Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1999, page 138

Publishers’ Page

It It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It...

Has been our credo ever since we realized that we don’t have the patience or dexterity to fix anything anyway. However, if you have an indefatigable, perfectionist Web site designer, that axiom gets suspended. Our Web site was already number two among Middle East Web sites in the world, according to Direct Hit Company, which monitors not “hits” but “visits” in which the guest actually stays to read an article, or an entire issue, or uses the site to look up something. (Number one is ArabNet, an umbrella Web site comprising hundreds of other Web sites.) So, having achieved this incredible honor for our Web site, its designer, former news editor Shawn Twing...

Completely Redesigned It!

Now it has a faster host and a new research engine and he is reformatting the thousands of pages from back issues it contains to make them more easily accessible. So we’re literally reaching millions with our unadulterated truth, but still on the same tiny budget, since access to the Web site is free. Please think about that when you decide how much to contribute to AET and the Washington Report this year. A fantastic Web site available around the globe would be a terrible thing to waste.

Our Scouts Tell Us...

The secretary of state got a lot of mail last month, thanks to the postcards the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) gave us to insert into copies of the January Washington Report mailed to domestic subscribers. So, prompted by a lot of letters we’ve received over the years, one of which is printed on p. 93 of this issue, we’ve spent close to $2,000 we can’t really afford to put three postcards into this issue. Our idea is that if every domestic subscriber mails one to each of his or her state’s two senators and the third to his or her House member, that could bombard...

Capitol Hill With 100,000 Postcards.

Don’t forget to put a 20-cent stamp on each postcard and send the two to your senators to (name), U.S. Senate, Washington, DC, 20510. After the name of your representative write U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20525. And if you have trouble finding the name of your representative, turn to us as a court of last resort. After hours (please don’t tie up the lines in the busy daytime hours) leave your name, home town and phone number on our recorder and we’ll try to identify your representative for you. If you’re in a major metropolitan area, however, please work it out for yourself with your public library, post office, or anyone who might know, since we have no way to determine on which side of congressional district boundaries your metropolitan residence may be located.

If You Want More Cards, Call.

If you have ideas for a postcard insert, write (don’t call) them to us. And, most important, if you or you and some friends can raise $2,000 for another such postcard insert, send the money and your idea and we’ll do our best to oblige. We know public opinion has shifted our way. Since elected officials often are the last to know, let’s help them find out. If every domestic subscriber mails the three postcards, we believe there isn’t a single member of Congress who won’t get some. It might focus their minds on doing the right thing in the Middle East to...

Get Re-elected!

Back When Everyone Was Poor...

Sharecroppers down on their luck used to show up at the farm where our publisher, Andrew Killgore, was growing up in rural Alabama. His father was the town’s intellectual as well as the county’s agnostic and, though he wasn’t wealthy, he generally managed to help those in need. He would betray some exasperation, however, as visitors walked away clutching a banknote or two to pay for a child’s medicine, or to get the electricity turned back on, when he heard them saying, “praise the Lord,” or “thank you, Lord, for answering my prayers.”

“It’s like I wasn’t even there”...

The senior Killgore would grumble, and then he would go back to work. Now it’s our turn to shout with relief, but we’ll be a little more diplomatic and say, “our subscribers be praised,” because they’ve saved us again this year—just as we were staring over the brink into oblivion. Since our last issue there are more than 200 new names or changes of seating in the final listing of our 1998 Choir of Angels starting on p. 135 of this issue.

And Just to Touch All Bases...

Thank you, Lord, for answering our prayers. We’ll conclude with our most profound thanks to everyone listed on those pages, plus an even larger number of donors and gift subscription providers who helped out as well but didn’t quite make it into the choir, and finally to the 190 or so anonymous donors who gave, and in some instances have done so for many years, but won’t let us acknowledge them publicly. In the cases of those still in Uncle Sam’s diplomatic and other services, we understand. And it’s ironic that one such former colleague who’s been an anonymous hummer for years and years finally retired but, even before we could at last acknowledge his generosity, took another prominent position involving government contracts. So he continues to give, but still feels he must remain anonymous.

We Wish We May, We Wish We Might...

Brag about anonymous donors tonight! They include not only prominent government officials and corporate executives, but at least one particularly distinguished author of scholarly textbooks. We understand why most of you feel you can’t yet come out of the closet. But please, when you can, don’t forget to tell us. We wish everyone could see as clearly as we do just how mainstream our views have become in recent years among people knowledgeable, concerned about or involved with the Middle East.

We’ll Take Some Credit for That...

Along with the Muslim-American and Arab-American groups who encourage their members to meet their neighbors and get involved with them in local civic, educational and charitable projects. And perhaps...

Bibi Netanyahu, Too, Should Take a Bow!

Along with his arrogant cruelty toward the Palestinians, total contempt for the American political leaders he rents, and callous indifference to the public image of the American Jewish leaders he uses to carry out the bribery, apologetics and worse involved in long-term fealty to racist Israel. Thanks to all these factors, probably the only Americans who retain a shred of respect for Israel are Christian fundamentalists anxious for Armageddon and other non-readers too apathetic to find their way to the voting booth anyway. Polls show increasingly that Americans who have grown up watching the theft of a nation now finally know clearly...

Who Are the Thieves!

So that’s why this magazine is here to stay, or at least for so long as it’s needed. And why maybe we’ll finally get some of our 1996 rent paid sometime in 1999—thanks to our wonderful readers.

In This Issue We’ve Called Your Attention...

Through the teasers on our cover, to our Iraq and Palestine forum articles and our special section on the joy of “Revisiting ‘Unknown Oman.’” We’ll direct your attention also to p. 43 for the blueprint for a “pre-emptive” Israeli invasion of Jordan published in Israel’s leading daily newspaper in late January after King Hussein’s health took a turn for the worse. And, characteristically, former Mossad case worker Victor Ostrovsky has come up with a “scoop.” This is a plan to make peace with Syria at Palestinian expense he believes Binyamin Netanyahu is considering as a come-from-behind strategy to win Israeli elections next May 17 and June 1.

But, Even Before You Start Reading...

Please mail those postcards and...

Make a Difference, This Month!