If He Won't Ikhras, Can He Stop Speaking In Our Name?!
[Ikhras Note] James Zogby has pursued a lucrative career, and successfully promoted himself over the years by falsely claiming to represent the Arab-American community, and exploiting the ethnic-label to secure his own personal niche on the margins of Washington officialdom. Paradoxically, this self-appointed representative of Arab-Americans has been very successful in promoting himself precisely because he enjoys virtually no grassroots support within the Arab community. With no organized community base to hold him accountable, and financial support from Arab oil-Sheiks, Zogby has been performing his act for decades. Cocooned up in Washington since the 70s he’s become the poster child for all that is wrong with what passes for an “Arab Lobby” in the US.
Zogby’s personal quest for a role on the margins of the political establishment, and his insatiable need for photo-ops with US officials have led to some bizarre political behavior over the decades. In addition to organizing a small group of Arab-Americans to sing Happy Birthday to a war criminal like Madeline Albright, he also welcomed the appointment of a fanatic Zionist like Martin Indyk to a State department post during the Clinton administration and then secured a job for his son in his office. Zogby has also attended “iftar dinners” at the Pentagon at the same time the US is dropping bombs on Iraq, and helping Israel do the same in Lebanon.
Zogby’s self-serving political theatrics have been remarkably as consistent as they are abhorrent. For over 30 years he has refused to Ikhras making us wonder whether some of the financial support he receives from Arab Princes was not used for a tongue transplant, one used as much as his only goes so far.
Ikhras is very grateful to American journalist Jeffrey Blankfort* who, upon our request, kindly found and sent us this very important article he first published in the Middle East Labor Bulletin in 1994. We are now pleased to provide our readers an article written over sixteen years ago that reaffirms what we have been saying about the opportunistic and highest profile member of the “Arab Lobby.” It shows that long before Zogby was overcome with joy at the chance of reaching out to the “good Zionists” of the recently established J-Street, he was collaborating with racist Zionist groups, including AIPAC and Israel’s supporters since at least the early 90s. It also demonstrates that Zogby’s own shameless self-promotion, and personal career goals have always been the paramount considerations guiding all his political involvement. This article, once again, also highlights his lack of any connection to not only the Arab community, but to an authentic and much larger anti-Zionist, pro-Palestine activist community. And to Ikhras’ delight, but not surprisingly, this article reminds us that Zogby and his personal agenda have always been transparent and well known to all those who came to know him or observed his political career.
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*Jeff Blankfort is a radio program producer with KPOO in San Francisco, KZYX in Mendocino and KPFT/Pacifica in Houston. He is a journalist and Jewish-American and has been a pro-Palestinian human rights activist since 1970. He was formerly the editor of the Middle East Labor Bulletin and co-founder of the Labor Committee of the Middle East. He was also a founding member of the Nov. 29 Coalition on Palestine. He won a sizable lawsuit against the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in February 2002 for its vast illegal spying against him, as well as other peaceful political groups and individuals (including anti-Apartheid groups/activists).
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