Memories return of the Israeli invasion
The return of a body affects the elections The New York Times headline on April 4th was simple enough, “After 37-Year Search, Israel Recovers Body of a Fallen Soldier,” but the memories…
My Political Philosophy: Grow Up!
Especially in these dangerous times I have been involved in politics my entire adult life. There were two main sources of inspiration from my childhood that have molded my thinking and my…
Balfour: The Shame and Dangers of Ignoring Arab Opinion and Rights
Illegitimate boundaries drawn by imperialists have left an entire region in a state of perpetual conflict In 1919, following the first World War, the victorious Allied Powers met in Paris to remake…
Trump’s immigration policy vs. the soul of America
On both my mother’s and father’s sides, despite the hardships they experienced, the bet they had placed on risking everything to come to this country paid off. They built businesses, started families,…
The history is too deep, the pain too real
“We overwhelmingly won the vote for admission, but three members, led by a liberal Jewish group, objected to our entry and threatened to quit the coalition “if the Arabs were admitted”. The…
Negative campaign against Arabs and Muslims has consequences
Let’s look at the polls: While, as president, Donald Trump has worked to cultivate a relationship with Arab leaders, the antipathy towards Arabs and Muslims that he and his party have cultivated…
What an Italian American leader did for Arab Americans and for me
“Three days after the meeting, I was called and told by the representative at the White House, “I’m so sorry, but we’re not going to be able to invite you back again.…
Not the way to defend Christians
The recent horrific massacre of 29 Egyptian Coptic Christian pilgrims served as a tragic reminder of the vulnerability of minority faith communities in many parts of the Middle East. As a Maronite…
Trump returns
If I were a movie critic writing reviews of audience reactions to US President Donald Trump’s performances abroad, they would look something like this: “…a big hit in Riyadh”; “…a smash sensation…
The cloud over Trump’s trip
Let’s address the elephant in the room In Trump’s mind, the crises he is facing are “fake” and manufactured by his enemies. He complained in a Tweet on the eve of his…
I am neither confident, nor optimistic
While world leaders hem-haw, is peace still on the cards? During a confusing and unsettling time, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas came to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump. As…
Why I dissent
Born of necessity This week, nearing the end of four years of service as an Obama Presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), I felt compelled to…
Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike
One thousand five hundred Palestinian prisoners have been on a hunger strike for almost a week now. Before the strike began, the action’s leader, Marwan Barghouti, published an op-ed in the International…
The Arab world’s Christians
An afterthought on Easter, 2017 This year there were no Easter celebrations for Coptic Christians in Upper Egypt. Out of concern for their security and out of respect for the 45 Christians…
The Trump divide
Will this one be too far to bridge? “What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard,…
Elevating Palestinians
It was 40 years ago that I co-founded the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC) and wrote “Palestinians, the Invisible Victims”. I was concerned that in the American mind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had…
No “great deal” on the horizon
It looks like the Trump Administration has come to agree with the conclusion reached by every US President and Central Command Chief since the Gulf War of 1991—that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…