July/August 1995, pgs. 3, 94-96

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor are selected, edited and abridged 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.

No Longer Alone in America

In a bountiful land like the U.S., one can live a happy life, provided one is free from troubled old memories.

Because I saw with my own eyes when I was 17 years old what the violent creation of Israel did to the Palestinians in 1947-1948, happiness became an illusion. There is no happiness as long as there is injustice, particularly when the battleground for such an injustice is the bountiful land which one loves and cherishes. I am not a Palestinian.

Although I try to escape the past in order to fulfill my personal happiness, my old troubled memories keep haunting me. No escape. My affinity with the Palestinian tragedy has become total.

In the U.S., I felt alone, helpless and sad. The bountiful land can become an extremely hostile environment for anyone who seeks justice for the Palestinians. For decades, I wrote to congressmen, senators and presidents, asking for justice for the Palestinians. They replied politely but avoided the issue. My loneliness, helplessness and sadness had magnified until I came across the Washington Report by sheer accident, four years ago. I promptly subscribed. Ever since then, the Washington Report has transformed my aloneness, helplessness and sadness into something positive beyond description. I feel I have the Washington Report, its editors, reporters, writers and subscribers as my trusted friends and companions. I no longer feel alone or walk alone in a hostile environment.

Thank you all for being what you are: People of conscience and champions of justice.

Ned Ammari, Westerville, OH

You may have felt alone, but in fact you are part of a groundswell of informed public opinion that is rising, ever so slowly but surely, to sweep away the injustice, prejudice and conspiracies that have both paralyzed and penalized informed U.S. policymakers for the past half century. Only when U.S. Middle East policy becomes truly evenhanded will there be peace with justice in the Middle East. You, we, and all of our like-minded supporters are going to make that happen.

The Zionist Lobby Is Better Financed

I find the coverage in your magazine informative and interesting but also extremely frustrating and discouraging.

Despite valiant efforts by the WRMEA et al. it seems that the entrenched Zionist lobby and its supporters are able to vitiate and even stifle almost all criticism of Israeli policy.

This, in my opinion, can be attributed to the fact that they are more dedicated and better equipped financially than their opposition. Of course the major reason for the Zionist success is the gutless politicians who have put Israeli interests ahead of those of other constituents.

Last, but not least, is the pathetic attitude of the general public who accept the nonsense and distortion which masquerade as relevant, objective, news coverage.

J.P. Geoghegan, Mesa, AZ

Coverage for the Italian Public Too

As a contributor to Italian foreign affairs reviews I have keenly appreciated (since discovering it in 1991) the WRMEA and its realistic and outspoken editorial line, very unusual in the American press. Your factual coverage and interpretation of events, supported by incontrovertible documentation, is extremely accurate and informative, and I have circulated many issues of the Report among my colleagues, contributors to the five Italian quarterlies or monthly reviews dealing with international issues and foreign policy problems.

Dr. Vittorio Sanuineti, President, Intertech, Los Angeles, CA

Forty Years of Plundering

Unbiased sources of news in the U.S. with the exception of limited publications such as the Washington Times, Spotlight, etc., are rare indeed. Yours tops the list as most informative of all. Forty years of tyrannical plundering of the country can't be reversed overnight. With your help we can at least make a start. Keep the facts coming!

Mr. R. C. Tilton, Miami, FL

Divert the Funds

I am very much impressed by the articles of Rachelle Marshall. As a non-Jew who recognizes the great qualities and unique historical circumstances of the Jews, I would like to see a diversion of funds from the support of Zionism to aid for Jewish immigrants to the U.S.

John Randolph, Oxnard, CA

On Line With You at AET

I am a subscriber and I have been mentioning you on America Online. I hope this will pick up subscribers.

Sandra Semerdjian, Grand Blanc, MI

Indeed it does help. The U.S. is full of people seriously interested in the Middle East and U.S. relations with it. Once they learn about us they usually subscribe. And once they subscribe they renew, generally until death do us part. So any way our present subscribers can introduce potential new subscribers to us is more than useful, it's literally an existential matter for this magazine. Contributions to us from Americans doing business in the Middle East have dwindled steadily ever since the end of the Gulf war, when much of the Middle East market for U.S. goods went up in smoke, literally. Unless our subscription base expands accordingly, we're history. We're growing steadily, but not yet fast enough to fill the yawning chasm between income and outgo. Therefore the use by you and others of the internet to make us known is extremely important to our survival.

