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Mrjoshua
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Username: Mrjoshua

Post Number: 861
Registered: 03-2005
Posted From: 89.136.139.22
Posted on Sunday, July 23, 2006 - 1:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Divided in Detroit:
Arabs and Jews Clash
Over Mideast War


Rallies Heat Up the Rhetoric
And Fray Fragile Bonds;
'We Are the Underdogs'

By GINA CHON and JEFFREY ZASLOW
July 22, 2006; Page A1

DETROIT -- In recent days, thousands of Arab-Americans have rallied here in response to the Middle East conflict. At one mosque, 200 people applauded a speaker who called Israelis "barbaric" and "not human" and accused Israel of having secret chemical weapons that destroy the internal soft tissues of Arabs. In nearby Dearborn, adults and children jammed the streets to cheer for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Separately, thousands of local Jews have rallied in support of Israel. At a rally in a synagogue in suburban Southfield, they applauded a speaker who said "twisted" leadership in Iran and a "thugocracy" in Syria wants "to annihilate every Jew on the planet." A rabbi exclaimed: "We did not seek this fight, but we will finish it!"


A Jewish congregation held a rally this week in Detroit.

The Detroit area has 300,000 residents of Arab descent, the largest such population in the U.S. More than 72,000 Jews also live here, and they are among the nation's strongest fund-raisers for Israeli and Jewish causes. For decades, the two groups coexisted peacefully, though uneasily. Their leaders tried to build bridges, working together, for example, to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. Now, protests and inflammatory rhetoric over the Mideast conflict threaten to sever those fragile bonds.

"There have been numerous uncomfortable moments through the years, but nothing as unsettling" as the recent tensions, says Sharona Shapiro, director of the American Jewish Committee's Michigan chapter. In years past, American and Israeli flags have been burned in Dearborn, she says, and speakers with alleged terrorist ties have preached against Israel at local mosques. What worries her today, she says, is that moderates in the Arab community may be afraid to speak up, making it difficult for the two communities to have a constructive dialogue.

Hasan Newash, director of Palestine Office Michigan, an advocacy group, says that dialogue with Detroit's Jewish community is futile. He says that unlike Israeli citizens, who often question their government, Detroit's Jews "are entrenched in carte blanche support for Israel, no matter what." At a rally last Friday at the Islamic Center of Detroit, Mr. Newash claimed that "families en masse" are being killed by Israel in "barbaric assaults" backed by the Bush administration.

The first large wave of Arab immigrants came to Detroit in the 1870s. When Lebanese Christians fled the Ottomans in the 19th century, many came here to sell goods door-to-door. Other Arabs came to work in the auto industry, or more recently, to escape violence in the Middle East and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Now, many of them own businesses such as gasoline stations and convenience stores and are middle-class.

Jews began coming to Detroit in the mid-1850s from Eastern Europe. Over the years, many worked their way up to become upper-middle-class professionals.

The rallies in recent weeks have been nonviolent, but tensions have ratcheted up. On Wednesday, about a dozen Arab protesters rallied in front of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, a Southfield synagogue where more than 3,000 Jews had gathered to show their support for Israel. The Arabs called Israel a terrorist state and waved signs at Jews stuck in parking-lot traffic. Profanities were exchanged.

Jewish Friends

Sam Abdallah was among the Arab protesters. He emigrated from Lebanon in 1976, and his family opened a deli near the synagogue. Over the years, Mr. Abdallah, who is Muslim, says he made many Jewish friends. At the protest, he wore sunglasses so his Jewish friends wouldn't recognize him. "If this [protest] is what it's going to take to help my family back at home and show that what Israel is doing is not right, then this is what I'm going to do," said Mr. Abdallah, who has family in Lebanon.

Kenwah Dabaja, who sits on a policy council of the Arab American Institute, an advocacy group in Washington, attended the synagogue rally to hear the speeches. She says Jewish leaders at the rally "spoke with such confidence, and they can do that because they have the support of our government, and we are the underdogs."

When the synagogue rally ended, most of those emerging from the building ignored the Arab protesters. One of the protesters held an Israeli flag with a swastika instead of a Star of David in the middle. "That flag really got to me," said Sara Raick, a Jewish woman who said she hadn't realized that local Arab-Americans "had such hatred." She said she did not confront the protesters because she didn't want to start trouble.

Stirring Emotions

Further stirring emotions: Several Arabs from the area say they've lost loved ones during the fighting in Lebanon, and many others have relatives trying to leave the country. And earlier this week, 214 Jewish teens from suburban Detroit came home weeks early from a community-organized trip to Israel. They said they had been close enough to the action to hear the rumbling of rockets.

