About my views ... For
more than 30 years, I have actively advocated Middle East peace
and spoken out against violence in my writings, speeches, presentations, and through standup
comedy. If we can laugh together, we can live together. My writing is dedicated to defining the moderate Arab/Palestinian voice. I believe that moderates have a double burden not only to lead their own people to reason and rational thought, but to also counter the extremism of others. It is easier to be an extremist and much more difficult to be a moderate. Though the majority of Palestinians and Arabs remain silent, they are silent because they are intimidated by extremists in their own community and by the fanaticism of their critics. Rather than being encouraged, they are threatened by critics on all sides. Yet, I believe in strong principles that are fundamental to fairness, justice and achieving Middle East peace through moral clarity. I believe in a moral fence, a line of principle that must apply to all sides fairly, justly and blind to partisan politics. I criticize politics, not people.
My columns and views have conveyed these feelings consistently for more than a quarter century of award-winning journalism and column writing. Certainly, I could have also said other things better but believe that my efforts are sincere and genuine. Background I am a journalist by training. I have spent the past 30 years seeking to broaden my journalism experience through many forms of communications. While I certainly address controversial Middle East affairs subjects in my current syndicated columns, I try to do so with an analytical eye and a reasoned, commonsense understanding of some very complex issues and events. My column writing is based in journalism and is intended to help readers broaden their understanding of these very serious and very important issues. I often tap my experiences and subjective experiences in constructing the columns. Simplify issues. Make them concise and easy to understand. Make them interesting to everyone by finding the aspect that is interesting. I also have an extensive background in political writing, general news and slice-of-life feature writing which is where my heart belongs. Over the years, I have worked both in frontline journalism positions where I have won many awards, and also in media strategy and media consulting to assist clients in both the political and business world to better understand professional journalism. This has given me extensive experience in understanding the challenges of business reporting. The bottom-line, though, is a dedication to the principles of journalism which are accuracy, fairness and honesty. Accuracy insures that I do my best to understand an issue as comprehensively as possible. Fairness provides a professional edge sometimes lacking in non-professional journalism writing -- being fair is very important and reflects as powerfully on the profession as accuracy. And, finally, honesty which means that everything I write must be written with a pure intent to educate the reader more than to advocate to the reader. Doing this touches many emotions for many readers. And while we are all human and subject to emotions, I try my best to engage even the most critical of public responses to my commentaries with a sense of fairness dedicated to understanding rather than offensive criticism. I recognize that the most important aspects of the writing craft involves the ability to concisely frame the writing through a precise, easy-to-understand lead sentence. This is followed by the body of information, and a coherent conclusion. The goal is to get people to read the writing and understand it, and to insure that the questions readers have are anticipated as best as possible and then fully addressed. The power of humor A final word on standup comedy. To me, humor is the most sophisticated form of communications. And journalism is about communications. We all apply humor to our writing in many forms to enhance the reader's understanding of our writing. Standup comedy requires a more precise form of communication. The punch line has to be precise to a fine point in order to make it work, a precision that is tighter than even writing the best lead. Standup comedy is a very successful hobby I have pursued and hope to continue to use to help engage the public and help readers and audiences better understand complex issues that we face in society. I believe that humor can break through the harshness of racism, bigotry and discrimination. If I can make fun of the stereotypes that people have of me, why should people take those stereotypes seriously. I also believe that at times when anger and frustrations are so great, that simple dissertation and reasoned arguments are not enough to ameliorate public distrust of Arabs, Arab Americans and the Muslim World. I believe that humor can break through that wall of hatred and force people to pause and reconsider their views. Most people do not hate Arabs but are overwhelmed by misunderstanding, and emotions stemming from great acts of tragedy and terrorism, especially in the wake of September 11th 2001. ### |
Arab-Jewish relations: My support of the Consensus Statement of the Jewish
Community Relations Council of San Francisco, |
