Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1998, pages 137-138

Publishers’ Page

Chile Seemed Far From the Mideast...

When we traveled there last May to participate in a United Nations NGO seminar on the Question of Palestine. But since most of the participants were Israelis and Palestinians, and many of the rest were Middle East specialists from Latin American universities, we soon felt right at home—until we gave our own talk entitled:

“The Peace Process: an Obituary.”

While a Palestinian fellow panelist and members of the audience seemed to agree with the premise, an Israeli panelist, a Knesset member from the dovish Meretz Party, strongly objected to the contention that the Oslo-based peace was dead and in need of a decent burial. “Netanyahu is just trying to get the best possible terms,” he insisted, almost angrily. “In the end, he’ll make a deal.” As readers of this magazine know, we pride ourselves on being about a year ahead of the rest of the American media on things Middle Eastern. We’ve bragged several times on this page that to date…

Our Record Is About 100 Percent!

But we’ve known a lot more Arabs than Israelis and this right-thinking Israeli was so vehement, it shook us up. Since there wasn’t enough room in the July/August issue anyway, we shelved our article based on that talk, and contented ourselves with analyzing on that issue’s “Publishers’ Page” why we believe Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu passed up the opportunity to swindle the Palestinians out of just about everything that remained of their country with their consent and to the plaudits of the United States. Our explanation, and that of Victor Ostrovsky in his column in the July/August issue, was that…

Netanyahu Keeps His Promises.

In 1996 he promised Israelis that if they elected him he would kill the land-for-peace deal. They did and he did. Now he is moving to implement the long-term program of the Revisionist movement, from which his Likud Party is derived. It’s called “transfer,” which is just a one-word version of “ethnic cleansing.” What it involves already is in the platform of Israel’s Moledet Party, allied to Likud, which calls for forcible expulsion of every Muslim and Christian Palestinian—both from the occupied territories and from within Israel itself—into neighboring Arab countries. Netanyahu knows this can’t be done without war. That’s why he sent Mossad agents to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Jordan. Had they succeeded, the Palestinian majority in Jordan would have blamed King Hussein and tried to overthrow him. In the resulting chaos, “transfer” would have begun.

Those Who Doubt This Might Recall…

…The words of Binyamin Netanyahu when he was campaigning for the prime ministership. He criticized his Labor Party opponents for missing an opportunity during the Tiannamen Square massacre. Had he been prime minister, he said, he would have seized the chance then, while the world was watching China, to carry out the “transfer” of Palestinians. So, since he keeps such promises, if another Tiannamen doesn’t provide the opportunity…

Netanyahu Will Make One, as in Amman.

Meanwhile, our belated and detailed “obituary” for the peace process is on p. 6 of this issue. As for our warning of impending “transfer,” we’ve raised it before, but it’s important and bears repeating. If enough journalists and lawmakers become aware of Netanyahu’s long-range plans…

Maybe He Still Can Be Stopped!

We Don’t Expect Bill Clinton To Finish…

…His second term, despite the prevailing wisdom that his current approval rating is so high that Congress won’t dare impeach him, and that he’ll bluff or tough it out rather than resign. What has Middle East relevance is the timing of a Clinton departure. As we’ve reported before, as we understand the law, if Vice President Al Gore starts serving as president before January 1998, he’s only eligible for one more term, giving him a possible total of six years and a couple of months as president. However, if Gore doesn’t start serving until after January, he’ll be eligible for two more terms, giving him a possible total of 10 years as president. Either way, running as an incumbent in 2000 makes Gore a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination in 2000, and considerably enhances his chances of winning the presidency on his own.

We assume the Lobby would like as much Gore incumbency as possible, so we predict that although Clinton will go, it won’t be until after next January.

Thanks to Four New Donors…

…We’ll be starting our mystery project in September. In fact we don’t have the $150,000 we hoped to raise to give it a full year’s try. But we have close to half that, and we think the time is so ripe that we can prove the program’s viability with a six-month run. You can help by phoning, faxing or e-mailing Shawn Twing (see numbers at bottom of left-hand column on p. 3) with names of editors of small to medium-size newspapers with whom you’ve had favorable experiences in placing letters to the editor, op-eds, etc, and editorial page writers, op-ed editors, and foreign editors of major newspapers you think might also be favorably disposed.

We’ll Take It From There.

New Jobs and Faces!

