Dearborn Council Pays Their Jizya

The Dearborn City Council website has now posted its minutes from the special meeting it held last Thursday to adopt Osama Siblani’s resolution blaming Israel, and deflecting blame from Hamas, for the recent violence in Gaza. The resolution can be read here.

The council convened at 5: 35 for a “special meeting” not open to the public, read and approved the resolution, and adjourned at 5:56.

What are they thinking?

The worst of this is the resolution’s complete failure, as we expected it would fail, to mention the ongoing rocket attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas that prompted the Israeli offensive in the first place. In this regard the resolution is even less balanced than news reports by the BBC or the New York Times. At least those sources can admit that the Israeli offensive was prompted by ceaseless rocket fire from Hamas, even if they couldn't admit Israel has the right to defend herself in force.

Even a European Union official has recognized that Hamas bears “overwhelming responsibility” for what they have brought on the residents of Gaza. He even said that Europeans are “sick of paying” to rebuild Gaza only to have Hamas, (and its prior irresponsible governments) provoke further strikes by Israel. (“EU envoy lays Gaza blame on Hamas”).

But those Dearborn council members, they know better.

Siblani (whom I have to assume drafted this) further sneaks in language blaming Israel, and not Hamas, for the situation, implying that Israel is “responsible” for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza for which it is now denying “aid and assistance” (which is clearly false).

In fairness to our council members, they’re only repeating what they’re being told. It’s not as if news reporting on all this has been accurate. Then again, the rest of us have had no problem finding more accurate accounts of the situation, why can’t they?

I’m also a bit puzzled by the Council resolution’s declared support for “a Declaration of Human Rights.” [note indefinite article]. Why not The Declaration of Human Rights? Is that the UN version they've got in mind?, or the “The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam”?

The latter embraces a “freedom and right to a dignified life in accordance with the Islamic Shari’ah”:

Article 22

(a) Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Shari’ah.

(b) Everyone shall have the right to advocate what is right, and propagate what is good, and warn against what is wrong and evil according to the norms of Islamic
Shari’ah.

It’s hard for me to believe this is anything but naked political pandering to Dearborn Muslims. While the city council is kow-towing to Dearborn's Muslims, and the guy sitting in the chair of the Commander-in-Chief is kow-towing to the Muslims in the rest of the world, who's speaking for the rest of us?

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’Reilly “for 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.

Dearborn's Jihadist Newspaper

I spoke too soon. The Press & Guide is back on duty as a mouthpiece for jihad. On Sunday a front-page article by Jason Carmel Davis offered exclusively one side of the Gaza situation, chockful of manifest untruths. Davis was reporting on last Tuesday's demonstration against the Israeli offensive in Gaza. No balance of quotations from the other side is offered.

Davis quotes Imad Hamad of the ADC calling the Israeli offensive a “true genocide.” He quotes Mohammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, likening “what is going on in Gaza to the Holocaust.” (“Demonstrators call for end to bombing in Gaza”).

Davis even did some extra-credit honework and found more detractors who weren’t even at the "mass" rally, like the anti-Israel American Jews for a Just Peace, whom I guess he just likes because the group “strongly condemns the Israeli invasion of Gaza as a cruel and barbarous attack upon a captive civilian population.” He quotes this from their December 28th statement:

"Israel justifies its attack as a defensive response to Hamas rockets fired into Israel," the statement read. "While the firing of Hamas rockets into civilian areas is not a justifiable response, the reality is that those rocket attacks were provoked by Israel's own violation of the cease-fire in early November, before it expired, when Israel mounted a series of unprovoked attacks against Gaza that killed six Palestinians.

"As American Jews, we are compelled to oppose these violations of widely held and agreed upon rules of ethical conduct by Israel — and by the U.S., in complicity with it."

This is false. The rocket attacks did not commence in November 2008 in response to any actions by Israel, but have been continuous, with a slight slowing (but never stopping) during the ostensible “cease-fire” with Israel:

Between Israel’s disengagement from Gaza through last November 30, Palestinian forces fired 3,123 rockets into southern Israel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calculates. Since Hamas seized control in June 2007, Gazans have shot 1,685 rockets into Israel — 1,212 of them between January 1 and November 30, 2008. Hamas fired 177 missiles at Israel, even during a June 19-December 19, 2008 “state of calm.” Indeed, as President-Elect Barack Obama discovered on his visit to Israel this past July, rockets are Gaza’s chief export. ("Choosing Death Over Life").

