Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1999, pages 3, 92-95

Letters to the Editor

An African American Replies

I am writing in response to the letter written by James R. McCormick of Traverse City, MI (“Why Don’t African Americans Speak Out?”) published in the Jan./Feb. 1999 issue of the Washington Report. Mr. McCormick writes: “But I long to see signs of support from African-American leadership, such as Jesse Jackson, and especially African-American Muslims. If Black Democrats would become outspoken in support of the downtrodden Palestinians, perhaps it would become politically correct for other liberals to come to the aid of a people who are being oppressed with our tax money.”

While there are indeed some voices in the African-American community crying out for justice, Mr. McCormick is correct in his assessment that there are not nearly enough, particularly from those with prominence. From my humble prospective there are two reasons for this. The first is rooted in the Zionist-controlled lock on the information/opinion-shaping apparatus of this country, particularly as it pertains to a frank and balanced discussion of the root causes of the ongoing Mideast crisis (or any other taboo topic for that matter). The second reason is fear.

On the first issue, I am reminded of Alexis de Tocqueville’s observation in Democracy in America: “I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”

As for the second issue (the fear factor), I am reminded of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s observation in his last major address in Washington, DC (Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 1968): “On some positions cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expediency comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular—but he must do it because conscience tells him, it is right.”

Until more Muslims, Christians and Jews, conservatives and liberals, blacks and whites (and all of the other shades of the human family in between) come to the aforementioned realization, our collective silence will continue to damn us, as co-conspirators, to crimes against humanity. As the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) reportedly said: “When you see an evil action, you must change it with your hand; if you cannot do so, with your tongue; if you cannot do so [detest it] with your heart, and that is the weakest of faith.”

El-Hajj Mauri’ Saalakhan, Silver Spring, MD

Mr. Saalakhan is executive director of The Peace and Justice Foundation, Washington, DC. He is the author of the article, “Five Mistakes of U.S. Policymakers in the Muslim World,” on p. 86 of this issue of the Washington Report.

So Much for Morality

Yesterday I met a man who complained about the moral decay in our country. I agreed. He spoke about the president; I agreed. I spoke about the sanctions and the death of 1.5 million Iraqis. He said, “Who cares?” He was adamant that he did not care. “Why should I?” he asked. So much for morality.

So few people care. So few people are interested. The public is badly misinformed as well as uninformed. What can we do to get their attention?

Joyce Bacon, a long-time peace activist, has proposed that we each wear black armbands as long as the sanctions against Iraq and the bombing continue. Just as yellow ribbons came to symbolize a prayer for the return of men from battle, let’s have our symbol of black armbands create an instant recognition of the death of innocents through starvation, through lack of medicine and medical equipment, through destroyed infrastructures, and through bombing—all enforced and committed by the United States of America.

Will you join us in wearing our black armbands while we cry for an end to war and an end to the suffering and deaths of the Iraqi people?

Betty Molchany, Attorney at Law, Alexandria, VA

Alternative Source of News

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is a very valued alternative source of news. You furnish us a lens through which we as citizens can evaluate the distortions of the secular mainstream. With your help we reinforce (or acquire) thought-patterns that keep us from being swept up by the emotions of the issue of the moment, to avoid a group-think, go-with-the-flow attitude.

It is absolutely horrifying that the genuine interests of the United States and the needs of the world are not being addressed by our political and economic movers and shakers. The time to address those interests and needs may be short indeed, if not closing entirely. The Washington Report allows us to see the depth of human cussedness (evil) as well as the glory of human beings created in the image of God. Few other publications have that kind of impact.

A political process whose congressional leaders are “bought” by any one-issue interest, such as the Israel lobby, is really scary. The real truth of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty needs to be told and retold. Provocative attempts against the third holiest shrine in Islam need to be publicized again and again, along with analysis of why this is happening.

The best hope for a “détente” in any more generalized war against terrorism in our world is for the Israeli and the Palestinian people to seek peace actively and aggressively and to become a model for the rest of the world. The best of Jewish, Christian or Muslim religious beliefs, economic self-interest and political will can be harnessed in a practical fashion, with the appropriate outside pressure and support. A real peace is possible.

The end result of this conflict may be a mirror of ourselves and of what is in store for the rest of the world in the early 21st century (a parable to ponder).

We commend you for your efforts. You and your staff have a vision that is of great importance for our nation and for the world at this time. Well done, good and faithful servants.

