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| —Voices from the Sensible Center— Interpreting the Middle
East for North Americans— Current Affairs 3 U.S. Role in Gulf Security—Some deeply held misperceptions have impeded the ability of the Reagan Administration to deal effectively with Arab states in the Gulf, says Marshall W. Wiley, former Ambassador to Oman. In his view, the U.S. should devise more realistic political and military strategies to safeguard the free world's Gulf petroleum sources. 4 GCC: Moving Towards Unity—Leaders of the six member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council believe strongly that steadilyincreasing economic integration is both necessary and in their long-range national interests. Cooperative projects have been launched in a number of different areas, and a new batch of important agreements went into effect in November. 5 How Foreign Aid Is Passed—Trying to follow all the steps Congress takes to approve a foreign aid bill is difficult, especially since the procedures vary from year to year. To make it easier for constituents to make their views known in the right places and at the right times, read our story (p.5) explaining the roles of key committees, and our chart (p.8) showing how the process worked in two totally different model years (1981 and 1984). 6 Lobby Activities—The National Association of Arab Americans wants to make 1985 the year that the American public becomes aware of the huge levels of U.S. aid to Israel. To that end, NAAA has launched an ad campaign designed to reach about 100,000 Americans a week. On the other side of the issue, a delegation of American Jewish leaders has visited Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to support Israel's request for more military aid. Regular Features 2 Editorial—Humphrey, Jr., spent a lot of time listening to our student intern, Miz, explain how to scrape up the money to bail out Israel again next year. We thought he was doing more looking at her than listening, until we noticed that he took her lecture on economizing so seriously that he ran off without paying for his copy of our newsletter—again. 7 Personality—When John Law was still a foreign correspondent in Beirut his colleagues called him "the Dean." It's easy to see why. He first started writing about the Middle East in 1948, and after 30 years of crisscrossing the region his writing is sharper than ever. 8 Facts For Your Files—A chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations.. 10 Book Review—Professor Jack Shaheen has been watching a lot of television—not for fun, but rather as research for his new book, The TV Arab. He found that from cartoons to documentaries, Arab characters nearly always are depicted negatively. These "TV Arabs" have become so commonplace that some American producers seem almost unaware that they are using an outdated and inaccurate ethnic stereotype. |