11-11-16 Reason not emotion with Trump can save Palestine

Reason not emotion with Trump can save Palestine

Arab News Friday, Nov. 11, 2016

By Ray Hanania

President-elect Donald J. Trump defied all predictions Tuesday night and soundly defeated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, causing many who opposed him to wonder what policies he will pursue.

Most shocked were American Muslims who took his campaign rhetoric at face value rather than recognizing it as being typical of the polemic debate that characterizes heated American elections.

Muslims may have made a crucial political mistake, pursuing an emotional response to Trump’s rhetoric rather than recognizing the flexibility of election rhetoric to achieve their goals.

But they overreacted over his comments on fighting terrorism and Muslims, and that debate engulfed all of Trump’s views on the Middle East, including the issue of Palestine.

The trouble between Trump and Muslims began on Dec. 2, 2015 when Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik stormed a San Bernardino County Health Department Christmas party. The Muslim married couple murdered 14 people who had nothing to do with the Middle East conflict. They seriously injured 22 others.

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This is Ray Hanania’s column commentary Podcast … Hanania’s columns are published each week in newspapers throughout the United States and in the Middle East.

He writes on American politics and life in Chicagoland every week in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, the Reporter Newspapers,NewsAmericaNetwork.com, and IllinoisNewsNetwork.com.

Hanania also writes a weekly column every Thursday for the Arab News at www.ArabNews.com. And, writes news and features for his website at TheArabDailyNews.com, and for the Arab News at www.ArabNews.com and the Daily Hookah at www.TheDailyHookah.com.

An award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter named Best Ethnic Columnist by the New America Media, and recipient of the Sigma Delta Chi award for writing, Hanania is of Palestinian Arab heritage. 

You can reach him and share your opinions and thoughts by emailing him at rghanania@gmail.com. All his columns are archived at RayHanania.com.

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(An award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and columnist. American Palestinian Arab, Hanania writes a weekly column for the Arab News at www.ArabNews.com. He also writes each week for several mainstream American newspapers on American politics and life in Chicagoland. Reach him at rghanania@gmail.com.)