Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1998, Page 138

Publishers’ Page

During the Six Weeks of Labor Pains...

...that precede the birth of each monster 156-page (counting “Other Voices”) issue of this magazine, we always worry as we edit the articles until we’ve become furious at least once, and teary-eyed at least once. In this issue our fury reached its climax with the arrival of Maureen Meehan’s article about the death of a sadistic West Bank settler (p. 10).

The Tears Appeared as We Read...

...the account in “Mahjabeen’s Musings” (p. 115) of her own reaction while flying home from a Mexican vacation to the piece in our previous issue by Kathy Kelly on the dying children of Iraq. There’s something very attractive about people who have a little cry about other people’s troubles, but then put their shoulder to the wheel to help solve the problem. When we were growing up in our own little cultural bubble we thought that’s what the Pilgrims, the Founding Fathers, the Quakers and our personal heroes and heroines, the transcendentalists of early 19th century New England, did.

How Glorious Now to be Marching...

...with people from totally different spiritual and national traditions, but precisely the same goals of justice and human rights for “the least of these, our brethren.” Together, if first we dare to stand up to our full height to be counted, and then overcome the much greater challenge of subordinating personal hubris and organizational rivalries among ourselves, we all can assist the dispossessed Palestinians, the battered civilians of Iraq, the betrayed people of Kashmir and the survivors of Balkan massacres to help themselves. And in so doing we can...

Accomplish Something Transcendental!

Increasingly we believe that with visionary activists like Dr. Mahjabeen Islam-Husain, American Muslim Alliance secretary-general Prof. Agha Saeed, ADC president Hala Maksoud and the hundreds of others we have met while speaking to Islamic and other audiences across the United States, we descendents of those transcendentalists and all the others who came to these shores well before and long after them can renew the real American dream. First it must be secured from imperialist temptations. Then it can again become the dream of the Pilgrim fathers and of the founding fathers of “a shining city on the hill,” providing equal political, social and economic rights to all of its citizens, actively supporting freedom and human rights everywhere, and eschewing all who abuse authority or who seek to withhold those basic rights from anyone, anywhere.

Now From Theory to Practice:

Our mystery challenge fund has reached nearly $75,000 since the last issue. To review, we’re prepared to launch an initiative that we think will give us at least a one-decade leap forward in arousing and educating U.S. public opinion about the issues with which we’re all concerned. The time to launch is right now, with so much interest stirred up by the conjoined observances of 50 years of Israeli statehood and 50 years of Palestinian dispossession, and the almost miraculous abort of the Israel Lobby’s would-be American war on Iraq.

But We Need $150,000 from New Donors...

...to give it a one-year trial run, and not have to abandon it for lack of funds just as it begins to provide results. And we don’t dare dip into this magazine’s perilously low funds, for fear of sinking the launching platform. We had hoped to find one new donor for the whole project, but we didn’t. So far, however, we have one new donor for $50,000, two for $10,000 each, and a couple for lesser amounts. So please, please if you’re teetering on the verge of helping, contact us now. We need the second $75,000 immediately in order to launch at the optimum time, which is the end of June. If it takes, the founding don ors can eventually become the board members and...

Write Their Own Celebratory Plaque.

Speaking of activists, it’s appropriate to mention two letters received on the day we started this page. One, from Jameel Abed on behalf of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) of Richmond, VA, enclosed a list of educational institutions in that area and a check for $400 to cover subscriptions to any 20 of them whose libraries have not already subscribed to the Washington Report. Another was the second letter received from Dr. S. Walter Kran of San Leandro, CA, which brought to 32 the number of gift subscriptions, mostly for fellow medical doctors, he has purchased in recent weeks. For people who don’t have much time, it’s sufficient to send a tax-exempt contribution to the AET Library Endowment. Circulation director Delinda Hanley will pick and contact the library recipients of your gifts—but it places a burden on just about the hardest-working person we know.

So If You Have the Time...

It’s a great help to Delinda to receive gift subscriptions for institutions you’ve already contacted yourself, or people you already know whom you’ve selected for potential interest, and who in turn will dip into the magazine either because they respect your judgment, know you’ll probably give them a pop quiz, or both. And don’t forget, with every $20 gift subscription you give, either you or the recipient is entitled to a free book from the list on the mail insert at the center of this magazine.

Just Inform Us of the Book of Your Choice...

...and who gets it.

Meanwhile, Back at the Courthouse...

...we’d planned to update readers on “The Case Against AIPAC” with an illuminating article by attorney Abdeen Jabara, but for two issues we’ve had to defer it because we ran out of space. After arguing in January in the Supreme Court the case for compelling the Federal Election Commission to enforce its own rules by making AIPAC disclose where it gets and how it spends its money, attorney Dan Schember was back in court April 30 to discuss AIPAC’s claim that it doesn’t have to reveal this information since it’s just a “membership” organization. Apparently the group voted by other lobbying groups in a Fortune magazine survey as the second most powerful special interest (after the AARP) in the United States doesn’t have to reveal this information because it’s no different from your neighborhood bridge club. We’re still expecting a verdict before the end of July, but meanwhile we’re wondering what it is those bridge players are trying to hide.

We’ve Received 200 More Subscriptions...

...to our 16-page “Other Voices” supplement since our last issue. If yours is bound into this issue, everything’s okay. If it isn’t, turn to the “Other Voices” table of contents on page 5 of this issue to see what you’re missing. And if you paid an extra $15 to subscribe to “Other Voices” but “Other Voices” still isn’t bound into your copy of this issue, better phone Delinda.

In the Merry, Merry Month of May...

You’ll be getting the first of our two annual funding appeals. The beginning of the year is always the lean time for us, since many big givers wait until the last possible moment to come through. At this writing, almost all our bills are paid for the first time in our 16 years of existence. How did we do it? Easy. We haven’t paid any rent since 1996! Our landlords have been patient but they’ve let us know that if it’s a choice of them going bankrupt or us going bankrupt, they’re only human.

Well, How Were We to Know That?

So, yes, we have a crisis. Please be generous when you get that envelope. And, for that matter, you needn’t wait. There’s a postage-paid envelope in this copy of the magazine which you can use to make your 1998 contribution. Do it now and...

Make a Difference, This Month.