Nor is it true that Israel launched an unprovoked attack into Gaza on November 4. The Palestinians killed were Hamas gunmen, and the attack was indeed provoked:

On November 4 the IDF carried out a military action close to the border security fence on the Gazan side to prevent an abduction planned by Hamas, which had dug a tunnel under the fence to that purpose. Seven Hamas terrorist operatives were killed during the action. In retaliation, Hamas and the other terrorist organizations attacked Israel with a massive barrage of rockets. Since then, 191 rockets and 138 mortar shells have been fired. The attacks have been continuous and some were carried out by weapons not previously used, such as 122mm standard Grad rockets and 120mm mortar shells. Hamas has been directly involved in the attacks in cooperation with the other terrorist organizations.

Then readers get Osama Siblani's view of things:

"We call on the current and the incoming American administrations to take immediate action to prevent any more deaths of innocent civilians, by starvation and by bombing," said Congress of Arab American Organizations Spokesman Osama Siblani.

Palestinian civilians that is. Siblani has no moral objection to the firing of rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.

Siblani uses his own newspaper to lie about the cause of the rocket fire: (“Hundreds protest Gaza bombardment in second local demonstration”):

“The source of the problem is the occupation of Gaza," he said. "They are defending themselves from 60 years of brutal occupation."

More lies. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and Siblani knows this. He doesn’t mean Gaza has been occupied for 60 years, he means Israel has existed for 60 years, and that is what's intolerable to him.

This is from the Hamas Charter:

Article Eleven: The Strategy of Hamas: Palestine is an Islamic Waqf

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. . . .

Article Twelve: Hamas in Palestine, Its Views on Homeland and Nationalism

Hamas regards Nationalism (Wataniyya) as part and parcel of the religious faith. Nothing is loftier or deeper in Nationalism than waging Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he sets foot on the land of the Muslims. And this becomes an individual duty binding on every Muslim man and woman; a woman must go out and fight the enemy even without her husband’s authorization, and a slave without his masters’ permission.

Nor is there any confusion about who the enemy is: the “Zionists”:

The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree (cited by Bukhari and Muslim).

Dearborn Gets Spontaneous

I took some time off over Christmas.

It seems there was a demonstration here on Warren in East Dearborn Tuesday, protestors denouncing Israel and demanding that Hamas in Gaza be left alone.

I wasn’t there myself, and reports on actual numbers are unreliable, but the AP says there were about 1,000, and one of our eyewitness contacts estimates 1,200.

Osama Siblani’s Arab American News report of the demonstration, (Thousands gather in Dearborn to protest Israeli airstrikes), takes me right back to the bad old days of August 2006, when local reporting on the Israel-Hezbollah war was so uniformly horrible that we had to launch this blog to get our voices heard somewhere.

Which reminds me, the local paper here, the Dearborn Press & Guide, has so far been very quiet about the Gaza airstrikes. Back in August and September 2006, the Press & Guide’s strictly pro-Hezbollah reporting, and strictly pro-Hezbollah opinion columns, forced us to drive over to see for ourselves just how big the giant yellow Hezbollah flag was flapping from the flagstaff above Park Street. (Big.)

From what we can find out about Tuesday’s demonstration, it was a convergence of angry Palestinians, neighborhood women, anti-Israel Jews, race hustlers, Trotskyites, Ann Arbor peaceniks, Socialists, and poorly-informed college students (or is that last one redundant?).

“This isn’t just an Arab issue. It’s a human rights issue,” said Suhaib Al-Hanooti, a student activist who helped organize the gathering.

Or did you know that launching rockets at the civilians across your neighbor’s border was a human right?

Then there were the opportunists, like State Rep Martha Scott, and this guy from Michigan’s most lawsuit-happy civil-rights exploiting racket, By Any Means Necessary:

“We’re out here supporting the Arab American community. We believe in what they’re fighting for… What Israel is doing is racist. We have to put a stop to this,” said BAMN organizer Xavier Carr, of Detroit. “. . . .Just the fact that we’re out here shows that we give a damn.”

