Sandy Simon, a first-generation Syrian-Lebanese-American, will speak in the Parish Hall at St. James Church on Saturday, December 21st at 11:15 am with Lunch served by Janet & Steve Sweimler.

“Chaos in the Middle East.”

In view of the recent rebel takeover of Syria and removal of Bahar Assad, its dictator, Sandy will share with us his views on the current conditions in the Middle East with a special focus on Syria, Lebanon, Russia, and Iran in supporting Assad, who with his father, Hafez Assad, brutally ruled the people of Syria for 54 years.

Sandy still has family members in Syria and Lebanon and has traveled to Damascus, Beirut, and his ancestral village in northern Lebanon many times.

Sandy Simon is the fourth son and a first-generation American whose parents and grandparents emigrated from Syria and Lebanon in the early 1900s and settled in Delray Beach, Florida. He has lived in blended cultures of America and the Middle East. He is a graduate of Georgia Tech holding an MBA from the Wharton Graduate School of the University of PA.

Since 1973, Sandy has been actively involved in Middle Eastern affairs, its history, and current political issues.

He served for 14 years as Senior Vice President of the National Association of Arab American (NAAA), which sought to bridge understanding between Americans and the Arab countries.

In 1978, together with three other officers of the NAAA, he traveled to eight Arab capitals at the request of President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance. Their mission was to acquire the private views of the Camp David Peace Accords and efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

Since then, Sandy has been asked to speak at numerous conferences and to debate Consul Generals, Rabbis and Emory University professors.

The Camp David negotiations between leaders of Israel and Egypt failed to reach an agreement on a pathway to a free Palestinian state. That remains the single most important obstacle to peace in the Middle East.