Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1999, pages 3, 114-118

Letters to the Editor

Suing for Restitution

I am glad to see the letter from Jamal Zeid@aol.com in your June issue concerning a suit against Israel for compensation of property confiscated from Palestinians. I have not a drop of Arab blood, but I have great concern for the rights of Palestinians and this issue has concerned me for some years. We have watched while European banks return funds taken from Jews during the Holocaust, yet there is silence about Palestinians who lost monetary assets and contents of safe deposit boxes confiscated by Israelis in 1948. We know that hundreds of thousands also lost homes, farms and businesses, yet there has never been a suggestion that they should receive any compensation.

I am sorry that Jamal Zeid has had so little success in rallying an effort to sue for restitution, although I understand the problem. I have been writing to members of Congress and others in the government on this issue for several years with no replies from anyone except Stuart Eizenstat, then under secretary of state for economic affairs, who sent a rather oblique reply about the importance of Israeli-Palestinian business contacts. He has since shifted to another post, and my subsequent letters have gone unanswered. Most of you know that Eizenstat spent a lot of time (and maybe U.S. funds?) pressuring European banks to make substantial restitution of funds to Jews and their heirs. He has received notable appreciation and publicity for this.

In my own state, the Washington state commissioner of insurance, Deborah Senn, has also gained favorable publicity for her efforts (also tax-supported) to identify Jews who may be eligible for European insurance funds never paid to them or their heirs.

Restitution should be possible for Palestinians who have funds and property due them by the Israeli government. The problem, of course, is that vastly more money for litigation and political support has been made available in the Jewish community. That said, I still hope that everyone of Palestinian heritage who reads this and who has bankbooks, deeds, or even a family memory of such confiscations in 1948 or later, will flood congressional offices with documentation and will also contact Mr. Zeid and join his crusade.

Bernice L. Youtz, Olympia, WA

Singing With the Choir

Enclosed is my contribution for another session with the Choir of Angels. Bless them!

Your accounts of congressional beggars for kickbacks from the annual fungible gifts to our “only friend” in the Mideast clearly reveal that we no longer have a responsible republican form of government.

For all this, I can but weep; in spite of my younger daughter’s admonition to “Forget it and get on with what you have left in life!” (I’m a 96-year-old retiree.) But I must certainly admire your courage for carrying on against this Holy Enemy. And I do wish that I could afford the contribution of a vast fortune to your efforts. More power to you, keep up the fight.

Frank J. Burris, Fallbrook, CA

We were all quite a bit younger when you joined our Choir of Angels for the first time. We know the avocado is the most delicate fruit grown in the U.S., and Fallbrook is the country’s self-proclaimed “avocado capital.” Guess it’s a good climate for homo sapiens as well. It’s taking us all a little longer than we planned to help bring some justice to the Palestinians, so perhaps we’ll move the magazine to Fallbrook, just to increase the odds that we, like you, will be around to help finish the job.

Benefits of Association

Because our 25-year-old stove broke a few days ago we went to buy a new one this afternoon. The store owner was very helpful and after we completed the boring business I asked him if he was an Israeli. “I am a Palestinian!” he said. We then had a wonderful conversation. We know many of the same people, and he reads the Washington Report. Not all the time but often. He didn’t knock anything off the price of the stove but he promised that if it broke he’d come and fix it himself. So you see, there are benefits for being associated with the magazine.

Rachelle Marshall, Stanford, CA

And there are benefits to the magazine of making sure that every time you come across a potential reader (Middle Eastern religious or ethnic affiliation, work, study or Peace Corps experience in the Middle East, activism of all sorts ranging from peace and justice to veterans’ affairs), you pass along a copy of the Washington Report and let your new acquaintances decide for themselves whether they are interested. The best long-term way to turn this magazine into a permanent feature on the American media landscape is to help us enlarge our subscriber base.

Solidarity for the Jihad

I want to be a choirmaster but I’m limited to being merely a hummer. The attached represents a tiny token of solidarity for the jihad—which, in its truest sense, is striving for the larger good—waged by the Washington Report clan.

