April 1989, Page 27

Letters to (and from) the Editors

Subscriptions for Opinion Molders

Dear Editors:

I so very much appreciate the Washington Report. It has replaced four other magazines for me.

A journalist on a weekday television news program here usually comments on local affairs. However, recently he has had two commentaries on the Middle East, the last one criticizing the refusal of a visa to Arafat. I believe we could expect more if he had sufficient valid information. I talked with his assistant and asked if he would accept a subscription to the Washington Report. She reported back: "He says yes if it's free." Enclosed is my check and his address for a subscription at the "opinion molder" rate.

I called the editorial office of the San Diego Union. The writer I talked with did not know whether they received the Washington Report. He said he would check. He called back, said they did receive it, that I had piqued his curiosity, and that henceforth he would be sure to read it. We had a nice long chat about the fact that it is time to get our own American house in order.

I wish I could do more, but at my age and with a limited income, I can only pass the Report around and talk with my young friends. Also, I write thank you notes every time there is a fair comment on TV or in the newspapers.

Jenny Starren, San Diego, CA.

Dear Mrs. Starren:

By the time you read this response you will have received a call from Donna Bourne, who coordinates activities of AET and Washington Report regional representatives. There are a lot of things people who have time and a telephone can do, and she'll tell you how we can support your activities in San Diego from Washington.

"Plainclothes" Israeli Soldiers?

Dear Editors:

I cannot help wondering (and perhaps you have wondered, too) whether there is a connection between Sherry Lapp's story concerning Israeli death squads in your January issue and a brief article in The New York Times (Jan. 25) headed "Israeli Troops on Night Patrol Kill Arab Man." The "Israeli troops" are described as "plainclothes Israeli soldiers" who ambushed six Palestinian youths "wanted by the Israeli authorities for promoting the Palestinian uprising. " Two of the Palestinians were shot, one fatally, while they were allegedly fleeing. Apparently the incongruity of "plainclothes Israeli soldiers" escaped the Times.

Henry G. Fischer, Sherman, CN.

Physicians for Peace Foundation

To the Editors:

Your work prompts me to write you about an organization, Physicians for Peace Foundation (PFPF), that is cutting a small but important swath in the Middle East.

It was started in 1987 by Charlie Horton, a world class surgeon from Norfolk, VA who wanted to make a contribution to peace in a totally apolitical way by caring for the medically needy in the Middle East. He's organized volunteer teams of surgeons to work with local doctors in Syria, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, and Egypt between November 1987 and December 1988.

These missions do produce such heartwarming results as: Lebanese war wounded operated on by Syrian and American doctors in a Syrian hospital; American and Syrian doctors embracing on Syrian prime-time TV news and Americans lauded as friendly heroes; Israeli doctors operating in a Palestinian hospital with Palestinian doctors on Palestinians wounded by Israeli troops; Turkish and Greek doctors meeting for the first time in joint sessions and agreeing to operate together in a third country on Lebanese wounded; and Jewish doctors welcomed in Egypt.

Very exciting for me to be involved. I joined the recent Turkish, Greek, and Egypt missions. I am also trying to build our PFP Foundation to gain visibility and develop financial support. Much to do.

Your Report continues to improve and progress and impress in marvelous ways. Keep up the good work.

Lachlan Reed, 1545 North Ocean Way, Palm Beach, FL. 33480

Recollections on Pelletreau

To the Editors:

I enjoyed reading your piece about Ambassador Robert Pelletreau in the January issue of the Washington Report. My recollection of the incident in which Pelletreau became a hostage may add/correct a few minor details.

I believe it was not black September but June of that year when the Army and the Palestinians had a preliminary skirmish and the PFLP took over the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman for about a week. They held captive some 60 people, a good number of them journalists including myself—I was then Middle East manager for UPI.

Pelletreau was sent to the hotel to negotiate for our release but instead was taken hostage himself. While the rest of us were allowed to move freely around the hotel he was kept in a hotel bedroom with an armed guard outside.