Mr. and Mrs. David Harrison, San Antonio, TX

A Subscriber From Finland

I’m a subscriber to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. I just heard your executive editor speaking on a Voice of America program. It went really well! A lot of exciting information. You are doing great work. Thank you and best wishes.

Tauno Auer,Helsinki, Finland

We don’t usually get a chance for an on-air debate with a committed Zionist. Usually they refuse such confrontations for the obvious reason that their case is so weak. In the case you heard, the other participant overstayed his scheduled time, and got into ours, giving us a chance to go mano a mano. We, too, thought it went pretty well, as it always does, face-to-face.

What “Terrorist Network”?

The repeated refusals by U.S. officials to reveal any of the “compelling evidence” that Osama bin Laden’s “terrorist network” was behind the Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania embassy bombings, is, as the days pass, convincing more and more Egyptians in Cairo, from where I am writing you this letter, and Arabs generally that there is no such evidence. And that President Clinton ordered the attacks against Sudan and Afghanistan to boost his image as a tough guy and give the American people something to rally behind him for in the wake of the Lewinsky affair.

Cairenes reacted with shock and disbelief when news of the missile strikes against Egypt’s neighbor, Sudan, and Afghanistan reached them. But, they waited in vain for an official Egyptian government reaction denouncing the bombings, and had to settle for CNN rebroadcast of Sudanese television coverage of reactions in Sudan, both official and popular, that were angry, bitter and condemning, calling the action “an unwarranted act of state-sponsored terrorism.”

Less than two hours after the attack Sudanese television aired a popular TV call-in host receiving calls from the Gulf states as well as from Sudan, all condemning the action with high emotion. It was in one such call from Saudi Arabia that we here first heard stated a connection between the strikes and the Lewinsky affair.

Analysts here believe the strikes play into the hands of Arab and Islamic extremists. The image of the great and mighty U.S.A., in effect declaring war against the soft-spoken, slight, dark-eyed and bearded Osama bin Laden, inevitably engenders popular pride and admiration throughout the Arab and Islamic world, whether supporter or detractor. Emulating Osama bin Laden becomes a goal and a badge of honor.

Had some concrete and reliable evidence been revealed of Bin Laden’s involvement in or responsibility for the embassy bombings, moderate Arab and Islamic reaction would have declared he got what he asked for. Without such evidence, Clinton’s assertion that the action taken is not directed at the Muslim religion falls on deaf ears here. It is the unwavering U.S. support for Israel “right or wrong,” with the ultimate prospect of Israeli control over some of the holiest shrines in Islam, particularly in Jerusalem, and the permanent loss of centuries-old Arab and Muslim-owned lands that is turning moderates into militants, and militants into terrorists.

David G. Du Bois, Visiting Professor, (Journalism and Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts), Cairo, Egypt.

We hope the court cases that will follow indictments already issued will establish a connection between Bin Laden and the bombings. As for the evidence linking the Khartoum pharmaceutical factory to Bin Laden or to the manufacture of precursors for chemical weapons, the world is still waiting. It will be very interesting to learn the source of the “intelligence” that set the attack in motion. Until we learn otherwise, we’ll guess that it was Israel. As for why the administration shot from the hip on that one, we think the Sudanese demonstrators pictured on the cover of our Oct./Nov. issue probably had everything right except perhaps the spelling in their sign reading: “No war for Monika.”

Get Off Your High Horse About Clinton!

Regarding the Oct./Nov. “Publishers’ Page,” you may be the publishers of a very intelligent magazine but you are too far removed from the earth to be realistic about American politics. You may agree with the Republicans but you sound more like the Pharisees in the Bible when you condemn President Bill Clinton in such snide terms.

And worse! You even pick on his poor deceased mother for not giving her sons the Ozzie and Harriet Nelson lifestyle we would all like to have. Perhaps you have lived in an ivory tower all your life—having been foreign service officers—and feel yourselves above the hoi polloi, the American common people. You do try to balance this by being sympathetic to the poor Palestinians, which I admire. You should be pleased that the president rose above all the shortcomings of his birth!

There could be another side of the coin, if you care to listen. This could be a set-up by the Israelis and the extreme right. When Netanyahu came to the U.S. in January, the very first person he went to see was Jerry Falwell. And when President Clinton and Yasser Arafat had their press conference, Arafat was forced to sit there like a potted plant while the press asked embarrassing questions about Monica Lewinsky. Who among the journalists are relentless in milking the Monica story? Cokie and Steve Roberts, Wolf Blitzer, Larry King, etc. And how many times in one hour do you see the same old video of the president hugging Lewinsky? It has all been a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now Monica is going to get $3 million-plus from Rupert Murdoch to tell her story.

