How can ISIS be defeated? Let me quote President Obama:
"This challenge of countering violent extremism is not simply a military effort," the president said. "Ideologies are not defeated with guns but better ideas and more attracting and more compelling vision."
Occasionally, details of political campaigns that should perhaps be frontpage news are instead almost ignored. So it is with Bernie Sanders’ choice of some advisors, as mentioned February 7 on Meet the Press:
I will tell you that we have met recently with people like Larry Korb, who actually worked in the Reagan Administration, we talked to people like Jim Zogby, talked to the people on J Street, to get a broad perspective of the Middle East.
These names have not been a topic of much conversation in my political circles, at least not that I have noticed. But in pro-Israel circles, that is a different matter. Take for example this hair-on-fire response from Daniel Greenfield:
On Meet the Press, Bernie Sanders gave the following reply when asked about his plans for Secretary of Defense, "we talked to people like Jim Zogby, talked to the people on J Street, to get a broad perspective of the Middle East."
J Street is a left-wing anti-Israel group whose campus affiliate J Street U, is headed by Amna Farooqi, a Muslim anti-Israel activist, pushing BDS for Jews living in '67 Israel.
James Zogby is even worse. Much, much worse than even J Street and Amna Farooqi...
Being hated by pro-Israel neoconservatives is probably a sign that you are doing something right. Take, for example, this screed by Marty Peretz against President Obama or the actions of Netanyahu, also against President Obama, in a Frontline documentary here.
In this case, James Zogby, besides being President of the Arab American Institute, is more than just a name that rabidly pro-Israel people hate. He was recruited by Jesse Jackson in 1984, and this choice of him for an advisor by Bernie Sanders hearkens back to the 1984 and 1988 campaigns that many of us have forgotten. (This article explains Jackson’s impact on Bernie.) Zogby had this to say about that historical campaign:
What Jackson did was new. He made the community proud to self-identify as Arab Americans and he welcomed us into his Rainbow Coalition. I can still recall the excitement generated by the campaign. All across the country Arab Americans turned out for Jackson rallies; they registered new voters, gave money and mobilized to turn out the vote on Election Day.
Not only did Jackson inspire the community, he gave voice to their concerns. Never before had the issues of Palestinian statehood, the sovereignty of Lebanon, the civil rights of Arab Americans and the need to combat negative stereotyping and discrimination of people of Arab descent been raised in national debates or addressed from the podium of a major party's national convention.
Note the inclusion of Palestinian statehood in the list of issues. The plight of Palestinians has been a recruiting tool for terrorist groups for decades and still is a barrier to peace with the Arab world.
*A side note for those who have forgotten or may be too young to remember: Jesse Jackson has also been an unbelievably successful hostage negotiator. (link)
Idea number 1 (from President Obama): Defeat ISIS with better ideas and attractive compelling vision
Idea number 2 (from Jesse Jackson): The compelling vision is that Arabs are part of a coalition that will work together to solve the world’s problems
“But wait,” you say, “Bernie Sanders just consulted this Zogby guy and J Street to get some perspective on the Middle East, and yes this is the same guy that was part of the Jackson campaign. But it’s a long way from that to idea number two above. Where is your evidence that Sanders is actually doing that?”
First, notice in the official endorsement he made of Jackson in 1988, the bottom left part about becoming an ally of the struggling peoples of the Third World:
Here’s what Bernie said to Jimmy Kimmel in October 2015, when asked about his religion:
I am who I am, and what I believe in and what my spirituality is about is that we’re all in this together. That I think it is not a good thing to believe as human beings we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people...
And there is other evidence as well. Bernie is doing outreach to Muslims and Arabs. One of my favorite videos of Bernie is this reaction to a Muslim girl frightened by hatred and animosity:
And there have even been tweets in Arabic from the Sanders campaign:
Also, if Bernie is President and has good relations with Arabs and Muslims, it might also be easier to build an Arab coalition to fight ISIS, something Bernie was talking about even before running for President:
More discussion of Sanders’ foreign policy by Zogby is here.
