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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2009, page 56 Arab-American Activism American Task Force for Lebanon Still Going Strong After 22 Years
FORMER SECRETARY of Energy Spencer Abraham was a noble master of ceremonies at this year’s American Task Force for Lebanon’s (ATFL) Gala Awards Night, held March 13 at the Fairmont Washington, DC Hotel. He and ATFL president Peter Tanous introduced the many Lebanese-American awardees from past years seated in the audience. ATFL has much to be proud of: it not only has helped purchase 13 new ambulances for the Lebanese Red Cross, but has strongly urged the State Department to add $2,325,000 to the funds already allocated to dispose of unexploded ordnance in Lebanon following Israel’s 2006 bombardment. ATFL chairman Thomas Nassif, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, described the organization’s many legislative successes, including its continuing efforts to ban landmines and cluster bombs. Dr. George Cody, ATFL’s executive director, showed the audience a cluster bomb, which resembled a toy and which children are still finding nearly three years after Israel dropped 1.2 to 4 million of them in southern Lebanon during the last days of its invasion. (Spencer told him, “I wish you’d mentioned that there was a cluster bomb under the podium!”) Calling the U.S. position regarding the international Convention on Cluster Munitions “incomprehensible,” Nassif said, “The U.S. should not be selling cluster bombs and munitions.” [On March 11, President Barack Obama made permanent a ban on nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States. ATFL is now working to build support for S. 416, which prohibits U.S. use of cluster bombs where civilians are normally present.] Awardee Rony Seikaly, a 6 ft. 11 inch former National Basketball Association (NBA) star, joked about meeting other Lebanese during his basketball career who inevitably asked him, “But what do you do?” His fame was “less exciting” for his parents, who wanted him to become a businessman (which is what he is today, now that he has retired from the NBA). William Hanna, managing director of Jacobs Capital Group and founding president and director of Cedars Bank, also accepted an award. For all his success in business, he modestly said, the current financial crisis should teach us we’re all the same: “We all came on a steamer.” As his business mentor Joseph Jacobs, a founder of ATFL, used to say, Hanna quipped, “Don’t break your arm patting yourself on your back.” Superstar singer Gloria Estefan introduced her Cuban/Lebanese-American husband, awardee Emilio Estefan, a successful songwriter and recording producer. “Lebanese stand out,” Emilo said, because wherever they are thrown they grow and thrive. America isn’t a melting pot, he elaborated—immigrants don’t melt down to nothing here. They keep their roots. “I am proud of my heritage,” he concluded, to great applause. —DelindaC. Hanley |
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