In recent years, US pro-Israel groups have been pursuing a multi-pronged strategy designed to stifle discourse about Israeli policy and Palestinian rights. They have done so because for the past three decades there has been an erosion of support for Israel, coupled with growing support for Palestinians. 

There have been too many comments from Israeli political, military, and religious leaders suggesting that all Palestinians are legitimate targets because they support Hamas or that they voted for them and are, therefore, guilty of that group’s many crimes.

Looking at the unfolding horror in Gaza, I am reminded of two important lessons that should have been heeded by Hamas, Israel, and the US.  

It has been horrifying to watch this most recent iteration of wanton violence in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. But it should not have been unexpected. What can also now be expected is that the horrific murders carried out by Hamas on day one will be more than matched by Israel as it proceeds to use its massive military power to massacre thousands of captive Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip.

Dear President Biden, I received a call on Tuesday night from a senior official in your administration giving me a heads-up that the next morning the US was going to formally announce that Israel was to be admitted into the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). He knew I had been concerned with Israel’s application for membership because of its history of discriminatory treatment of Arab Americans, and so he said, “I know you are disappointed.” I replied, “I’m not disappointed. I’m insulted and angry.”

In case you haven’t noticed, American politics are a dysfunctional mess. You might be excused for missing this sad reality, as the US never tires of chiding other countries for their lack of democratic institutions or their failure to adhere to or protect democratic values. 

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.

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.

Two recent and seemingly unrelated news stories raise serious questions about whether any consistent values undergird American foreign policy. One involves the US response to attacks by Israeli settlers on the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya. The other is about the Biden administration’s considering shipping cluster bomb munitions to Ukraine.  

That some Biden administration officials appear to be in a rush to admit Israel into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which allows for mutual, short-term entry between participating countries and the U.S., is both baffling and insulting. 

Much has already been written regarding the indictments against former President Donald Trump. The crimes he is alleged to have committed have been examined. And his defense that this is a partisan political attack to derail his candidacy has been thoroughly critiqued.

No sooner has one American election cycle ended than another begins. Those just elected begin raising money for the next round, while their consultants get busy advising them on which issues will be good for their reelection. As a result, the focus of our political debates and elections are more often than not driven by crass posturing geared toward a candidate’s personal or partisan advantage and less by serious policy concerns that serve our current and future needs. 

In recent weeks, there have been a number of irresponsible op-eds pressing the Biden administration to supply more advanced US weapons to Ukraine, arguing that the only acceptable outcome to the conflict is a “total Russian defeat.” It is maddening how often these “pundits” have wrongly sought to justify the expanded use of force in conflict zones.  

This past week we passed the 10th anniversary of the day when an obviously deranged young man wielding a weapon of war massacred 20 little children and six of their teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. We had had mass shootings before. But this time it felt different because the victims were so little and so many, and because President Barack Obama so eloquently, and tearfully, spoke to the nation capturing our collective grief and the resolve that “our hearts had been broken” too many times and that something must be done to end the killing. 

Since its founding, Political Zionism has had two distinct and contradictory personas. One portrayed it as a national liberation movement that was liberal, democratic, tolerant, and inclusive. This was the face its adherents saw when they looked in the mirror, and it was the way they presented themselves to and wanted to be seen by the rest of the world. 

By itself, the announcement that the FBI will conduct an independent investigation into the murder of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla is not, as one Israeli journalist said, a “watershed moment” in the US/Israel relationship. But because of the factors that led to this decision and the tensions that will flow from it, it’s clear that there are changes underway in US attitudes toward Israel and its behaviors. 

Much ink has been spilled before and since the US midterm elections, with most of it missing the mark. Pundits who had unrealistic expectations regarding the outcome are now reacting in shock (or horror or delight, depending on their political persuasion) as their projections have been found wanting.  

All indications are that this election will be a nail-biter, with polls suggesting that Democrats will have a difficult time maintaining their slim control of both houses of Congress. One factor is the president’s low approval ratings—often an indicator that his party would be sailing into the headwinds of a dissatisfied electorate. But there are other issues at work, as well.

This past week, a major US daily paper ran a lengthy feature article titled, “France’s Return of the Skulls of 24 ‘Resistance Fighters.’” The article reported on France’s repatriating 24 skulls to Algeria that were reputed to be the decapitated heads of Algerian resistance fighters. The piece was both shocking and infuriating.

During the past month Israel has held 800 Palestinians under administrative detention orders, expelled several Palestinians from East Jerusalem, seized more Arab-owned land from areas around Hebron and in the Jordan Valley turning much of it over to settlers, and instituted a lockdown of many Palestinian areas during Jewish religious days. All of this passed without notice in the US press because Israel policies, such as these, have long been routine features of the 55 year-long occupation.

Russia’s latest and expanded invasion of Ukraine is entering its eighth month with no clear end in sight. Although it’s dangerous in the heat of battle to make predictions about outcomes, there are some indications as to what the future may hold for the combatants and the world.

In less than one month, Israel will hold its fifth national elections in four years. The Israeli press is filled with endless commentary, reports of polls showing who’s up and who’s down, early finger-pointing assessing blame, and, through it all, a pervasive sense of gloom acknowledging that whatever the vote tally, the future will be no brighter or more certain than the present. 

While pundits will be focused on which party retains control of the Senate and Congress, there is a deeper issue at stake in this election - the polarization that has made our political dysfunctional.

Here’s a story I’ve never told before:

I traveled to Tunisia in late 1993 to meet with PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat.

Back in the 1960s Americans were deeply divided on matters of war and race—and Christians in America were on both sides of the divide.

As someone who polls Arab public opinion, I’ve long been a fan of the 1919 King-Crane Commission created by President Woodrow Wilson to assess how the people of the Arab East wanted to be governed in the post-World War I era. The British and French had designs on the Arab East, but Wilson, though an arch-segregationist at home, declared that the newly liberated Arabs should shape their own destiny and that any post-war settlement regarding “territory [or] sovereignty [should be determined on] the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned.” 

In 2020, I published “Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us and Why It Matters.” Based on our polling during the first decade of this new century, “Arab Voices” was an effort to lay out the myths that have shaped Western discourse about the Arab World, understand why those myths have taken hold, and what can be done to dispel them. 

Only naive souls or blind ideologues could have thought that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine would end well. It will not. And the longer it continues, the worse the situation will be for everyone. 

The Biden administration’s approach and media coverage given to the president’s visits to Israel/Palestine and Saudi Arabia were starkly contradictory.

President Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia and the involvement of a Saudi investment fund in a new start-up golf association have provoked a rash of harsh commentary.

Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, was in the Middle East earlier this month with her children. She had taken them to her ancestral home in Lebanon while in the region for work-related meetings.

As important as the January 6th hearings in Congress may be in laying out, for the historical record, the facts behind the insurrection that attempted to violently overturn the 2020 election, there are two reasons why it may also be an exercise in futility.

While the GOP’s internal battle is all about Trump and Trumpism, the conflict playing out on the Democratic side is between the party’s moderate and more progressive wings, and comes in two distinct forms.