Palestinian-American employs comedy and gravity to analyze crisis in the Middle East

June 17, 5:20 PMChicago Geopolitics ExaminerMichael Hughes

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The Life & Times of Ray Hanania:

As a Palestinian-American, award-winning journalist Ray Hanania has had a unique and rare life experience growing up on the Southwest Side of Chicago, which is dominated by Irish, Polish, and Italian working class, where many people think that every Arab is a potential terrorist. But what is even more interesting about Mr. Hanania is the fact that he is married to a Jew. Ray related to me on a recent phone interview that when he first met his wife in Cicero, IL, both of them guessed wrong about the other’s racial background. As Ray tells it:

My wife thought I was a Mexican who couldn’t speak Spanish, and I thought she was just a cheap Italian.”

Ray’s sense of humor has allowed the former part-time stand-up comic to insert levity into his true calling, which is providing commentary and analysis on today’s more grave political, social and moral issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East, U.S. relations with the Arab world, religious persecution and racial discrimination. However, Ray has experienced discrimination even while practicing the comedic craft, including when Jewish-American comedian Jackie Mason refused to let Mr. Hanania open for him once in 2002. Why? Because Ray was a Palestinian.

Although I found Mr. Hanania incredibly amusing and look forward to seeing his stand-up act, he is much more accomplished in the fields of journalism and broadcasting than he is in the world of comedy. Mr. Hanania was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Chicago Sun-Times for his groundbreaking series on the Palestinian Intifada in 1990, he has won three Society of Professional Journalism Lisagor Awards, and was named Best Ethnic American Columnist by the New America Media in 2006.

Ray served his country when he enlisted in the air force during the Vietnam War, although the FBI had him tailed as a suspected terrorist for two years due to his Arab descent and his association with other Arab groups after he was honorably discharged from the military. Ray did not deny the associations and characterized his gatherings with Arab cells as “having dinner with my family – of course I associate with Arabs – my parents are Arabs.”

Ray continues to serve his country by providing what he calls a “moderate Palestinian voice” on his radio talk show that airs daily in Chicago. Entitled "Mornings with Ray Hanania", Ray covers a wide range of political issues from the incompetence of Cook Country President John Stroger, to the Iranian elections. His show can be found on the dial at 1530 AM (WJJG) Monday through Friday from 8 until 9:30 am. He is also the host of TV Chicagoland, which is broadcast on Comcast Cable TV Channel 19 every Friday night in 145 Chicagoland suburbs. He writes about local city, state, national and international topics for a number of publications, including Chicago’s Southwest News Herald and The Huffington Post.

Examiner Interview with Ray Hanania:

During our phone interview immediately after one of Ray’s morning radio shows, we discussed some of Ray’s articles and his thoughts on the Israel-Palestine dilemma:

Q: I read in an article recently condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization. The author specifically cited the preamble of the Hamas Charter, which reads: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it." My question to you is: do you think Hamas is a terrorist group?

HANANIA: Yes it is and they were officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1995. Initially, Hamas was more of pure political organization with a single focus: to re-create one state, that being Palestine. Most people do not understand that it had been more anti-Zionist, focused on the single issue of establishing a Palestinian state and not necessarily obsessed with a religious war against Judaism. Bottom line is, yea, Hamas are terrorists, and they began suicide bombings in the early 90s – no doubt about it. But so are the Israeli settlers – the only difference is that they [Israeli settlers] have government power on their side.

Q: At the end of last year Israel accused Hamas of firing rockets that broke the cease fire. Why did Hamas fire those rockets?

HANANIA: Ironically, I looked up a ton of information on Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies website, which actually monitors metrics like rocket fire, and what I found was that about 200 rockets were fired on average each month up until July or August of 2008. After that point, there were still 1-3 rockets being fired each month from Gaza by splinter groups. Suddenly, around the time of the U.S. election, Israel takes offense. Then the war in Gaza ends as soon as Obama takes office. Israel took advantage of the transition and feared that Obama would implement a policy that was not beneficial to Israel.

Q: What is the solution?

HANANIA: The solution is a two-state solution. What has happened in the past is the past. We are no longer in 1948. The biggest problem in my mind is religion in this situation, because religion does not allow compromise. But it really isn’t the people that are at fault, it’s the government policy. The government policy is wrong, not the people’s faith.

Q: What is the obstacle? What has gone wrong?

HANANIA: Well, for one, Bill Clinton and Dennis Ross destroyed the peace process, Dennis Ross admits as much in his book. Clinton wanted to ram through a solution at the last minute for his legacy. Clinton put a pro-Israel Ross in charge of the whole thing. Arafat – who was actually a secular Palestinian - was the most misunderstood Palestinian since Jesus. The U.S. misread what motivated him, and always thought he would compromise.

Mr. Hanania finished the interview by stating that a combination of justice and reality must prevail for any solution to work in the Middle East, but the solution will never come through violent means. The solution resides in forgetting the past, and a forward-looking nonviolent peaceful reconciliation.

Article Excerpts:

I found very interesting material in a syndicated article by Mr. Hanania where he further describes why he thinks Clinton is at fault for blowing up the peace process:

Hanania also frames the issue and summarizes what the American role should be in a recent Southwest News Herald article. Here are a few selected excerpts: 

Ray’s complete BIO can be found at: http://www.themediaoasis.com/hanania.htm