No Mention of a Wonderful Book

Thank you for your consistently informative magazine. I've benefitted greatly from reading it over the years and especially appreciate the book reviews you publish and the many books about the Middle East that are available through AET. I have been puzzled why you have not reviewed or even mentioned the 1994 children's book by Naomi Shihab Nye, entitled Sitti's Secrets. It is an exceptional picture book that illuminates both the Palestinian and Arab-American experience. The illustrations for the book, by Nancy Carpenter, virtually transport the reader into the Palestinian village.

I could gush about how fantastic the book is and how my children identify with the narrator, Mona, who travels from the U.S. to visit her Palestinian grandmother Sitti, but instead I'll just recommend that you get the book and see for yourself. Sitti's Secrets received a starred review in the School Library Journal and was named a Best Book 1994 by the same publication. I'm enclosing a copy of a review of the book that was published in the San Antonio Express-News last spring.

Sitti's Secrets can be ordered through any children's bookstore. If concerned parents and grandparents and nonparents asked their bookstores to stock this book, and if public libraries and school libraries kept this book in their collections, it would be another important chapter in telling the other side of the story.

Emily Smith, Alexandria, VA

Since you wrote your letter we have incorporated Sitti's Secrets into our book catalog, have mentioned it (see photo on p. 71 of our June issue), and certainly do recommend it.

Please Report More Lebanese News

I would like to know why you don't report more news about Lebanon like you report about Palestinians and Israelis.

Khalif Madarani, Newark, DE

Partly because we believe a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is a necessary prerequisite to a solution to Lebanon's problems. Nevertheless, read on.

Please, More About Lebanon

I think yours is a great magazine. However, I would like to see more articles about Lebanon.

Samia Gutting, Flushing, MI

Your wish is our command. See pp. 13 and 14.

Coming Home to Washington Report

Well, I managed to get by for a year without a subscription to your publication, visiting the library and Barnes and Noble bookstore to browse through copies, and complaining at B&N when they discontinued the Washington Report for some months. But I broke down the other day and bought your April/May issue, and now I feel it's time to get it through the mail once again. Keep up the good work.

John Hanson, Greenville, SC

Welcome home. But even though you're back, we hope you and other regular subscribers will keep an eye on local newsstands, bookstores and libraries and, if the Washington Report suddenly disappears, ask why. Both libraries and newsstands are essential ways to introduce ourselves to potential subscribers.

No One Contradicts My Letters

I use the information from the Washington Report when writing letters to the editor. Seldom is anyone able to contradict them. In fact, several have asked where I get this information and have been given your address.

H. Sherman, Ellsworth, WI

If someone questions the information you find in the Washington Report, you'd better start questioning them. We have the facts, all the facts, and we don't print them until we're sure of them.

Keeping and Lending WRMEA

I enjoy all of your issues and re-read old issues (I keep them all for future reference and often lend them). You provide information not available in other publications.

Dr. David Esmail, La Junta, CO

And we'll keep on doing so until that information is available in other publications—all of them.

I'd Be Lost Without You

The Washington Report is the only vehicle available to those of us interested in political, territorial and self-determination issues in the Middle East. I agree with your positions. You have the best interests of all in mind. Abandoned by Arab-American organizations I would be lost without you. Is it possible to do an article regarding the lack of concern by the Christian churches—Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox—about the status of Jerusalem and their acquiescence to the Israeli government?

Judith Howard, Alexandria, VA

We hope, instead, we'll be doing more articles about the real leaders among the Christian clergy waking up and speaking out about Christian issues in the Middle East.

By the Bucketful

The Washington Report is my number one source of information and insight on Middle East affairs. It is unequalled in rebutting the one-sided pablum sloshed by the bucketful from Washington, New York, Atlanta (CNN) and Hollywood. I'm pleased that you have achieved another milestone: 124 pages!

