Lessons That Should Be Learned Dr. James J. Zogby

Washington Watch
November 17, 2008

Lessons That
Should Be Learned

Dr. James J. Zogby (c)
President
Arab American Institute

On November 5th, my office sent an email to tens of thousands of
our members and contacts congratulating President-elect Barack Obama.
In our message, we noted the historic transformation his victory
represented and commended the thousands of Arab Americans who
participated in this winning campaign.

The initial and near universal response was heartwarming, with
many sharing moving anecdotes of their campaign experiences, their
reactions to the victory, and their hopes for change.

One day and one announcement later, the tide turned.

With the naming of Congressman Rahm Emanuel as Obama's White House
Chief of Staff, the euphoria of some, not all, turned to despair. The
emails and calls to my office were both troubled and troubling because
much of the reaction was based on misinformation and because of what
the entire episode revealed about the larger political dynamics
involved.

First, the facts.

Rahm Emanuel is a brilliant strategist and a practitioner of
hard-ball politics who in campaigns, his time in the Clinton White
House, and more recently in Congress has demonstrated that he knows
how to get a job done. Because there will be critical legislation the
President-elect will need to move through Congress, from an economic
recovery package and health care reform to a comprehensive approach to
alternative energy, Obama has tapped Emanuel for his proven political
skills. It is that simple.

This, of course, was neither the content nor the concerns raised
by the emails I received. Some charged that Emanuel was an Israeli
citizen or a dual U.S.-Israeli national (he is neither, he was born in
Chicago in 1959); or, they alleged that he served in the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) and lost his finger confronting a Syrian tank
during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon (he did not serve in the
IDF, and lost his finger in a freak accident while working as a
teenager in an Arby's restaurant). A few accused Emanuel of skipping
U.S. military service to join the IDF in 1991 (also not true - in the
midst of the 1991 Gulf War, while U.S. forces were manning Patriot
missile batteries in Israel and the Arab Gulf, Emanuel volunteered for
a few weeks, as a civilian, doing maintenance on Israeli vehicles).
The most recent story alleges that Rahm Emanuel was fired from the
White House in 1998 after being implicated by the FBI, together with
Monica Lewinsky, in a Mossad plot to spy on then-President Clinton (a
total fabrication, compliments of a shady character who claims to have
been a U.S. intelligence official and is a purveyor of many bizarre
tales).

That stories such as these have been circulating, and have taken
hold, is as reprehensible as the "Barack Obama is a secret
Muslim/Manchurian candidate" tale, or the anti-Arab anti-Muslim
canards to which I and many of my colleagues have been subjected over
the years.

Putting aside the fiction or, more accurately, the slanderous
myths, the truth is that Emanuel is an effective leader in Congress.
He is a strong supporter of Israel. But then, how many members of
Congress are not?

Emanuel is Jewish and his father is an Israeli. Arab Americans
should be especially sensitive to attacks on anyone based on religion
or ethnicity. He has worked closely with and is liked by the Arab
American Members of Congress from both parties, and he was the
architect of the 1993 White House lawn signing ceremony for the Oslo
Accords that brought Arab Americans and American Jews together. When,
in 1994, Rahm accepted my invitation to a luncheon with Arab American
community leaders, those who met him were impressed by his openness
and honesty.

Beyond these facts, however, there are two concerns that must be addressed.

It is deeply troubling how quickly, for some, the excitement of
Barack Obama's victory was eclipsed by cynicism and suspicion, and how
receptive some were to wild tales. This could only occur, on one
level, because the victory itself was not understood. If it had been,
the excitement would have been tempered by an appreciation of
political realities.

Obama's victory, no doubt, demonstrated that change is possible -
but incremental change. Pressures remain, from the right and the left
as well as the interest groups of all sorts that continue to have
influence, limiting political options. The economy is in free-fall
and, after eight years of Bush neglect and recklessness, dangers
abound in the world. An Obama victory doesn't alter those realities.
And so our excitement was justified, but our euphoria should never
have taken us so high as to lose our grounding and understanding of
the limits of what is possible.

My concern is that, for some, the need for change became so great
as to make them susceptible to wild swings - from unrealistic
expectations to unwarranted despair and, therefore, to become prone to
believe the worst.

But the fault here should be shared. I am concerned by the
slowness of the Obama camp to respond more quickly or effectively to
address the situation. Modern political operations have learned the
need to confront false stories, to manage perception, and to
anticipate problems -- and, here, the Obama team had been especially
masterful.

During the campaign, for example, they repeatedly demonstrated how
tuned-in they were to public perception - and in particular to matters
that might have created discomfort in the Jewish community. They knew
that these stories needed to be shot down quickly. (American Muslims
understood much of this, despite feeling slighted, at times.) But in
this most recent instance, the Obama camp displayed both
inattentiveness and tone-deafness to Arab misperceptions about who
Rahm Emanuel is, and what role he will play. (Aside from the flap over
the comments made by Rahm's father, for which Rahm, himself, has now
profoundly apologized.) As a result, the situation festered.

The campaign is now over, and the President-elect is playing on a
world stage with more than one audience at stake. And in the Middle
East, especially, sensitivities are as great and (perceived) sleights
are felt as acutely as they are among any people in the world. With
feelings having been rubbed raw by decades of U.S. policy miscues,
with U.S. favorability ratings at all-time lows, and with extremists
preying off resentment and fear - perceptions matter.

If we are to succeed in making changes in U.S.-Arab relations -
and I believe that an Obama Administration can - greater attentiveness
and sensitivity is in order.

Bottom line - there are lessons to learn and work to be done.
Arabs and Arab Americans need to ground their expectations in
political realities and be wary of slanderous attacks smacking of
anti-Semitism, and U.S. political leadership must learn to be as
attentive to Arab sensitivities as they are to the concerns of others.

Washington Watch is a weekly column written by AAI President James
Zogby. The views expressed within this column do not necessarily
reflect those of the Arab American Institute. We invite you to share
your views on the topics addressed within Dr. Zogby's weekly
Washington Watch by emailing jzogby@aaiusa.org.