basically hides among the civilians. Soldiers are living among civilians. I know that for a fact because I have seen soldiers on civilian buses, going to and from their bases. And I also know that Hamas terrorists also live among the civilians, mainly because they don’t have a formal army of military base.

It’s all politics, of course. Israelis never blame themselves and always blame Palestinians. Palestinians never blame themselves and always blame Israelis. The United States never blames Israel and always blames the Palestinians. And in the end, Hamas wins because the terrorism and violence is exactly what they want to strengthen their choke hold on Palestinian society. As the peace process fades because most Palestinians really don’t want it (at least not peace based on compromise and concessions involvoing land and the refugees), and Israeli don’t really want it (they want the land and are willing to live in a status quo as long as their daily lives are only occasionally disrupted, the violence and terrorism increases.

The only people getting what they want are the terrorists.

AFIF SAFIA, THE PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR IN WASHINGTON DC:
Sometime in 2000, I met Afif Safia at a conference where I spoke about the need for Palestinians ot take public relations seriously. He struke me as a very intelligent person. Over the years, we didn’t have much contact, but we had the chance to connect again when the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour performed at the Rayburn Office building hosted by the Alliance for Middle East Peace. I had criticized Afif — I’m a columnist and I criticize most politicians, Palestinian, Israeli but mostly Americans. But after seeing Afif and speaking with him, I realized I was being unfair. He is a very eloquent spokesman and a good person.

For some reason, I didn’t think he would send out the email notice about the comedy show because the troupe includes “Israelis.” But he did send it out. I just didn’t get it the way I always get all theother emails notices he sent out. (The Israeli ambassador didn’t send out a notice about the show, so maybe I should be mad at him. Or maybe, the Israelis should be mad at him.) In the end, I recognized that Ambassador Safia is a powerful spokesman for the Palestinian people, handicapped not by his own shortcomings — he seems to have very few — but rather by the impossible challenges that confront Palestinians in the biased, racist United States. One day racism and bias will disappear and the United States will be fair and objective. But not today. Trying to advocate for the Palestinians is a thankless task, at my level in the media and at Ambassador Safia’s level in Washington DC where diplomacy is really an oxymoron.

So I was unfair before to Afif and I wish I had not been so critical.

Now, that doesn’t mean the Palestinian people know anything about public relations. Their best spokespeople are emotion-driven people, like Diana Bhutto, who worked at the Negotiation Support Unit when I was brought there in 2001 to help train the NSU staff on communications. I met Mike Terazi and also Gaith Al-Omari, two others who mastered public relations better than most others. Emotion is the achilles heal of good communications. If you get too emotionally involved in an issue, you can’t be a good spokesman. Arabs are by nature excessively emotional. Emotion dictates their actions, trumping reason and common sense.

Maybe Afif Safia was the closest thing we have come to having a good communicator. But we still need to recognize public relations for what it is. It isn’t about appearing on CNN. It isn’t about being the leader. It is about using communications as a strategy, something Palestinians have never learned.

So I apologize to Afif for any past criticism — maybe it was right here at MidEastYouth where I wrote it once. It wasn’t harsh, but it was unnecessary and unfair.

As for Diana, I wish her the best. But she is not a good spokesman. Very eloquent and emotional at times, from what I have read. I’ve bumped into her stubborness a few years back. Terazi is a good person. Al-Omari is fantastic.

One day we’ll have a good spokesperson who will also be armed with a strategic communications advisor. Tragically, Palestinians don’t have a strategic communications advisor and therefore they really don’t have strategic communications. But try telling that to them and they get upset. The strategic thing is to not tell them. But then, if strategy were a virtue of journalism, no one would read our columns.

CONNECTING THE DOTS:
If anyone can connect the above observations, you would be an Einstein. Better yet, you might be a Ghandi.

Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com