The Arab American News
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The man behind the Mahdi Army
An excellent work, "Muqtada" ends off right where current events pick up with the recent Iraqi army attacks ordered by Nuri al-Maliki in southern Iraq, Basra in particular. The media view that this was purely an Iraqi effort is put into place with one of author Patrick Cockburn's closing comments that Maliki "had limited real...Man charged with deed fraud
DEARBORN A Grosse Pointe Woods man accused of swindling an elderly couple faces up to 38 years in prison after being charged on April 30. A preliminary hearing was to be held Friday. John Matouk, 41, was charged with forgery, uttering and publishing and false pretenses. According to a release from the Wayne County Prosecutor...What, if anything, is Arab American poetry?
To what extent is "Arab American" a title that can be defined concisely rather than atmospherically? Does it carry any weight if it is externally and involuntarily imposed, rather than adopted willingly? Is it something to be championed and celebrated, or is it to be buried, obscured, and avoided? The 39 poets, whose work is...Anniversary should be turning point
As Israelis finalize preparations for their momentous 60th anniversary a date marking 10 years of consistent economic growth and industrious expansion there remains the underlying question that will go unanswered yet another decade: What will be done with the West Bank and the Golan Heights? Despite all of its considerable...When will Israel learn?
In present form, it looks as if Israel might need another six decades to grasp that Middle East security is indivisible in other words, that its own security cannot be won at the cost of the insecurity of its neighbors. For all its achievements over the past six decades, Israel has failed one crucial test:...Israel is suppressing a secret it must face
How did a Jewish state founded 60 years ago end up throwing filth at cowering Palestinians? By Johann Hari When you hit your 60th birthday, most of you will guzzle down your hormone replacement therapy with a glass of champagne and wonder if you have become everything you dreamed of in your youth. In a few...Israel at 60: Why we’re not celebrating
Between December 1947 and December 1950, over 530 Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed. Half of the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed by underground Zionist forces even before Israel was unilaterally declared a state. Palestinians call these events of the late 1940s the Nakba (catastrophe). The...Democrats okay funds for covert ops
Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, is "unprecedented in its scope." Bush's secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area from Lebanon to Afghanistan but is also far more sweeping in...Finklestein: Middle East powder keg ready to blow
According to Norman Finklestein, not only Israel and the Arab world but all of us may be on the edge of the pit. Speaking at the University of Ottawa on May 2 at a meeting sponsored by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, he said that Hizbullah could undertake an attack on Israel at a time that it decided on....The Israeli project has failed in Lebanon
Why the Bush administration wants to negotiate now with Hizbullah Note: This is the second installment in Franklin Lamb's extraordinary series. The third and fourth installments will appear in the next two issues. Dahiyeh As discussed below, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the Bush administration...Troubles pile up in Yemen
This year, Yemen's President Ali Abdallah Saleh, 66, celebrates his 30th year in power a record of political longevity beaten among Arab heads of state only by Muammar al-Qadhafi, Libya's ruler since 1969. But, whereas Qadhafi's Libya, flush with oil money, is enjoying an unprecedented boom, Yemen, the Arab world's poor...Hillary, Rush, Michigan and Florida
Hillary's speech on the night of her squeaker of a win in Indiana was pure chutzpah. Before the vote was even tallied and while it was still too close to call for CNN she announced she'd won the "tie-breaker" (even though she had already lost so badly in North Carolina that, even with her small margin in Indiana, she emerged from...The prospects for Syrian-Israeli peace
Turkey's prime minister seems determined to bring Israel and Syria to the negotiating table A faintly hopeful aspect of the current frost between Syria and Israel is that Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems determined to bring the two countries to the negotiating table. Turkey has emerged over the...Pressure to cut costs, troops strains “surge”
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Growing impatience in Congress over the enormous costs being racked up by the Iraq war, as well as the Pentagon's belief that it needs more troops in Afghanistan to fight insurgents there, is putting the vaunted success of the George W. Bush administration's "surge" strategy to the test. Although the House of...
Lebanon on the brink as violence erupts
May 9th, 20080 Nasrallah hits out at government BEIRUT Hizbullah's leader Hassan Nasrallah has warned that any crackdown by the government on the Shi'a organizaion would be tantamount to a "declaration of war." Hassan Nasrallah's comments were broadcast on television on Thursday, as street clashes in Lebanon between government loyalists and......
A human rights crime in Gaza
The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world by sea, air, or land. An entire population is being brutally punished. This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated dramatically by Israel, with...
Arab Americans oppose McCain slight
May 9th, 20080 DEARBORN With TV cameras and voice recorders rolling, a panel of Arab American and Muslim leaders spoke out about their perceived injustices with presidential campaign John McCain's treatment of local businessman Ali Jawad. The press conference, held at the Lebanese American Heritage Club in Dearborn, was set up in response to...A day to remember in Jericho
Caritas Jerusalem celebrates Mother's Day for members of the Ramallah Elderly Day Care Center with a special outing to Jericho JERUSALEM Catholic relief group Caritas Jerusalem took members of its elderly day care center in Ramallah to Jericho on March 30 to celebrate Mothers Day. The Ramallah...
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Outspoken preacher gives NAACP talk
DETROIT Rev. Jeremiah Wright spoke in Detroit to a crowd of 10,000 at an annual NAACP dinner on April 27, one of a series of outspoken public appearances that eventually prompted presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama to denounce his former pastor "very clearly and unequivocally" on April 29. Obama, after a particularly...
Fenton honors Arab American icon
May 3rd, 20080 Fenton Arab American entertainment icon Casey Kasem was honored in Fenton on April 26, where residents celebrated "Casey Kasem Day." Kasem, born Kemal Amin Kasem in Detroit in 1932, is a popular radio personality and accomplished voice-over actor. On the radio, Kasem is most famous for having presented "American Top 40" from......
American Cancer Society Relay For Life Dearborn
DEARBORN Relay For Life is a time for Dearborn to come together as a community to celebrate survivors of cancer, remember those lost to cancer, and to fight back against a disease that takes too much from too many. As they celebrate life and hope at the Relay For Life of Dearborn, community members are invited to join....Powering down the PATRIOT Act
In the wake of another damaging report detailing the bureau's abuse of its data-gathering power, Congress is seeking to limit the use of national security letters. There's a move afoot on Capitol Hill to rein in some of the vast powers conferred upon government investigators by the PATRIOT Act, the......
