Getting Their House Together

[Classical_Liberal]

........The pro-Israel lobby is organized and effective, endowed with a long-term vision, the cash to back it up and an understanding of the US political system that allows it to put its vision in place. Arab-Americans can expect the same political voice only when they - and their kinsmen still living in the Arab world - build a similar coalition. With US presidential elections just one year off, Arab lobbyists are hoping to make their community's growing clout felt in a two-pronged campaign: ensure President George W. Bush - who won the majority of Arab votes in the 2000 election - is not reelected, then fill the job with a Democrat who will bring a more responsible Middle East foreign policy agenda to the table. "The election in 2004 is going to really shape where is going to go or be in five or 10 years," says Jean AbiNader, managing director of the Arab-American Institute (AAI), a Washington, DC-based group formed in 1985 to represent Arab-American interests in government and politics. "What we would like to see in the next year is a significant, coordinated effort by the Arab-American community to demonstrate its voting power."



If Arabs are successful on the election front, says AbiNader, the voice of the Arab community in the US can no longer be ignored. Already, there are signs of change. Four years ago, when AAI invited presidential hopefuls to address the organization's annual leadership conference, then Vice President Al Gore and Senator John

McCain were the only takers. At this year's conference held in mid-October in Michigan, eight of the nine Democratic presidential candidates accepted invitations to speak at the event.

A NATION DIVIDED
Demographics are a double-edged sword for Arab-Americans. Islam - the dominant religion of the Arab world, but not of Arab-Americans - is the fastest growing religion in the United States. But Arab-Americans are ethnically diverse and focused on a variety of "hot button" issues, many of them domestic.Some 3.5 million Arab-Americans now live in the US. Highly educated and financially successful, 35 percent of them have college degrees (compared to the national average of slightly over 20 percent) and their incomes are 22 percent higher than the American average, according to studies conducted by AAI.......

http://www.egypttoday.com/issues/0311/F775/0311F775.asp