I love your magazine and what you are doing to enlighten the American people as well as the world. But please get off your high horse regarding Clinton!

Phyllis Mackaoui, Arroyo Grande, CA

We think you knocked us off that horse. In any case, the point of our little essay on the subject—borrowed, as we indicated, from Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes”—was that maybe President Bill Clinton hasn’t risen quite as far as we thought from what you call “the shortcomings of his birth.” In fact, if it isn’t too snide, we’re tempted to say that maybe it’s Chelsea Clinton who had to do the rising, which obviously she’s done very well.

Looking For Mideast Objectivity

We are new readers of the Washington Report and still are in the process of evaluation. We are seeking unbiased, thoughtful writing about the Middle East and Africa. Local papers are ignorant about and inattentive to global issues in any depth. We are very appreciative of your efforts.

Elizabeth Otto, Salem, OR

Netanyahu and Sharon Serve Israel Badly

Herewith my 1998 donation to the AET Library Endowment. If only it could be more but alas it takes $1.53 Canadian to equal $1.00 U.S. So your Canadian supporters are at a comparative disadvantage. I certainly hope you will not face eviction in 1999!

The situation in Israel/Palestine and Iraq fills me with despair. In the former, Netanyahu and Sharon have no intention of fairness and justice toward the Palestinians. Whenever a movement is required of them they will “up the ante” of what they require of the Palestinians knowing full well that Arafat cannot comply. What these shortsighted men imagine can be the future of Israel, given their obstructionist and hostile behavior, is beyond me. They do not serve their people well.

In the latter case there can be no resolution of the weapons search while Butler leads UNSCOM because of the evident antagonism between him and the Iraqi officials. Nor, I suspect, will the U.S. allow the U.N. to lift sanctions while Saddam leads Iraq. You would think the U.S. officials would have learned by now that just because they dislike a tyrannical leader does not mean he is about to lose power despite their wildest machinations, i.e. Castro and Qaddafi. And sadly, the USA is very selective when it comes to condemning tyranny. There was no criticism of Pinochet, Marcos, Mobutu, Suharto, Duvalier, the Greek colonels or the Argentine generals while they were in power and viewed as allies.

So how can I be hopeful that the Palestinians will ever receive justice? The one positive note is that coverage of the Middle East in our mainstream media is much more even-handed than it once was.

I do remain optimistic that I will receive the 1999 issues of WRMEA against all the odds. A peaceful Christmas to you all and good fortune in 1999.

Joan McConnell, Saltspring Is., B.C.

Thanks to a magnificent response from loyal supporters, like your U.S. $1,000 donation, you’ll be receiving the Washington Report throughout 1999.

Assisting Your Noble Efforts

Here is a $200 contribution that I will try to maintain on an annual basis. I have been a regular reader of your magazine since my return to the States in 1985 and have watched and admired its growth as well as the selfless dedication that its publisher, executive director and their co-workers and contributors bring to this labor of love.

Since you put everything on the Internet, might it not prove useful if we, your subscribers, could pass our copies on in some organized fashion to recipients you would designate? I have given away both subscriptions and individual copies to various people, but my efforts are never as targeted as I feel they should be. Perhaps there are other readers who feel the same way.

If you deem it worthwhile, I would be happy to have some of my contribution earmarked for a subscription to Art Bell, the legendary night-time radio host with 50 million listeners. He is, in many things, very open-minded but he occasionally makes observations about Israel that are so naive that I am inclined to think that he has never been exposed to the plight of the Palestinians. As an intermittent listener to his program, while suffering bouts of insomnia, I have heard him make non-judgmental remarks about a number of controversial subjects and thus feel that he might be open to the kinds of information your magazine provides.

I would be happy to help draft a cover letter to go with his subscription. Keep up the good work and the rest of us will have to try to find ways to assist you in your noble efforts.

Ted Kennedy, Bethesda, MD

We do provide, out of donations like yours, permanent complimentary subscriptions to all radio talk show hosts who come to our attention, usually through inviting us to be guests on their shows. And, yes, this is an invitation to our readers to submit names (and addresses, if possible) to check against our active file. Art Bell does receive the magazine, probably as a result of having our publisher on his show. From what you say, apparently he hasn’t been reading the magazine, or perhaps someone on his staff likes it so much it isn’t shared with the boss. Maybe the best way to get through to Art Bell is to call and ask him on the air why he is so naive about Binyamin Netanyahu’s Israel when he’s got America’s best source of information so close at hand. As for what to do with old copies of the magazine, we suggest you give them as introductory copies to anyone from the Middle East or interested in the Middle East you may run across. Or offer to donate them to a doctor or dentist for his or her waiting room. We also suggest, for people who have kept a complete file and now have to move to smaller quarters, that you send the file to us and we’ll pass it on to some library whose file of our magazine has been stolen. That this happens so often shows how desperately afraid some people are of the unfiltered information on Israel and Palestine we offer.