Paul A. Thomas, Chicago, IL

At age 13 we're still growing and our hormones are raging.

A Microfiche Discovery

Next to the Partition Plan and the 1947-48 war, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war was perhaps the most important ever in modern Middle East history, and my desire to learn everything I could about it led me to Donald Neff's definitive book, Warriors for Jerusalem (1988). The mountain of information he provides about the war includes a detailed account of the deliberate attack on the USS Liberty by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats on June 8th and a brief reference to the fact that, on the first day of the war, Israeli forces killed 14 Indian members of the UNEF and one Brazilian in Gaza. I had never heard about these incidents in Gaza and my search for information was rewarded when I discovered an article on microfiche from the June 16, 1967 issue of the Toronto Globe and Mail, which I quote as follows:

"Nicosia (CP)—Israeli attacks on the 1st Sikh Light Infantry [which was part of the UNEF] cost the battalion more casualties than it suffered in its bloodiest engagement in the 1965 Indian-Pakistan war, Indian officers have charged. A United Nations spokesman in New York said 14 Indians were killed and 16 were wounded. On the first day of the Israeli-Egyptian fighting, an Indian convoy was en route from Camp Rafah to Gaza flying the U.N. flag from each jeep and truck. The convoy met an Israeli tank column on the road. It pulled over to the side of the road and stopped to let the Israelis pass. The Israeli tanks went by. The fourth tank stopped, swivelled its turret on the convoy and opened fire from a range of a few feet. The Israeli tank rammed its gun through the windshield of an Indian jeep and decapitated the two men inside. When other Indians went to the assistance of their comrades they were mowed down by machine-gun fire. Another Israeli tank thrust its gun into a U.N. truck, lifted it up and smashed it down on the ground, killing or wounding the occupants. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli tanks put six rounds into the U.N. headquarters, which was flying the U.N. flag. Three more Indian soldiers were killed. One Indian officer said it was deliberate cold-blooded killing of unarmed U.N. soldiers...

"Yesterday Israel offered to pay compensation, at the level customary in India, to families of Indian soldiers killed or wounded in the Gaza Strip on the first day of the war. However, an official announcement rejected the Indian charges that the casualties were caused by a deliberate attack on the Sikhs...In Cyprus there is mounting fury among members of the UNEF at what happened to the Sikhs, to the point where some officers say Israel should be expelled from the U.N."

I trust your readers will find this informative. Let us bear in mind that as we pay tribute to those 34 American sailors who were killed and the 171 who were wounded by Israel aboard the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967, we should also remember the innocent and unarmed representatives of the U.N. who were murdered or wounded by Israel three days earlier in the Gaza Strip on June 5, 1967.

Gary D. Keenan, Vancouver, B.C. Canada

And what about the Brazilian? It isn't just our readers who will find your account informative. It was unknown to or forgotten by all but one member of our paid and volunteer staff, and three of us were there—personally caught up in the 1967 war. It shows how fallible is human memory if not regularly jostled or reinforced by the media which, of course, is silent when it comes to inconvenient facts about the Middle East. We wonder if the Indian media has drawn a similar shroud of silence over these tragic events.

Telling Me Things I Should Know

As an American whose father was Lebanese and whose family lost a very large farm in Palestine in the disaster of 1948, I have always maintained an interest in the Middle East. Until subscribing to the Washington Report I did not receive nearly enough information on the Israeli/Palestinian issue—and what was received was the normal bias toward Israel. I love your magazine and devour it as it arrives.

I had a glimmer of hope for the Palestinians when the peace process was announced but now consider it a sham. I am ashamed that our president and his secretary of state don't demand that the Israelis cease the continued confiscation of Palestinian land on the West Bank.

The present administration spoke forcefully as to the Arab boycott of Israel and how it should end, yet ignores the land confiscation issue. It is, however, understandable as, like most politicians, they are owned by AIPAC. I have written many letters to members of Congress who support Israeli interests with greater dedication than they do the interests of the U.S. I end my letters by asking, "How does it feel to be owned by AIPAC?" My father was the most principled man I've ever known and due to his influence I can't comprehend how one could sell his integrity to a foreign government, or to anyone else for that matter.