Only a few years ago, Jewish-Arab relations in Detroit were moving in a different direction. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Jewish leaders publicly supported efforts to fight stereotyping of Arabs and discrimination against them. Local Arab leaders expressed gratitude. Jews and Muslims raised money together for the American Red Cross.

For the most part, though, Jews and Arabs live separate lives in different parts of the metropolitan area. Many Iraqis, Lebanese and Palestinians live in Dearborn, west of the city. Many Jews live in the northern suburbs, which are also home to a large population of Chaldeans, who are Iraqi Christians.

In past years, local Jewish leaders weren't eager to widely disseminate incendiary comments from local Arab leaders, says Don Cohen, former Michigan director of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. Mr. Cohen, who monitored Arab-American speeches for years, says he found this frustrating.

Now, Detroit's Jewish News is publishing Mr. Cohen's dispatches from Arab rallies, and his reports are being emailed throughout the Jewish community. Some Jews say they are realizing, for the first time, the depths of their differences with Arab neighbors.

Osama Siblani, publisher of Detroit's Arab-American News, says that "our Jewish cousins" in Detroit should try to understand why Detroit Arab-Americans cheer for Hezbollah and rail against Israeli bombings that have killed Lebanese civilians. Because of the Holocaust, he says, Jews know what it's like to have their homes destroyed and their children killed. "Arabs are expressing their frustration, not their hatred," he says. "We are angry and wounded. The Jewish community should be the first ones to rally with us."

Arthur Horwitz, publisher of the Jewish News, says that he has met with Mr. Siblani in the past, but that it "would no longer be constructive" for the two publishers to have a relationship.

Abed Hammoud, president of the Congress of Arab American Organizations, an umbrella group, works as an assistant prosecutor for Wayne County, where Detroit is located. At a recent rally, he referred to President Bush as a "criminal" for backing the "crimes" of Israel.

Mr. Hammoud says his strong comments are necessary because "in the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans, the Jewish community has won." He says he can't have a dialogue with Jews in Detroit because "I don't want a lecture about how bad my people are, and how anyone who throws a rock at a tank is a terrorist." Among Detroit Arabs, he says, cheering for Hezbollah is "almost like cheering the underdog...Hezbollah is the people of Lebanon."

Leaders from Detroit's Arab and Jewish communities say they have no immediate plans to meet. "Right now, everything is too raw," says Wendy Wagenheim, president of Detroit's Jewish Community Council.

Write to Gina Chon at gina.chon@wsj.com and Jeffrey Zaslow at jeffrey.zaslow@wsj.com
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Warriorfan
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Username: Warriorfan

Post Number: 460
Registered: 08-2005
Posted From: 68.43.81.191
Posted on Sunday, July 23, 2006 - 2:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's only going to get worse. About two years ago at Wayne State, one of the Muslim student groups had a "pro-Palestine" rally (which also was a thinly-veiled anti-Israel rally). Of course the Jewish student groups showed up to waive Israeli flags and counter-protest. Things began to get more and more heated until some crazy lady got in the middle and began screaming at the top of her lungs about something, and the two sides began to converge. That's when the waiting WSU police in their riot helmets moved in to disperse them.


The way I see it, both sides (Israel and the Muslims) are a bunch of fucking extremist assholes and if they want to bring their violence and conflict to OUR homes, then maybe they need to leave and go back to the "motherland" which they apparently have more loyalty towards than they do America. Any immigrant who would move here and then BURN our flag needs their ass kicked.
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Paulmcall
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Username: Paulmcall

Post Number: 818
Registered: 05-2004
Posted From: 68.40.119.216
Posted on Sunday, July 23, 2006 - 2:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember this was the case even back in the 70's when I was a student down at Wayne State. It's like the Hatfields and McCoys.
You try talking to these folks and it's just insane. The feeling for revenge and "justice" is so overwhelming that you can never get them on the same page.
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Jerome81
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Username: Jerome81

Post Number: 1043
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 216.27.190.130
Posted on Sunday, July 23, 2006 - 10:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The longer I spend on Earth, the more convinced I am that Jewish-Muslim fighting will NEVER end. And I mean never. No matter what.

But agreed. Don't bring it to America. You can hold your views, just like anyone else, but when it results in fighting and violence, it suddenly becomes everyone else's problem. And everyone else is NOT going to accept that.

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