On NPR yesterday Allison Keyes spoke with pollster John Zogby whose work has shown that Arabs feel the 9/11 commission missed some important things.

The commission hasn't taken into account, for example, that America should try to promote a more positive image abroad, and that it shouldn't treat Arabs as only capable of responding to the barrel of a gun. He certainly sounded convinced and eager to effect change in the minds of Americans who -- as the left is always trying to remind us -- need to understand why the world reacts to us they was they do. Remember -- it's your fault.

But let's slow down for a second.

First let's ask if either of those assertions is valid, and (even assuming they were) whether they have anything to do with the 9/11 commission.

And the answer is no ... and no. And I'm already bored with that. I almost wrote an extensive essay on the leftist weltanschauung, but you've heard it before, and if you know anything about logical fallacies you can see well enough for yourself why these diversionary arguments don't wash.

There was something else about this. Where had I heard that name before? Zogby ... Zogby ...

As many of you must already have known, famed pollster John Zogby is the brother of Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. Has anyone called into question the objectiveness of John Zogby's polling when he and his brother would appear to have political and cultural biases?

Here's Jim Zogby equating voting with terrorism:

"You can make yourself felt here by voting, by organizing, by imposing yourself and showing that you can help 'em or hurt 'em," says Jim Zogby. "Tragically, the only way the Arab world can help or hurt policies is by lowering their oil prices or having a boycott, or by, in some mistaken or perverse way, thinking that by striking out in terror you make an impact.

"The election next year will determine who is going to shape the lives of billions of people all over the world," he continues. "We have an opportunity to weigh in on that."

But what struck me most of all in the piece on Arab sentiment was the pairing of Bush and and Sharon as the worst world leaders. And why? Is it really because they haven't tried to promote a positive image, or that they treat Arabs as only able to respond to the barrel of a gun?

Or is it funadamentally the Israeli issue? Is it that the United States remains the world's strongest supporter of Israel, and regardless of the pressure the president puts on Israel, that he remains committed to supporting this land that is so hated?

Jim Zogby has elsewhere tried to coopt anti-Semitism on behalf of Arabs, and of attempts by a Harvard Divinity graduate to expose an anti-Semitic think tank in the Middle East and to reject a donation by its namesake, Zogby has said, "The purpose is to smear and to taint and to create a McCarthyite attitude so that people will be afraid to associate with any Arab country, or Arab business, or Arab leader."

That think tank argues that Zionists, not Nazi's, were responsible for the holocaust.

Isn't it high time Arabs try to promote a more positive image?