Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1999, pages 89-93

Other People’s Mail

Some letters by or to other people are as informative for our readers as anything we might write ourselves.

Righteous Albanians

To the Washington Jewish Week, April 22, 1999 (as published).

In the past several days, the local media have repeated a statement which troubles me greatly. It has been stated that “during World War II, Serbia helped Jews, while the Muslim Albanians allied themselves with the Nazis.”

Having lived in Albania from March 1939 to September 1945, I have to repudiate this erroneous statement. Albania was one of the only European countries that did not turn over a single Jew to the Germans. There simply were no deportations from Albania.

My parents and I, along with many other German and Austrian families, found refuge in Albania and were hidden by Albanians during the German occupation of that country. In 1941, when Germany occupied Yugoslavia, hundreds of Yugoslavian Jews were able to escape to the safety of Albania because the Albanian government opened the border at Kosovo and let as many Jews into the country as were able to escape from the pursuing German army. It is a documented fact that the German general in Belgrade knew the names of all those who had escaped across the border and demanded their return within 48 hours. The Albanian government, instead of turning over even a single Jew, dispersed them in villages and on farms, gave them Albanian names and documents and then reported back to the German general in Belgrade: “We know no Jews. We know only Albanians.”

I personally have no knowledge as to how the Serbs behaved toward the Jews, but the statement about the Albanians is simply incorrect. Albanians, whether Muslim or Christian, are the most hospitable, generous and kind human beings. It should be emphasized that this was not just an act of their customary, known hospitality, this was an act of personal courage. They simply placed their belief in the necessity to help those in need above their and their family’s safety.

One only need go to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and find the long list of names of those Albanians who have been honored as Righteous Among the Nations. Considering the fact that the population of Albania in those years was not larger than one million citizens, the number of honorees is disproportionately large.

Johanna J. Neumann, Silver Spring, MD

Israeli Demolitions

To Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Washington, DC, April 19, 1999.

I am writing to express my alarm at the demolition by Israeli forces of two Palestinian houses in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem today, and to request specific measures by the United States to prevent further such Israeli abuses. Thirty people, the majority of them children, have been rendered homeless by this latest Israeli action, which is a direct violation of Article 53 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and of numerous United Nations Security Council Resolutions, including, but not limited to, Resolutions 267 and 298.

The first house demolished belonged to Bassam Tarweh. It had four rooms covering only 700 square feet, and housed 22 people, of whom 14 are children. The family had lived in the house for two years. The second house demolished was that of 40-year-old Khawla Omr As-Sheikh, who had only lived in the house with her husband and six children for 25 days. When Israeli forces came to demolish the house, Khawla, who suffers from a serious kidney condition, fainted and was taken to the hospital in a police car after an ambulance was denied entrance to the area of the house demolition. I received this information from LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment.

I am writing to request that the United States take concrete measures to prevent Israel from carrying out further such illegal actions, which are calculated to change the demographic character of Jerusalem and its environs and rid it of its non-Jewish population.

While your cautious statements of criticism of Israeli settlement, demolition and expulsion policies have been welcome, they have had absolutely no practical effect, as the State Department’s own analyses have concluded. I therefore urge you to urgently consider measures to suspend or delay the transfer of my hard-earned money to Israel until Israel ceases and desists from its measures to cleanse Jerusalem of its Palestinian population.

Ali Abunimah, Chicago, IL

Another Home Destroyed

To Congressman James H. Maloney (D-CT), Washington, DC, April 19, 1999.

I am enclosing a postcard depicting two Palestinian children sitting atop the rubble of their home, a home destroyed to make way for more illegal Israeli settlements. The look of despair and hopelessness in children so young is heartwrenching.

I am also enclosing this letter inside a card documenting some of the many and continuing injustices perpetrated against the Palestinian people from 1947 through the present. These ongoing violations of basic human rights against the Palestinians by the Israeli government are both morally and legally wrong.

As long as our government continues to support the Israeli government and fanatical settlers, both financially and diplomatically, there will always be willing candidates to drive bomb-laden trucks to our embassies or to strap explosives to their bodies and detonate these bombs in crowded marketplaces, killing civilians.

