Capitol Ideas/Arabesque
Bethell, Tom
CAPITOL IDEAS ARABESQUE The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is or purports to be one of those civil rights groups that we hear so much about, forever accusing the rest of us of...
...They enjoy freedom of the press, of movement, and of peaceful assembly...
...Later he claimed: "That Jewish Nazism exists is no longer in dispute, certainly not in Israel...
...This hypothesis gains in plausibility when one recalls that the star speaker at last year's gathering was Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, who arrived with six bodyguards, promised that Jerusalem would be the center of World War III, and was hailed with a thunderous standing ovation...
...The oil-derived wealth of recent years will quickly dissipate into the Arabian sands, as already is beginning to happen...
...The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense, originally $12.95, now costs only $6.95...
...but real enough, nonetheless, and the basis of a growing antagonism between the two states...
...No doubt this is true, and no doubt it will carry as much weight in the public prints as the claim, equally plausible, that blacks have more civil rights in South Africa than in any other African country except perhaps Botswana...
...In any event, let me conclude with the observation that the Arabs will find it extremely difficult to establish the rule of law, hence property rights, hence economic advance, in any Middle East state dominated by the Muslim faith...
...And it explains both attacks and defenses with helpful features like these: The 8 Types of Verbal Attacks (and how to fight them...
...I decided to attend ADC's annual convention, held this year at the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue...
...Tom Brokaw of NBC...
...Learn to Handle All Attacks The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense covers all the types of verbal attacks and attackers you're likely to encounter...
...Elgin has also created a self-defense tape and a training manual for people who teach her self-defense techniques...
...The ADC (as it is called) is now Abourezk's baby, with no trace of Zogby remaining...
...There was another founder, called Jim Zogby, but he seems to have disagreed with Abourezk, and then he left to become vice chairman of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign...
...So he had the privilege of seeing me for the first time on Euston Station when I was about three months old...
...By comparison, a panel on Arab-American "outreach" had four attendees, and one on "legal remedies to employment discrimination" had forty, which tells you something about the organization's true direction...
...In this, Hitchens believed Chafets displayed "a very serious case of clinical paranoia...
...It seemed to me there was a moment of tension in the room when Cockburn explained why he had always "felt somewhat attuned to the problems that people of Palestinian and Arab descent have had...
...This religion, at least in its present phase, legitimizes a Mullah class that is itself above the law, leaving no contracts secure...
...And it shows you how and when to use blunt honesty, agreement, humor, flattery, and distraction...
...Brokaw spoke decorously, although scarcely concealing his hero-worship of Hafez Assad, the Syrian dictator, whose strongman status in the Middle East has earned him enormous respect in the U.S...
...Keep Cool During Arguments The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense also helps you avoid the self-defeating, overly emotional attitudes that many people assume during arguments...
...The mayor congratulated the assembled company for deciding to march in protest in front of both the South African and Israeli embassies...
...Israel, I submit, preoccupied them rather more than the tent-and-camel stereotype...
...Save Yourself Years of Mistakes The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense gives you a complete education in communication, an education that will improve the quality of your personal and professional relationships...
...He boldly opined that Israel, "which still exists as a state in the Middle East through the exploitation and the beneficence and the political cowardice of the leaders of the United States government, continues to threaten and intimidate all of the Middle East...
...I couldn't help comparing this large crowd with Reed Irvine's Accuracy in Media conferences, where panels devoted to media criticism are attended by a small fraction of ADC's eager hordes...
...for example, such "documented instances of harassment" as the claim that on the week of June 16-22, in the thick of the hostage crisis, a radio talk-show host in San Francisco referred to Shiite Muslims as "camel jockeys" and "rag heads," as a result of which he "was forced off the air for one day but was back the next and refused to apologize...
...in 1948...
...And yet it was striking to me at least that Cockburn praised to the skies a Jewish chemistry professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel Shahak, who turned out to be in the audience as Cockburn spoke and who later addressed two other panels...
...So he was after all saying nothing more than that he too had felt the sting of oppression, and was in solidarity with his fellow sufferers...
...Stop Them with a Few Words This book explains the various ways that people will try to bait you and then it tells you how to stop them with a few carefully chosen words...
...The 4 Principles of Verbal Self-Defense (from knowing you are under attack to following through with your counter-attack...
