For Arab Americans, the 2012 election will be different.
Many of the same critical issues that shaped the 2008 contest are still in play, and will define the national agenda in 2012: Iraq remains unsettled; there is no Israeli-Palestinian peace; the U.S. economy is still in shambles; and intense partisanship continues to impede solutions to some of our nation's most pressing problems. Nevertheless, this election will be different.
For one, the Arab world is different, with dramatic new developments reshaping the political map of the region. Across the Middle East, Arabs have risen up demanding change. No longer satisfied with the status quo, they are holding their governments accountable. As a result, Arab leaders have become more responsive to their public's opinion.
This, of course, presents America with a new challenge. We, too, must now listen more closely to the aspirations of the Arab world, placing serious constraints on policy makers. Congress may continue to play "politics as usual;" pursuing a dangerously one-sided pro-Israeli agenda, but presidents won't have that luxury. They will need to be more attentive to Arab realities.
The politics here at home are also different. At the very moment in history when America needs to better understand and be better understood in the Arab World, the Tea Party and religious fundamentalists are being incited by dangerous and well-funded anti-Arab and anti-Muslim fringe groups. We saw the damage they could do with the anti-mosque and anti-Islam hate campaign they launched during the 2008 Presidential and 2010 Congressional elections. All signs point to their continuing to find ways to exploit fear of Muslims, using it as a political wedge issue. Already we see an intensification of their efforts leading up to 2012, with anti-Muslim comments from many of the presidential candidates and an organized national campaign focused on passing legislation to ban the application of Shariah law in America.
These anti-Muslim campaigns send a message to the world of a growing intolerance in America. They also make it difficult to engage in reasoned discourse on critical issues facing our nation and the world. Additionally, such hate campaigns ultimately threaten the very social fabric of our country. But when crass politicians find an issue that mobilizes their supporters, they are all too prone to say "the country be damned."
Finally, the general mood in the country is different, with the prolonged recession leading to long term unemployment and underemployment, home mortgages threatened and pensions at risk. All of this has shaken confidence in the American dream. This, in turn, has fueled the Tea Party movement and the hyper-partisanship that has paralyzed Washington. As a result, the hope many felt in 2008 has evaporated, and has now been replaced by cynicism or anger.
For these reasons, this 2012 election will be different. The challenges we confront are greater than ever before, as are the dangers we face should we not responsibly address these domestic and foreign policy imperatives. But for many Arab Americans, this election is shaping up to be a contest between a candidate who has disappointed them and candidates who scare the hell out of them.
Arab Americans voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama in 2008. After eight long years of the recklessness and neglect that characterized the Bush administration's approaches to the Middle East, civil liberties and the economy, Arab Americans voted for change. Three years later, they are still waiting for real change to occur. They see the Middle East undergoing a dramatic transformation, while politics in Washington are paralyzed and getting meaner and more out of touch with Middle East realities with each passing day.
There are a few things we know for certain: the 2012 election will take place with or without us; the challenges facing our country won't go away by themselves, nor will they be solved by one election or by one leader, from the top down.
While it is true that the Arab World is changing, the change we need begins here at home, in our understanding of and our approach to this critical region of the world. And this we know won't happen unless we are organized to play a role in helping to shape the national debate in 2012.
This is going to be a different election. Just how different it will be depends, in part, on how organized and engaged we are.
Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American-community.
Follow James Zogby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AAIUSA
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If anything the U$ and it's |$rae|i and $@ud| (royal) allies are knee deep in counterrevolutionary activities, be they through sabotaging uprisings (l|by@), actively supporting the suppression (Y3m3n) or simply looking the other way (B@hr@|n)...
1.5 million Palestinians have been living under siege in Gaza, subsisting on food, water and medicines allowed in by Israeli troops and smuggled from Egypt through a maze of underground tunnels. There are three principal actors in this human tragedy.
First, the United States for its embarrassing support of any Israeli action, however excessive.
Second, Israel for 60 years of its repressive position on Gaza and the West Bank.
Third, the broader Arab leadership, largely impotent since the creation of Israel.
The trade-off is cynical and simple. American military power protects Arab governments from democratic movements in their own countries in return for acceptance of US policy. Arab leaders make periodic statements of protest against Israel through the Arab League. But the clear the US cannot afford a military or bribe in the form of Aid any longer. To nearly a dozen Arab countries (including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Jordan) America's relationship and influence will change.