Anonymity is sometimes golden but, in this case, it would be just plain yellow. Therefore, please feel free to use my name.

Mowahid H. Shah, Potomac, MD

We’ll put your contribution to good use and are delighted to see that you are writing a new weekly column for Pakistan Link, published in Los Angeles. We hope, as space permits, to reprint for our readers some of those brief and punchy articles.

Your Covers Reflect Reality

Enclosed is a check for $2,000 to cover my subscription and three donated subscriptions to WRMEA for one year as indicated in the attached subscription form. The remaining amount represents my donation to your esteemed journal. Every new issue of your magazine is an improvement on the preceding one, and I do congratulate you for this effort. The cover photos shown on every issue are by themselves perfect reflections, albeit sad ones, of what is taking place in Palestine and other areas where innocent people are persecuted for their religion or nationality, facts understood only by those who want to know the truth.

Assuring you of my continued support, I am Mohammed Farouk Al Husseini, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

We remember being thrilled to meet such an articulate and dedicated Palestinian in the office of a mutual Saudi friend many years ago. We had no idea how generous to the magazine you would remain over the intervening years.

Let’s Keep on Trying

Enclosed is a copy of a letter to Ted Koppel which I mailed today. I also enclosed your article about U.S. Aid to Israel and a copy of Eugene Bird’s May 31 CNI letter to us. Thank you for your excellent publication.

Your response to “Deir Yassin Revisited by ZOA” was truly enlightening. A 1977 book written by Larry Henderson, a Canadian reporter, which is no longer in print, mentions Deir Yassin. He notes that 260 were murdered. I plan to give the book to Dan McGowan.

Visiting one of my representatives in Congress, Senator Charles Schumer, on June 10 as part of ADC’s Day in Congress, reinforced my impression that our elected officials’ allegiance is to Israel rather than to our national interest. It is frightening but we keep on trying.

Your publication is a beacon to all of us. I do wish more people would subscribe to it!

Evelyn Abdo, Syracuse, NY

Already a White Paper

Previously I sent you an e-mail suggesting you include the pamphlet The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict by Jews for Justice in the Middle East in your list of White Papers. Upon checking my latest issue I find that you have already done so but I somehow missed seeing it. I’m very glad you’ve put it on your list. Thanks very much for all you do.

Ruth Afifi, via e-mail

Any subscriber who doesn’t have this booklet should order it immediately. It’s a quick and accurate reference for writing letters to editors or for debates between cousins.

More About Vanunu Needed

Enclosed is a copy of a postcard from the “U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu” with an explanatory paragraph at the upper left. Inasmuch as it’s against existing U.S. law for our government to give foreign aid to countries that have or are developing nuclear weapons, why isn’t there much more publicity about Mordechai Vanunu’s plight in the WRMEA? Obviously the Israeli government would not have had him in jail for the past 12 years if it were not in possession of and/or developing nuclear weapons.

I am constantly amazed at how very few people are even aware of him and what happened to him 12 years ago. Our common goal of cutting off billions of U.S. tax dollars to Israel would be brought much closer if more of the U.S. electorate knew of Vanunu’s situation and the background. How about a “full court press” in your excellent magazine to publicize this world-class patriot and anti-nuclear weapons proliferation hero?

R. L. Gabler, Kingwood, TX

Mordechai Vanunu has written us a long and touching letter than king the Washington Report for its support over the years. So we should thank whoever donated him a subscription. But we can’t generate a groundswell of publicity alone in the face of an obdurate and co-opted mainstream media. Perhaps if all our readers would ask the same question you asked of the editors of local newspapers, it might get the ball rolling.

A Victim of Secret Evidence

Attached are two items for the Washington Report, one an editorial from the St. Petersburg Times and, on the same day, a letter to the editor from us, on the same general subject.

The treatment of Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar is frightening, bigoted and appalling. From all we can ascertain, the “evidence” or “guilt by association” has to do with Emerson’s TV video entitled “Jihad in America” or the usual anti-Arab propaganda. The other evidence seems to be articles in the Tampa Tribune backing up the “facts” in the video. At any rate, since most similar cases in the United States involve only Arab Muslims, something is wrong with this picture.

