Sunday, April 30, 2006; B03
In an effort to pressure the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel, the United States has suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority. But fortunately for the new Hamas-led government, its cabinet boasts well-trained economists, engineers and planners ready to tackle the fiscal straits. Where did they get that training? Start with Iowa.
Of the 24 cabinet members, four attended college or graduate school -- or both -- at U.S. institutions, and a fifth had a postgraduate fellowship here. Two other senior Hamas political leaders also earned advanced degrees in the United States.
They were among the hundreds of Arab students drawn to U.S. campuses in the late 1970s and 1980s, a time when the United States was trying to prevent the spread of the Iranian revolution in the Middle East. Some received subsidies through the U.S. Agency for International Development, and others won scholarships through the largely Saudi-funded Arab Student Aid International.
Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek spent eight years in Iowa, first at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, where he graduated magna cum laude, and then at Iowa State University. Despite his continued opposition to the Bush administration's policies, Razek has fond memories of Iowa and of his Jewish first-year roommate. "They were the best four years in my life, actually," he said.
-- Mark Matthews
Former Middle East correspondent,
Baltimore Sun
Abdul Rahman Zeidan
Minister of Transportation
BA, civil engineering
University of Alabama at
Birmingham (1985)
Sameer Abu
Eisheh
Minister of Planning
MS (1984) and PhD (1987)
Civil engineering
Pennsylvania State University
Aziz Duwaik
Speaker, Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament)
MA, geography
State University of New York at Binghamton (1983)
PhD, regional science
University of Pennsylvania (1988)
Wasfi Kabaha
Minister of Prisoners
and Released Prisoners'
Affairs
BS, civil engineering
University of Detroit
(now University of Detroit
at Mercy) (1984)
Omar Abdel Razek
Minister of Finance
BA, with majors in mathematics, economics and computer science
Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1982)
PhD, economics
Iowa State University (1986)
Naser al-Shaer
Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of Education
Institute Fellow, Multinational
Institute of American Studies
New York University
Studied religion in American
history (1998)
Mousa Abu
Marzook
Deputy chief of Hamas
political bureau
(Damascus, Syria)
MA, industrial science
Colorado State University (1984)
Studied engineering
Louisiana Tech University
NOTE: Omar Abdel Razek and Sameer Abu Eisheh do not identify themselves as members of Hamas.