America is broke morally and financially.
Obama is weak and continue the policy of George Bush and the NEOCONS. We have made promises about a Palestinian State but are ready to cast the only veto to stop it.
1.5 million Palestinians have been living under siege in Gaza, subsisting on food, water and medicines allowed in by Israeli troops and smuggled from Egypt through a maze of underground tunnels. There are three principal actors in this human tragedy.
First, the United States for its support of any Israeli action, however excessive. Our State Department is far to pro-Israel with many senior members Bush hang-overs.
Second, Israel for its repressive position on Gaza and the West Bank.
Third, the broader Arab leadership, largely impotent since the creation of Israel.
The trade-off is cynical and simple. American military power protects Arab governments from democratic movements in their own countries in return for acceptance of US policy. Arab leaders make periodic statements of protest against Israel through the Arab League. But the clear the US domination of nearly a dozen Arab countries (including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Jordan) is going to erode as our militay is cut back and our aid to countries is cut due to our National Debt.
We are broken financially and morally.
After being expelled from Jordan, the PLO took up offensive positions is Southern Lebanon, where they terrorized the Christian Lebanese (fellow Arabs) and even, in many real ways, their own Pal/Arab people. Keeping in mind that Yasser Arafat was NOT even Palestinian, his political efforts were always being done for the benefit of the regional Arab tyrants (those who he agreed with--such as Saddam and Assad). Israel invaded Southern Lebanon after the PLO began launching Ketusha rockets into Israel. Why is that highly critical fact so often disregarded? Israel's intent was to capture (or possibly kill) Chairman Arafat. The US 6th Fleet was put there (among other reasons) to protect the PLO upper management and allow them to escape safely to Tunis.
Neither the USA or Israel had any other interest in Lebanon. Why do you guys flatter yourselves so easily? If Lebanon had oil, then, it would be a fair conclusion to assert that the USA was there for it's own selfish interests. Without oil, (like Iraq and Libya) Lebanon, like Syria, like Jordan, like Egypt is a grand waste of time, effort human lives and expense.
Or, the United States is the only super-power who has any M.E. positions which are two-sided. Which claim is more realistic?
Jews only live (in any substantial qtys) in two places in the world. Israel and the USA. Israel is the only Jewish majority nation in the entire world. It has been under constant attack since its inception and actually, going back to the 1920s when the League of Nations first codified its legal charter as a "Jewish National Home". Even to this day, substantial factions within the Palestinian-Arab movement fully (and publically) intend to do away with the Jewish majority nature of Israel and replace it with yet another M.E. Arab theocracy (there are already 22). The most extreme of such factions publically advocate the murder of Jews, not only in Israel but worldwide.
The American PEOPLE have been and continue to be solidly allied with Israel. Most of the (limited) concern that the American people have for the Palestinian-Arab cause (IMHO) results from fear and intimidation, not because Americans actually side with them. Sept. 11, 2001 altered this balance in favor of Israel. Why? Because many of those who had been fearful had their greatest fears realized and all that remained was anger and resentment.
I love how you think P@|3stinians shouldn't complain about being kicked out, occupied and put under apartheid just coz other @r@bs and Muslims have 22 states..... Z|0n|$m is so cute!!!
For the rest, well..... you didn't expect P@|3stinians to shower you with petals for taking over their lands did you?
http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2011/01/video-dr-jacques-gauthier-whose.html
As far as being "kicked out", this statement too deserves correction. Please see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW_3dOVQZic
The simple and correct explanation is that a significant part of the Arab population of Jewish~Mandated Palestine refused to live under Jewish~majority rule. What is so mysterious? Actually, in the 20th~century, dozens of nations became independent and whenever ethnic or religious populations were involved, that usually meant those populations exchanged places following the independence. It may not be a pretty or welcome sight but is has been quite commonplace. A couple of million Hindus and Muslims were displaced (across each other's new borders) following the formation of Pakistan. In that situation, the Hindus were not exactly kicked out, they were given the choice to convert or be put to the sword.
Israel is NOT So. Africa and what they do is NOT "apartheid". Arab citizens of Israel vote, hold seats in government and are jurists. People only count this as "apartheid" if one (wrongly) considers non~Israeli citizens to be entitled to the same civil and social rights as citizens, a condition which exists almost no where in this world.
