July/August 1994, Page 3

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor are selected and edited on the basis of relevance, accuracy, taste and available space, The editors do not have facilities to respond to individual letters, or to clear in advance published letters, as edited, with the writers.

Bad Press for Syria

Your "Letter from Lebanon" ("In Lebanon Even the Opposition Checks First With Syria," April/May 1994) proves that Syria cannot get any good press, even in the most even-handed journals.

The article's title inflates the obvious and provokes hostility without delivering on its promise. Please note that in a full page and-a-half article, it is only in the last four paragraphs that Syria is even mentioned, while the title itself purports to be a quote from an unnamed source.

Even the most assiduous political moralist would have to concede that Syria has earned the right to promote its supporters and influence its enemies. And while some might argue that Lebanon has lost much of its former allure as a "playground" or "Switzerland of the Middle East," it remains a fact that what semblance of normality, stability and growth the Lebanese enjoy today is due, in part, to the presence of the Syrian Deterrent Forces on their soil. Catchy titles are fine in tabloids and competition-oriented dailies, but they only serve a negative purpose in credible magazines such as yours.

Ziad A. Fadel, Dearborn, MI

Touche! You may find this month's coverage of Lebanon (pp. 51 and 52) more to your liking.

Congressional Initiative

Congressman Timothy J. Penny of Minnesota has introduced HR 3818 to establish a Middle East Development Initiative (MEDI). The Penny Bill would redirect a modest part of current U.S. foreign aid now given to Israel and Egypt, the two largest recipients of aid, toward directly promoting peaceful development. So far the U.S. administration has failed to use current U.S. aid to support the peace process directly.

The U.S. Congress needs to put American taxpayers' dollars behind the instruments of peace rather than the weapons of war and bloodshed in the land. Further, it would help put U.S. foreign aid in line with human rights issues. It also would benefit all the Middle Eastern states (including Israel), and all peoples (including the Palestinians) in the region. It would help promote U.S. trade and jobs.

The proposed Penny Bill would not reduce U.S. aid to the region. At the same time, it would not cost the American taxpayer any more than the current aid programs. Some special interest groups are opposing the Penny Bill. I believe HR 3818 is clearly in the best interest of the United States.

More aid such as we have been sending in the past means either more weaponry or more settlements built in the occupied territories whose final status is to be negotiated. We should not be using U.S. taxpayers' money in this fashion. The U.S. Congress and the Clinton administration have fiduciary responsibility as trustees of the U.S. taxpayers' money.

Akhtar H. Emon, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

The Arabists: Insidious and Invidious

You have no doubt already done whatever you are going to do about the book The Arabists. As far as I can determine, this Daniel Pipes-led effort has as its purpose to administer the finishing touches to any remaining Arabist-type thinking in the State Department.

Author Robert Kaplan used so many devious devices to convey his message that they cannot all be tracked (e.g., in discussing Saddarn Hussain he found it necessary to denigrate Iraqi architecture and landscape). I found it one of the most insidious and invidious books I have ever read. Anyway I did this review for The Tampa Tribune and you are free to make any use of it you would like.

Arthur Lowrie, Tampa, FL

Because we very seldom carry reviews of books we do not offer in our own catalog, we confined ourselves to reprinting in our Feb./March issue a review from the Washington Monthly by Charles William Maynes, editor of Foreign Policy magazine. However, we really liked your review. So, with a couple of excisions to protect the guilty, we are publishing it as a third, bonus book review on p. 69 of this issue. Thanks for a clear expression of opinion by a retired State Department Arabist who knows all the players, has no personal axe to grind, didn't waffle then, and doesn't waffle now. And, see "Media Watch" (p. 46)for the latest doings of Daniel Pipes.

Faxes to Israel

I am sending these messages on to you to show you what my friends at the Association of Israeli-Palestini an Physicians for Human Rights are doing! Really impressive. By arrangement with Dr. Jonathan Fine (founder of and previous president of AIPPHR) I share in the information he gets from AIPPHR, Israel.

Perhaps some Washington Report readers could send faxes to Israel, as suggested in the opening letter from AIPPHR to Dr. Fine.