Our government needs to support human rights universally, whether they are violated in Kosovo, Israel/Palestine, Kashmir or Turkey. We cannot be selective nor can we continue to support such violations in the United Nations or through taxpayer dollars. We, as the sole remaining superpower, need to show the world compassion, not cruise missiles. We need to hear the voice of the oppressed or we will continue to be the target of frustrated, misguided but utterly desperate peoples who have nowhere else to turn.

Please help those courageous Israeli people who reject their government’s policies and the Palestinian people who reject retribution but who work and speak out on behalf of peace in the Holy Land for all—Christians, Jews and Muslims. Thank you for your consideration in this most important matter.

Judy Amarah, Danbury, CT

Israeli-Palestinian Peace

To the Christian Science Monitor, May 17, 1999 (as published).

The Monitor’s writers do not advise Slobodan Milosevic, or Yugoslavia’s government, on how to achieve efficiency of government when their proper desire is to end his government’s human rights violations in Kosovo. Why then does Steve Yetiv’s opinion article focus on steps Israel should take to make its government more efficient, rather than focusing on steps Israel should take—or, more to the point, steps the U.S. should take—to ensure a just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace? (“Israel: It’s time to unify,” May 12). It should be the U.S. goal to end Israel’s violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people, especially through Israel’s contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Mr. Yetiv’s explicit concern that Israel’s government avoid “excessive concessions to the Palestinians” rings in my ears like a fear that Mr. Milosevic might give in, excessively, to the Kosovars. Would it be excessive concession if Israel withdrew its settlers from all occupied territories, including occupied Jerusalem, as required by international law? Would it be excessive concession if Israel stopped administrative detention, torture, the closure of towns, the dynamiting and bulldozing of Palestinian houses?

Would it be excessive concession if Israel agreed to the land-for-peace formula of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967, relinquishing control of the territories it occupied in 1967 to the Palestinians, who recognized Israel’s “right to exist” in 1988, now that Israel is at peace with Egypt and Jordan?

Peter Belmont, Brooklyn, NY

Food For Thought

To the Austin American-Statesman, May 19, 1999 (as submitted).

1999: Over 750,000 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Yugoslavia are forced out of their land into neighboring countries by the Serbian military. Men were massacred; homes were burned by the Serbs. The U.S. and other NATO forces mount a large aerial bombardment of Serbia to force an end to the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

1948: Over 750,000 native Palestinians are driven out of their ancestral land in Palestine by Zionist terrorists and Jewish militias when the state of Israel was formed. Massacres occurred; over 400 entire villages were demolished. The U.S. took no action against Israel for this ethnic cleansing. To the contrary, the U.S. has given Israel over $80 billion since that time even though the oppression of the Palestinian people continues to this day.

William V. Kelly, Austin, TX

Poor Students

To the (Nova Scotia, Canada) Chronicle-Herald, The Mail-Star, April 27, 1999 (as published).

Moshe Ronen, national president, Canadian Jewish Congress, writes eloquently about the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi crimes against Jewish and other peoples (April 13). He also observes, rightly, that “our thoughts today turn to the horrors of Kosovo and the catastrophe and ethnic cleansing inflicted upon ethnic Albanians.”

Interestingly, he has no recollection of the massacres and the brutal ethnic cleansing inflicted upon the Palestinian people by his friends in Israel who, in 1948, brought about the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland and demolished 418 of their towns and villages.

The horrors we see in Kosovo today I saw with my own eyes in Palestine in 1948. Those Palestinians remain to this day huddled in refugee camps waiting to return to their homes and are not allowed to do so by Israel, in defiance of international law and repeated U.N. resolutions.

Mr. Ronen states correctly that “the world is a poor student.” The majority of Jewish people in Israel and outside are among the poor students of history.

Renowned British historian Arnold Toynbee, in a 1961 lecture at McGill University, told his mostly Jewish audience: “The Jewish people’s treatment of the Arabs [in Palestine] in 1948 was as morally indefensible as the slaughter by the Nazis of six million Jews....The most tragic thing in human life is when people who have suffered impose suffering in their turn.”

Ismail Zayid, MD, President, Canada Palestine Assn., Halifax

Don’t Israelis See Parallel Between Kosovars and Palestinians?

To The Washington Post, April 11, 1999 (as submitted).

