Who are you guys?
We are a group of unique, educated individuals, with independent and autonomous viewpoints. What brings us together is an informed passion about issues pertaining to the Middle East and the Arab diaspora. We find politics, culture, history, and societies in general interesting.

Though we are not all Arab-Americans, most of us are. Most of us are based in the United States. Despite this, our views are worldly, not bound by the cognitive limits of mindless nationalism or religiosity, or chauvinism of any kind. Our main target is the absurdity of injustice.

Since we have our feet in multiple cultures, we understand current issues with nuance and complexity.

As advocates of justice, we know wrong from right. Still, we disagree on tactics, solutions, and many other questions. As the diversity of views and personalities on this blog shows, there is no one "Arab mind."

If you want to comment about us, we ask that you read a number of posts before you generalize about us to understand the differences between the posters.


What are you trying to do?
Create a place for people to share and exchange ideas. We do this with humor and a healthy dose of sarcasm. If you offend easily take a deep breath before you launch into an attack. We enjoy discourse and welcome those who disagree with us intelligently.

However, we have a strong distaste for hate speech and would prefer that people keep ranting tangents to a minimum. The issues we are discussing are complex and we hope an intelligent discussion might help our readers and ourselves come to a better understanding of what the hell is going on in the world.


Do you censor people?
This is an unedited forum. That said, we hope that people do not take too shrill of a tone and try to comment specifically on articles and the issues they raise.

We rarely, almost never, delete comments from readers. Even when they are shocking to the senses, we try to leave them up. We may however delete baseless pointed, personal attacks if the one attacked (reader or poster) requests it.

Why so much criticism of Israel?
For one thing, several of us are Palestinians. When we talk about Israel, we do so as people who have suffered at its hands in a variety of ways -- had land stolen (Will), live or lived under occupation (Diana, Fayyad, and Nabeel), descended from refugees (Fadi), or faced the humiliation of visiting a homeland we were treated like dirt in (all of the above plus Nadeem).

Naturally, we feel that as citizens of the world, Israel has continually disregarded the human rights of the Palestinians -- a fact acknowledged in different ways by major human rights groups and international organizations, such as the United Nations. As citizens of the United States we feel that our tax dollars (over $100 billion total) should not support a country with such a blatant disregard for human rights.

At the same time, we recognize the persecution and lack of freedoms by other governments in the Middle East (including the PA) -- and we comment on them as well. However, we believe that as Americans, US policy needs to reflect our values. We believe that means starting with scrutiny of our allies first -- what good is focusing on Syria when the US considers it an enemy? Until our friends live up to the administration's standards, the US will have no credibility.

That said, as Arabs in diaspora, we also find it necessary to criticize corrupt and oppressive Arab regimes and parties that hold back the people. No one is shielded from criticism.

We do not single out Israel, the US government does. It is called the special friend, and given the most in US aid, total and per capita. Therefore, it deserves the most scrutiny.


Why do you call Israel "apartheid"?
It is an appropriate description. Israel calls itself the "Jewish state," and has a Jewish symbol on its flag, yet half the population is rules over are non-Jews. If it were only symbolic, it wouldn't be enough. Israeli law discriminates between Jews and "non-Jews" though the holy land is home to Muslims and Christians as well. (And we would have the same problem if the land was colonized by Gypsies to set up a Gypsy state. In fact Palestinians resisted the Ottomans and the British before they did the Israelis.)

Most egregiously, Israel welcomes any Jew to immigrate, yet it denies the same right to the Palestinian refugees it displaced during its foundation. Sadly, many of these refugees still live in the same camps they were forced to in 1948. Thanks to Israeli law and its systematic orientation towards one of the peoples in that land, Israel created the largest and longest-running refugee population in the world.

There can be little doubt that Israel aims to contain and separate as many of the Palestinians on as little of their homeland as possible. This is precisely the definition of apartheid.


Do you guys party, watch football, and shop?
Mostly yes. Arabs are people too.


Can I write for KABOBfest?
If you are interested we are always looking for contributors. Let us know about yourself and what your interests are.


Do you like, totally LOVE Hamas?
No. We look terrible in Green (Laith). (I'm not a fan for sure, but I think we need sober analysis of the situation. -- Will)


Do you support terrorism?
Obviously not. We rail against any immoral violence, especially state terrorism, since it is only perpetuates the worst of humanity.

We believe in the power of ideas, which is why we blog.


Are you anti-Semitic?
We do not hate any group of people, or any individual for membership in any ethnic, racial or religious group. We criticize Israel the government, and Zionism the ideology as applied, not the Jews as a people. We do not believe that any group of people (other than the rich) control the media, governments, corporations, etc. To be anti-Jewish would be to reject the many Jews who register as people of conscience. Israel's apologists believe Jews and Israel are the same -- that when we critique Israel, we critique Jews. We think that just as there is no "Arab mind" there is no one "Jewish mind." Israel is a state and Jews are a diverse people.

Do you get paid?
No, KABOBfest is run and staffed by volunteers. Invite us to speak and pay us an honorarium so we can afford groceries.