Continue Your Work

Andy, et al—Keep up the good work!

Phillips Talbot, New York, NY

It’s always inspiring to get encouragement from former assistant secretaries of state.

Have Form Letters

A mutual friend of ours, George E. Luecker, suggested that I send you a copy of a letter I sent to the local newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal. I was surprised that it appeared only a few days after I sent it.

I would like to suggest to you a matter I mentioned to George Luecker, namely: that each edition of the Washington Report contain at least two outlines or letters of immediate and significant concerns (discussed in that issue) of no more than two or three paragraphs that could be easily reproduced so that copies could be sent to our representatives in Congress concerning those immediate matters. These letters would follow the form of letters that Amnesty International sends out to their “Freedom Writers” each month. If people from a variety of congressional districts began to make their presence known via these letters, representing votes, maybe congressmen would give more attention to a more balanced view of the Middle East.

My wife and I enjoy the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and have ordered a few subscriptions for others. You are doing great work.

Brian J. Kelly, Albuquerque, NM

We liked your letter to the Albuquerque Journal, which we’ve reproduced in “Other People’s Mail,” and we like your idea. There will be three post cards readers can send to their three representatives in Congress in this issue if the printers can accommodate them without putting us behind schedule. (They cost us $1,500 we can’t afford, but who else has such a huge, active mailing list?) We hope our readers won’t waste these on members of Congress from other states or districts. They don’t give a rat’s aperture what you think unless you vote in their constituency. The only way to get their attention is to show there are voters in their own constituencies—who also have friends and families who vote too—who believe U.S. tax dollars should not be used to underwrite the Israeli racism, bigotry, military occupation and violations of international law that every reputable human rights organization in the world has reported from Israel and Israeli-occupied territories.

El Al Airplane Crash

Kudos to Victor Ostrovsky and his article (p. 19, Washington Report, December 1998) about the 1992 El Al plane crash into an Amsterdam apartment building. The aircraft was transporting to Israel three of the four chemicals needed to make Sarin nerve gas. It was also transporting 800 pounds of depleted uranium.

Although we subscribe to and read three newspapers ( The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun and The Virginia Gazette), over the years none has published anything other than the official Israeli line. Now that facts in opposition to the Israeli line are emerging, these newspapers are conspicuously silent about the El Al cargo and the ineptitude or cover-up of this plane crash. (At long last the news media in The Netherlands has made this story front-page reporting.)

Carol J. Williams in the Los Angeles Times (in the only article other than Ostrovsky’s I have read on the subject) reported the following additional information. The men in the space suit-looking attire jumped from a helicopter into the smoldering wreckage. “They were dressed like Neil Armstrong was when he landed on the moon,” was repeatedly reported by Dutch eyewitnesses. An Israeli official said that these mysterious fire-jumpers were Red Cross workers but the witnesses have stated that these mystery men were clearly searching for cargo and not casualties.

Dutch fire fighters insist that they recovered the “black box” cockpit voice recorder and placed it in the evidence bin. That “black box” has mysteriously disappeared. This same Israeli official, who didn’t wish to be identified, said the recorders “were lost or stolen.”

Amsterdam authorities videotaped the response and rescue onto 32 tapes. All the tapes had been erased before the Dutch investigators viewed them.

Federal security police copied the communications between the air-traffic controllers and the El Al pilot. The originals were destroyed. Then the only copies were lost or destroyed.

The Dutch are at long last investigating this matter because El Al, despite repeated requests for full documentation of the plane’s freight contents, has yet to provide information about 20 of the 114 tons of cargo.

Now, after the revelations in Victor Ostrovsky’s report of the El Al crash, its aftermath, some only recently revealed cargo contents, Israeli obfuscation, and the failure of Dutch officials to safeguard their fellow citizens and to investigate this matter—wouldn’t you think that this story would be interesting enough for The Washington Post or The Baltimore Sun to cover?