Reference the article by Lee Hockstader in your issue of April 9 (“In Refugees, Many Israelis See Themselves”): Is there no one with the courage or honesty to say that the nearest parallel in the past 50 years to what the Serbs are doing to the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo is what the Israelis themselves have done to the Arabs in Palestine? There are differences, of course. The Arabs have no hope whatever of returning to their homes, and the United States actively colluded in and supported the actions of the Jewish conquerors in Palestine.

The Israelis “see themselves” in the plight of the ethnic Albanians? Are they so blind that they do not see the Palestinian Arabs? Or are they hoping that no one else will call attention to the parallel?

John K. Moriarty, Manassas, VA

“Null and Void”

To the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, March 19, 1999 (as submitted).

Recently the Associated Press reported the statement of Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon that “any recognition of Jerusalem as a separate entity from Israel is ‘null and void.’” Based on actual facts, Sharon was 180 degrees from the truth. The term “null and void” actually comes from two U.N. Security Council resolutions passed in 1980 condemning Israel’s illegal annexation of territories!

Specifically, Resolution 465 of March 1, 1980 affirms that the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) applies to all the Arab territories captured by Israel and that all changes in the territories made by Israel have no legal validity, and that Jewish settlements, including those in East Jerusalem, are a “flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

U.N. Resolution 478 of Aug. 20, 1980 censures Israel for failure to comply with other U.N. resolutions and declares the annexation of East Jerusalem (July 1980) a violation of international law and null and void.

Both resolutions are described in a Charley Reese column reprinted on page 55 of the May/June 1991 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

W.H. Koehler, Littlefield, TX

A Rock-Thrower’s Tale

To The Washington Post Magazine, April 25, 1999 (as published).

I would like to congratulate your magazine on publishing Geraldine Brooks’s “Peace in His Time” [Feb. 14]. Ms. Brooks managed to capture the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict from a very human perspective. Very few American writers have achieved such an understanding before. She has demonstrated a great deal of courage in getting so close to Palestinian refugee life. You have also once again demonstrated sensitivity to diverse human experiences and perspectives by publishing this article.

Hany Eldeib, Burke, VA

Illuminates a Broad Issue

To The Washington Post Magazine , April 25, 1999 (as published).

I have worked on Middle East issues for the past 25 years. I have lived in the Middle East for 14 years, including three years in Jerusalem. Geraldine Brooks’s article captures the tragedy of the Arab-Israeli conflict better than all the news stories, academic studies or government reports I have seen in that time. It is rare to read of the conflict from the point of view of someone like Raed. Rarer still that his perspective is used so skillfully to illuminate the broader issue.

Douglas R. Keene, McLean, VA

(Washington Report’ seditor’s note: Another version of Ms. Brooks’ article reprinted from a newspaper in her native Australia is on p. OV-1 of Other Voices, bound into this issue of the Washington Report. A report by Ms. Brooks on the reaction to her original article is on p. 51 of this issue of the Washington Report.)

Don’t Disgrace University

To President Lee Bollinger, President, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, May 21, 1999.

It has come to my attention that the University of Michigan is planning to award an honorary degree to Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak. I hope by now you have learned why this would disgrace the university. If that is not the case, here is what you should know.

Israel is the only country in the world which authorizes the use of torture against prisoners. This is not just in cases of “ticking bombs,” as the Israelis tell gullible Westerners, but in all cases, virtually without exception as best I can tell, of non-Jews arrested in the occupied territories. These arrestees over the years have included American citizens of Palestinian extraction. I personally have spoken to some of them and spent an evening with one of them, Mohamad Salah of Bridgeview, IL, on May 8 of this year.

I won’t burden you with the details, which invariably include a beating in the patrol car taking the victim to the police station, the hooding of the victim in a foul-smelling mask that may be left on for hours or even days, handcuffing of the prisoner in extremely painful positions which often include actually being suspended from the ceiling by handcuffs behind the prisoner’s back, being stripped naked and doused with freezing water and then left under an air conditioner, routine and repeated beating by the “bad cop” who alternates with the “good cop”: who profers a confession in Hebrew with warnings that the torture won’t end until either the prisoner signs or dies. Not incidently, the torture includes threats of and sometimes actual sexual assault very much like that in the currently much-publicized Abner Louima case in New York.

