The Yemeni American News – Editorial Board
It is not uncommon for the nomination of new ambassadors to languish in the Senate for months. But even by the standards of the slow pace and political roadblocks, Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib’s ambassadorship to Kuwait is being needlessly held up.
And it’s political.
Pro-Israel groups – including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – have been trying to derail Ghalib’s nomination.
Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, appeared to confirm last month that there is a hold on the proceedings to confirm Ghalib.
The apparent reason? His support for Palestinian rights and criticism of Israel.
President Donald Trump nominated Ghalib back in March, and the mayor has not even received a hearing.
It is an unacceptable treatment by lawmakers from both major parties against a respected Yemeni, Arab and Muslim community leader in Michigan.
Ghalib raised some eyebrows last year when he endorsed Trump. The Democratic Party had been the de-facto political home to most Arab and Muslim Americans since Barack Obama’s first campaign in 2008.
The Hamtramck mayor put a crack in that wall of support that then turned into a flood of Arabs fleeing the Democratic Party largely due to former President Joe Biden’s support for the genocide in Gaza and the community’s conservative stance on social issues.
If Democrats want to regain the trust of Arab voters, playing politics with Ghalib’s nomination will not further their cause.
And if Republicans are serious about cementing their newly formed bridges with the Arab community, they should swiftly confirm the mayor.
Not everyone in the community agrees with Ghalib’s embrace of Trump, especially that the US president has been equally unflinching in his support to Israel and has surrounded himself with vocal Islamophobes like Laura Loomer.
Still, Ghalib represents an important segment in the community, and as a nominee of the president, he will always be seen as one of us.
While pro-Israel groups, which support a genocidal apartheid regime, have been pushing to paint Ghalib as antisemitic, the Senate has confirmed far more controversial Trump nominees.
Take, for example, Charles Kushner – the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – who was confirmed as ambassador to France in May, with Democratic Senator Cory Booker joining Republicans to vote for him.
The elder Kushner was a convicted felon before Trump pardoned him in 2020.
In 2005, Kushner had pleaded guilty to 18 criminal charges, including illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering.
The case was not only criminal; it was disturbing on a basic human level.
Here’s a passage from the Justice Department’s statement about his conviction:
“Kushner further admitted at his plea hearing that he devised a scheme to retaliate against a cooperating witness – his sister – and her husband by having a prostitute seduce the husband and covertly filming them having sex,” it says.
“Kushner admitted that he paid a private investigator $25,000 to arrange for the seduction and videotaping of the cooperating witness’ husband. Kushner admitted to personally recruiting the prostitute and instructing that the videotape be mailed to the cooperating witness.”
The Senate saw that the man described above was fit to represent the US in France – a permanent UN Security Council member, nuclear power and NATO ally. But the same body is holding the nomination of Ghalib.
At this point, Ghalib’s nomination is not about Republicans or Democrats. It’s about decency and the exception that is often made in our political system for Israel, for which Arab Americans are often marginalized and mistreated.
We urge our community to contact Senate leaders and demand that they advance Ghalib’s nomination.
Confirm Mayor Ghalib, now.