Edna Homa Hunt, Winter Park, FL

We've printed in "Other People's Mail" (pp. 77 and 78) one fax from Neve Gordon, Physicians for Human Rights director, to Dr Fine and another from Dr Gordon to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and to Israeli health officials on the effects of the curfew imposed on Palestinian residents of Hebron in obstructing their access to hospitals in East Jerusalem. At this writing the situation is even worse, with Palestinian health workers and those needing treatment throughout the occupied territories barred from access to East Jerusalem health facilities. Thanks for keeping our readers informed of the positive actions of concerned Israelis. It doesn't seem quite fair that the United States gets so many good Israelis like you, and Israel gets so many bad Americans like Dr Baruch Goldstein.

How I've Missed You

It was a real pleasure to receive the February/March 1994 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Since I left the United States A little over a year ago, I have missed it greatly. I sense that the struggle of your magazine to inform correctly on the developments of the Middle East, despite the incredible power of the Israel lobbies, is extremely difficult.

But please keep it up, for you are doing a great job for the best interests of our nation. I'm a naturalized citizen but I have not lost my perception of facts as a native South American. And that perception gives me an almost complete certainty that the United States has become a colony of Israel. If I'm not wrong, Israel has never repaid one single loan. In addition to that generosity, we give Israel an annual tribute of more than four billion dollars in grant aid.

This excessive generosity is condoned by our Congress, which Patrick Buchanan, some time ago, rightfully described as Israeli-occupied territory. To me and to many Latin Americans, the policy of our country related to the Middle East is decided in Israel and not in Washington.

The influence of Israel, through its many sympathizers in our government and in the media, is so huge, that both have become almost totally blind to Israel's innumerable violations of the human rights of the Palestinians, and its permanent non-compliance with U.N. resolutions. Of course the more recent acts of violence in the West Bank have their origin in the illegal settlements established there against international law and clear resolutions of the United Nations.

Unfortunately, those settlements have had the implicit support of our administrations, since at no time have we cut off or even decreased our economic and financial assistance. On the contrary, we have proceeded to enlarge them almost every year.

Rene Espinosa, Sr., Bogota, Colombia

If "native born" Americans had had your perception of the facts a few years earlier, the U.S. wouldn't have subsidized Likud extremism for so long. However, the tide has turned in public opinion. It's just that Congress, as usual, is the last to know. And yes, you're right. Israel has never repaid a U.S. government loan and by now has pocketed about $80 billion in U.S. taxpayer grants and forgiven loans.

An Earned Award for Courage

Someone ought to give Most Rev. Edmond Browning, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, an award for courage. No one person in a public position has been as outspoken as he has on the issue of human rights and the plight of the Palestinians. I thought you might be able to do something with his two recent public statements. One, dated March 3, is on the Hebron massacre. The other, a joint statement with Rev. Samir Kafity, President-Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, dated April 4 (Easter Monday), is on peace and justice in the Middle East.

Jerri Bird, Partners for Peace, Washington, DC

We've reproduced both statements on pp. 67 and 95 as sidebars to this issue's "Christianity and the Middle East" column. Bishop Browning's informed and compassionate statements on Palestinian suffering and his courageous call for suspension of any further loan guarantees to Israel until it deals with the impediments to peace represented by Jewish settlements in the occupied territories represents a restoration of compassion and courage to mainstream U.S. Christianity's approach to the Middle East. Its scarceness, up to now, has resulted in the near abdication o responsibility for and influence over U.S. Middle East policy by Christians and their leaders.

That, in turn, is a major cause of the mass emigration from the Middle East of much of its Christian- population, which has borne the brunt of recriminations against "the West," led for the past half century by the U.S., for turning a blind eye to Israeli injustices committed against both Muslims and Christians.

How I Use the Washington Report

My response to "There's One More Thing" on the Publishers' Page of the April/May issue, asking readers to describe how they use the Washington Report: When I receive requests for money from a myriad of organizations, whether I agree with their purpose or not I respond with a copy of one of your articles having to do with the cost of Israel to U.S. taxpayers, e.g., Ella Bancroft's on page 33 of the Jan. 1994 issue or Richard Curtiss's on page 35 of the Feb./March issue. (I think recipients are quite likely to read it if it's all on one page.)