Our release, and I am sure his, too, came when we were all rounded up and taken to one of the public rooms for a news conference-cum-lecture by George Habash. When that concluded, we were handed our passports and given permission to go, an agreement having been negotiated with the king.

I have worked as a foreign correspondent in many places since I did five years in the Middle East but that is still the story I read first when I open my newspaper today.

Gerard Loughran, Managing Editor, Compass News Features, Luxembourg

Request for Brief Against AIPAC

To the Editors:

Because of my continuing concern regarding the matter, I would appreciate receiving a copy of the brief you joined in filing against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee together with related materials you can conveniently provide.

Dr. Joseph Lerner, Jerusalem, Israel

Dear Dr. Lerner:

The brief with attachments is well over 100 8 x 11-inch pages, and therefore will be prohibitively expensive to reproduce and ship overseas. We are seeking a means to make it widely available and hope to be able to provide an address and price in this space in the next issue of the Washington Report.

Assistance for New Turkish Magazine

To the Editors:

I am writing on behalf of a group of Turkish student/journalists who i to publish a monthly magazine in the very near future. This magazine will be devoted exclusively to issues of foreign policy and as such it will be the first of its kind in Turkey. Broadly, the areas that we plan to cover include defense policy, environmental policies, human rights issues, and current events in international relations. It is our intention to look into these issues in so far as they affect Turkey both directly and indirectly, and attempt to encourage wider public awareness of these matters.

Although we raised enough money to carry out this project, we are as yet unable to afford subscription fees for all the publications we would like to use. We would be very grateful if you could allow us to have a free subscription to your publication. In return we can offer both help and cooperation with regard to matters concerning Turkey and the Middle East should you require it and, of course, a free subscription to our magazine.

Nezih Tavlas, Farabi Sokak, 51/3 Cankaya, Ankara 06690, Turkey

Dear Mr. Tavlas:

We will provide an exchange subscription to the Washington Report for one year and are publishing this letter for those of our Turkish-speaking readers who wish subscription information and other US foreign affairs publications that may wish to exchange subscriptions. Good luck!

NBC's "The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro"

I have called NBC in New York and their local station (KGW-TV) to express my indignation (to put it mildly) at their showing of the movie "The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro. " In my opinion, it is a Zionist attempt to divert attention from Israel's own atrocities (as documented by our own State Department).

This diversionary tactic is being used to degrade and defame Palestinians and Arabs in general. The Zionists' propaganda ploy is also evident in the ads placed by CAMERA.

Many thanks for your fine efforts to offset this propaganda. My check is enclosed to help you keep up the great work.

Gerald G. Toy, Americans for Better Government, 13563 NW Cornell Rd., 222, Portland, OR 97229 ,

A Plug for The Zionist Connection II

To the Editors:

I know that Dr. Lilienthal writes articles for the magazine—why don't you put his book, The Zionist Connection II, on your book list? I read Douglas Reed's book, The Controversy of Zion. I find Dr. Lilienthal's book is even better. It's not an easy book to read but " Deir Yassin " is more fully described. Chapter 5, entitled "What Palestinians?", gives us a most detailed account of terrorism at its worst! One never hears about these things in print or any media. One would be led to believe that terrorism is something the PLO invented, when in fact terrorism started long before the 1960s!

I put together quite a large packet for President Bush including the picture of the little lad from your cover.

I'm hoping that under President Bush maybe things will change. In my letter in the "packet," I asked Mr. Bush to place one of his grandsons' faces in place of the young lad in the picture.

Saris McCullough, Adrian, Mi.

More on The Satanic Verses

To the Editors:

I have enclosed a description of how a standard American Muslim views the commotion around The Satanic Verses and how he feels about the impact of it on his life in the US. Some of my statements may not be too compromising. You, as the editor, have every right to dismiss them. However, I have been very careful to give a broad and honest survey of the feelings of Muslims and not to offend any one else, especially my Christian brothers.

