Zionist Intolerance on Display Against Martin O'Malley for Criticizing Islamophobia .

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Zionist Intolerance on Display Against Martin O'Malley

Intolerance, especially when it comes to issues involving the Middle East, is a destructive force that has distorted American politics and our policies, rendering us powerless to provide constructive leadership across the Arab World. Such intolerance was on display last week following Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley's appearance at the Arab American Institute's National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Dearborn, Michigan.

O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, is one of the three remaining contestants in the Democratic presidential primary. In his address to the NLC, he spoke passionately both about the Syrian refugee crisis and Israeli and Palestinian victims of recent violence in Jerusalem. What was deeply distressing was the intolerance some supporters of Israel displayed not only toward O'Malley's remarks, but the very fact that he made them at an Arab American event.

Because O'Malley was the first candidate to champion the cause of Syrian refugees and because the first full day of our NLC was devoted to the refugee crisis, we were pleased that he accepted our invitation to deliver a keynote address. Before his remarks, O'Malley asked to meet with a small group of recent refugees who had made their way to Michigan. He joked with their children, listened to their stories, and responded with compassion to their plight.

While his formal speech to the NLC covered a range of topics, his focus was on the issue of the refugees, how we welcome them and how we treat them. He explained that the issue was of personal importance, noting how as Governor he kept on his desk a sign from the 1890's which read "Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply". "It served", he said, "as a daily reminder" that "we were all immigrants" and that many groups, including his great grandparents, had to confront intolerance.

Because his family overcame discrimination and exclusion, O'Malley said that he was determined as Governor to "make the American Dream a reality for all people". During his two terms in office, he signed into law a "Dream Act" that provided educational opportunities for 36,000 children of undocumented residents. And he actively recruited Arab and Muslim Americans to serve in his Administration.

O'Malley then turned his attention to the scourges of bigotry and intolerance and the negative impact they had on Arabs and Muslims, observing how "this Islamophobia and xenophobia had entered the debate about those fleeing the horrific violence in Syria". He pledged to fight this because "we are a nation of immigrants and refugees...[and] we must not forget what it means to...yearn for a better life". He then reaffirmed his call to the Administration and Congress to admit 65,000 Syrian refugees, closing with this challenge—"Will we listen to our better angels or will we slam the doors and build walls?" . . .

"I am a strong supporter of the two-state solution, which would meet Israel’s critical security needs and affirm the dignity of the Palestinians to live as a free people in an independent state of their own".

The reaction to these words was immediate and intolerant. Some Jewish and right-wing publications criticized O'Malley for suggesting that "both sides" bore responsibility for the violence. His campaign was pressured to "clarify" or "repudiate" the remarks. Despite the fact that O'Malley's rather benign framing of the issue closely tracked the language used by the State Department, and despite the fact that he proposed that equal access to "religious sites" be part of future Israeli-Palestinian talks, his critics felt the need to pummel the candidate into submission because he had committed the unpardonable sins of displaying compassion for and finding fault in the behavior of both sides and because he had done so before an Arab American audience.

Evidence of the disdain O'Malley's critics have for my community was exemplified by comments made by a "Democratic strategist" Hank Sheinkopf and columnist Jeffery Goldberg. Sheinkopf was nasty saying "Obviously seeking support from any place he might find it, a desperate former governor...has lost all touch with reality". Goldberg was equally dismissive noting that "Martin O'Malley [was] not going after the Jewish vote"—as if they are the only voters who matter.'

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20Editorials/2015/November/2%20o/Zionist%20Intolerance%20on%20Display%20Against%20Martin%20O'Malley%20for%20Criticizing%20Islamophobia%20By%20James%20Zogby.htm

Couldn't have a 'nicer' group of 'friends,' imo.