The difference is that in New York City the principal perpetrator was tried and convicted. In Jerusalem the perpetrators are guaranteed immunity, even when the torture to obtain a confession results in the death of the prisoner. (I can’t say “accused” because the charges aren’t filed until after the victim has signed the false confession, thus ensuring a speedy trial and unfailing conviction.)

A person who has authorized this medieval system, which is worse than the Spanish Inquisition because the Israeli system of justice is an integral part of its program of systematic “ethnic cleansing” of Christian and Muslim Palestinians from Palestine, is none other than Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak. I sincerely believe he, along with Ariel Sharon and others involved in this inhuman regime, will eventually be in the docket as war criminals. What will be the effect on the reputations of the University of Michigan, and its president, when it becomes known that Justice Barak received his honorary degree after his crimes had been committed and publicized?

But you surely know all this and will stop this travesty. I will conclude by adding that my family had extensive ties to the University of Michigan and owned property in Ann Arbor until the 1960s. Right now I writhe with shame for them and all others who were always so proud of that university. For their sake I will do my best to publicize this horror, if it takes place, as widely as possible.

Kurt Holden, correspondent, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Washington, DC

Elie Wiesel: Ethnic Chauvinist!

To the Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1999 (as submitted).

Michael McGuire certainly forgot that he was a journalist when he wrote his “puff” piece about Elie Wiesel. Surely, to claim that Wiesel “is a monument to 20th century conscience” is to claim what can only be described as arrant nonsense.

This is Elie Wiesel’s credo, which has nothing to do with morality, justice or the well-being of humanity:

“I support Israel—period. I identify with Israel—period. I never attack, never criticize Israel when I am not in Israel.” (The Fateful Triangle: the United States, Israel, and the Palestinians, by Noam Chomsky, p. 16).

I am aware of no evidence that Elie Wiesel ever criticized Israel when in Israel either.

Thus Elie Wiesel stands exposed as a typical ethnic/religious chauvinist. As the statement quoted above shows, he cares not a fig about the million Palestinians ethnically cleansed from Palestine in 1948 and 1967, for if he did he would have to—horror of horrors—“criticize Israel.”

When anyone puts ethnicity, religion, nationality or any other mark that separates one human being from another above humanity and the moral values of the human race itself—that person can hardly be called “a monument to 20th century conscience.”

William Gartland, Rio, WI

Attack on Tunisian Journalist

To His Excellency Zine El-Abdine Ben Ali, President of the Republic of Tunisia c/o His Excellency Noureddine Mejjoub, Tunisian Ambassador to the United States, May 21, 1999.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged over yesterday’s assault on journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, a free-lance reporter working for a number of European newspapers, including the Paris-based daily La Croix.

CPJ has learned that on May 20 at about 1 p.m., Ben Brik was assaulted outside his home by three men, wielding bicycle chains. Ben Brik reportedly suffered mild lacerations to his right hand before escaping the attack. He was treated later that day in the hospital for his injuries.

This violent attack appears to represent the most recent incident of official harassment against Ben Brik in response to his professional work. We last wrote to Your Excellency on April 30, 1999, protesting the Tunisian authorities’ refusal to allow him to travel outside the country. On April 28, 1999, Ben Brik was prevented by Tunisian authorities from leaving the country for a planned trip to Switzerland after police at the Tunis-Carthage Airport confiscated his passport.

As we noted in our April 30 letter, Ben Brik has experienced other forms of aggravation: his telephone and fax lines have been regularly interrupted, his wife’s car was vandalized in front of his home in January and he has received anonymous threatening phone calls.

CPJ respectfully urges Your Excellency to ensure that authorities initiate an immediate and thorough investigation into this deplorable assault and we urge that the findings of the investigation are made public. We also ask you to ensure that those found responsible for this crime are swiftly brought to justice. Finally, we reiterate our call to the Tunisian authorities to cease their harassment of Taufik Ben Brik and allow him to carry out his professional duties without state interference.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to your prompt reply.

Ann K. Cooper, Executive Director, Committee to Protect Journalists, via e-mail

Ad-Influenced Media Coverage

To the (Geneva, NY) Finger Lakes Times , May 2, 1999 (as published).

The media frenzy in reporting every lurid detail of the massacre at Columbine High is in sharp contrast to the limited reporting of a far more brutal massacre five years ago.

In that case an American doctor entered a house of worship and shot people in the back while they knelt in prayer. He reloaded five times; in the end he managed to kill 29 and wound over 150 before his remaining victims finally overpowered him and pummeled him to death. Why the difference in media attention?