Virginia Muir, James City, VA

They haven’t yet, and we all know why. Incidently, we reprinted the L.A. Times article in the January 1999 issue of “Other Voices,” the supplement available to Washington Report subscribers for an extra $15 per year.

Our Nation’s Abomination

Attached is a copy of a letter to the editor I just sent to The Washington Times. I understand you might be able to use it, for it presents a suggestion I haven’t read nor heard.

I am a retired Air Force Lt. Col. who used to be in the bombing (SAC) business, in the missile (Titan III) business and who served in three wars. I’m a West Point grad, now 70 years old.

This attack on Iraq is the kind of abomination a nation participates in at the end of a prolonged economic boom, when it has lost its moral traditions, making it possible for mountebanks to take over the highest offices. I hope they boot this fellow and many others before they do something worse.

Charles J. McGinn, Annandale, VA

Even though you’re younger than we are, we like your suggestion about what to do with Saddam Hussain, printed in this issue’s “Other People’s Mail.” We have a similar suggestion of our own, in the Richard Curtiss article on p. 26of this issue. The Curtiss article is a reprint of his weekly column e-mailed to Mideast newspapers on Dec. 30, 1998, and voiced at some length on a Chicago radio talk show around the same time. Since you hadn’t seen his suggestion and he hadn’t seen yours, guess it shows great minds think alike.

Add a Web Site Postscript

On the last day of November I received your call for financial help. At such times I feel as desperate as you do—imagine! A million are reading the magazine free on the Web! Could you add a postscript there reporting that the magazine runs on subscriptions? Maybe they might order it or send a donation.

As for me, I am sending a small bit which isn’t any help, I know. But it’s like the Biblical widow’s mite—my quarter in the box.

I hope people of substance will rush to the barricades. The Report is the best thing we have to open the eyes of Americans. If enough know the truth, they can take care of a craven Congress, sending it into retirement.

Anne Thomas, Brookline, MA

Long May You Wave

Long may the Washington Report and its publishers/editors/staff wave! Merry Christmas and a happy, wealthy new year!

Dr. Colbert C. Held, Waco, TX

Thanks for your $500 contribution and here’s a wave to you and all other retired foreign service officers from Texas.

Taking a Stand

It was indeed a great pleasure and privilege for me to meet your executive editor at the AMA meeting. I have always admired you for the courage you have shown in speaking and taking a stand on behalf of the oppressed and dispossessed. May Allah bless you.

Faroque A. Khan, MB, MACP, Regent, American College of Physicians, East Meadow, NY

Something Is Happening

I’m not exactly sure what is causing the changes in attitudes regarding the Mideast situation—but something seems to be happening. I sense it in remarks I hear about the Israeli/Palestinian situation—and about sanctions which affect the Iraqi population.

It could simply be that Americans are increasingly aware of and annoyed by the fact that our government’s Mideast policies seem to be dictated, not so much by what is in the interest of America and Americans, as by what Netanyahu perceives to be in the interest of Israel.

Or it could be that Americans are beginning to see through, and resent, the tendency of the media to see news stories emanating from the Middle East through Netanyahu’s eyes.

Or, finally, a possibility that cannot be ignored—it may be that the “ripple effect” of WRMEA may have finally reached the farthest corners of America—where the opinions of Americans of goodwill are being altered in ways which can only bode well for all of us.

In any case, my letter (attached) complaining about the effect of media bias in matters pertaining to the Middle East was actually printed today in a local newspaper which has in the past refused each of many similar letters. Perhaps there is hope after all?

Sam Parks, Albuquerque, NM

There’s been a huge change in American public opinion regarding Israel which is timidly reflected in the letters to the editor columns of the mainstream press. We’re printing your published letter in this issue’s “Other People’s Mail.” We encourage our readers whose letters have been ignored by the mainstream press in past years to try again. But keep them factual, informative and SHORT.

More Truth Printed About the Middle East?

I continue to be amazed at the things which I find in the pages of the Atlanta paper. This letter to the editor is just another example of what seems to be an increasing tolerance (at least) of words of truth concerning the Middle East. I have no doubt your efforts are in some significant measure responsible for this.

Walter Cox, Savannah, GA

The letter to the editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution is reprinted in “Other People’s Mail” starting on p. 55.We agree that it probably wouldn’t have been printed in any mainstream U.S. daily five years ago.

