May/June 1996, pg. 138

Publishers' Page

Nyaa Nyaa, We Told You So!

Normally we don't dwell on how often we've been right on Middle East affairs. With all due humility, if we started doing it regularly, we'd need more than 140 pages to include that along with all the other stuff we try to cram into each issue. But we were struck by two comments quoted in this issue. One, by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, was "I've always said you can depend on Arafat." (See p. 40 on the vote to rescind parts of the Palestinian National Covenant.) The other was by American Muslim Council President Abdurahman Alamoudi, who compared current American perceptions of Hamas to those of the PLO 10 years ago. (See p. 11 on attacks on the AMC.) We didn't say...

"You Can Depend on Arafat."

And we have our own reservations about the objectives of Hamas in a mixed Muslim-Christian country. But we have been saying, over the 14 years we've been publishing, that among the Palestinian groups Yasser Arafat's mainstream Al Fatah was both the largest and the most moderate, and that that was very fortunate for the future of peace in the Middle East. At least one radio talk show host...

Hung Up on Us When We Said It.

So now let him talk to Shimon Peres! What we've also said from the beginning 14 years ago is that it's not Arabs vs. Israelis in the Middle East anymore, but moderates vs. extremists. Or to put it in contemporary politically correct terms:

Friends vs. Enemies of Peace.

We're for the friends, but we'll be the first to admit sometimes it's hard to tell one from the other. For example, it seems pretty clear that a victory by Shimon Peres over Benyamin Netanyahu in Israel's May 29 election would be a victory for peace. But then we look at Peres' current election tactics¸killing some 162 Lebanese of whom at least 149 were civilians and a great many of those children. And when we remember his remark last fall that at the signing of the second Oslo accord...

"We Screwed the Palestinians..."

We begin to get the whim-whams. Who are the real friends of Middle East peace? Well, that's what we try to dope out in every issue. We hope our conclusions help guide our readers not only on who are the good guys overseas (and not just in Palestine but also in Algeria, Bosnia, Cyprus, the Gulf, Iran and Kashmir) and also in the White House, the State Department, the Senate and House and maybe even in some state legislatures and governors' mansions.

We Hope to Orient Our Readers...

On raising the consciousness of their elected officials. There are at least five million Muslim-American citizens. There are another two and a half million Arab-American Christians. And we believe there are hundreds of thousands of Christian and Jewish advocates of peace with justice, old Middle East hands, human rights advocates, taxpayer advocates and many more whose voting and political donation patterns have the potential to become a single-issue bloc when Middle East matters arise. They could more than offset the single-issue voters against an evenhanded U.S. Middle East policy who have made such a mess not only of U.S. relations with Middle Eastern countries, but in the Middle East itself.

Together We Have the Potential!

Our job is to turn potential into reality. In that vein, we will begin fairly intensive pre-election coverage with our next issue. We'll bring you articles by people from the groups above describing which candidate they intend to vote for¸and why. We'll also try to alert our readers to the congressional contests where a contribution might make a significant difference. It won't be hard to do. All we have to do is scan the Jewish weekly newspapers and see for which candidates they are soliciting campaign contributions. We'll give you the names and addresses of the opponents who are scaring the professional lobbyists for Israel. And, of course, we'll keep you informed on exactly how much every candidate for Congress in the 1996 election cycle has taken to date from the 116 deceptively named pro-Israel political action committees. These PACs channel their contributions to those they believe will continue to vote the obscene amounts of U.S. taxpayer-funded aid and loan guarantees that make it possible for Israel to stonewall at the peace table, steal U.S. technology and avoid mainstream U.S. media coverage even when they get caught selling that technology to the Chinese and others, and go right on corrupting the U.S. political system.

That's What We're Doing for You...

Now Here's What You Can Do for Us:

This year has started very badly on the fund-raising front. We've lost one big corporate sponsor that simply cut out its funding program entirely. Another one has cut back its annual donation to us significantly.

Nothing Personal, We're Told.

Just more fallout from the nearly one trillion dollars that went up in smoke, literally, in the Middle East as a result of the Iraq-Iran war, the Gulf war, the demolition of Kuwait's oil fields and the scramble to re-arm. A lot of that money would have gone into products of the American companies that have helped support us in the past. But it didn't, and many of those companies have closed their Middle East offices and stopped endowing projects that enhance U.S.-Middle East relations, understanding and cooperation.

So We Need More Help...

Than ever before from friends at home. If you don't have time, money will do. But if you don't have money (like us these days), you still can make the most useful contribution of all.

Please, Check Your Local Libraries.

If they don't subscribe to the Washington Report, as some 4,600 U.S. libraries now do, find out why. If they would put a donated subscription into their collection, obviously we hope you'll donate it at the special $20 gift rate. But if you can't, send us the name of the library anyway and we'll find a donor¸one of those not totally rare people with more money than time. It's very important to us to get into every library of any importance in the country.

Frankly, It's Not Just to Educate...

Library patrons about the Middle East. It's from those patrons who discover us in libraries that we get many of our new subscribers. (And if you're reading these words standing up in front of a library shelf or a newsstand, wouldn't it be nicer to be a subscriber reading them sprawled on a couch, in a reclining chair, or in whatever other place you do your serious reading?)

We Also Get New Subscribers...

From gift subscriptions by our readers. If you donate a subscription, whether to a journalist, minister or friend or relative this year at the $20 gift rate, next year we'll send the renewal notice to your recipients instead of to you (unless you instruct us otherwise). If they read the magazine, they'll probably renew on their own. If they didn't, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. That's all a long way of saying...

This Year Especially We Need Help.

We urge those who can afford it to join our Angels' Choir with a tax-exempt donation (see details on the business reply envelope facing p. 70 of this issue). Those who have to count their pennies can help instead with a bit of time or thought about who should be receiving this magazine, and for whom a donated subscription or a book from our catalog (p. 127) would make a nice birthday, anniversary or holiday present.

Please Give It Your Best and...

Make a difference this month.