Maybe it was because the killer, Barry Goldstein, was a man and not a 17- or 18-year-old boy. On the other hand Barry was four times more efficient than were the two Columbine boys who only killed 6.5 people each. Maybe it was because Barry used a fully automatic assault rifle instead of a semi-automatic one used at Columbine; or maybe it was because Barry was legally permitted to carry such a weapon while none of his victims were allowed to do so under the racist gun control laws of the region.

Maybe it was because those who were killed and wounded were only Arabs, and we Americans are taught by the media that Arabs don’t count. Maybe shooting people in the back is less newsworthy than shooting them face-to-face. Maybe shooting kids in a school is more sensational than shooting men in a mosque. None of the families of Barry’s victims were interviewed by Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, and Tom Brokaw in spite of the fact that many spoke perfectly good English.

Could it be that brown-skinned victims don’t sell advertisements as well as do white-skinned victims?

Today in Israel there is a great memorial, not to Barry’s victims, but to Barry himself. On his massive stone tomb are written words describing poor Barry as holy and as a martyr. There are plenty of benches and in a garden-like atmosphere, you can light a candle and place a small stone on his grave and say a prayer for this violent, racist, messianic killer. But if that is newsworthy, you won’t hear it on National Public Radio.

Dan McGowan, Geneva, NY

Israelis Have Taken Land From Lebanon

To the Vero Beach, FL Press Journal, March 16, 1999 (as published).

Your March 1 story, “Roadside bombs kill general, three other Israelis in Lebanon” was inconclusive. It is wrong to call Lebanese people guerrillas or terrorists when they defend their homes against illegal theft and demolition by Israel.

Two months ago, Israel demolished a Lebanese home, killing a mother and five children. In April 1996, we read that Israel attacked a U.N. refugee camp, killing 100 innocent adults and children, but they were not called guerrillas. Why not?

Israel steals topsoil from Lebanon and moves it to Israel in vehicles furnished by the United States. Now Lebanon will have to buy most of its food produce from Israel.

Villagers protested that they are imprisoned in their homes without food and water. Israel uses fences and minefields to illegally occupy Lebanon. Israel admitted theft and it uses said land for testing weapons of mass destruction.

Israel has more weapons of mass destruction than Iraq, including nuclear, chemical, biological ones, but nothing is done about sanctioning Israel. America never hears about these horrors when a nation has a controlled government and news media.

It’s time for Israel to end its illegal occupation of stolen land and it’s time the news media bring this to American attention.

In March 1978, a U.N. Security Council resolution demanded unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, but the U.S. news media and Washington remain silent.

General James David, Marietta, GA and Carl Greeley, Barefoot Bay, FL

Threats of Anti-Semitism

To the San Francisco Chronicle, April 20, 1999 (as published).

Thank you, Scott Winokur, for the courage to speak honestly regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine. For too long the threat of anti-Semitic labeling has kept many from openly criticizing the violent and degrading methods with which Israel continues to stifle the Palestinian people.

As Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues his divisive policies, more and more Americans are beginning to question the intelligence of our sending $3 billion in annual support for his anti-peace efforts. If we expect the world to take us seriously as a global policeman, we had better put our money where our mouth is.

David J. Silveira, San Francisco, CA

My Son, Alfredo Tello

To The Washington Post, April 4, 1999 (as published).

I am the mother of Alfredo Tello. Two years ago, my son, Freddy, was brutally beaten, dismembered and burned beyond recognition.

Two Maryland teenagers have been accused of this murder: Samuel Sheinbein and Aaron Needle. These young men allegedly outlined how to commit the perfect murder, just for the thrill of it. My son’s life didn’t matter to them, but it meant the world to me.

Aaron Needle committed suicide the day before his trial. However, Samuel Sheinbein, with his parents’ help, fled to Israel and claimed citizenship in a so-far-successful attempt to avoid trial in the United States. The hateful crime that ended my child’s life has left me numb. Freddy’s death, the way he died, Sheinbein’s escape: Layer after layer, my reality became more and more nightmarish.

Samuel Sheinbein’s escape to Israel meant that he could be tried as a juvenile—cutting his possible jail time by three-fourths—live in a prison complex more akin to a college campus, receive weekend passes to spend with his family and have face-to-face visitors while in prison.