I would ask that you keep my response anonymous. For many years I was very outspoken on the issue, but for the time cannot be. The latter comment is one I can't go into, but is a story in itself.

Anonymous, Wisconsin

We hope someday you'll feel free to tell us the story. Unless one personally has experienced the vindictive power of the advertisers, employers, board members, publishers and lobbyists who provide teeth of the trap that chains U.S. power to Israeli interests, it's impossible to comprehend how the Zionist enterprise in America really works.

Just as Valuable Down Under

I like the Washington Report as it is interesting, informative and providing valuable information that I can put to good use.

Jane Howarth, Birchgrove, NSW, Australia

You merely like us? Whatever happened to love? Or is this just Aussie understatement?

Helping to Curb My Anger

The Washington Report is very effective in keeping my anger toward U.S./Israeli relations under control by explaining the how and why of Mideast-related issues. Your media and election watch reports are invaluable.

Nick L. Roussas, Cargo, FL

Let's hope that in 1996 those election watch reports begin to shape a bloc of American one-issue voters for human rights, self-determination and fair play in the Middle East. Otherwise what's the point of what we're all trying to do?

Letters Right on Target

Attached are three of my letters and one from Professor Hamdani of the University of Wisconsin published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I think it is excellent and right on target.

John L. Hughes, Milwaukee, WI

We share your assessment as well as your opinions. Professor Hamdani's letter and one of yours are in this issue's "Other People's Mail," starting on page 80.

Keep it Up

You do good and necessary work. Please keep it up.

Lilian A. Ambrosino, Newton, MA

Our Puppet State or Vice Versa?

Can you believe it! At a time when our government is getting ready to slash some of our programs, causing many to suffer, we will continue to send Israel three billion dollars! Is this our puppet state or is it vice versa?

We have helped tear the fabric of the Palestinians' world, but we will never destroy their spirit. Their faith is too strong and they believe that God will some day bring peace to this sacred part of the world. We could make a difference if we were even a "little bit" evenhanded.

Yes, I do love my country, but I don't have to like some of our policies, and thank God I have the freedom to say it.

Margaret Marrash, Charlotte, NC

A Few Americans Understand

The Washington Report tells me that there are at least a few in the U.S. who understand the U.S. stance vis-â-vis the Middle East, especially Israel. My frustration is how come such logical views, which are really in the interest of the U.S. itself, are not known to most Americans.

Moinduddin Ahmed, Charleston, WV

Stand by us and they will be.

The Importance of Islam

Islam being one of the most important role players in the future of the world, we need to understand it. The Washington Report is the perfect channel through which the voices of Muslims in the Middle East reach the ears of the U.S. elite—intellectuals and activists. These voices often are suppressed by their respective governments on one side, and misrepresented by the mainstream U.S. media on the other side. So, please give space to the representatives of different Islamic movements to present to the public their agendas and their views.

Mr. and Mrs. Hussam Ayloush, Placentia, CA

We'll do our best but it's not easy. When we present an article straight from the heart of a sincere but troubled Muslim, such as the article on Chechnya on p. 12 of this issue, we always get one or two letters saying, "I had no idea you had become so Islamic!" In fact, collectively, we're not Christian, Deist, humanist, Jewish, Muslim or secular but, rather, all of those things because of the individual identities of our writers. Collectively, all we are is authentic, and that's all that we aspire to be.

How Can I Help Mordechai Vanunu?

I have read bits and pieces on Mr. Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed the Israeli nuclear arms program to the London Sunday Times in 1986. He was apparently kidnapped and imprisoned by the Israelis and has been in solitary confinement ever since. Is there anything I, as only one U.S. citizen, can do to help this poor man? This punishment appears to be not only illegal but unnecessarily cruel. Have you done a full story on this? If not, I think your readers would find it to be of interest. Could you also publish the mailing addresses of the Israeli and Palestinian Embassies so I can write them? Thanks.