Back in the mid-’80s, a tiny article came out in a Las Vegas paper about the arrest of Long Island Jewish Defense League (JDL) member Murray Young. This was about the time that Jim and Tammy Bakker were getting so much publicity. Young, however, was arrested because he had an arsenal of all types of weaponry, fake ID materials for passports and plastic explosives. Several of us looked in other papers. Not a peep. Nothing on television either. Where were the weapons going, for what countries were the passports to be used and for what evil? A practicing physician also was arrested on Long Island, also a member of the JDL. The bail, by the way, for Young alone was $1 million. Where’s the rest of the story? We all know what would have happened had those JDL people been Arabs, especially Palestinians. We’d still be hearing about it.

If people in this country really knew about the incredible injustice in cases like Dr. Najjar’s instead of being influenced by the tremendous anti-Arab propaganda machines, they would all march on Washington.

Dr. and Mrs. James Rogers, Oldsmar, FL

Your letter on secret evidence is in this issue’s “Other People’s Mail,” starting on p. 50.

Word from Australia

As a new subscriber to the Washington Report I would like to congratulate you on the scope of information you publish. Our association has already used some of the material in our bi-monthly Newsletter.

At the same time I would like to bring to your attention a major research project which I carried out under the auspices of the Association, bringing together hitherto unknown (or ignored) Russian-language background information about personalities and policies which led to the deconstruction of the Soviet Union. In particular, the role of Yuri Andropov, for 17 years head of the KGB, in preparing the groundwork for “perestroika” and the promotion of Gorbachev. Andropov’s role in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, as well as his contacts with secret services abroad, throw a new light on events leading up to Gorbachev, Yeltsin and their teams of reformers, and raise new questions.

The material is provisionally put together under the heading “Counter-Revolution in the Soviet Union.” Your information regarding possible interested publishers would be much appreciated, and we shall be happy to forward an appropriate summary for further evaluation.

Dr. Vera Butler, Australian International Studies Association, Victoria, Australia

P.S. I have just read Gideon’s Spies, which you reviewed in your April/May issue, but find it rather disappointing, compared with Victor Ostrovski or even Seymour Hersh.

We would be way out of our depth trying to deal with your study of “Counter-Revolution in the Soviet Union” but are putting your letter into this issue to help bring you together with an interested publisher.

Conflicting Images and Signals

Over the years the Washington Report has been a trusted source in the Muslim community for accurate and fair reporting of affairs in the Middle East. Muslims have come to look to the Washington Report as an ally in their struggles in the Muslim world including Palestine.

Your April/May 1999 issue was a big disappointment to many of us, and very confusing. How can you and your staff support the rights of Muslims and then publish what appears to be a glaring endorsement of the Tunisian government?

The cover photo and the inside articles give the impression, since they are interwoven with articles that are pro-Islamist, that even the Islamists support the Tunisian regime, a regime that is guilty of some of the worse crimes against Muslims, including torture, assassination, prohibition of wearing the hijab and other human rights violations.

This regime does not deserve the exposure you provided it, and many Muslims are hurt to see the face of this man on the cover of what had come to be recognized as a magazine that speaks for the Muslim people.

I hope that you will accept these points from me as coming from a friend, but also as a Muslim who, along with other Muslims, is working very hard to secure the basic freedoms for our people in their countries that we take for granted here. This job is made increasingly difficult when Americans receive conflicting images and signals as to who are the bad guys and who are the good guys.

Dr. Anisa Abd el Fatteh, United Association for Studies and Research, Inc., Annandale, VA

I’ve Been There, in Tunisia

This is in response to your article on Tunisia, Vol. XVIII No. 3, and your answer to the letter “You’re wrong on Tunisia” in the following issue.