And the fact that he was out there also shows Carr doesn’t have a real job. The clunky chant Carr tried to get going:

“Black, Latino, Asian, Arab and white, by any means necessary we will fight!”

explains why Xavier is out trying to bogart any cause he can find rather than sinking any more effort into his hip-hop career. See from the photo how the crowd doesn’t seem to give much of a bamn about this rank opportunist.


The Communists were excited, too, sending two reporters to cover what they called “a spontaneous outpouring of anger against the Israeli onslaught” for the World Socialists, and pass out some tracts Washington bears guilt for Gaza war crimes amongst the “workers” while they were at it. Those Socialists, they just love the workers:

The crowd included many young workers, as well as college and high school students. In addition there were workers of all ages and families with small children. (“Protest in Dearborn, Michigan denounces Israeli attack on Gaza”).

I’m thinking there were a lot of nonworkers there, too. The Reds were thrilled to meet “Abe,” a UM-Dearborn student, who denounced the Arab governments as “puppets.” “He expressed interest in Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution, which explains that even the most basic democratic demands of the masses cannot be carried forward by bourgeois or nationalist movements.” Abe has a real future in the Ivy League somewhere.

Siblani’s newspaper is announcing another go-around on Friday at 5 pm outside City Hall, if you’re inclined to see for yourself.

Judge Wygonik Tells Arab Thought Cops, 'Case Dismissed'

Judge Wygonik, whose travails we noted in October, (“Dearborn Judge Runs Afoul of Thought Police”), has finally realized that negotiation has its limits. Not that he’s declaring war on Imad Hamad and Osama Siblani. He’s just saying, “so long.”

Hamad and Siblani are the two most prominent loudmouths in the Coalition of Arab American Organizations (CAAO), the gang that’s been persecuting Wygonik since July, demanding some suitable public penance from him for being insufficiently sensitive to Muslim feelings in his private conversations.

As Wygonik explains in his statement, (below), he’s met repeatedly with these guys, offering to issue a joint statement to clear the air. But CAAO preferred to remain offended. On Monday Wygonik issued a press release through his attorney saying he’s done talking to the CAAO, and he’s moving on.

Maybe Siblani, Hamad, and company stayed stubborn in hopes of breaking Wygonik down, Dog Whisperer-style, in hopes that he would accept the collar and leash. Who wants to settle for a fair judge when a terrified political lapdog on the bench is so much more useful?

Or maybe they only wanted to make a harsh example of him for the benefit of any other Dearborn officials who might get silly notions about speaking or thinking freely around this town.

Either way, Wygonik went above and beyond in his effort to smooth the waters. Now Wygonik is showing up his persecutors as the ones who aren’t serious about smoothing anything. (Dearborn Heights City Councilman Tom Berry doesn't come out looking so good, either).

I’m sure Wygonik will pay for this by losing re-election next time around. But he stood for principle, and refused to dhimmi his way out of it, for which we tip our cap to him.

* * *

For Immediate Release
Contact: Noel Saleh
Monday, December 1, 2008
(313) 967-0200

District Judge Richard Wygonik issues final statement on e-mail accusations

At a July fundraiser for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, I had a conversation with Dearborn Heights City Councilman Tom Berry, during which we discussed Talal Chahine, the former owner ofthe La Shish restaurant chain and current fugitive from justice.

I was pointed in my criticism of Chahine, whose irresponsible actions harmed our community and resulted in hundreds of local workers losing their jobs. After a lively discussion, Berry and I shook hands and parted ways.

The following day, it was brought to my attention that Councilman Berry had sent out an email claiming that both I and my wife made disparaging comments, not toward Chahine, but toward Dearborn’s entire Arab community and toward Fordson High School.

Despite (1) my long-standing ties to Dearborn’s Arab community, (2) the fact that I have a reputation of being fair and unbiased as both a judge and in private practice, (3) the fact that I am a graduate of Fordson High School, and (4) my continued assertion that my remarks about Talal Chahine were not in any way an indictment of an entire community, some people have been demanding an apology (for something I never said).

Since the email, I have issued three statements about that evening’s conversation. I have had my representative, respected local attorney Noel Saleh, meet with the Coalition of Arab American Organizations (CAAO) on two occasions. I have personally met with CAAO as a group on one occasion. I have also met with several of its members on an individual basis.

I offered to issue a joint statement with CAAO to clarify what was said and to reach a resolution of this email attack. Since our meeting, I have, in good faith, produced several drafts of a joint statement based upon what was said at our face to face meetings with CAAO representatives and during our conversations, only to have those joint statements rejected.

