—Voices from the Sensible Center—

Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans—
Interpreting North America for the Middle East

Current Affairs

3 Did We Really "Lose" Lebanon?—What happened in Lebanon was a disaster for U.S. foreign policy if the result is measured against the Administration's goals there. But if these were not the right goals, then what? We tried to explain the implications of this question to our friend Humphrey.

4 Hormuz: Getting the Strait Story—By the time you've read all the media explanations of what might happen to the world's oil supply as a result of the Iran Iraq war, confusion reigns. We thought we would take a shot at trying to dispel at least some of it.

4 Lobby Activities—The Arab Women's Council has sent invitations to the colleges and universities it thought would be the "most responsive" to an essay contest on the Mideast and so far, more than 50 students have decided to take part. Meanwhile, AIPAC and its sympathizers have been trying to thwart proposed U.S. sales of Stinger missiles to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Regular Features

2 Editorial—When the "strategic cooperation" agreement between the U.S. and Israel was announced by President Reagan and Prime Minister Shamir last November, Administration officials said they believed it would solve two major problems of U.S. foreign policy. We have taken a look at the results so far, and found them wanting.

6 Facts For Your Files—A Chronology of U.S. Middle East Relations

"Reagan and Hussein differ over 'Reagan's Plan'": Excerpts from a speech by President Reagan on March 13, and from an interview with Jordan's King Hussein the following day.

7 Book Review—It's too late now, but had more Administration officials read David Gilmour's compelling new book, Lebanon: The Fractured Country, perhaps they would have learned the real causes of that country's civil breakdown. Unlike the Administration, Mr. Gilmour does not put the major blame on outside actors.

8 Personality—God rest this merry gentleman who runs the AMEU. But during the five years of traumatic Middle East events since he became executive director, there has been little leisure time for John Mahoney and his staff.