First of all, I am a Tunisian. I really used to admire and respect your journal for its courageous support for all just causes in the world, especially those involving Arabs and Muslims. But when it comes to Tunisia, your journal becomes almost a propaganda tool of the Tunisian government, lacking the minimum objectivity and critical spirit needed. It seems that your journal is not aware of the real political and social situation in this small police state. The image that you have of Tunisia is the one seen through the windows of a government limousine, put at your disposition during your visits, touring high-rise tourist resorts. In Tunisia even the basic rights of freedom of speech and freedom of expression and opposition are absent. This is very well documented in the reports on human rights: Amnesty International amongst many others. Even Mrs. Clinton, during her last visit to Tunisia, distanced herself from supporting the local government. She also met with 12 “free and emancipated” Tunisian women, who asked that their meeting with Mrs. Clinton not be attended by any member of the press so that they could speak “freely” and not fear prosecution (Reuters Wire, March 26, 1999 “Mrs. Clinton decries Islamic violence against women”).

Corruption, power abuses and looting of the people’s wealth by members of the president’s family and his close entourage are other practices. You have certainly heard about the arrest and deportation of the president’s brother from France where he was facing trial on drug trafficking and related charges. And you dare advertise and sell a book talking about pluralism and democracy under the regime of this tyranny.

As for the presumed achievements of the current president regarding women and education—the credit, if any, should be given almost exclusively to former President Habib Bourguiba. If you have the courage to publish my response, which I doubt, you may help regain some of the sympathy and respect you lost from many disappointed readers.

Naufel Oulidha, Garaat Laatach, Tunis, Tunisia

Why would we not “have the courage to publish” your response? We’re not beholden to anyone but our readers and since they are in all corners of the globe and occupy every niche on the U.S. political spectrum, everything we write offends some readers, but presumably enlightens others, or at least provides a clear exposition of our point of view.

We are printing your letter because you say you are Tunisian and the address you give us is in Tunisia, although since your letter arrived by e-mail we can’t check either with a phone call as we usually do with letters that make strong charges such as those in yours against the president of Tunisia’s relatives. That leads us to two observations. Other letters we have received, criticizing our favorable coverage of Tunisian accomplishments in the fields of women’s rights and opportunities, environmental protection, progress in eliminating poverty and extending educational opportunities mostly came from people who are equally unhappy about our unfavorable coverage of the more brutal aspects of Iran’s criminal justice system, record of terrorism against political opponents abroad, and extraordinarily high rate of executions.

We make the connection only to point out that writers who send us unfavorable material on Iran generally insist that we conceal their identities, for fear of retaliation against their families there. The same applies to letters from some Syrians, Libyans and Iraqis criticizing their governments. Doesn’t the fact that you don’t have to conceal your identity and residence when you criticize your government say something about what you call a “tyranny” in your country?

(We’re assuming the name and address you appended to your letter are genuine. If they aren’t, then instead your letter says something about you, and not the people it criticizes.)

New thought: We understand the anger in the many letters we receive from readers criticizing Middle Eastern governments which they feel are ruining their countries or which have forced them into political exile. But although no one believes more strongly than we do in human rights, religious freedom, and representative democracy, simple fairness requires that we not judge any country by utopian standards.

We’re deeply disturbed by the need for real campaign finance reform in the United States, which in our opinion is our single most pressing national problem. But it doesn’t mean we think any other major country has done much better. Similarly, we’d love to see Jeffersonian democracies in the Middle East, or perhaps constitutional monarchies à la northern Europe, but so far there are none of either. Probably what finally is worked out will owe much more to the example of Prophet Muhammad than to anything derived from the Magna Carta, New England town meetings, or the storming of the Bastille. So meanwhile we’ll have to judge all Middle Eastern countries in context, giving the highest marks to those that provide the most protection to human rights and the rule of law (their own law).

Last thought: As Americans we think it’s prudent to forget presidential brothers. If memory serves us, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman are beyond reproach since they didn’t have brothers, and Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Prescott Bush were lucky in that regard, but other post-war U.S. presidents were less so. Judge the man or woman by their own actions, not those of their relatives, whom none of us get to choose.

