JULY 2000, page 114

Publisher’s Page

American Educational Trust Publishers’ Page

With Israel’s Withdrawal From Lebanon…

The tide turned this spring in the 100-year Arab-Israeli war. Sensible Israelis discovered they could not sustain permanent military garrisons on foreign soil and be at war with their neighbors forever, even with the world’s only superpower pumping in seemingly limitless money and military equipment. Whether Israeli leaders draw the necessary lessons and make a reasonable peace with the Palestinians and Syrians while they can remains to be seen.

We Fear They Won’t.

Our reasons would have been the cover story for this issue. But President Hafez Al-Assad’s death in Syria forced us to delay the story, just as it makes a renewal of the “Syrian track” negotiations even less likely in the short run. Perhaps we’re too pessimistic, but there’s no doubt in our minds that Ehud Barak and his people will come to regret the fact that they didn’t seize the chance while the White House is still occupied by Bill Clinton, the friendliest president the Israelis have ever encountered. But Barak clearly is not prepared to make the concessions Yasser Arafat must have if he is to sign anything meaningful. Of course, if Al Gore is elected president, the Israelis will have an even greater friend in the White House, not a mere political opportunist but an honest to God Christian Zionist who will give Israel whatever it asks. But for exactly that reason there will be no peace, because for Israeli domestic political reasons no Israeli leader can be seen giving back anything to the Palestinians except under strong U.S. pressure. Bill Clinton finally understands that, but almost certainly too late. Gore might take even longer to learn. George W. Bush, who seems increasingly unbeatable barring media dirty tricks like those that helped defeat his father, will understand it if he listens to his father, but won’t if he listens to Likud-lining adviser Richard Perle. But, regardless of who’s elected president in the U.S., the Israelis probably won’t be able to pull off as good a deal next year or the year after as they could have this year…

Because the Tide has Turned.

And all of the more than 250 million Arabs can see it, even if half of the 6 million Israelis can’t. More about that next month. We’ll also have a wrap-up on both presidential candidates and the Middle East. They’re Tweedledum and Tweedledee in terms of what they say about the Middle East. The differences are only revealed by what others say about them, and who those others are. We already have what U.S. Jewish, Arab and Muslim leaders are saying, and we’ll welcome letters from our readers—just a paragraph or two identifying your own background and which candidate, in your opinion, will be best for peace with justice in the Middle East. We won’t be able to run more than a few sentences from each reader, so if you want your letter edited to your taste, do it yourself by not exceeding three short paragraphs or face our…

Executive Editor’s Merciless Scalpel.

Our PAC Charts for 2000 to Date...

Are on pp. 17-19 of this issue. Our “Election Watch” comparisons between donations by pro-Israel PACs at this date in the 2000 and 1998 election cycles are on p. 16.As readers are aware, the donations reflected on our charts are only a part, probably less than half, of what the Israel lobby may be spending on candidates, because we have no way of tracking the soft money. However, since the pro-Israel soft money is going to the same candidates receiving pro-Israel hard money, the charts should help voters make decisions.

We Make Predictions…

As long-time readers know, and even first-time readers can see from the first two paragraphs. What’s interesting is that 19 years worth of our predictions are on view on our Web site. They show we’ve been consistently right over the years, just as the mainstream media have been consistently wrong on Middle East matters. One of the tools we’ve used, and made available to overseas clients at $5,000 a year for many years, has been American Media Mideast Watch—a complete faxed daily roundup of Middle East reporting in the mainstream U.S. press. Now we take the same material from U.S. media Web sites, providing nothing you can’t get for yourself if you want to spend all day at it. But we can give it all to you by 11 a.m. every weekday—for a total of 20 to 50 clippings daily, for all seven days of the week. And since there’s no longer postage involved, we can provide the service anywhere in the world at a fraction of its former cost.

A Second E-Mail Service...

Is our daily Israeli Media Watch. We developed it for one client who’s been paying us $2,000 a month. But now he’s authorized us to offer it to the public at $75 a month. It’s the single most valuable reference we use, and it’s also now available daily by 11 a.m. Details are on the insert at p. 59 of this issue. But the bottom line is you can have either service singly for about $2 a day or both services together for less than $3 a day—total.

That’s Incredible!

So turn to p. 59 and sign up. You’ll be helping us pay for these services without which we could not produce this quality magazine. And you’ll be receiving the two most valuable Middle East information services ever devised. If you’re the only one in your office receiving it, you’ll soon be known as “the prophet” among your peers. If you’re the only company among your competitors receiving it, you’ll soon have no peers left. And if your embassy or consulate is expected to report on what’s being said and thought about the Middle East in the U.S., or in Israel about the U.S. and the Middle East, you’ll get for $3 a day what it takes your whole information section to produce at present.

Try it for a Week at No Charge…

And we know you’ll subscribe.

By the Time You Receive This Issue…

You should also have received our June 1 funding appeal! We only send out two a year, unlike some non-profits which send you a new appeal each time you respond to the previous one. Also, since we earn between two-thirds and three-quarters of our budget through subscriptions, advertising, book sales and other publications and services like American Media Mideast Watch and Israeli Media Watch, we match each dollar you contribute with nearly three we earn on our own. Can any other non-profit to which you contribute make that statement? And, for that matter, how many others have only unpaid volunteers in all board positions as well as the top two executive positions (publisher and executive editor). Well, we do, and if those volunteers, including some of our top writers, weren’t working for nothing, there would be no Washington Report or American Educational Trust making our 19 years of files available at no charge on our Web site—always one of the top five most visited Mideast-related Web sites in the world.

But Now We’re in Trouble.

We can’t wait for everyone to send in his or her tax-deductible donation at the end of the tax year. We need enough to get from here to Dec. 31 right now. So please join the names in our Choir of Angels for the year 2000 (see p. 113), donating to “AET Library Endowment” (federal ID# 52-1460362) if you plan to deduct it from your income tax for 2000 or to “Washington Report” if you don’t.

Top Credit for Turning the Tide…

Goes to the people over there who shed their blood to do it. But we can magnify and multiply their work by doing our part over here to change the Middle East policies of the world’s only remaining superpower, and thus save thousands of additional American and Middle Eastern lives from being lost. No one is better suited to do that than we are. So please donate generously and…

Make a Difference, This Month!