Star Ledger
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Sam Merhi plucked a few leaves of mint, placed them in his cup of dark tea, and recalled his godson, Jude, who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"If you met an angel, you would know my Jude," he said. "Those thugs. On that morning, they changed our lives forever."
That sense of loss, and the anger that goes with it, are shared by thousands of Americans who lost friends and relatives that day.
What's different about Merhi, a Lebanese-American, is that he is seen by some as a tacit supporter of terrorism against Israelis, thanks mostly to comments he made in 2002.
And despite his protests, that may prove fatal to his budding political ambitions in Passaic County, where Arab residents had placed great stock in his candidacy.
Merhi was a Democratic candidate for freeholder until last week, when Sen. Robert Menendez objected. A few days later, party officials rescinded their endorsement of Merhi and threw him off the ticket.

"Sam is a friend of mine," says John Currie, the Democratic county chairman. "But this would be a problem for every candidate on my ticket. I'm not talking about just Jewish voters. I'm talking about all voters."

A well-known figure in Passaic County's large Arab community, Merhi is a businessman with two Jewish partners. He's an energetic fund-raiser who has been a loyal Democrat for many years. And he sits on the county's anti-terrorism task force.
Now he finds himself a political outcast, caught up in the searing emotions of the Middle East.

The trouble began four years ago when Merhi was interviewed by the New York Times. After calling the September 11 hijackers "murderers" he was asked if he felt the same way about suicide bombers in Israel.
"I can't see the comparison," he said.
Then he spoke of a would-be suicide bomber who told his Israeli captors that his act was the inevitable response to occupation. "I think we all feel that way," Merhi added.
Sitting in a small Arab restaurant in Paterson this week, Merhi said his remarks were misunderstood.

He was not justifying the suicide bombing, only explaining it. And he could not compare the September 11 attacks to any other, he said, because the impact was so traumatic on his family and his adopted county.
"I condemn anyone who uses violence," he said. "All of them."

Still, Merhi was hesitant to condemn Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two groups responsible for most suicide bombings in Israel and the occupied territories, even though he was perfectly comfortable condemning al Qaeda.
So does that show some closet sympathy for the suicide bombers? Stephen Flatow, whose daughter Alisa was killed in a terror attack in Israel in 1995, believes it does.
"He subtly justifies certain kinds of terrorism, and I think that's dangerous," Flatow said.

As always when discussing the Middle East, some go over the top. Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), an Orthodox Jew, accused Merhi of advocating "the senseless slaughter of women and children" and has refused to meet with him.
Aref Asaf, an Arab activist, said the objections to Merhi are based on bigotry, and amount to a "political lynching of the worst kind."
As for Merhi, being thrown off the ticket was a personal trauma, made worse by the fact that he learned of it by reading the local newspaper.
"My kids were ecstatic when I was nominated," he said. "When we learned this, we just looked at each other and said, 'How can this happen?'"
Gov. Jon Corzine met privately with Merhi and a delegation of Arab community leaders last night to soothe feelings. But when you consider how poisonous politics has become, and how easy it would be to attack Merhi with his own words, this decision is easy to understand.
"It's not personal," Currie says. "We're in this to win. That's the bottom line."

Tom Moran's column appears Wednesdays and Fridays. He may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or (973) 392-1823.

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