Edward T. Saadi Attorney at Law
bejje@aol.com

This text is being written at the request of several people who wish to know the true story of the events which took place Monday night, May 13, 2002 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Peter Jennings, the news anchor for ABC's World News Tonight, hosted a "town hall meeting" in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame entitled "Ask the Media."?  A friend of mine was offered tickets, and he invited me to attend.?   Upon our arrival, one of the hostesses asked if we were there representing a group.?   Our first inclination was to say "no" but I blurted out "yes, Lebanese-Americans" and we were escorted to the front.

The plan was for Mr. Jennings to spend one hour fielding questions from a Cleveland audience on live television.?   I felt that this was an opportunity to ask Mr. Jennings a question which has been bugging me a lot lately:?  Why is it that the media seems to be so obsessed with Iraq, and with the Israeli-Palestinian problem, and simultaneously gives a "free pass" to Syria, which is the true nerve center of international terrorism, and which has actively oppressed democracy in Lebanon for the past 25 years?? 

I felt that Mr. Jennings was uniquely qualified to answer this question, due to the fact that he has lived in Lebanon for quite a number of years.?  I got in line immediately to ask my question. By the time I got to the front, there were already several questions posed to Mr. Jennings regarding the Middle East, one in particular from a woman who identified herself as Leila, a Palestinian-American attorney, and another from an American woman who was married to a Middle Eastern fellow who was confined to a wheelchair.

When called upon by Mr. Jennings, I posed my question.?  I introduced myself as a Lebanese American attorney from Youngstown, Ohio.?  I think that my question certainly grabbed his attention, and I had a friendly interchange with him.?  He pointed out that the nature of my question suggests that I am a Lebanese Christian, and he took the opportunity to expound briefly on Lebanon, stating specifically that the heart of Lebanonis Christian Lebanon.?  Whether Mr.Jennings agreed with my statements regarding news coverage of Syrian terrorism was not an issue--My goal was simply to bring this issue to the attention of a national news figure and a regional television audience.? 
Mission accomplished.?  
Given the indisputable factual accuracy of everything I said to Mr. Jennings, I had absolutely no idea the absolute vitriolic hatred that I was about to encounter. At the conclusion of the program, as I was chatting with some friends, a group of "Arabs" descended upon me like a pack of ravenous jackals, coming at me from all sides with their verbal assaults and personal insults.?  It was truly a sight and a spectacle to behold.?  First was the fellow in the wheelchair whose wife had also asked Mr. Jennings a question, Bassam Khawal, whose delivery was somewhat tame, who started out by simply writing our names down, but whose words soon became offensive.?  

I ignored him.?  Unsatisfied, his compatriot, a middle-aged guy who identified himself as Elie Abboud, let fly with his barrage of attacks.? Mr. Abboud immediately began shouting, clearly enraged.?  He began by telling me that he is from Syria, as if to elicit some response.?  I felt that this warranted no response, as I did not insult Syrians, I simply stated facts about the evil that the Syrian regime perpetrates in the world, and especially in Lebanon.?  Then, Mr. Abboud informed me that I "cannot ask a question like that."?  It occurred to me that this guy must think he's still in Syria, because in Syria, it is indeed true that there are certain questions that cannot be asked, under penalty of death.?  I simply told him, calmly, that in America, you can ask any question you want.?  Then he told me that it was "you" who let the Israelis into Lebanon.?  I do not know which "you" he was referring to, as I was 10,000 miles away and only 11 years old at the time and I certainly had nothing to do with it.? Or perhaps he was referring to some Lebanese political group which he imagines that I belong to, which I don't?  

He informed me that I should "shut my mouth" because I was in the U.S. at the time, and he was there, holding a gun, pointing at the Israelis as they came to West Beirut.?  I found it ironic that here is a Syrian, himself an occupier in Lebanon, angry with an indigenous Lebanese person for "allowing" another occupier (one which, unlike Syria, has already withdrawn from Lebanon) to enter the county.?  But still I said nothing--I figured, this battle was won when the broadcast ended and my statements had been heard by thousands of people.?  It seems that the longer I went without reacting to Mr. Abboud's insults, the angrier and louder he became.?  I was then informed by Mr. Abboud, repeatedly, that he was "honoring me by even speaking to me" and told that I am a "piece of shit."? 