We’ve created a new position, Web site developer, and moved our redoubtable news editor and defense columnist Shawn Twing into the position. He’s already made our Web site your one-stop Middle East browsing, research and book and video shopping site and is determined to make it impossible for anyone to get through a day without logging on for the latest Middle East developments. Delinda Curtiss Hanley succeeds him as news editor, Samia El-Mahdi succeeds her as circulation director, and Rob Swanson becomes administrative director, succeeding Randa Kayyali. Randa already was the youngest member of the AAUG board when she joined us. Now she has moved up to become director of AAUG’s Washington, DC office. Neither Rob nor Samia are total newcomers. Both started with us as interns earlier this year, and both already have had articles published in the Washington Report.

Hoowee! Our Angels’ Choir Doubled…

…After our May funding appeal. When you add to it donors of less than $100, the roll call is verging on 700. Breathing space! And did we need it! The rent’s still not been paid since 1996, but we’re meeting the payroll and had money left over to pay the printer for this issue. Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks x 700.

A Few Years Ago Two Texas Donors…

…Asked us to omit their names from the Angels’ Choir, saying something about telephone calls. They were personal friends with no other connection to Middle East matters. This year, by chance, we were able to identify the sender of an unsigned harassing letter to this office from their town. We called to say that if they still were being harassed, we could turn over the name to their local police department. No, they said, it wasn’t political harassment. It was another presumably like-minded group calling them for donations. That was pretty stunning to us, since we make a fetish of keeping our subscription list secret, and have thwarted a number of blatant attempts by other publications and groups to get it.However, we hadn’t counted on anyone calling up the people listed in our Angels’ Choir. We’re mad as hell and would like to know who’s doing it. We invite donors who aren’t on any other Middle East group or publication’s list who receive such fund-raising calls to report them to us. Such calls don’t break the law, but if a fund-raiser for some other Middle East-related organization is doing it, we’ll first inform that organization. If that doesn’t get someone fired, we’ll go public with the name of the scuzzy group.

The “Other Voices” Bug

Several subscribers reported that after sending their $15 for a subscription to our new supplement, Other Voices, they received only one issue. We got into the circulation software and hope the bug is corrected. If you have subscribed, you should receive Vol. I, Issue 5 bound into this issue of the Washington Report. If you haven’t subscribed, you may want to. And you may want to ask that your subscription start with Issue 5, which contains Barton Gellman’s July 23 article from The Washington Post revealing why the peace process collapsed. He describes in detail how President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore stopped Madeleine Albright from cracking down on Binyamin Netanyahu after he flaunted her deadline for responding to the U.S. peace plan. “Arab and European allies commonly believe that Albright wants to press Israel harder but is prevented from doing so by Clinton and by Vice President Gore, who will rely heavily on American Jewish contributors and voters in his bid for the presidency” the Washington Post staff writer wrote. The Christian Science Monitor and other mainstream papers subsequently have reported the same thing. Sic transit pace, just to get Gore elected. And by the way, does that leave anyone still in doubt that U.S. Middle East policy is dictated 100 percent by domestic political considerations? So…

Let’s Change Those Considerations!

Only One More Issue Before Elections.

…As you know, we think one-issue bloc voting is the only way to solve America’s Middle East problems, which are based zero percent on U.S. national or strategic interests. (We’ll enter into debate with people on the bloc voting assertion, but must warn you that we regard people who question the domestic politics premise as morons, charlatans, or people who need urgently to get back on their medication.) Therefore, in the next issue we’ll give you an update on who is taking how much this year from pro-Israel PACs and how this affects their career totals. And starting on p. 42 of this issue we offer ...

Shirl McArthur’s Charts Showing…

…The record of every member of Congress on recent Middle East-related letters, sponsorships and actions. This Arabist former foreign service officer worked his striped pants off researching the records of 535 congressmembers. Use his charts and spend the time they save you to earn some extra bucks to help those you consider worthy and in need of a political donation because of tough competition.

That’s What AIPAC’s Inner Circle Does.

Their little green book tells who among those who voted their way is in a tough fight. Shirl has done a little bit of the same thing in profiling the 10 Arab-American incumbents and challengers up for election in November. Someday, when there’s real campaign finance reform, candidates will have to raise most or all of their campaign funds within their own constituencies. But until that day, folks who care about human rights for Palestinians better get cracking and…

Make a Difference, This Month!