I believe that Israel’s law of providing a safe haven for all citizens was meant to safeguard its people from persecution, not protect them from legitimate criminal prosecution. After the Holocaust, Jewish and human rights organizations around the world sought Nazi war criminals to bring them to justice for their horrendous crimes. Now the tables are turned: Samuel Sheinbein is an American citizen, his alleged crime was horrendous and was committed on U.S. soil. How can there be any justice or any sense in this situation?

I tried to fight back. I contacted the relevant Maryland and Hispanic members of Congress, my senators, national Hispanic civil rights groups. I was ignored. Yes, I got letters back—enough to give the senders political cover. But no one met with me. I needed these leaders to speak out to the press, to express their outrage over this matter, but they did nothing.

When the Israeli Supreme Court refused to review the Sheinbein citizenship and extradition decision, I expected the U.S. attorney general, the secretary of state and the White House to condemn that decision. But they did not.

I expected someone in Congress to rush onto the floor of the House or the Senate to denounce the court’s decision and say: “America does not subcontract out its justice system to Israel or any other nation. Any nation that receives billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid cannot create a haven for murderers and criminals, without consequences.” But hardly a whimper was heard.

When Meyer Lansky sought asylum in Israel to evade charges of tax evasion, our government successfully pressured Israel for his return. Maybe if politicians and civil rights groups had the courage now to stand up to Israel and say:

“When you are right, we will support you. But when you are wrong, we will fight you,” then maybe I would get justice for my son, Freddy.

As someone who is without political power, I cannot take on Israel. I can do only what I do now—tell my story and hope that someone will listen and care.

Eliette Ramos, Silver Spring, MD

A Disgusting Article Promoting Intolerance

To the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California , May 7, 1999 (as submitted).

I was totally disgusted reading Sherwood L. Weingarten’s article “Writer Finds ‘No Problem’ in Morocco Means ‘Watch Out’.” His statements: “At JFK, a menacing-eyed Iraqi with rolled up prayer carpet and a pencil-thin mustache and beard, looking like the worst villain ever conceived in an editorial cartoon, sat next to me. He pulled a book on Islamic fundamentalism from a bulging shopping bag. Then he left his packages and wandered off. I was sure he was a terrorist...” are offensive, anti-Islamic and perpetuate hatred, intolerance, and the worst type of stereotyping in a world already suffering from too many of these qualities. I was surprised at statements like these from a member of your staff.

Elaine Pasquini, Ignacio, CA

Release of 3 American POWs and Kosovo Crisis

To Rev. Jesse Jackson, May 3, 1999.

We greet you on the successful return of the three American POWs. We trust, however, that your empathy equally extends to the one million-plus inhabitants of Kosovo who have suffered massacres, pillage, dispossession, kidnapping, rape and who are thus far unable to return to their homeland.

El Haj Miraj H. Siddiqi, Chairman; M. Aslam, President; Shahzad Chaudhry, Secretary-General, Council of Pak-American Organizations, Arlington, VA

Boy, Are We Taxpayers Lucky!

(Washington Report editor’s note: Below is a response from Florida Sen. Bob Graham to a postcard from the Washington Report mailed to him by Mr. and Mrs. Carter Swartz of Sarasota, Florida. The Swartzes report that similar cards sent to Sen. Connie Mack and Rep. Dan Miller from their district and to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright elicited no response—which may provide some indication of what Clinton administration appointees and members of Congress think of taxpayers and the constituents who pay their salaries in the year 1999. Use the cards in this issue’s Washington Report to contact your own representatives and then draw your own conclusions.)

To Mr. and Mrs. Carter Swartz, Feb. 28, 1999.

Thank you for contacting me with your views on U.S. support for the Israeli government.

While I understand your concerns, good relations with Israel are of vital importance to U.S. interests in the Middle East. It is the only democracy in the region, a reliable ally, and a country with which we share cultural and historical values and ties. In addition to implementing the Oslo peace accords and combatting terrorism, the United States and Israel share a number of other common interests in the Middle East. Among those are the development of Palestinian democracy, Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations, and Lebanon’s self-determination. It is essential that we continue to work with Israel on advancement of these important issues.

