Arab American in Chief: - And a big Democrat, too

National Review, March 25, 2002 by John J. Miller

About a week before the 2000 election, Al Gore found himself in a minor flap when a group of Arab Americans said that he told them he opposed moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to the capital, Jerusalem. Earlier in the year, Gore had assured Jewish leaders that he thought the embassy should in fact go to Jerusalem, from Tel Aviv. Gore seemed to be playing both sides of the issue, and the Bush campaign accused him of doing just that.

So Gore's team put out a press release clarifying his position. His longstanding view, it said, was that the embassy should move, but only if it were done within the context of peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians -- a reasonable stance, though different from the one the Arab Americans thought they had heard Gore express. The release quoted James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute, to back up its claim: "Al Gore has had a very consistent position on this issue. What he said in Dearborn [Mich.] is exactly in line with what he has always said."

What Zogby didn't say is that he thinks moving the embassy is a very bad idea; back then, it would have meant criticizing one of Gore's positions. But he's glad to share his opinion now. "Moving the embassy would be a huge mistake, an absolutely huge mistake," he told me in February. "I'm totally against it."

Zogby is probably the most important Arab-American leader in the country -- but he's also running an organization that for all practical purposes is an arm of the Democratic party. Journalists reporting on his activities typically neglect to mention this important fact. In February, when the Washington Post described Zogby's recent criticisms of attorney general John Ashcroft -- including the suggestion that Bush fire him -- it merely cited Zogby's affiliation with his Arab American Institute, which it called "influential." This is accurate, but the Post failed to note an even more important fact: Zogby campaigned hard for Gore and has given thousands of dollars to Democrats, all the time using the Arab American Institute as his base of operations.

If a conservative were allowed to pick his neighbors, Jim Zogby, 56, is the sort of guy who would make the short list. He's a smart and pleasant fellow, a good conversationalist who is an active member of his church and community. He may be a Democrat, but he's a pro-life Democrat. "I've gone to my party's convention and worn a pin reading, 'I'm a pro-life Democrat and I want my party back,'" he says. As a college sophomore, Zogby actually ran a Students for Goldwater chapter, but the Vietnam War and the civil-rights movement convinced him to abandon the GOP. He hasn't looked back since.

Many people believe that the typical Arab American is a Muslim immigrant, but this is not true -- a solid majority of them are U.S.-born Christians. As ethnic profiles go, they are more like assimilated Italian Americans than like today's big-city taxi drivers. Zogby's Maronite Catholic parents came to the U.S. from Lebanon, and he was born in Utica, N.Y. (His brother, John Zogby, is a well-known and respected pollster.)

While earning a Ph.D. in Islamic studies from Temple University, Zogby spent time at a Palestinian refugee camp conducting interviews. On his flight back to the U.S., he realized he had stumbled upon his life's work. He founded the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, left teaching, and became a professional Arab American.

Advocating on behalf of the Palestinians is a messy business, and over the years Zogby has adopted dozens of controversial positions. In 1982, when he was executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, another group he helped found, his organization called the Israelis "Nazis" and compared their activities in southern Lebanon to "genocide" and a "Holocaust." Following the model of anti-apartheid activists, Zogby has tried to organize boycotts of companies doing business in Israel. He has also criticized antiterrorism efforts. When the United States arrested a Hamas leader in 1995, Zogby called the move "destructive and not helpful to the peace process," as if letting terrorists run free were somehow in the interests of peace.

A signed picture of Yasser Arafat decorates Zogby's K Street office a few blocks from the White House, and he becomes prickly when discussing the Palestinian leader. "Arafat has made some horrible mistakes, but he cares about his people and he is their leader," says Zogby. "The language people use against him is shameful. Nobody talks about Golda Meir or Menachem Begin the way they talk about Arafat, but these were horrible-looking people. Arafat is the victim of the politics of personal destruction."

In 1997, Zogby accused Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres of "state- sponsored terrorism" for attacking Hezbollah camps. So I asked Zogby: Is Arafat a terrorist? He paused at the question. "The tactics he's used fit the classic definition of terrorism," he said at last, "but I wouldn't want to reduce him to that label. He's more than that. Name-calling isn't helpful to the discussion, it doesn't help the issue move forward, so I don't engage in it."