Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June/July 1997, pg. 122

Publishers' Page

This Is the First Issue...

Of the 16th volume of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. We recall vividly when, as newly retired foreign service officers already spinning around the world as consultants, we first were contacted by the late Edward Henderson, the last British political resident and first British ambassador in Qatar. Also recently retired, he was president of the Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding (CAABU) in London. He had decided that the inseparably linked struggles for justice for the Palestinians and peaceful relations between Islam and the West could only be won in the United States. Did we agree? And did we know how to do it?

Our Answers Were "Yes and Maybe."

We asked him did he have seed money? And was there more where that came from? His answers were "yes and maybe." And so the non-profit American Educational Trust was born in January 1982. Our first book, A Changing Image: American Perceptions of the Arab Israeli Dispute by AET executive director Richard Curtiss was jointly issued with the newly established American Arab Affairs Council (now the Middle East Policy Council). An AET speakers bureau headed by Dr. John Duke Anthony, then of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), went into operation to program talks by Ambassador Henderson, the chairman, and Ambassador Andrew I. Killgore, the president, before audiences all over the United States. And AET released the first issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, then a bimonthly newsletter edited by veteran Middle East correspondent John Law, in April 1982.

The Timing Clearly Was Right.

Everyone who heard of what we were doing said first, "It's about time." And then, "How can I help?" On our staff were some of the best qualified people in America to lead the fight, and in no time we were in touch with most of the rest. Not for one second did we doubt that we would win! Truth, Justice and American interests and traditions all were on our side.

Best of All, Funding Seemed Assured.

We were advised, erroneously, that if we wanted our newsletter to go to every member of Congress and key committee staffers, but didn't want to register to lobby, we would have to put circulation up to 6,000 so that the copies that went to Capitol Hill would not exceed 10 percent of the total. We did, by giving introductory subscriptions to every journalist, academic, clergyman and active or retired diplomat associated with Middle East. Then, after eight months

Disaster Struck!

On a multi-city lecture tour, Ambassador Henderson had a heart attack on a San Francisco sidewalk. Eight months later he had another at National Airport. In his hospital room he told us that before he came to the United States he had had no idea it was so big. Then, after a pause, he added sadly, "and I had no idea the people were so ignorant about the Middle East."

So the Old Lion

Who had served against Rommel in North Africa, scouted the Levant on horseback behind Vichy French lines, participated in the liberation of Europe, fought Begin and Shamir in Palestine, served under Glubb Pasha in Jordan and with the Trucial Scouts and in the UAE and Oman, and helped to secure Gulf oil leases for Anglo Iranian petroleum went home, his last battle unfinished.

And Our Funding Went With Him!

So, a year and a half after we launched it, AET was stone broke. We told our department heads they could keep the phone numbers and brochures but would have to raise their own funds to save themselves.

The Speakers Bureau Survived

As Dr. Anthony's National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. And we set out to turn the newsletter into a paid-circulation magazine. We told subscribers the free issues were finished and now it was time to start paying. In one month our readership plummeted from 7,000 freeloaders to 600 paid subscribers.

We Found Affordable Quarters.

Then we pared down to two paid employees and the rest who stayed became voluteers. As the magazine slowly expanded, we initiated some editorial, advisory, and clipping services to help with the bills, produced two one-hour films for classroom use, and introduced Dr. Israel Shahak's uniquely informative "Translations From the Hebrew Press" to a wider American public. We also helped launch former Congressmen Paul Findley and Pete McCloskey's Council for the National Interest as a separate organization.

When Readers Complained

That books we reviewed were impossible to find in U.S. bookstores, we began routinely importing between 100 and 500 copies of each title from England. To our astonishment, soon British publishers were offering to produce U.S. editions if we would guarantee such a purchase. U.S. publishers followed suit. Suddenly not only were we in the book business, but single-handedly we had broken the de facto embargo on U.S. distribution of popularly written, objective books about the Middle East.

These Were Exciting Triumphs.

But they still weren't paying our bills. Seeing our dilemma, Sen. Jim Abourezk, then chairman of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, offered to bring us aboard as ADC's publications department. He warned us that up to then no U.S. Mideast-related magazine had ever had more than 2,000 paid subscribers, light years from a break-even point.

"You Need Allies, Not Employees"

We told him, and struggled on while our circulation grew by 2,000 a year. Then came the Gulf war, and for 10 months our paid circulation increased by 1,000 subscriptions monthly. We also donated an additional 10,000 copies of each issue to the USO for distribution to troops in the Middle East. We knew it might still be years before we were financially independent, but it looked like we finally were on our way.

But Then the Troops Came Home

And very few renewed their subscriptions. Equally catastrophic, when the smoke cleared from a war that cost the Middle East countries some $600 billion, many of our client U.S. companies, agencies or branches whose patronage had made up the difference between profit and loss for us weren't in the Middle East any longer.

They Had Gone Up With the Smoke

Of burning oilfields. We looked to talk radio for publicity, with our directors each going on an average of a show a day to put out our point of view and, not incidentally, give out our toll-free number for introductory copies of the magazine. And our public tracking of the armada of Stealth PACs with which AIPAC controlled Congress provided grist for a lawsuit which forced the Lobby to change tactics and strengthened honest congressmembers who chose to resist.

The Oslo Accords Cost Us Subscribers

Who thought the struggle was over. Now Binyamin Netanyahu is bringing them back. But before we were fighting for sovereignty for the Palestinians, hoping that would fix things between Americans and Muslims everywhere. Now, however

We're Defending Our Own Sovereignty.

The mainstream media and Congress always were Israeli-occupied territory. Now so are the White House and the State Department. There are so many facts others seem unwilling to collect, and so much that no one else dares to say. Read this issue and you'll see what we mean. Right now

It's a Bad Time to Run Out of Money.

But we desperately need help again. Unless we get it right away, this time we're really history. But, if we make it through 1997, we have much better prospects for 1998. Our paid circulation is rising again, with 200 new subscribers monthly. That way lies long-term salvation. Meanwhile we want to make, not be, history. So please be generous now and

Make a Difference, This Month.