FYI
Shawgi Tell
Graduate School of Education
University at Buffalo
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 09:41:43 -0400
From: MID-EAST REALITIES <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: ADC = BullShit
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"Most of what I've heard from this panel is BULLSHIT."
First audience comment
at ADC annual conference
MER - Washington - 8/27/97
There are many reasons the Israeli/Jewish lobby rules in Washington
with hardly any effective opposition.
One of the main reasons is that the various Arab-American organizations
that exist are all controlled, manipulated, and usually paralyzed
by the political and financial corruption of the Arab world. That
corruption and impotence is translated to Washington by Arab ambassadors
and the many they employ, most especially by Saudi Prince Bandar Bin
Sultan, now one of the longest-serving Arab representatives in
Washington.
Not widely known, Bandar has actually been working closely and
personally with some of the main elements of the Israeli/Jewish lobby
for years, even before the Gulf war in 1991. His goal is simple -- use
the power and influence of the Israeli/Jewish lobby to perpetuate the
rule of the al-Saud family in "the Kingdom" -- everyone else be damned.
For many matters involving commenting to the often gullible press, the
Saudis use Jim Zogby, a kind of public relations flak masquerading under
the guise of the "Arab American Institute" (AAI).
When it comes to the only Arab American organization that has any
grass-roots, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC),
the situation is a bit more complicated. ADC does a few useful, though
always very easy, things in the area of discrimination. Indeed, nothing
could be easier in America then to oppose discrimination; and actually
ADC doesn't really do that very well either. But far more importantly,
when it comes to the serious and historical political issues of our day,
here ADC is worse than a failure, it is a fraud and a deception -- one
largely perpetrated on its own membership.
That fraudulent reality might well have been behind the private and
unheeded call a few years ago by ADC founder, former Senator James
Abourezk from South Dakota, for the organization to be closed down.
Instead, some of the long-time Washington opportunists, with former
Arab League Ambassador Clovis Maksoud and wife Hala in the lead, pushed
ADC to make a kind of pact with the Arab establishment. In return for
financial support from Arab businessmen closely aligned with the
American-sponsored client regimes in the Middle East, ADC would not
involve itself in anything politically controversial (i.e., anything
important), would support the "peace process" and the Arafat regime
(no matter how much corruption and repression), and would not involve
itself in any way against the terrible abuses and corruption so rampant
in many of the key Arab countries -- most especially Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan.
In short, on matters political and historical, ADC has become a kept
woman of the Arab regimes. All kinds of simplistic press releases go
out to unknowing ADC supporters around the country touting as grand ADC
accomplishments what are really very small, usually relatively
insignificant, always easy matters. But when it comes to any major
political issues, ADC hardly ever has anything to say and even when it
does it is always the tritest of slogans always corresponding to
whatever the Arab "client-regimes" are pushing at the time.
This sad reality couldn't have been better demonstrated this summer
then what took place at the ADC annual conference which came during the
month of the 30th anniversary of the 1967 war, a theme which was in
fact one by which the conference was promoted.
After 30 years of brutal and crippling occupation, after a decade of the
"Intifada", after the catastrophe that befell Lebanon, the 1982 war,
the Gulf/Iraq War, and the apartheid-type "Peace process", all that ADC
could muster for this 30th anniversary was a dull and self-serving panel
of Arab Ambassadors representing the very governments (plus the new
Arafat regime) who are historically responsible for what has happened
and have every motive to misrepresent it!
Nothing more from ADC. Not a single independent commentator. Not a
single important academic personality. Not a single notable
journalist. Not a single comment about the subject that couldn't have
been written by the Saudi press office. And incidentally, other than
their own paid press services, no important media even bothered to come.
At the end of the session, the usually compliant ADC audience had a lot
of questions. Right off the bat the first person succinctly indicated
that what he had just heard was mostly "bullshit". The next couple of
questioners took a similar tone, especially in severely challenging
Arafat's representative on the panel (let's not contribute to the
deceptions by calling him "Ambassador"). But then, all controlled
and planned that way of course, the very short time for questions
went by very quickly, and those standing in line with more
disenchantment to express faded away as usual.
The kids of Palestine can take on the Israeli army with rocks and
molotov cocktails, suffering so terribly in the process. The ADC,
after some two decades on the Washington scene, can't even hold an
honest and thoughtful session about what has happened.
Bullshit indeed.
[For additional information about Arab American organizations
in Washington see http://WWW.MiddleEast.Org/adc1.htm.
Previously published articles provide considerable additional
information about Prince Bandar and Saudi control in Washington
and can be found at the MER website.]
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