JIM ZOGBY - HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
THINK OF ZOGBY AS SAUDI P.R. MAN,
OR POLITICAL "MISTRESS",
OR JUST AS "UNCLE JIM" IF YOU
PREFER
Note: Jim Zogby and associates have bought-off,
co-opted, or frightened most of the Middle East publications, especially
the Arab-Americans ones -- he actually pays them to publish his column
and not to publish others -- so you won't be reading this information elsewhere.
Always in the public eye, Jim Zogby is one of those
who has sold out his community more than any other. He would have made
a great land salesman to the Israelis if he were Palestinian, but actually
he is of Christian Lebanese origins.
Admittedly articulate with words, Zogby has gained
notoriety and wealth in recent years cooperating with the Israeli lobby,
the Arab client regimes, and the U.S. government; helping to end the Intifada;
and eager to lend a hand to the big push to trap the Palestinians on Bantustans
and Reservations - i.e., "the final settlement".
MER - Washington - 5/8/98:
The worst of the Palestinians and Arab
Americans have come to town again, just in time to help close the trap
on the increasingly Bantustanized Palestinians.
It's the now annual Washington gathering
of Jim Zogby -- self-appointed "spokesman" for Arab Americans. It's the
annual gathering of the "Arab American Institute", a little incestuous
(and despicable) affair designed to smooze with whomever has money and
power and whomever is looking for (and in need of) gullible, self-serving
Arab Americans to use and co-opt at every turn.
Simply said, however much some will object,
it's the now annual gathering of the Arab "Uncle Toms" -- "Uncle Jim" in
the lead and guys like "Uncle Ray" (that's Ray Hanania) grabbing for every
coat-tail.
There he was recently pleading on his Saudi-sponsored
TV program on the misnomered Arab Network of America (ANA) that not enough
people were going to be attending his Conference even though Bill Clinton
and Yasser Arafat were eager to give them all a pep talk and flash their
smiles for pictures. He was signing up both heavy-hitters and bodies to
pretend he has a grass-roots following; when in reality all he has is grass-roots
loathing.
JUST CALL ME "UNCLE JIM"
"I am delighted to call Jim Zogby
my friend. We
share values and passions... He is
also far more
willing to meet and work (publicly!)
with the
Jewish community than many of our
leaders are
with the Arab American community..."
--Rabbi
Jack Moline
[Prominent
Israeli/Jewish lobby personality]
Washington
Jewish Week, 12/19/96
In essence Zogby is essentially a Public
Relations hack for the Saudis and other Arab client regimes. Others might
consider him a kind of political mistress -- after all a lot of attractive
women come to DC and find themselves in such "compromised" relationships;
and something similar happens with guys like Zogby whose tongues, rather
than bodies, are for sale if the price is right.
And still others take seriously the long-heard
rumors of Zogby family ties to the CIA going back some years, including
a certain Ghosm Zogby who it now comes out was the first CIA station chief
in Beirut in the 50s (though Jim Zogby refuses to discuss the family "connections").
Masquerading with the media as the spokesman
for Arab Americans -- Jim Zogby is the Arab for all seasons. He is the
darling of the Arab client regimes and they do all they can to push him
forward and arm him with money and contacts; the Uncle Tom for American
Jews who always call on him to arrange meetings and "dialog" with "the
Arabs"; the co-opted Arab contact for the politicos whenever they
need a place to give a speech and get their pictures taken...as "Kosher
Kitchen" Bill Clinton did last evening.
With substantial financial help from the
regimes and their friends, Zogby made himself President of the "Arab American
Institute" (AAI) he created a decade ago after getting thrown out on the
street from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) when
the stench got too great even for them. Zogby just picked right up and
rolled right over ADC, which too this day fears him and refuses to challenge
him.
Ever since Zogby has been pushed forward
by various regimes and political/financial interests, especially the Saudis
who feature him weekly on their cable TV channel that continually propagandizes
Arab Americans. Here too remember: just think of Arab Network of America
(ANA) as Saudi Cable TV for Arab Americans.
The amazing thing about Zogby is that many
Arabs Americans -- even those distant from Washington realities, and even
many of those who interact regularly with him -- consider him the biggest
Uncle Tom ever. He recently upset even some of his sympathizers when it
was leaked in the Al-QUDS AL-ARABI, a London-based Arabic, newspaper that
he suggested increasing the sanctions on Iraq instead of the bombing!
''I have a stake in seeing that Israel's
aid
does not get cut... Anybody who raises
the
question of cutting aid to Israel
puts the
peace process at risk.''
--James
Zogby
Christian
Science Monitor - 10/19/93
And it was only a few years ago that Zogby
publicly complimented Bill Clinton for his appointments to the White House,
National Security Council, and State Department, even though never before
in history has an American government been so riddled with former officials
of the Israeli/Jewish lobby. He even went out of his way in public to single
out Martin Indyk, the man who formerly ran the Israeli lobby think-tank,
for compliments, helping consolidate his appointment first to the National
Security Council and more recently as Assistant Secretary of State for
the Middle East! Gee, there must have been extra checks to "Uncle Jim"
for that one!
Of course Zogby always says, when cornered,
that he was "misquoted" or "misunderstood". But the damage Zogby causes
to the political representation of Arab Americans is immense and
continual. Examples are numerous.
Last year, for instance, when the crisis
of the Har Homa settlement was escalating the Palestinian "Authority" sent
the "minister" of Higher Education, Hanan Ashrawi, to Washington. Zogby
held a press conference for Ashrawi; but then dominated it himself. As
with other Arab American political events, most of the attendees were Palestinian
and Arab American. No attempts were made to invite outsiders or representatives
of progressive groups who could suggest insights, solutions, or plans for
actions from their own experiences. Zogby dominated the meeting and simply
wanted to
get his name once more in front of the
Arab press. Meanwhile, all he had to offer was the silly suggestion for
concerned persons to call the White House to voice their concerns.
And then weekly, on his ANA TV show, Zogby
continually gives his highly distorted but always politically-correct versions
of Middle Eastern problems. He always presents major issues as simply
"disputes" or "misunderstandings" rather than as fundamental and basic
controversies. And of course he never admits, or invites anyone else to
even discuss, that the "Peace of the Brave" is really the "Peace of the
Weak", the "Peace of the Co-opted". Nor of course does he ever mention
the term "client-regimes", or invite anyone else who might; nor ever mention
the terrible human rights and political rights abuses going on in Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and these days Arafat's "Authority".
To quote an Arab observer of this ongoing
political farce whereby it
is Jim Zogby, the well-known Arab Uncle
Tom, who one continually sees on TV "representing" Arab Americans: "Zogby's
show is as serious as a cheap made-for-TV comedy." But alas, alot of people
watch, and alot of people don't know what they are watching.
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