I am an American. I don't need "pedals" and I "took over" no one's "land".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04yWUuoU7Lc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ely30topQY
It appears that Mr. Obama, however, has supported change, and is supporting change in the ME and the Magreb. It appears that Arabs have what they wished for, but do not like the outcome, which is in the hands of the natives, not in the hands of the U.S.
What keeps dictators alive and thriving in the ME is driven by religious hatred and being taught hatred. When one can not acknowledge another who is different, in any way, as also a human being, with value and right to be, oppressive dictatorships will never end, and the situation will never change. The change the ME needs is primarily a spiritual one. Respect the Other.
The Neocons in America and the Neocons in Israel came out on top of those two years.
Mr. Obama has stood by Egyptians who wished to change their government, and it has changed, but the same military junta is still in charge, and extreme Islamic groups might war, or take over. Outsiders try to come in also. In Libya we try to facilitate a takeover, but we do not know what the result is going to be. Gaddafi mentioned Al Qaeda, and he may well have a point, maybe more than one.
Morocco did its revolution on its own. I am all for the ME getting its own chestnuts out of the hot fire, and forge its own destiny. I suggest that American taxpayers make it clear, that we vote for matters at hand, here, in the U.S. People need jobs, aid, and nationbuilding right here at home. And some of us are tired of sending off our children and grandchildren to war to solve Arabs' or other people's problems.
But few seem to care about the constitution anymore.
After all, our President announces that a low level soldier who hasn't been tried is guilty while on the other hand he declares that "now is a time for reflection rather than retribution" regarding rendition, torture, and murder of prisoners.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041602768.html
Both are obstruction of justice in different ways.
African American imam Abu taubah has been arrested in Florida by FBI. Noone knows under what charges. Abu Taubah was born in NY and is a former Marine Recon. He studied Islam and Arabic in Mauretania, North Africa. He has hundreds of lectures on Youtube and a website at http://myfiks.org
ABU TAUBAH DEFENSE AND SUPPORT FUND
On Tuesday, August 23, 2011, Abu Taubah was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Abu Taubah is being held in a detention facility in Florida, while the Government follows its legal process. No doubt, this is a test for our Muslim Brother Abu Taubah and his Family. As it is prescribed for the Muslims who have the misfortune to live in kaafir states to unite, to form bonds amongst themselves and cooperate with one another, we ask that you assist us in defense of our esteemed teacher. Also, Abu Taubah is a US Citizen who is “assumed to be innocent until proven guilty”.
What should you do? Please donate generously to the “Abu Taubah Defense and Support Fund”. Your contributions will be used to pay for food, clothing and shelter for his Family, and Abu Taubah’s legal fees. Also, please make Duaa to Allaah to Remove this Difficulty from Abu Taubah and his Family.
Please make all Checks and Money Orders to
“The F.I.K.S.”
8583 Lake Windham Ave
Orlando FL 32829
"With the US preparing to either fully withdraw from Iraq at the end of the year or at minimum cut down to a "residual" force of about 12,000, events in Iraq don't get anywhere near the attention they used to. But the findings by Dr. Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks and her colleagues deserve attention, because of what they say about Iraq's recent past and it's looming future. The report documented 1,003 suicide attacks in Iraq between 2003-10, which killed 12,284 civilians and injured a further 30,644. The Lancet authors found 108,624 civilian deaths from violence of all kinds in the period. To put that in perspective by adjusting for population, that would be equivalent to 1 million Americans killed in a seven-year period. And the violence has continued."
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/0902/New-Lancet-study-says-12-000-Iraqis-dead-from-suicide-bombings?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feeds%2Fworld+%28Christian+Science+Monitor+|+World%29
Heck, i would take hardworking members of society any day than marauding occupiers..... wouldn't you?
[URL="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&case=/data2/circs/2nd/941247.html"]This is public record and here is a link to court document pertaining to this case. Type Ctrl+F then enter Abu Taubah's name Roberson and you will see public record of him snitching. [/URL]
In aiding the prosecution, Abu Taubah received a mere 4 year sentence in prison. The Muslims, his friends, who he testified against are mostly all still in prison and will never be released.
[URL="http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Darryl&Middle=&LastName=Board&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=68&y=12"]Darryl Board release date 2041. Sentenced to 56 years in prison because of Abu Taubah's testimony.[/URL]
Craig Williams release date unknown. Sentenced 160 years in prison
and there are others who are currently still in prison for participating in criminal activity WITH ABU TAUBAH.