By Debbie Schlussel
What’s the definition of chutzpah? Well, it could be the Arab American Institute.
This past weekend, the organization which claims to speak for a mythical 6-7 million Arabs in America (reality check: the census says there are at most 2.2 million, including illegal alien Arabs), held a conference on political activism in Dearbornistan, this weekend. You’d think if there were really 6-7 million, they’d actually have more than a hundred or so participants at this national event. But the hotel confirms that they didn’t. And guess who sponsored the conference?

Birds of a Feather . . .
Why, none other than La Shish, the restaurant that the federal government says money laundered and funded Hezbollah to the tune of over $20 million, on which income tax was NEVER paid. The owner, Talal Chahine, is a fugitive in Lebanon, where he was allowed to flee by U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy III a/k/a “Abu Porno”.
So, you ask, why would a restaurant owned by a fugitive who owes millions to the federal government continue to be open? Wouldn’t the government seize or freeze its assets . . . like they do with every other income tax cheat?
Well, those are great questions. I’ve asked them, too. But the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney Murphy won’t answer them. They’ve allowed fugitive tax cheat/Hezbollah financier Chahine to continue to operate and collect income and revenue from La Shish for 1.5 years and counting after they indicted him.
I guess the reason they can’t shut down the restaurant or freeze the assets is that they need someone to fund the Arab American Institute’s “political empowerment” conferences. And if Hezbollah’s financiers can’t fund Hezbollah’s supporters’ political activity in the States, who will? And we can’t have that stopped.
So, you can’t blame the Arab American Institute for getting Hezbollah’s American money-laundering operation to sponsor its event. After all, chutzpah only happens when it’s allowed to flourish and fester.
And our Justice Department is gladly seeing to that. That’s why the AAI has no prob taking sponsorship money from the man who finances the group that murdered over 300 of our Marines and civilians in Lebanon in the early ’80s.
The AAI will only feel shame about Hezbollah’s financier when we make them. And our government is only not making them feel shame, it’s patting them on the back, with a good ole’ PC hand.