...It trains you to defend yourself with a simple eloquence that will subdue your verbal opponents...
...at the moment is a benign and not a forceful presence in the Middle East...
...Chistopher Hitchens was no less interesting than Cockburn...
...Laughter...
...Shahak was a great hero to the assembled multitude because he translates from the Hebrew material that might be thought damaging to the Israeli cause...
...Once you've read this book, you'll never again lose an argument by being sullen, uncontrollably angry, peevishly defensive, or apologetic...
...About the Author Psycholinguist Suzette Haden Elgin has presented her innovative self-defense principles in a variety of formats...
...Standing room only...
...This is the basis of the growing Arab-Communist alliance, which in turn is strengthened by and dovetails with the Soviet Union's natural fear of Israel...
...CAPITOL IDEAS ARABESQUE The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is or purports to be one of those civil rights groups that we hear so much about, forever accusing the rest of us of insen-sitivity or worse...
...Later Cockburn evidently also suffered at the hands of unfair British stereotypes about the Irish...
...She has given workshops and seminars all over the U.S., including verbal self-defense sessions for doctors, lawyers, and other professionals...
...Hitchens noted that 10 in this book Chafets had "listed the name of every Jew in the media...
...Well, I'm not," he said, "but my clients are...
...Is your mother a "blamer...
...Is your husband a "distracter...
...No, there had to be something rather more pressing on the minds of this well-dressed throng pouring into the Hilton ballroom to have lunch and hear network anchorman Tom Brokaw speak...
...And, should you want to return the book, you can do so and have your money refunded with no questions asked...
...The general idea seems to be to get all the spotlights aimed at the same place, such as South Africa...
...We heard also from Rabbi Elmer Berger, currently residing in Sarasota, Florida, who was introduced as "one who has influenced our thinking tremendously," and "a pioneer in the field of understanding Zionism...
...And this book is so thorough and easy-to-understand that you can read it once and become the kind of person everybody admiresâthe person who stays unruffled during confrontations, who always says the right thing, and who enjoys good relations with everyone...
...How to Become a "Black Belt" in Verbal Self-Defense For anyone who's ever been pulverized by put-downs, rankled by reproaches, or irritated by insinuations, here's a revolutionary book that devotes itself completely to tactics of verbal self-defense...
...Brokaw spoke longingly about the prospects for "successful peace negotiations" in the Middle Eastâ success here to be thought of as the Administration bringing pressure on Israel to undermine its own security...
...Nation columnists Alexander Cockburn and Christopher Hitchens...
...And you'll discover how to counter all the varieties of verbal abuse â from subtle put-downs to out-and-out attacks...
...a fear that is paradoxical in view of Israel's socialist origins and the Soviet Union's support for Israel at the U.N...
...One had thought they let him off lightly...
...On behalf of his clients, the ADC took out three full-page ads in the Washington Post in Juneâthe week the foreign aid bill came up for a vote-objecting to the high levels of U.S...
...Crowds jostling at the doors...
...There was much booing and hissing when he said, courageously: "West Bank Arabs have more civil rights than citizens of any Arab country...
...It was my impression that Shahak and Berger provided a degree of corrobo-ration for the Chafets thesis...
...For a shocking moment I wondered if he was about to appeal to a rather different sense of solidarity . . . No doubt there were at the conference a good many "state of mind Communists" (in Gus Hall's useful phrase), some I dare say in the room even as Hitchens and Cockburn spoke...
...Dialogues that Show Effective & Ineffective Defense Strategies Instructions on Voice Control & Body Language These features will teach you how to deal with all types of people, including bullying bosses, backbiting co-workers, guilt-producing mothers, nagging wives, condescending husbands, and many others...
...aid to Israel...
...It is growing rapidly, it has influential supporters and wealthy backers, and its goal, succinctly stated, is to bathe Israel in a glare of hostile attention comparable to that now experienced by South Africa...
...Having praised Noam Chomsky extravagantly ("the only living American intellectual with a world claim to be considered an original intellectual thinker") he had something to say about Double Vision by Ze'ev Chafets, Menachem Begin's former press aide...
...Washington mayor Marion Barry...
...You'll have gained enough savvy not to be thrown by hostile remarks...
...media...