I include an appropriate comment to fit the request, something like this: "I suggest that your organization demand of our government officials that Israel's "entitlements"—not those of our citizens—be drastically cut now and entirely eliminated by 1998 after 50 years of its continuous dipping into our Treasury." Or, "I agree with the purpose of your organization so I suggest that you contact your Senators (name) and (name) and your representative and request a portion of the funds they so readily give to Israel."

Helen Overdiek, Hopkins, MN

This month Lucille Barnes offers on p. 36 thoughts on "the cost of Israel," all on one page as you suggest.

Unwelcome Personal Attacks

I recently sent you a letter of mine published in the Milwaukee Journal asking about the validity of the U.S. giving Israel $10 million per day, since the Establishment Clause of the Constitution forbids the government to aid or support religion. Enclosed are the two responses which appeared in the paper.

Notice how personal the attacks are, how I am belittled and criticized. It doesn't bother me, but they are typical responses to anyone who has the audacity to criticize our favorite "ally." I would like to develop this whole issue into an argument for your publication.

James Henderson, Wauwatosa, WI

Both letters degenerate into ad hominum attacks on you because the writers have trouble countering the facts in your letter with facts of their own. We don't have space to print their letters, but one claims that military aid to Israel "creates work for American businesses" because "more than 80 percent of military aid given comes back to U.S. business in the form of contracts and profits." That's like a no-good brother-in-law saying he's doing you a favor mooching your money because if he didn't keep taking it you might be spending it foolishly on your kids' educations, taking vacations or buying a better house. The other letter writer admits that "$10 million a day is ludicrous but at least Israel pays on its debt." If you include the loan guarantees, U.S. aid to Israel totals $17 million a day, an even more ludicrous figure. All of the money Israel pays to cover the interest on its outstanding U.S. loans is U.S. taxpayer money granted to Israel thanks to the Cranston Amendment. In fact, Israel has never repaid a loan from the U.S. government. The record shows that all U.S. loans to Israel eventually are forgiven by Congress. Thanks for keeping us, and readers of the Milwaukee Journal, informed.

A Bad Trip to Iraq

Two years ago I visited my mother in Iraq after she suffered a heart attack. For obvious reasons, my American wife and three children were very apprehensive about visiting that tortured country. The visit helped illuminate a picture of a dying homeland and the harm suffered by innocent people in Iraq.

Fortunately, we were able to bring my mother to the United States for treatment and she has since returned to Iraq. On Sunday, April 17, my younger brother Qassim fell from a two-story building and went into a coma. For nine days, Qassim was unconscious without adequate health care and proper medication.

We were forced to buy medicines in the U.S. by relying on American specialists' recommendations and guessing the type of medications needed. We then had to send them through a friend who had to fly to Jordan and drive from Amman to Iraq. Hospitals in Iraq did not even have antibiotics or syringes!

I have since learned that although medicine is not embargoed by the U.N., not many people in Iraq can afford it. You see, their currency was devalued from approximately one U.S. dollar being equal to one Iraqi dinar before the Gulf war to the current rate of one U.S. dollar being equal to 350 Iraqi dinars. Typically, an Iraqi doctor or engineer makes about 500 dinars a month, which is equivalent to $1.43.

This is a story of a family that is blessed financially and has access to the outside world. What about the remaining 18 million Iraqis? This letter to the American people is a plea on behalf of the underprivileged and less fortunate Iraqis whose voices aren't being heard and whose livelihood has been destroyed. These are the same people who walked up to me in 1992 and asked if they could give my wife gifts. These are the same people who taught us writing and on whose land the first civilization was born. It is for them that I write this letter.

Dr. Amir Al-Khafaji, Peoria, IL

You Aren't Helping Taxpayers

I originally thought the Washington Report might help reduce taxpayer burdens re foreign aid to Israel. I no longer believe that. It now seems that your interest has switched to getting part of the aid for yourselves. That doesn't help taxpayers.

