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MER FLASHBACK - Washington Scene - 2 years ago:
JUST CALL ME "UNCLE JIM"
"I am delighted to call Jim Zogby my friend. We share values and
passions... He is also far more willing to meet and work (publicly!)
with the Jewish community than many of our leaders are with the
Arab American community..."
Rabbi Jack Moline
Washington Jewish Week, 12/19/96
MER - June 1998:
In essence Zogby is essentially a Public Relations hack for the
Saudis
and other Arab client regimes. Others might consider him a kind
of
political mistress -- after all a lot of attractive women come
to DC and find
themselves in such "compromised" relationships; and something
similar
happens with guys like Zogby whose tongues, rather than bodies,
are for
sale if the price is right.
And still others take seriously the long-heard rumors of Zogby
family ties
to the CIA going back some years, including a certain Ghosm Zogby
who
it now comes out was the first CIA station chief in Beirut in
the 50s
(though Jim Zogby refuses to discuss the family "connections").
Masquerading with the media as the spokesman for Arab Americans
--
Jim Zogby is the Arab for all seasons. He is the darling of the
Arab client
regimes and they do all they can to push him forward and arm
him with
money and contacts; the Uncle Tom for American Jews who always
call
on him to arrange meetings and "dialog" with "the Arabs"; the
co-opted
Arab contact for the politicos whenever they need a place to
give a
speech and get their pictures taken...as "Kosher Kitchen" Bill
Clinton did
last evening.
With substantial financial help from the regimes and their friends,
Zogby
made himself President of the "Arab American Institute" (AAI)
he created
a decade ago after getting thrown out on the street from the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) when the stench
got too great even for them. Zogby just picked right up and rolled
right
over ADC, which too this day fears him and refuses to challenge
him.
Ever since Zogby has been pushed forward by various regimes and
political/ financial interests, especially the Saudis who feature
him weekly
on their cable TV channel that continually propagandizes Arab
Americans. Here too remember: just think of Arab Network of America
(ANA) as Saudi Cable TV for Arab Americans.
The amazing thing about Zogby is that many Arabs Americans --
even
those distant from Washington realities, and even many of those
who
interact regularly with him -- consider him the biggest Uncle
Tom ever. He
recently upset even some of his sympathizers when it was leaked
in the
Al-QUDS AL-ARABI, a London-based Arabic, newspaper that he
suggested increasing the sanctions on Iraq instead of the bombing!
"I have a stake in seeing that Israel's aid does not
get cut... Anybody who raises the question of
cutting aid to Israel puts the peace process at risk."
James Zogby
Christian Science Monitor
- 10/19/98
And it was only a few years ago that Zogby publicly complimented
Bill
Clinton for his appointments to the White House, National Security
Council, and State Department, even though never before in history
has
an American government been so riddled with former officials
of the
Israeli/Jewish lobby. He even went out of his way in public to
single out
Martin Indyk, the man who formerly ran the Israeli lobby think-tank,
for
compliments, helping consolidate his appointment first to the
National
Security Council and more recently as Assistant Secretary of
State for
the Middle East!
Gee, there must have been extra checks to "Uncle Jim" for that
one! Of
course Zogby always says, when cornered, that he was "misquoted"
or
"misunderstood". But the damage Zogby causes to the political
representation of Arab Americans is immense and continual. Examples
are numerous.
Last year, for instance, when the crisis of the Har Homa settlement
was
escalating the Palestinian "Authority" sent the "minister" of
Higher
Education, Hanan Ashrawi, to Washington. Zogby held a press
conference for Ashrawi; but then dominated it himself. As with
other Arab
American political events, most of the attendees were Palestinian
and
Arab American. No attempts were made to invite outsiders or
representatives of progressive groups who could suggest insights,
solutions, or plans for actions from their own experiences. Zogby
dominated the meeting and simply wanted to get his name once
more in
front of the Arab press. Meanwhile, all he had to offer was the
silly
suggestion for concerned persons to call the White House to voice
their
concerns.
And then weekly, on his ANA TV show, Zogby continually gives his
highly
distorted but always politically-correct versions of Middle Eastern
problems. He always presents major issues as simply "disputes"
or
"misunderstandings" rather than as fundamental and basic controversies.
And of course he never admits, or invites anyone else to even
discuss,
that the "Peace of the Brave" is really the "Peace of the Weak",
the
"Peace of the Co-opted". Nor of course does he ever mention the
term
"client-regimes", or invite anyone else who might; nor ever mention
the
terrible human rights and political rights abuses going on in
Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Jordan, and these days Arafat's "Authority".
To quote an Arab observer of this ongoing political farce whereby
it is Jim
Zogby, the well-known Arab Uncle Tom, who one continually sees
on TV
"representing" Arab Americans: "Zogby's show is as serious as
a cheap
made-for-TV comedy." But alas, alot of people watch, and a lot
of people
don't know what they are watching.
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