PEOPLE ARE OPENING
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Arab Nominee Ou
Flap over terror panel appointee erodes
ASTONISHING RATE.
ties between U.S. Jews, Arabs.
DANIEL KURTZMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washincrton
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J
acing bitter complaints
from Jewish groups,
House Minority leader
Richard Gephardt's (D-
Mo.) has withdrawn the appoint-
ment of a prominent American
Muslim leader to a congressional
commission on terrorism.
Arab and Muslim groups said
Gephardt's decision to drop Salam Al-
Marayati, who heads the Los-Angeles
based Muslim Public Affairs Council,
opened a huge new rift between them
and the Jewish leaders.
The leaders said Al-Marayati had
condoned acts of terrorism against
Israel. Several members of Congress
had also raised objections, urging the
FBI to fully investigate whether he was
qualified to serve on the newly created
10-member National Commission on
Terrorism, which is charged with
reviewing national policy on preventing
and punishing terrorism.
In a letter to House Speaker Dennis
Hastert (R-Ill.), Gephardt said the
process of gaining a security clearance
would take longer than the 'six-month
life of the commission itself. Aides said
political considerations did not influ-
ence the decision.
Infuriated by Gephardt's reversal,
Arab and Muslim leaders have defended
Al-Marayati as a voice of moderation.
They blame American Jewish leaders
for misrepresenting him as part of what
they are calling a larger "witch hunt" to
exclude Arabs and Muslims from gov-
ernment policy-making positions.
They point to a recent campaign
supported by some Jewish organiza-
tional officials to oust Joseph Zogby,
the first Arab American to work for the
State Department's Near East -bureau in
decades, from his post because of arti-
cles he wrote criticizing Israel — and to
opposition earlier this year to the
appointment of Al-Marayati's wife,
Laila, to an international commission
on religious freedom.
In a joint statement issued Monday,
nine American Muslim and Arab
American organizations called on
Gephardt to reinstate Al-Marayati,
saying they were "appalled by the
McCarthyite tactics applied by
extremists seeking to sabotage this
appointment and muzzle our commu-'
nities' authentic voices in order to
monopolize discussion."
Jewish officials dismiss the notion
of a conspiracy to keep Arab or
Muslims out of government. The con-
troversy surrounding the terrorism
commission, they say, has nothing to
do with Al-Marayati's ethnic or reli-
"If it had been a
Christian or a Jew
holding the same
views, we would
have been equally
forceful."
— David Harris
gious background and comes down
solely to his statements on terrorism. `-)
The flap has added another stress
point to already strained relations
between American Jews and American
Arabs that is certain to complicate
efforts to revive intergroup dialogue.
It has even caused tensions among
Jews, with some Los Angeles Jewish
activists backing Al-Marayati and con-
demning the Jewish organizations
campaigned against him.
Relations between American Jews
and American Arabs and Muslims have
taken a tumultuous course since the
beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process and the signing of the
Oslo accords in 1993.
The goodwill and dialogue that
grew out of the sia b nina b at the White
House has given way to a series of
grievances and an almost complete
breakdown in communication
between groups as the peace process
has foundered in recent years.
Now, amid renewed optimism for
peace in the Middle East with Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak's assump-