Arab American voters must not lose sight of the bigger picture on Election Day, says DNC leader
CHICAGO: Many Arab and Muslim Americans believe Vice President Kamala Harris failed to stop Israel’s military operation in Gaza, but the leader of an influential political organisation has warned Arab voters not to lose sight of what the presidential candidate achieved at the Democratic National Convention.
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Association, which was founded in 1985 to raise awareness and influence among Arab American voters, said it would be a mistake for local voters to focus on what the convention did not accomplish, including the Democratic National Convention’s decision to block a Palestinian representative from speaking.
During a taping of the Ray Hanania Radio Show this week, Zogby, the Democratic representative to the convention, said Harris had done something no other president had done since the 1980s: She said the word “Palestine” in her acceptance speech at the convention, bringing the issue more clearly to the attention of the media and the public.
He said Harris’ comments were “important” and that “Palestine won the competition.”
“If you go back through history and look at presidents, none of them have actually mentioned the word ‘Palestine’ or spoken about self-determination. Her words about suffering were really unusual.
“We are running a marathon, not a sprint, and progress is slow, but it is progress,” he said.
Zogby said efforts to silence pro-Palestinian voices at the Democratic National Convention actually made them louder.
“When you reach a certain level, even if you’re ignored, you’ve won. Even if you’re chased away, you’ve won, because they didn’t give the Palestinians a voice. And guess what happened? It was in the news two, three, four days in a row.”
“I think the (Harris) team made a strategic error, but what they did was elevate the Palestinian voice. By denying their voice, they elevate their voice,” said Zogby, who chairs the DNC Ethnic Council, an umbrella group of European and Mediterranean Democratic leaders.
Zogby, who co-hosted a public forum on Gaza and Palestinian rights held alongside the convention, said Arab Americans cannot act like “sulky teenagers who get angry and stomp their feet and throw everything they have because they don’t get what they want.”
“So the question is, do we approach this as a whiny teenager who’s upset that no one has had a say, or do we approach it as a serious politician who says they’ve failed and we’re taking advantage of their failure?”
The decision to block the Palestinian delegation from speaking after the Israeli delegation was “a stupid mistake and we benefited from it,” he said.
“This may not be the election you wanted, but it’s the election you got. And if we want people to support us, and we do, then we have to support them,” Zogby said, adding that Arab American voters need to look at the bigger picture and not succumb to emotion.
Arab Americans must pledge their loyalty to the American people who speak out and support them, including minority and ethnic groups like African-Americans, who have always stood up for justice for Palestine, he said.
“Our allies are our allies in the civil rights movement. Our allies are our allies in the women’s movement. Our allies are the people who marched against guns. Look at the marches that have taken place over the last eight years. Those same people are marching now for Palestine.”
“We can’t afford not to march for them in the hope that they will march with us for us. We may not be perfect, we may not be everything we want, but we build allies by being allies,” he said.
“We have a right to be angry, but we can’t afford to be angry.”
The full interview with James Zogby can be heard on Michigan’s WNZK AM 690 radio on Thursday at 5pm ET and Monday, or by visiting ArabNews.com/RayRadioShow.
