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Bishara Bahbah

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Bishara Bahbah
بشارة بحبح
Bahbah in 2024
Born
Bishara Assad Rizek Issa Bahbah

1958 (age 66–67)
Jerusalem
CitizenshipUnited States
Education
OrganizationArab Americans for Trump
Political partyRepublican

Bishara Bahbah (بشارة بحبح; born 1958, Jerusalem) is a Palestinian-American academic, businessman, and political activist. He has taught at universities including Brigham Young University, Harvard Kennedy School, Al-Quds University, and Bethlehem University. He has directed Palestinian advocacy, educational, and charitable organizations including United Palestinian Appeal, the National Association of Arab Americans, and the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine. In the 1990s, Bahbah served as an adviser to Yasser Arafat, and was a Palestinian delegate in peace talks with Israel. In 2024, he established Arab Americans for Trump, which later rebranded to Arab Americans for Peace in February 2025. He also helped facilitate negotiations between Hamas and the Trump administration in 2025.

Early life and education

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Bishara Assad Rizek Issa Bahbah[1] was born in 1958 in Jerusalem's Old City.[2] His father was a barber. In 1948, prior to his birth, his family had fled the Nakba to the Zarqa Camp in Jordan, where they lived for two years before returning to the Old City. According to Bahbah, his family fled Jerusalem shortly after the King David Hotel bombing, which his father narrowly survived by jumping from the second story window of his barbershop within the hotel.[1]

Bahbah completed his secondary education in Jerusalem before departing in 1976 for the United States on a scholarship to Brigham Young University in Utah, where he studied international relations. He later enrolled at Harvard University, earning a master's degree and PhD in political science.[3][4]

Career

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Bahbah returned to Jerusalem in 1983 and, at the outset of his professional career, served from 1983 to 1984 as editor-in-chief of both the Arabic and English editions of Al-Fajr, a newspaper published in East Jerusalem from 1972 to 1993 that was broadly aligned with the Palestine Liberation Organization.[5]

Bahbah later moved back to the United States, working as a visiting associate professor and then adjunct professor of political science at Brigham Young University beginning in 1985.[6][7] In collaboration with Lina Butler, in 1986 he co-authored Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection, which analyzes the background and dynamics of military cooperation between Israel and several Latin American countries.[8]

Circa 1995, Bahbah taught public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School, and served as associate director of the university's Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East.[9][10]

Bahbah was an adjunct professor of investment, finance, and wealth management at Al-Quds and Bethlehem Universities.[11] Bahbah has also worked in financial services,[12] including for a Morgan Stanley subsidiary and as a financial adviser in Scottsdale, Arizona.[13][14] In 2009, he published a book for affluent investors titled Wealth Management in Any Market.[14][13]

Since 2000, Bahbah was a regular guest columnist for The Arizona Republic.[15]

Charitable and advocacy organizations

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Bahbah was the executive director of the United Palestinian Appeal charitable organization in the mid-1980s.[4][16] Bahbah left UPA to become president and CEO of the National Association of Arab Americans in 1988.[16] In 1990, Bahbah served as a Senior Fellow at the newly founded Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine (later renamed the Palestine Center), later becoming its director.[17][18] Bahbah has also served on the board of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.[19]

Political career

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In the 1990s, Bahbah was an adviser to Yasser Arafat, with whom he became close after meeting in Cairo in 1986.[20][21] He also served as a delegate for Palestine in peace talks with Israel.[21]

In 2024, Bahbah established the organization Arab Americans for Trump.[14] He said that, although he had voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election, he began to believe after the October 7 attacks that Democrats would not put an end to the killing of Palestinians.[14][22] He and Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany Trump and later Senior Advisor to the President, collaborated during Trump's 2024 presidential campaign to push Trump to resist Israeli efforts to increase US support for the Gaza war.[14] During Trump's campaign, Bahbah stated that he believed Trump would "put an immediate end to the war in Gaza" if elected.[23] Shortly after the election, Bahbah stated that he believed Trump "is a different person than he was in 2016 and 2020 ... He now wants an end to the war and a lasting peace in the Middle East."[24]

In May 2024, Bahbah and Boulos helped to establish a political action committee called Arab Americans for a Better America.[23] The PAC raised $478,300 in the 2024 election cycle.[25]

In February 2025, Bahbah renamed Arab Americans for Trump to Arab Americans for Peace after Trump commented that he wished to develop Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East".[26]

At several points in 2025, Bahbah served as a messenger between Hamas and the United States government, including in conversations aimed at negotiating a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the return of hostage Edan Alexander.[14] Bahbah does not have an official role in the Trump administration, but has been described as an envoy to Steve Witkoff, who was appointed by Trump to be his Special Envoy to the Middle East.[27] Bahbah told The Telegraph he was "as mystified as anyone else" at becoming a conduit for the communications between Hamas and the Trump administration. The Telegraph described Bahbah as a "novice professor" and a "political neophyte ... rocketed to power by his embrace of Donald Trump".[14] A senior US official speaking anonymously to Axios described Bahbah as "involved but tangentially" in the communications.[28]

