—Voices from the Sensible Center—

Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans—
Interpreting North America for the Middle East

Special Reports

2 The PLO: Down or Up?—Just how badly was the PLO hurt by what happened to it in West Beirut? The man who drops into our offices from time to time to ask us about the Middle East came in once again, with his mind already made up on this question. We think we convinced him he was wrong. Read inside to see how we did it.

4 U.S.-Egypt: Relations Cooler—The American connection was already something of an embarrassment to Egypt's President Mubarak when Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights and its later crack-down on the West Bank brought only feeble American protests. Since Israel's invasion of Lebanon, though, the embarrassment has become acute—and in a number of ways, Mubarak has been distancing himself from Washington. It remains to be seen to what extent Reagan's new Mideast plan will relieve the tension.

4 Health-Care Boom—U.S. companies seem to have almost cornered the market in the business of building, managing and supplying hospitals in the Middle East—particularly in Saudi Arabia. For U.S. exporters, this is a healthy trend.

5 Lobby Activities—Officers of the National Association of Arab Americans, still actively trying to influence U.S. policies towards Israel's invasion of Lebanon, presented their views to Vice President Bush in a private meeting. American Jewish groups, meanwhile, kept busy trying to close ranks with their communities after a summer of divisiveness over the invasion.

Regular Features

2 Editorial—

1. A welcome U.S. initiative
   
   
2. The Israelis are beating the drums louder and more insistently in favor of a cherished idea: there already is an independent state of Palestine east of the river Jordan, so why do the Palestinians keep saying they need one in the West Bank? Jordan, of course, does not agree with the premise, and there are very good reasons why it shouldn't.

6 Facts For Your Files—Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

Key excerpts from Reagan's peace proposal

7 Book Review—The inhabitants of the occupied West Bank and Gaza are not the only Palestinians that Israel has tried to manipulate and control over the years. They have also worked on the several hundred thousand Israeli Palestinians who have lived in Israel ever since it became a state in 1948. Ian Lustick, in his book "Arabs in the Jewish State," tells us how.

8 Personality—Former Senator James Abourezk, despite his Lebanese heritage, didn't know an awful lot about the Middle East before he made his first visit there, one year after entering the Senate. But once he began learning, he learned fast, and has now become one of the most experienced and hardest working advocates of a more even-handed U.S. policy on Arab-Israeli issues.