Kenneth E. Iman, York, PA

We have written about Mordechai Vanunu from time to time and at least two of our regular writers claim personal credit for the original suggestion of an exchange of prisoners, Mordechai Vanunu for Jonathan Pollard. We think this makes sense for those who depict either as prisoners of conscience deserving release since their crimes were committed in pursuit of what they thought was right. We suggest readers deeply distrust the motives of "committees" that want the release of one but not the other. If you want to help Vanunu, a letter to the prime minister of Israel is the way to go. If you like the exchange idea, a letter to the president of the U.S. may be the best route. The addresses you request are Embassy of Israel, 3514 International Dr. N.W., Washington, DC 20008, fax (202) 364-5610 and, since there's no Palestinian Embassy yet, Palestine Liberation Organization Office, 1730 K Street N.W., Suite 1004, Washington, DC 20006, fax (202) 887-5337.

An American for Justice and Sanity

Over 30 years ago after studying the origins of Zionism, the writings of anti-Zionist Jews early in this century, the genetic and historical origins of the Ashkenazi Jewish people, the nature of the Yiddish language, and the views of Arabs as witnessed from their own literature, I started a personal crusade to inform people. Despite my references, I was laughed at and received threats by phone and through the U.S. postal service. By 1980 I gave up and ignored the situation. But as fate, or God, would have it, after I retired in 1989 I met my neighbor here in the mountains who is a retired United Nations legal adviser, an expert in international law, who spent a number of years in the Near East. He introduced me to the Washington Report. The publication has renewed my faith and hope for eventual justice for the Palestinians and the collapse of insanity. I can only wonder why it took until 1982 for a publication such as the Washington Report to come along.

As an American whose ancestry for the most part goes back to the English colonies, while all of my ancestry traces back to pre-Civil War times, I am only interested in justice and sanity.

William H. Strange, M.D., Fort Garland, CO

The real miracle is how we've kept the magazine going since 1982 as a non-profit organization without an endowment and one that has no "agenda" except truth in the service of peace with justice in the Middle East. We therefore sooner or later step on the toes of every concerned nation, including the U.S., which precludes any of the cozy arrangements that keep the Zionist press well-endowed and funded by never criticizing Israel. Perhaps our greatest service is to the mental health of Americans like you, who learned the truth but then found it hard to gain an audience. We can assure you that audience is growing, like our circulation, and some day sanity about the Middle East will replace the Israel-focused axe-grinding that dictates U.S. Middle East policy at present. Thanks, not incidently, for your very generous contribution to our financial health and welcome to our choir of angels.

Disasters of Equal Magnitude?

Please find enclosed copies of two letters; one I sent to Time magazine and the other is their response. As you can see I sent the letter dated Dec. 7, 1994 to Time after reading an article about Jesse Helms and his support for Israel. I have been subscribing to your publication for some time now so I thought I would write them and correct their figure of $1.2 billion in aid that Israel receives from the United States. However, they are disputing the figure of $6.321 billion that I describe in my letter. The figures I sent them come from your Feb./Mar. 1994 article entitled, "California Earthquake and Aid to Israel:Disasters of Equal Magnitude?" My question is this, are they correct or are you? Or did I read the breakdown incorrectly? The way I interpreted those figures you give is that it costs the U.S. taxpayers six billion dollars per year to support Israel. I was hoping that you could clear this up for me.

Donald P. Pollard, Chicago, IL

Our figure is correct. The response to you from Gloria Hammond of Time magazine indicates that Time was referring to economic grant aid only and omitting the larger military grant aid. Nor does she address the clear explanation in your letter that the total of $6.3 billion in annual U.S. aid to Israel in 1993 and the similar totals for 1994 and 1995 include the $2 billion in loan guarantees extended annually to Israel. Either she gave you a boilerplate response without reading your one-page letter, or she simply chose to ignore your accurate presentation of the figures from the itemized box contained in every issue of this magazine for at least the past year. Our guess is that if you had photocopied our article, or at least the box, you would not have received a response at all because our numbers for 1993, ferreted out of various parts of the public record by writer Frank Collins and verified by sources in both the executive and legislative branches (on condition that we withhold their names), are irrefutable. Many readers have suggested that our interpretation of the annual cost of Israel is too low (including Mr. Collins who suggests that we should rightfully add the interest on previous aid to Israel, which would put the annual total past $11 billion). However, we have never received a letter suggesting our total is too high—because it isn't.