This is a very good time for making books on Islam available in your catalog.

I salute you for your good work and may God bless you for your constant sympathy over several years with an underprivileged minority—the American Muslim.

Mohammad Khan, Jersey City, NJ.

Dear Mr. Khan:

Your own sincere belief in the fair mindedness of the American people, and the opportunities the open American political system provides for all ethnic and religious groups, was amply demonstrated in the thoughtful and moving "Seeing the Light" article you wrote for the Washington Report some years ago. If you are a "standard American Muslim," then it is clear why, as you point out, Islam is the fastest growing major religion both in the world and in the US. America will be a better place for us all when your co-religionists assume their rightful place in American society, and when our leaders routinely invoke the "Judeo-Christian-Islamic" religious traditions of the United States. Your article was received too late for this edition of the Washington Report. It is long and, frankly, there are passages which many of our readers, and perhaps the editors as well, will find disturbing. But, it is honest, frank, well rounded, and well-intentioned. We share your belief that there can be no peace without justice and no reconciliation without understanding. In that spirit we will publish your article, or as much of it as space permits, in our May issue. And we will continue, as you have suggested previously, to seek to present more informative and authoritative books on Islam in our catalog.

Thank You from Blood Brother Author

To the Editors:

It was a very nice surprise to receive your letter announcing the Oft subscription. I would like you to forward my gratitude to the Reverend Don Powers for his generosity. I will write to him as well. The Washington Report has been reaching me for several months already. I am delighted to read almost everything you write about the Arab world and American relations with the complicated Israeli and Palestinian issue.

The American Educational Trust has my highest esteem for being a real non-profit and non-partisan educational organization. For that reason I was encouraged that the AET marketed, at no profit, so many thousands of my first book, Blood Brothers. I am therefore pleased to announce that my second book, on the same topic as Blood Brothers, will be published in the United States, this time by Harper and Row. I also heard that your reserve of Blood Brothers has been exhausted, and that it has been difficult to obtain copies of that book. I have the pleasure to inform you that the Revell publishing house informs me that they will order a fifth printing of Blood Brothers very soon.

I take this opportunity to thank you and congratulate you for the courage to speak out. You should feel encouraged and rewarded by the shift in public opinion. I must confess that it still is not all that we want, but the beginning is there, and that is most important.

Abuna Elias Chacour, Prophet Elias High School, The Melkite Community, Ibillin, Israel

Reinvesting in the Report

To the Editors:

Thanks for the very heartening phone call yesterday. I'm overjoyed that you can use my article on the lessons of Kristalinacht, and it was also nice to be able to tell you how much we like the Washington Report.

My frugal husband reminded me that if you send me a check and if I return it as a contribution, we will nevertheless have to pay income tax. So we wondered if you could divert the money instead to as many subscriptions to libraries, teachers, etc., as the check covers (perhaps members of Congress, too). If this isn't feasible and you feel compelled to send a check, we'll contribute to the Library Endowment Fund, which is tax exempt.

Rachelle Marshall, Stanford, CA.

Dear Ms. Marshall:

We'll save wear and tear on all concerned by diverting the payment for your article to pay for subscriptions to opinion molders. Our religion editor, the Rev. L. Humphrey Walz, has been doing this same thing for years. As a result, a great many libraries in Wisconsin and clergy all over the US receive donation subscriptions for one year. Thanks for your support.

Operation Doorknock 1988—A Correction

The editors regret that they misidentified the author of the article "Operation Doorknock: 1988" on page 41 of the October 1988 edition of the Washington Report. The author was John Mulholland, president of the American Businessmen of Jeddah, not David Bosch, then president of the American Businessmen's Association of the  Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Both were leaders of the 1988 Doorknock, the fifth such annual operation. It consisted of a 17-member mission representing six American business groups operating in four Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. They visited congressional offices in Washington, DC, to enlist support for measures to support US business overseas.