Arab-Americans and Jewish-Americans Differ on War in Lebanon, Media Tactics

FreeMediaOnline.org Dublin, CA, July 28, 2006 -- Arab and Jewish organizations in the United States have vastly different views of the war in Lebanon and what is needed to end it. Both groups want greater U.S. government involvement to resolve the crisis but advocate significantly different approaches. Their media outreach and public relations tactics are also different. Jewish-American organizations have placed ads in major U.S. newspapers and offer sophisticated web sites. Arab-American organizations admit that their political influence in the U.S. Congress and the Administration is limited.

Link to ADC Media Monitoring Page

While Arab-American organizations are calling on the Congress and the Bush Administration to seek an immediate cease-fire, Jewish-American organizations are calling for greater support and understanding for Israel and its efforts to prevent Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanon. Statements from Arab-American organizations generally do not refer to these attacks as a major issue in the current crisis, if they mention them at all. The mainstream American media, the Administration, the U.S. Congress, and Jewish-American organizations all perceive and analyze the Hezbollah attacks as a key issue.

Link to ADL Press Center

Statements from Jewish-American organizations, while acknowledging heavy civilian casualties in Lebanon, do not see the suffering of the civilian population on the Lebanese side of the border as requiring an imposition of an immediate cease fire. They present the Israeli incursion into Lebanon as a necessary move to protect Israeli security and advocate a permanent solution to the threat posed by the Hezbollah rocket attacks. Jewish-American organization have expressed their general approval of the U.S. government response to the crisis.

Arab-American organizations, on the other hand, express a deep frustration with the Administration and the Congress. On July 24, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "failed to fulfill their constitutional and professional obligations and protect US citizens in a crisis or time of war. " [link to ADC press release]

ADC President Mary Rose Oakar accused the Bush Administration of encouraging the violence by sending weapons to Israel and "giving that country the green light to continue in its indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon." ADC claims that the Israel occupation of Palestinian lands is the foremost obstacle to peace and complains that massive U.S. aid to Israel funds the occupation. ADC acknowledges that both sides have committed acts of violence against unarmed, non-combatant civilians but points out that "the violence committed by Israeli forces ... is far greater than that by Palestinians."
[link to ADC fact sheet]

Arab-American organizations are also expressing their frustration over the overwhelming support for Israel in the U.S. Congress. ADC complained that of the 435 members of the House of Representatives only eight voted against a recent resolution "condemning the recent attacks against the State of Israel and holding terrorists and their state-sponsors accountable for such attacks."

ADC considered the resolution to be one-sided, pointing out that the non-binding resolutions passed by the House and the Senate "failed to strongly condemn Israel's disproportionate use of force against civilian populations and infrastructure that have killed and maimed hundreds of people,..." ADC was also disappointed that only one of the House’s four Lebanese American members, Democrat Nick Rahall of West Virginia, voted against the resolution.

Considering the vote results on the resolutions in the House and the Senate, ADC's call for lobbying members of Congress on this issue offers little hope of success. At least half of the U.S. legislators are in large measure critical of the Bush Administration's handling of the war in Iraq, but almost all support Israel. Their votes on the resolutions seem to accurately reflect the views of the vast majority of their voters. [link to ADC July 20 statement]

ADC admits that Arab-Americans are not nearly as well united and organized on a national level as Jewish-Americans. Their criticism of the overwhelming vote of support for Israel by the House of Representatives (410-8) may indicate, however, a major disconnect with the U.S. public opinion views on this issue. Similarly, the use of such terms as "U.S.-Israeli terror in Palestine and Lebanon" may not win general public approval for their cause or sympathetic media reporting.

Some of the focus of U.S. media reporting has been on the suffering of the Lebanese population. American media and Americans in general are concerned about this issue, but there seems to be almost no support for Hezbollah or an inclination to criticize or to put pressure on Israel to stop its military operations in Lebanon. [link to Ori Nir article in The Forward posted on ADC web site]

Statements from the Jewish-American Anti-Defamation League express no doubts that Israel is fully justified in its strong military action against Hezbollah and Hamas. ADL web site has the following justification for the Israeli military response: "Hezbollah and Hamas are not just engaged in violence and terror. These organizations seek to severely weaken Israel and to create a situation where Israel's very existence is once again threatened. Israel clearly needs to respond to these threats – not only to stop this current aggression, but to make clear that it will not stand for greater threats down the road."

Link to ADL Anti-Semitism in the Arab World

ADL has placed ads in major U.S. newspapers calling for U.S. and international support for Israel. The Jewish-American Anti-Defamation league is also posting on its web site examples of anti-Semitic propaganda from Arab media.

Arab-American organizations have focused their media outreach campaign in the U.S. by providing guest experts to appear on television news programs. They have also supported local protest actions such as the Arab and Muslim community rally against "U.S.-Israeli Terror in Palestine & Lebanon" organized in Anaheim, California and a protest march on the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.

Considering these major differences between how Arab-Americans and Jewish-Americans see the crisis in the Middle East, changing perceptions and seeking greater understanding on this issue would be a major challenge in the United States, not to mention the Arab countries in the Middle East and other largely Muslim nations.

Comment on this article