...And since it is this year's fashion, Brokaw was also deferential toward the Soviet dictator Gorbachev, whom he described as being "not just a hostage to the past...
...Congressman David Obey and former Congressmen Pete McCloskey and Paul Tom Bethell is The American Spectator 's Washington correspondent...
...He added that there was a bill in the hopper to rename a part of Massachusetts Avenue, that infamous section of Embassy Row which is home to the British and South African embassies, "Nelson and Winnie Mandela Avenue...
...This creates an intolerable glare, an aura of crisis, and a sense of mission in the press corps: They know when that happens they are not merely describing events but helping to make them happen...
...Surveying this list, I found it hard to believe that all these people were appearing at the Hilton because they were exercised about the negative stereotyping of Arab-Americans...
...So, why not wise up now by ordering your copy of the book today...
...Abourezk introduced Mayor Barry as "a good friend of oursâto tell you how good a job he does, the Washington Post denounces him every day...
...Brokaw saw that such pressure and therefore such "success" is not likely to be immediately forthcoming, one reason being that "the U.S...
...These ads alone (and there by Tom Bethell were others across the country) cost Abourezk's clients $100,000, so they must be rich even if they are oppressed...
...Cal Thomas of Moral Majority was I think the only unsympathetic speaker at the conference, joining in a panel on "The Unholy Alliance: Right Wing Evangelicals and the Arab-Israeli Conflict...
...The 5 Personalities & How They Communicate (Is your boss a "leveller...
...It seemed odd in a way that we should be sitting there so respectfully as this youthful newsreader gave us his aper-cus about international relationsâ testament, of course, to his ability to decide, at least in part, where to cast the spotlight of attention, and where not to cast it...
...The panel discussion including Cockburn and Hitchens ("How the Media Covers the Middle East") was attended by at least 600 people...
...Abourezk I have known for years and I have always thought him a genial fellow, although I would say one of the least victimized people I have met in Washington...
...The media is a collection of spotlights, not floodlights...
...On your own, it might take you years of trial and error, of fights and misunderstandings, to learn all the lessons of this book...
...When he contributed to the forum on "The Future of Palestine," Shahak (aged 53, from Poland, and a concentration camp survivor) spoke thus: "The political and social situation inside the Israeli-Jewish society in Palestineâand I will add the United States but this is not my subjectâis being characterized by the rise of what I call the Jewish Nazis...
...Many interesting speakers were scheduled to appear, either in person or by satellite hookup...
...It was founded by James Abourezk, the former senator from South Dakota, in response to "stereotyping, defamation and discrimination directed against Americans of Arab descent...
...Yassir Arafat, the well-known Palestinian, and Vanessa Redgrave, the actress...
...Although Irish he was born in Scotland, he said, "and my father was unable to be present at my birth because he was a member of the British Communist Party and"âa sudden stillness in the room hereâ'at that time in 1941 he was not permitted to visit the north of Scotland because it was thought that he might in these remote highlands somehow attack capitalism in a way that would affect Britain's performance in the war...
...The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense teaches you how to defend yourself diplomatically in delicate family situations and in the hard-nosed business world...
...in order to prove [his thesis that the media bias] against Israel is so strong because all of these Jewish people are self-haters who have to overcompensate for their Jewishness by adding to the mass of calumny and distortion that is daily heaped upon the Jewish national home...
...Here is a partial list, and ask yourself as you read it what these people have in common (what is the defining characteristic of the group): former undersecretary of state George Ball...
...Findley...
...They have access to impartial courts and the right of Habeas Corpus...
...And more in this vein...
...I say this to caution those who suggest that ADC is not to be taken too seriously...
...In general, Brokaw thought, the Middle East should be put "on the superpower agenda," which would subject decisions in the area to Soviet approval and veto...
...And he received a warm round of applause when he said that "peace can only come" to the Middle East "when justice has prevailed...
...One speaker at another equally packed session, "South Africa and Israel," used the word "struggle" so many times per sentence that it became quite ludicrous listening to her...
...He was already seated at the dais so I said hello and told him that he did not look particularly discriminated against to me...
...folk singer Pete Seeger...
...For these reasons, the destruction of Israel, which I take to be the number one item on the Arab agenda, can only be achieved with Moscow's assistance...
Vol. 18 • November 1985 • No. 11
