Sunday, January 25, 2009

Dearborn City Council Takes Its Stand With Hamas

I guess Dearborn’s elected leaders have never run across the old saying that there’s two sides to every story.

You may be interested to learn that your City Council, and mine, on Thursday passed unanimously a resolution adopting Hamas’s position on the recent offensive in Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force.

This is reported in the Arab-American News:

DEARBORN — After having the matter brought to their attention last week, the Dearborn City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution condemning the attacks on civilians in the 23-day Gaza war and urging a truce and an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The final vote was held on Thursday, January 22 and passed by a tally of 6 to 0.


Councilman George Darany said he was proud that the council responded to the way in which the city's Arab American community was affected by the "devastation in Gaza."


“It's important to let the 45 percent of the population know that we stand behind them on this issue,” he said.

“It shows solidarity between the council and the people of the city.”
Never mind about solidarity with the rest of us.

So far I've been unable to find a copy of the text of the resolution. It isn’t mentioned in the Council’s minutes of January 22, although the article says it was introduced Tuesday night.

The resolution originated with Osama Siblani, who used Dearborn City Councilwoman Susan Sareini to get got it introduced.

Since I can’t get hold of the text yet, I have to rely on the Arab-American News for its account about how the final resolution hews closely to the Hamas account of the recent offensive being 100% the fault of a tirgger-happy Israel picking on innocent Palestinians trying to live in Peace. While both Israel and Egypt are criticized in the resolution for closing their borders with Gaza, nothing apparently is mentioned about Hamas’s rocket campaign against Israel. Siblani afterward “said he was satisfied with the passing of the resolution,” which I take to mean he accomplished what he had in mind with the resolution.

Along with thanking all the council members who supported the resolution, Siblani also thanked Mayor Jack O’Reillyfor his leadership of the city.” Does this mean O’Reilly supported this, or was Siblani just trying to drag him into this unwillingly? I don’t know yet.

Let me re-state this. The Dearborn City Council just unanimously passed a resolution condemning a United States ally--Israel--and embracing the tortured pretext of Hamas, the terrorist government of Gaza that bears the moral culpability for all the recent violence there. Further, the resolution was the brainchild of one of the most radical anti-Israel, anti-American, and pro-jihadist bigmouth troublemakers in town--Osama Siblani.

This resolution isn't going to make or break peace in the Middle East. But there's something seriously wrong when pro-Hamas actors can so easily use city government, paid for with out taxes, for their propaganda campaign.

If anyone out there has any more information about all this, we'll be happy if you can e-mail it, and we'll pass it along.

These are your council members:

President Thomas P. Tafelski
313.943.2405
Nancy A. Hubbard
313.943.2403
Doug Thomas
313.943.2407
Suzanne Sareini
313.943.2404 ssareini@ci.dearborn.mi.us
Mark Shooshanian
313.943.2406
Robert A. Abraham
313.943.2408 rabraham@ci.dearborn.mi.us
George T. Darany
313.943.2402 gdarany@ci.dearborn.mi.us

There probably will be more to come.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just returned from The Henry Ford where they are showing the Imax movie, "Journey to Mecca". My friend pointed to the irony of this virtual journey noting that the reality journey would be difficult and near impossible to complete because somewhere along the pat your head will be severed from your body. I suppose I should thank them for the movie and assure them it is enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I will be sure to e-mail the city officials and will include a copy of the Hamas charter. Are any of them free masons or members of a Rotary organization? I can hear the heads rolling around on the floor.

Anonymous said...

On a serious note with reference to tax-exempt not-for-profit organization The Henry Ford, I fail to see where the promotion of Islam is inline with their mission statement.

Mission

The Henry Ford provides unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, stories, and lives from America's traditions of ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation. Our purpose is to inspire people to learn from these traditions to help shape a better future.

http://www.hfmgv.org/about/mission.aspx

This movie is the reason I am no longer a member of The Henry Ford.

I also am disappointed that my tax dollars are subsidizing this.

Anonymous said...

Additional email addresses for:

Thomas P. Tafelski - ttafelski@ci.dearborn.mi.us

Nancy A. Hubbard - nhubbard@ci.dearborn.mi.us

Doug Thomas - dthomas@ci.dearborn.mi.us

Mark Shooshanian - mshoosha@ci.dearborn.mi.us

Anonymous said...

Unreal.

I don't know what is more ridiculous:

- A city council that resides over a city that is seeing even tougher economic times then the rest of Michigan, passing a resolution condemning a conflict that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with said city.

OR...

- The fact that the council members didn't just come out and say "we are pandering to the Muslim population in Dearborn because we know that as non-Muslims we would never keep our jobs unless we did exactly what they ask. But, if they do want us to convert to Islam, just say the word!"

It is so transparent, it's sickening.

-- Dearborn expat

Anonymous said...

Dearborn expat.,
I agree, the transparency of this resolution is very sickening. The political Islamic initiatives in this town have inured the elected officials into malfeasance.

I will express my outrage but, I doubt it will be of benefit.

Anonymous said...

The lengths that the Dearborn council will go to and the depths that they have sunken are sickening. What a load of political ass kissing! They are going to hear from me, thanks for bringing this to my attention.

PacMan

2nd Gen American said...

Wow---when did Darany become an Arab? I thought he was Armenian.