I have always believed that the CAAO is working for the betterment of our community. I support the organization, I respect its members, and I appreciate the support I have received from the organization and its members. However, the leaders who are speaking for the CAAO have prevented me from reaching a resolution by a joint statement. I am convinced, that after weeks of trying to issue a joint statement, there is no truthful statement I can make that will satisfy some ofthe leaders of the CAAO.

I appreciate the efforts of those members of the community who have devoted a significant amount of time and energy to trying to resolve the issue of this email, but I believe I have done all I can do, and it is time for me to put this email behind me and to continue to prove to the voters of Dearborn that, as my record shows, I am a fair judge, not affected by racial or ethnic bias in any way. I will continue to serve all the citizens of Dearborn with dedication.
# # #
Not Printed At Taxpayer Expense

Patrons to La Shish: 'Buh-Bye Ghannooj!'

Photo: KATHLEEN GALLIGAN

So Talal Chahine's customers really did resent the idea that part of the cost of a plate of hummus was going to fund Hezbollah. ("La Shish chain closes amid accusations against owner").

Right on cue, Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News in Dearborn, told the Detroit Free Press that "federal prosecutors drove La Shish out of business by recklessly accusing Chahine of supporting Hizballah." ("La Shish closes 11 metro eateries").

As has been discussed here, and elsewhere, on many occasions, Chahine's ties with Hezbollah are hardly in doubt.

The Free Press wants to say the chain's demise began in April 2005, when "Federal agents raid his homes in Plymouth Township and Dearborn Heights and La Shish's headquarters in Dearborn...[seizing] computers and financial records." As if Chahine was just minding his own business, and down come the Feds for nothing. There are plenty of reasons to give credence to federal prosecutors' charges that Chahine has "connections at the highest levels of ... Hezbollah."

We know who's fault it is, and why all those people are now out of work.

Chahine in 2002 in a place of honor beside Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, at a Hezbollah fundraiser in Lebanon.

A Case in Point: Ron Paul Isn't Worried About Islamic Fascism

U.S. Representative and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas told Arab Americans at a political conference in Dearborn this past Friday that he wants to see "a return to the Constitution and protecting civil liberties" and a foreign policy based less on making war than "talking to other nations." ("Hopefuls call for political activism").

"If Kennedy could talk to Khrushchev in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, why can't we talk to people?" Paul said.

"We certainly ought to be able to talk to Third World nations that don't even have nuclear weapons.

"The talk about the war against Islamic fascism -- whatever that is supposed to be," said the populist congressman who is running a campaign that stresses grass-roots organization.

"I am not worried about that war -- whatever it is. I am worried about the war that will ensue after the bombs start falling on Iran."

I’m glad Ron Paul hasn’t got a chance.

He admits he doesn’t even know what “the war against Islamic fascism” is-- but he does know enough not to be worried about it.

Then again, he is worried about a war with Iran we aren’t in yet, the one we’re still trying to prevent, in spite of resistance from guys like him and his supporters, and almost all Democrats, who are convinced the only thing a defiant Iran respects is talk.

Why, candidate Paul wants to know, can't we just talk to other nations the way Kennedy and Khrushchev did "in 1962 at the height of the Cold War"?

Paul seems to remember 1962 as the happy year that two world powers just got to “talking it over”: no memory for him of the naval quarantine, the mobilization of armed forces, nor what a New York Times’ headline in the middle of the crisis described as “Kennedy Ready for Soviet Showdown.” The Times described Kennedy's televised speech to America as one that left no doubt that he and Khrushchev weren’t just two guys working it out:

“The President made it clear that this country would not stop short of military action to end what he called a 'clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.'"

Kennedy announced a US naval blockade of Cuba to prevent Soviet missile deliveries to Castro, knowing full well he was risking an armed exchange with a nuclear power.

"Let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out," the President said. "No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or causalties will be incurred."

"The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are--but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world," he added.

"The cost of freedom is always high--but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose is the path of surrender or submission.

If that's the kind of talk Paul has in mind, I'm all for it.

But it isn't. He likes the talk part, not the course that incurs costs or casualties.

As I said, I’m glad Ron Paul hasn’t got a chance.

The guy's a crackpot and worse--he’s a foreign-policy menace, and we'll all be better of when he’s out of the race for good.