Arab fanatics come out swinging against my moderation

Sousan Hammad described herself to me as a Palestinian from Ramallah who can't decide if she wants to be a journalist or a political activist during an "interview" prior to my comedy performance at the World Affairs Council at Houston's Hobby Center March 25. I asked her if she was a Christian and she responded that she was "non-religious."

Then she went into her attack, criticizing me for performing with Israelis and denouncing my comedy before she even had a chance to see the show.

Hammad is the opinion page editor at the University of Houston's student newspaper "The Daily Cougar."

She then did a review of the show. And after reading it, I realized she decided to forgo journalism and become an activist before graduation.

I don't mind the criticism, especially from extremists who hate those like me who embrace peace based on compromise, denounce Hamas terrorism and suicide bombing as immoral, and who reject the ridiculous notion that the Holocaust did not exist. In fact, when the criticism is clever, talented and creative, I admire it. But Sousan doesn't have the talent to be creative, or clever. People who hate rarely do. So before the interview began, Sousan and I were not on good terms.

But what I do mind are her factual errors -- intentional, apparently.

She makes the false claim that I support the occupation of the Palestinians. Only a moron would say that. I didn't. She did. Of the fact that five Arab American groups cancelled my pre-bookings in early 2007, it was because I reject the Arab taboo on normalization, which she mischaracterizes as embracing the occupation. Dumb, but it feeds the haters out there.

She says that I won't go to Ramallah to perform because the Palestinians will shoot me. What I said was WE WANT TO GO TO RAMALLAH and to BETHLEHEM to perform comedy but there are hurdles that prevent Israelis from performing there and because the Palestinian groups said they could not guarantee security for the Israelis.

Sousan then rewrote the feature and changed more of the quotes and had it published on the "Electronic Intifada," the web site of the fanatics who embraced people like George Habash, the extremist who embraced violence and who fought for control of the Palestinian revolution with Yasir Arafat. Habash has always been hailed as a "Christian" but who openly denounced and rejected religion. He was a Marxist-Leninist, not a Christian.

When I look in Sousan's face, I recognize immediately why Palestinians have lost in their effort to establish a Palestinian State. So consumed with hatred, some Palestinians like Sousan live in a self-inflicted world of blind rage where they find it okay to murder innocent little Israeli children but only speak out against the killing of Palestinian children. When I told her I embrace one principle that I apply to all killings -- whether they are by Israeli occupation soldiers murdering Palestinian civilians, or Palestinian Hamas terrorists murdering Israeli civilians, I denounce them both -- she laughed saying I was "naive."

What I am confident of is that in her vicious hatred and intentionally distorted reporting, people like Sousan are the reasons why palestinians are this year commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Nakba.

Here's the version that appeared in the Electronic Intifada, the web site of the advocates of the "One State Solution," a failed and impossible dream promoted by extremist hatred not an embrace of living together. I'm glad the hatred has finally come out from under the rock of Palestinian extremism and is now in the public arena.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9439.shtml

Ray Hanania
http://www.radiochicagoland.com/

Here's my letter sent to The Daily Cougar:

Sousan Hammd's "review" of the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour was filled with factual errors, distortions of what I said, and a clear effort to advance her own agenda.

I don't mind criticism when it is clever, creative and accurate, but when it completely distorts my views (saying I wouldn't perform in Ramallah because I was afraid Palestinians would shoot me is ridiculous since my cousins and many relatives live there, is pathetic on her part). And to say that I support the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank is also an outright lie. Clearly she hates me because I won't kill Jews, I oppose Hamas terrorism, denounce suicide bombings, criticize both the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians, and openly embrace peace based on two-states and compromise, things that clearly pose a problem for her.

Sousan told me she couldn't decide whether to pursue journalism or political activism. I think her ridiculous and inaccurate political attack against me and the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour demonstrates that she has already made a choice.

Thanks
Ray Hanania
www.IPComedyTour.com