Our Assyrian Representative Never Mentioned

Whenever you discuss Arab-Americans in Congress (which Shirl McArthur does in the most recent issue I have at hand) you never mention Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, Democratic congresswoman from Silicon Valley (California’s 14th district) since 1992; although she is, as The Almanac of American Politics 1998 describes her, “the only member of Congress of Assyrian descent.” The Assyrians (Nestorians) and their much larger uniate Catholic branch, the Chaldeans, are very much Arabic-speaking Middle Easterners—witness Iraq’s Tariq Aziz—though many still retain fluency in ancient Syriac. Surely if Mr. McArthur is willing to include challenger Eileen Ansari, an American married to a Pakistani, as part of the cast, Representative Eshoo deserves to be included as well.

Although she lists her religion as Catholic (I assume Chaldean rite) and comes from back East (Connecticut), she very appropriately represents the area where the Nestorian/Assyrian Patriarch, Mar Sham’un XXIII, was assassinated on Nov. 7, 1977 in San Jose, after a reign of 57 years. He had been elected as a young child to succeed his uncle in 1920 following the great disaster of the First World War which saw his community massacred in large numbers by the Turks and Kurds and exiled from their historic homeland in what is now SE Turkey (Hakkiari district). He was murdered, incidently, by one of his own community, many of which had followed him from his former residence in Chicago (where he had lived since he was exiled from Iraq in 1933) to the San Francisco area, after he announced at age 64 that he was going to break the centuries-old tradition of patriarchal celibacy and marry, which he in fact did—a classic example of a bad career move. Many Assyrians still reside in that area of California, including Representative Eshoo.

Prof. Robert Betts, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Shame on us for omitting Representative Eshoo from the most recent article. Personally we’ve always followed the almost all-encompassing definition that an Arab is someone who speaks Arabic and considers himself or herself an Arab. In recent years, however, non-Arabic speaking countries like Somalia and Djibouti have joined the Arab League. So regardless of what kind of hyphenated American Representative Eshoo considers herself to be, we know she is of interest not only to our several hundred Assyrian-American readers, but to all of us who are hopelessly hooked on all things Middle Eastern. We’ll ask her help in preparing a personality piece on her, and thanks for alerting us to this daughter of a proud and very ancient race who, as your letter makes clear, take their traditions seriously.

Discard This Pejorative Word

Allan Brownfeld’s article “Zionism and Anti-Semitism: a Strange Alliance Through History” addressed only one aspect of the misuse of the term “anti-Semitism”—equating it with anti-Zionism. [Washington Report, July/Aug. 1998, pp 48-50].

My observations over the years indicate that the term “anti-Semitic” has evolved from a simple synonym for anti-Jewish to a semi-hate term. I suggest that there are now three reasons why automatic use of “anti-Semitic” is a bad idea.

First, it is an umbrella term. It is used by different people to convey different meanings such as:

(A) A person with strongly bigoted feelings toward people of the Jewish faith.

(B) A person who is critical of the actions or agenda of a predominantly Jewish group.

In late 1994 or early 1995, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich fired Professor Christina Jeffrey as House historian. She was found to have, several years before, wanted her students to hear the Nazi viewpoint along with a “Holocaust curriculum” that was being pushed by B’nai B’rith’s Anti-Defamation League (ADL). She was fired after being publicly labeled “anti-Semitic” by ADL members.

(C) A person who is opposed to the current large U.S. financial support to Israel. Or, one who opposes a typically pro-Zionist agenda in U.S. foreign policy.

Allan Brownfeld’s article discusses this meaning. Fair-minded people without any religious bias are reluctant to speak out against an excessively pro-Israel foreign policy for fear of being labeled religious bigots.

In addition, the term anti-Semitic is insulting to Arab Christians and Muslims. They feel that they are just as Semitic as people of the Jewish faith.

I leave the reader with two questions: Why not use the terms “anti-Jewish” and “anti-Zionist,” thus differentiating between bigots and those with a perfectly acceptable political viewpoint? Is there any reason for not discarding the term “anti-Semitic” from the modern English language?

Bill Buckel, Columbus, OH

The Future is Here

While touring Lebanon Nov. 7 to 17 I heard that in November the American chargç d’affaires in Lebanon visited the Roman ruins at Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley with a full security entourage. Meanwhile the Russian and Canadian ambassadors arrived with only their drivers, as safely and casually as diplomats in America would take a trip to the beach.

Ken Wollenberg, New York, NY

It’s a look into the future world-wide for U.S. diplomats so long as for purely domestic political reasons our presidents, senators and representatives of both parties, for the sake of pro-Israel campaign contributions and media support, continue to ignore George Washington’s warnings against the consequences of a “passionate attachment” between nations.