Retired people are being forced to pay more taxes ($5 billion) on Social Security. If aid to Israel were eliminated, we wouldn't have to pay it. Like everyone else, I have need for all of the money I receive.

Israelis like to brag about the stability of their nation in an unstable region. If the other nations received similar handouts on a per capita basis, they would all be stable, and we would be bankrupt. We are already $5 trillion in debt. Thank you for any help you may give re reducing aid to Israel.

E. J. Soboczenski, Lewes, DE

We'd love to get the tiniest fraction of Israel's $17 million per day in foreign aid grants and loan guarantees for ourselves. One hour's worth would retire our entire corporate debt and enable us to publish 12 issues a year, every year, to the end of time. But we assume you refer to proposals that a fraction of Israel's aid be deducted and given directly to the Palestinians to establish a stable government in the occupied territories. That would be an excellent investment if it helped lead to a final peace agreement between Israel, the Palestinians, and all of Israel's Arab neighbors. The Israelis would lose their last remaining rationale for the current $4.3 billion in U.S. foreign aid and $2 billion in U.S. government loan guarantees every year What savings on such a scale could do at home is discussed in "The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers " on p. 36 of this issue.

Lilienthal's Timeless Information

In the introduction to the article on Dr. Alfred Lilienthal's 80th birthday in the April/May issue, page 19, mention is made of his 1949 article published in the Reader's Digest, "Israel's Flag is Not Mine. " The full citation for that article is volume 55, September 1949, pp. 49-54.

Readers of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs may also be interested in a speech Dr. Lilienthal delivered at a Temple Israel Meeting in New York City on March 3, 1950, in response to the Reader's Digest article. It is entitled, "The State of Israel and the State of the Jew." It is reprinted in the April 15, 1950 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day, pages 406-409. If one's public or academic library does not have these periodicals, copies may be obtained through interlibrary loan. Dr. Lilienthal's articles are as timely today as when they appeared 40 years ago.

(The Rev.) Donald H. Langlois, Chandler, AZ

Visiting Schools Suggested

Steven Spielberg suggests inviting Holocaust survivors to visit schools. I have another suggestion: invite a Palestinian survivor of the intifada and the massacre of Muslims at prayer in Hebron to visit schools.

Writing about visits with Holocaust survivors, columnist Ken Adelman said: "Not only does this personalize and particularize the statistically numbing phenomenon, but it 'contemporizes' it too." The same would be true of a visit with a Palestinian survivor who could give first-hand accounts verifying Holocaust survivor Dr. Israel Shahak's claim in your magazine that today (not 50 years ago) Palestinians are being treated by Jews the way Jews were treated (not by Palestinians) in the years prior to the "Final Solution"! (A chilling parallel between contemporary U.S.-supported Israel and pre-World War II Nazi Germany is that in both countries a relatively few committed the brutalities, but the vast majority did little or nothing to stop them!)

Students will then receive a graphic lesson that hypocrisy can result in brutality and tragedy to both victim and victimizer just as can bigotry!

Roger D. Leonard, Bowie, MD

The Elimination of a People

Ethnic cleansing, genocide, holocaust, racism are words with the same meaning: the elimination of a people because they differ from their assassins. Read the excuses for the Holocaust and they sound the same as the excuses used to "justify" Dr. Goldstein's actions at the mosque in Hebron.

But, in truth, there are no excuses for the slaughter of unarmed people. These people were in prayer, in a holy place on a holy day. What happened to the time-honored idea of "Sanctuary;' a haven, a shelter? We, as a country, have stood by long enough allowing this kind of terrorism to fester within our own borders.

In fact, it was less than a month ago that CBS on "60 Minutes" did a story on the Kahane Chai, who have a terrorist training camp in upstate New York. Their stated goals are to abort the Middle East Peace Plan by attacking targets within the United States and Israel, even if such attacks result in bloody civil war. Their hero, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, called the Arab people "dogs" a cancer that must be driven out of Israel by any means "because you can't coexist with a cancer."