Many have criticized Israeli actions, such as the construction of housing units in Har Homa in East Jerusalem, its refusal to compensate and repatriate Palestinian refugees, and its treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. These issues will continue to be discussed and play a role in future negotiations.

On Oct. 21, 1998, President Clinton signed into law the fiscal year 1999 (FY99) Omnibus Appropriations bill, H.R. 4328. This bill appropriates a total of $31.43 billion for foreign operations programs. The bill also initiates a 10-year process to phase out economic aid to Israel and trim by half aid to Egypt. This reduces the total assistance to the two countries in FY99 by $100 million, to just over $5 billion. Of this amount, Israel would receive $2.92 billion. If fully implemented, the 10-year plan will cut economic aid to Israel by $120 million each year while increasing military assistance by $60 million annually. This would occur for about 10 years until Israel receives an annual appropriation of $2.4 billion for military aid but none for economic assistance. The net savings to the U.S. by 2009 would be $6 billion. This plan, proposed initially by the Israeli government, has received positive reaction in Congress and is expected to be implemented.

International assistance plays an important role in the continuation of the Middle East peace process. By continuing to support the participants, we can best facilitate the implementation of recently signed agreements and ensure their durability. We all hope to see the region’s energy and resources utilized in the context of peace and cooperation.

I appreciate hearing your views on this important matter and will keep them in mind should the Senate consider related legislation.

Senator Bob Graham, United States Senate, Washington, DC

Churches for Middle East Peace

To The Honorable William J. Clinton, Washington, DC, May 5, 1999.

Dear Mr. President:

As the representatives to Churches for Middle East Peace from our denominations and organizations, we are writing to urge you to invoke a national security waiver under the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that would allow the United States to postpone moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Your willingness to take this step in the past is appreciated, and we call upon you to do so again.

Your call on April 26 for an extension of the peace process and a quick move to final status talks brings renewed hope for a negotiated resolution of those issues. It continues to be absolutely essential that the United States adhere to its longheld policy regarding Jerusalem and the location of the U.S. embassy. With Israeli elections approaching and the Wye River agreements not yet fully implemented, even the impression that any change is underway must be avoided. We oppose any interim measures that could be interpreted as a change in policy toward Jerusalem prior to its determination through negotiations. The result would likely be violent confrontations and a diminution of the leadershiprole of United States in the anticipated final status talks.

We support your administration’s insistent opposition to Israel’s unilateral actions that are intended to change the demographics and character of Jerusalem and the West Bank. Yet, the confiscation by Israeli authorities of East Jerusalem identity cards, the demolition of Palestinian homes and the vigorous promotion of settlements continue. Additionally, we urge your heightened attention to the Israeli effort to force the closure of international NGOs and Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem that are an integral part of Palestinian civil society and hope for the future.

Churches for Middle East Peace supports a permanent resolution that respects and adequately meets the national and human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians as well as the rights of the three religious communities Jews, Christians and Muslims. We urge the United States government to call upon negotiators to move beyond exclusivist claims and to strive through negotiations to create a Jerusalem that is a sign of peace and a symbol of reconciliation.

Dale Bishop, Common Global Ministries Board, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and The United Church of Christ

Loyce Swartz Borgmann, Washington Office, Church of the Brethren

Mark B. Brown, Assistant Director for Advocacy, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

J. Daryl Byler, Director, Washington Office, Mennonite Central Committee

John A. Buehrens, President, Unitarian Universalist Association

Thom White Wolf Fassett, General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society The United Methodist Church

Thomas Hart, Director of Government Relations, The Episcopal Church

Eugene P. Heideman, Representative to CMEP, Reformed Church in America

Peggy Hutchison, Assistant General Secretary, Mission Contexts and Relationships, General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church

Eleanora Giddings Ivory, Director, Washington Office, Presbyterian Church (USA)

Ted Keating, S.M., Director of Justice and Peace, Roman Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men’s Institutes

James E. Lintner, Director, Office for Church in Society, United Church of Christ and Associate General Secretary for Public Policy, Nat’l Council of Churches of Christ in the USA

James H. Matlack, Director, Washington Office, American Friends Service Committee

Mia Adjali, Executive Secretary for Global Concerns, Women’s Division, General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church

Peter Ruggere, M. M., Office for Global Concerns, Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers, Sisters and Lay Missioners

Joe Volk, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation