July 1996, pg. 138

American Educational Trust Publishers’ Page

Read This, Dammit!

Forgive us for the language, but we had to get your attention because......

We Think This Is Something Big!

At this writing Sen. Bob Dole’s poll numbers have just risen dramatically. We know there will be many more ups and downs, zigs and zags. Dole may forget again that he’s not in Kansas (or its seat in the Senate) anymore and say something even dumber than what he said about tobacco. President Bill Clinton may slip out from under the path of the Whitewater deluge headed downstream. And given the track record of the playful kids in the White House, maybe voters really will believe the lies, deceit and disappearances are just the doings of an incompetent staff.

Or Maybe They Won’t!

So right now it’s shaping up as a very close race—with big unknowns still ahead such as who will fill the crucial position of Dole running mate, and from whom a Perot party candidacy, if there is one, would take the most votes. We don’t even know who’s most likely to win, and neither does anyone else.

And That’s Our Important Point!

We think it’s the very first chance in the 40 years we’ve obsessively watched the effects of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute on American domestic politics, and vice versa, that the Middle East peace camp...

Could Swing a Presidential Election.

We mean it! We’re absolutely convinced we have the numbers, and in all the right places: Muslims, Christian Arab Americans, Jewish and Christian peace activists, other small but active groups too numerous to name, and of course the old Middle East hands—meaning all Americans with brains and compassion who have lived and worked in the Middle East. We lay out the numbers and elaborate on the idea in our election watch article on p. 15 of this issue.

It May Also Be the Last Chance...

For another 40 years. So please don’t stop reading.

The Problem, As We See it...

Is not whether a bloc vote on the presidential candidate by all of the above could provide the winning margin. Instead...

The Problem, As We See It...

Is getting all the members of the bloc to agree on the same candidate. Some people like Dole so much they can forgive his pander of a year ago on moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Some people like Clinton so much they can forgive him his record of letting the Israelis go right on thickening settlements and cutting up the West Bank with bypass roads in defiance of U.S. law which requires the president to deduct a dollar from U.S. loan guarantees to Israel for every dollar the Israelis spend on settlements. Some people are so disgusted with both candidates for the reasons above, they probably...

Would Vote for the Devil Himself...

If he appeared on the ticket of Ross Perot’s party. But if we all take the latter attitude, we’re all doomed to 40 more years of political marginalization. We realize that most of...

Our Readers are Political Animals.

They wouldn’t be subscribers if they weren’t. Such issues as Clean Water, Endangered Species, Animal Rights, Pro-Choice or Pro-Life, Family Planning, Guns (for or against), Welfare Reform, Immigration, Free Trade or Protecting U.S. Workers, and a Balanced Budget may loom just as large in your thinking as the human rights issues dealt with in this magazine. But, we submit, a chance like this...

Comes Once in a Lifetime.

On p. 15 of this issue we present the first individual opinion on who should be the presidential candidate of a bloc vote by those who support peace and justice (or a land-for-peace settlement) in the Middle East. In the next issue we hope to present contesting individual endorsements of the Democratic, Republican and Perotista candidates by authors you respect. And we’ll fill the letters to the editors column with other endorsements by our subscribers, seeking to allocate the space fairly in proportion to the viewpoints received. To save space in expressions of those viewpoints, please don’t cite the bad or good guys in Congress from each party to buttress your case for a presidential candidate from that party. We think all readers can agree that on Middle East issues the Democrats, for example, have a very good guy, Robert Byrd, and also a very bad guy, Daniel Inouye, in the Senate. And in the House, just as there are bad Republicans like Benjamin Gilman, there are bad Democrats like Charles Schumer on this issue. So what?

We’re Talking Presidents Here!

Also, please don’t write us about other independent candidates who aren’t even registered in all 50 states. We’re not wasting our precious space on people who don’t care about whether they actually win. And we urge you not to waste your precious votes on in-your-face gestures that may give you great personal satisfaction, but about which...

No One Else Gives a Hoot...

Or even a holler. So please read the article on why a bloc vote is important on p. 15. Then, if you agree, read the first endorsement of an individual candidate for that bloc vote on p. 15. And then write us for possible inclusion in our next August/September issue why you agree with that endorsement, or who you endorse instead, and why, in terms of your candidate’s...

Middle East Record or Positions.

Whew! Imagine Something So Big...

That it ate up nearly all the space we usually reserve to tell our readers how they can help us and what we think they can do in the next six weeks to help make a difference.

Well, It Is That Important.

In the U.S. and in the Mideast.

There’s Just One More Thing…

We have to say, even at the risk of breaking the mood. We’ve had a terrible fund-raising year so far in 1996. On p. 137 is a list of people who have helped us get to June 30. Frankly, unless we raise $100,000 more between now and Dec. 30, we’ll be forced to start a metamorphosis, not from a caterpiller to a butterfly, but the other way. Remember when we were a little eight-page newsletter with no photos? Back then folks told us it was alternately fun, stimulating and maddening to read (there wasn’t room to be all three in the same issue), but we knew it was so anemic that it couldn’t stand unsupported on the newsstand and library shelves from which we now draw so many new subscribers.

So Please Give...

Gift subscriptions at $20 each to your friends, family members and to local public and school libraries or send the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment a check. We’ll use some of the money to pay the printer and the rest to get the magazine to libraries that already have requested it and to talk show hosts, editors and other opinion makers who already have demonstrated they will read what we have to say when our readers help us get the magazine to them.

If You Help Keep Us Alive...

You’ll Make a Difference This Month!