Personal life

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Bahbah lives in Arizona.[29] He is Christian.[19]

Bahbah described himself as a Republican in his writings in The Arizona Republic in the 2000s.[29] However, in reporting about his creation of Arab Americans for Trump, NDTV described him as a Democrat who "publicly broke with the party in 2024";[2] Ynet wrote that he was a "loyal Democratic voter who never considered backing the Republican Party — until October 7".[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Bahbah, Bishara (May 15, 2018). "'Jerusalem will always be home, wherever I am': Dr. Bishara A. Bahbah". Arab News (Interview). ProQuest 2038599687.
  2. ^ a b "Who Is Bishara Bahbah, The Palestinian Academic Connecting Trump To Hamas". NDTV. May 28, 2025. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  3. ^ a b Shmilovitz, Tzippy (May 27, 2025). "'When I die, I want them to say I was Palestinian': This is Bishara Bahabah, the American mediator between Hamas and the US". Ynet. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  4. ^ a b "New Officers at NAAA". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. VI (9). July 14, 1986. ProQuest 222263746.
  5. ^ Snir, Reuven (1998). "The Palestinian al-Hakawati Theater: A Brief History". The Arab Studies Journal. 6/7 (2/1): 57–71. ISSN 1083-4753. JSTOR 27933738.
  6. ^ "People in Political Science". PS. 18 (2): 287–295. 1985. ISSN 0030-8269. JSTOR 419104.
  7. ^ Bahbah, Bishara A. (1986). "Review of Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker?". Middle East Journal. 40 (4): 735–736. ISSN 0026-3141. JSTOR 4327441.
  8. ^ "Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection". Institute for Palestine Studies. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  9. ^ Axelrod, Jonathan N.; Lewin, Jonathan A. (October 17, 1995). "Arafat to Speak at Kennedy School". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  10. ^ Bahbah, Bishara (October 3, 2009). "Israel axes rights of Palestinians in E. Jerusalem". Arizona Republic. pp. B5. ProQuest 239161607. Bishara A. Bahbah, a Scottsdale resident, taught public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he was also the associate director of the Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East.
  11. ^ Hanania, Ray (October 2, 2016). "ADC elects four activists to National Board". The Arab Daily News. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  12. ^ Hauslohner, Abigail (September 5, 2024). "In Gaza war, Trump allies see opening to lure away Arab, Muslim voters". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 29, 2025. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  13. ^ a b Wiles, Russ (July 3, 2009). "Self-help book a guide for higher-end investors". Arizona Republic. pp. D2. ProQuest 239167092.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Barker, Memphis (May 21, 2025). "Trump's unlikely new Gaza middle man is a novice professor with a direct line to Hamas". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  15. ^ Bahbah, Bishara (December 9, 2023). "Biden's support for Israel could cost him the election". The Arizona Republic. pp. A9. ProQuest 2899582241.
  16. ^ a b "Focus on Arabs and Islam". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. V (4). January 31, 1988. ProQuest 222354114.
  17. ^ Sharabi, Hisham (December 1991). "Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine". Review of Middle East Studies. 25 (2): 187. doi:10.1017/S0026318400024299. ISSN 0026-3184.
  18. ^ McManus, Michael (March 1, 1991). "Gulf war from the Muslim point of view". Clovis News Journal. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  19. ^ a b Polletta, Maria (February 17, 2017). "Islamic center opening doors to all Saturday: Even to promote tolerance and cooperation". Arizona Republic. p. A12. ProQuest 1868948011.
  20. ^ Wallin, Pamela (July 1, 1994). "Arafat's Challenge". CBC Television. ProQuest 190785106.
  21. ^ a b Randolph, Ryan (October 24, 1995). "Jewish grant led Arafat to Harvard". Boston Globe. ProQuest 290747545.
  22. ^ Chotiner, Isaac (August 4, 2024). "Inside Donald Trump's Effort to Woo Arab Americans". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  23. ^ a b Starr, Stephen (July 28, 2024). "Republicans' social conservatism wins over some Arab Americans". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  24. ^ Tharoor, Ishaan (November 15, 2024). "Trump and the Israeli right resume their embrace". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  25. ^ "Arab Americans for a Better America Independent Expenditures". OpenSecrets. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  26. ^ Cappelletti, Joey (February 5, 2025). "Pro-Trump Arab American group changes its name after the president's Gaza 'Riviera' comments". AP News. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  27. ^ Stein, Amichai (June 10, 2025). "Witkoff urges Hamas to accept ceasefire proposal, says hostage families deserve closure and dignity". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  28. ^ Ravid, Barak (May 13, 2025). "Scoop: Hamas approached pro-Trump activist for secret talks that freed Edan Alexander". Axios. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
  29. ^ a b Bahbah, Bishara (May 27, 2008). "He should avoid Bush like plague". The Arizona Republican. p. B5. ProQuest 239006066.
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