This group is suspected of planting two bombs in New York to harass Jewish groups supporting the Middle East peace talks. Kahane Chai members assaulted Israeli diplomats in U.S. synagogues, claiming that the Rabin government is treasonous for dealing with the Palestinians. Yet they walk the streets freely, get public acceptance and support (resulting from the negative media image of Arabs), then send fanatics to live in illegal settlements in the occupied territories where they openly practice their version of the White Citizens Council.

Dr. Goldstein came from a section of New York where even Jews are not accepted unless they believe in the same fanatical view of Israel. On national TV, a medical colleague of Dr. Goldstein from that community proudly proclaimed he would "never treat Arabs." Journalist Robert Friedman, who wrote a book critical of Kahane, said he felt safer from Kahane Chai threats in Israel than in the United States. He said that Israeli security closely watches them. He may question that opinion now. There are very few people in the world who question the ability of the Mossad or Shin Bet (Israeli intelligence agencies) to gather information. There is no doubt in our minds that they knew Dr. Goldstein's views. We doubt that these views conflict in any way with views of many in the Israel Defense Forces.

We are sure that when the Shin Bet asked doctors to ascertain whether detainees were physically fit to be hooded, chained or forced to stand for long periods, accomplices to such torture were physicians like Dr. Goldstein. Now Michael Guzofsky, the director of Kahane Chai, is hailing Dr. Goldstein as a hero if his actions are successful in stopping the peace process.

We know that here in Maine we will be called all the usual labels for this letter. But the truth is that silence by individual Americans in the face of such outrages translates into support. We must demand the disarming of the Israeli settlers, protection by United Nations peacekeepers for the people of the area, and an end of all U.S. aid to Israel until all settlers have been evacuated from the occupied lands.

Candy Gonzales and George Gonzales, Houlton, ME

Shocking Gaza Survey

The Gaza Community Health Organization conducted a survey in the past year to determine what percentage of its community had been exposed to violence at the hands of Israeli Security Forces since the outbreak of the intifada. The emphasis was on the violence experienced by children 8 to 15 years of age. The results were shocking.

A typical beating is two or more soldiers striking a person with a truncheon or rifle butt for a prolonged period of time. Forty-eight percent of 8-to- I 5-year-olds in Gaza had experienced this.

Statistically, it made no difference what the child was doing at the time of the beating; the child was as likely to have been present at a demonstration as playing by his or her house. It should be noted that since the Israeli government closed Palestinian schools during the intifada and Palestinian homes are subject to extreme overcrowding, the children were virtually forced to be on the streets, vulnerable to soldiers.

In a paternalistic society such as the Arabs have, the father is regarded as the source of strength and authority. But 60 percent of 8-to-15-year-olds had watched the Israeli Security Forces beat up their fathers, reducing them in their children's eyes to powerless and probably pathetic human beings.

Many Palestinian homes are subject to nighttime raids by the Israeli Security Forces. In a typical raid, soldiers break into a house, destroy all food, vandalize the house and furniture and beat all inhabitants. Children as young as one and two years of age have been reported beaten under these circumstances. A full 85 percent of the 8-to-15-year-olds had experienced at least one of these raids on their homes.

Palestinians are subject to being arrested with no charges, held for as long as Israelis want and typically tortured. By the time the Palestinian returns home, his (or her) job could well be lost. In Gaza, this had happened to 100,000 men.

A public affairs television program considered covering this survey but ended up backing off to avoid offending its Jewish listeners! The unfortunate result of protecting Jewish sensibilities is public ignorance and the lack of understanding of rightful Palestinian anger. The only hope of true peace in this area is for the public to be confronted by the reality of this situation so that their governments will honor the legitimate rights of all parties.

Karin Brothers, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pen Pal Corner

Can you please list me in your Pen Pal Comer? I am a 22-year-old American male wishing to correspond with young people from anywhere in the Middle East, but especially from Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and Iran. My interests include acting, international relations (I work with a non-governmental organization), photography, and promoting the unity of mankind.

Glen Venezio, 88 Wilton Avenue, Middlesex, NY 08846-2572, USA