He was really mad, pointing his finger, shouting, and looking like he was about to become violent, and my back was to a balcony on an upper floor of the hall of fame, so I began to fear for my safety--it's a long way down.?  Luckily my friend Pierre Maroun heard and saw all of this, and saw it coming before I did, and had my back.?  Pierre put him in his place pretty quickly, aptly pointing out that "the only one who ever let anyone into Lebanon is Hafez el-Assad!"? Fortunately, the assailants backed off and the assault ended before it got physical.

(By coincidence, a couple of days later an article appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer stating that Elie Abboud's home and businesses were raided by the FBI; he was arrested and charged in a check-floating scam that allegedly netted him millions.) But that wasn't the end of it.?  Then Leila, the female attorney who also asked Jennings a question, got into the act.? With a disgusted and venomous look on her face, she sought me out and said, very rudely and loudly, "you call yourself an attorney?"? 

Yet another irony--one attorney basing a personal attack upon another attorney for exercising the very thing that attorneys are sworn to defend--i.e., constitutional rights.?  I guess this is yet another person who appears to be mistaking Cleveland for Damascus, except that this one really ought to know better.?  I'm sure that in Syria, where constitutional rights such as free speech do not exist, this woman would be the greatest attorney of all. Then, another fellow joined in, and stated his opinion (intended certainly as another criticism of me) that the Jews have differences of opinion among themselves, but unlike "us"; they do not air them publicly.? 

The profundity of my response to him, i.e., "who exactly is 'us'?" appears to have gone straight over his head. I remembered something my Dad told me once--"The greatest victory you can have over a person is to be more polite than he is."?  So I simply walked away, having said almost nothing, confident in the notion that these people had made bigger fools of themselves than I could ever hope.?  And besides, it was the truth about Syria that got on TV and into Peter Jennings' ears, and that was all that really mattered.?  But the guy in the wheelchair, Bassam Khawal, still wasn't happy.?  He followed me and Pierre, continually informing us that we were "puppets of Israel"; and "traitors."? 

Wow.  At the end of all of this, I hadsome profound realizations.?  First, that these events prove the old maxim that those who resort to personal attacks usually do so because they have been defeated on the merits of the argument If you can't fight the message, kill the messenger.?  What better affirmation of the strength of our position do we need??  Second, it occurred to me that never before in my life have I felt like the object of someone's hatred due to my Lebanese ethnicity.?  That night, I felt it for the first time, and it came not from WASPs nor Jews, but from Syrians and Palestinians--those same people who wish to rob us of our Lebanese identity and impose upon us a "Syrian" or "Arab" tag.? 

Funny, I thought, but no Israeli that I have ever known has ever struck me as racist towards me due to my Lebaneseness, as these people did, no matter how vehemently I have disagreed with them.?   Plus, as I looked around the room and saw somany people there sporting yarmulkes (many of whom had asked questions and made statements of much more perilous factual foundation than mine) I couldn't helpbut notice that not one of them was being challenged by anyone, let alone harassed with a barrage of epithets as I was.? Do these people hate the Lebanese and resent the existence of the Lebanese state even more than they hate Israelis and resent the existence of Israel??  It appears to be a pretty close race.?   In any case it is undeniable that the overriding feeling is that in the rab world, there is one issue and one issue only:?  Palestine.?  To them, that is the only occupation that matters, the only injustice deserving of a remedy.?  By their twisted logic, anyone else suffering any sort of oppression dare not speak out about it, or else.?  Is it any wonder why most Lebanese reject the continual efforts to Arabize us??  Thirdly, and most disturbing of all, it is clear that the intimidation squads utilized by the enemies of Lebanon and the Lebanese identity i.e., the Syrian dictatorship and their longtime cronies, the National Syrian Socialist Party have expanded full force into North America.?  They have made a bloody sport of silencing voices of opposition in Lebanon.?  I think that they will find their tactics are not so effective here.
28.5.02