Arab Says: 40 Years of Campus McCarthyism Led to Hatred of Israel

Dr. Carole's Couch

Today's guest, Lee Habeeb, a Newsweek Columnist, Vice President of Content at Salem Media Group and host of Our American Stories, has personal experience with anti-Israel and anti-semitism anger. He writes: I'll never forget the day in 1983 when white people on my college campus accused me of not being a real Arab. And, worse, of acting and thinking like a white person. It was a surreal moment because it was white people doing the accusing. I'd been a dark-skinned person all my life, with a quintessential Arabic last name, but never considered myself white. I'm also Italian on my mother's side, and in the summers, my skin gets darker than Barack Obama's. I was raised in a New Jersey suburban town of 20,000 and was the only person with an Arabic last name. I was heckled and teased a bit—the usual teenage stupidity. Luckily, my parents didn't intercede. To take such claims seriously, they explained, would give power to the offender. Moreover, I might lose sight of all the good white people who didn't care that I had an Arabic last name or dark skin. The truth is, the vast majority of white people I met were exceedingly good to me. Many were rooting for me because I was different. I focused instead on the things I could control. Things that mattered to me and my parents. My grades. My conduct. And my future, which would be determined by my choices. My attitude. And the people I surrounded myself with. Personal responsibility and agency were a big deal to my Lebanese and Italian family. So too was hard work. It was all taught to me without ever being taught—it was that fundamental. Tune in for the rest of the story....