Not Living in the Stone Age

Thanks for publishing my letter in your magazine. I heard about it from a friend. We here in Yugoslavia are not living in the Stone Age. We are not Flintstones. We have TV and we can catch satellite programs. But you, and your fellows in the USA, couldn’t catch our TV coverage of war because NATO and USAF destroyed TV centers and transmitters all around Serbia. We are not as misinformed as you think we are. On the other hand, all reports from U.S. news and TVs were censored, like they were in the Gulf war. Explain to me how one ordinary American citizen can see things more clearly than we saw them here, on the battlefield. The Cold War is over, maybe the USA wants another one.

Dr. Darko Nadic, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

We were sincere when we said in answer to your letter published in our previous issue that if your television had carried some of the horrifying interviews with Kosovar refugees that Americans saw on television, you might think differently. Now the Kosovar refugees have returned and the mass graves in Kosovo are confirming even the worst of their tales. If you still feel as you do, nothing we can say will help. On the other hand, clearly a lot of your fellow Serbs feel otherwise, and despite heavy-handed police tactics some of them are not afraid to say so publicly. So long as people on all sides are able to speak freely and change governments that they believe have failed them, we don’t think there will be another cold or hot war. Let’s work together, everywhere, to make sure.

Web site Introduction

We’d like to introduce our Web site, <http://www.againstbombing.com> to your readers. We offer articles and links relating to the American bombing and destruction of Iraq and Yugoslavia, both of which we strongly opposed. We strongly decry the hypocrisy of Washington’s selective targeting of “bad” rulers. We argue that America can’t run “fair” proactive interventions because of the way its foreign policies are made.

Our committee includes myself, Joseph Sobran, Lew Rockwell, Doug Bandow, Paul Gottfried, Ralph Raico and several other distinguished writers opposed to “ethnic cleansing” done the Washington way, with cluster bombs, starvation and disease.

Topics on our site include analyses of the Constitution, United Nations, Geneva Conventions and Nuremburg Charter, Terrorism, Some Fundamentalists Ache for Armageddon, The Costs of World Empire, The Theory of “Just War,” Talking Points for Talk Radio, etc. We also provide extensive links to both Right and Left groups opposed to bombing, as well as movie reviews and other features. Searchers may also find us on many Web search engines under our motto, “America, a Beacon, not Policeman.”

Our site also has extensive links and evidence related to the First Iraq War for researchers and students.

We also now are running a related Web site <www.TheWarParty.com> opposed to those interests in America which thrive on war and chaos overseas, and, we fear, want a return to Cold War military spending levels and excitement.

Jon Basil Utley, Chairman, Americans Against World Empire, McLean, VA

We probably disagree with many of your positions, but we’re happy to introduce you to our readers and vice versa in the interest of letting a thousand flowers bloom.

The Conventional Wisdom

It was good to read your response to the letter writers who were raising cain with the NATO and United States response to Milosevic’s Serbia. I find it bewildering that I have yet to read of a Serb who has acknowledged the plausible truth of press reports of the mischief and brutal killing of Albanians or Bosnians, who are religious Muslims. Ethnic cleansing is not deemed a reality by these people. There was a representative of a Chicago community of American Serbs [in a PBS report one evening] who expressed the same kind of thoughts as Darko Nadic of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. What is this sickness?

No wonder the conventional wisdom that the Serbs are different and not susceptible to cure for their illness and that the best foreign policy is to leave them alone and isolate them. If this is true, we have our hands full in Kosovo for their enemy may have developed the same characteristics. Russians, too. Is Yeltsin serious in praise of Milosevic—a true mimic of Adolph Hitler? The Orthodox Church has advised and perhaps instructed Milosevic to resign and get out of town, so to speak. In America, fortunately, even Republicans who may be filled with ill-will for Bill Clinton will defend his actions in Kosovo.

I guess Darko Nadic is a number-one exhibit of the kind of blindness that results from a long-denied free press in Serbia.

I get much enlightenment from your magazine. I even learn what faults we have in our thinking about the Middle East—the struggle with the people of Palestine and Israel. I’m prepared to argue that it was Clinton at the Wye River conference who set the trap that permitted us to get rid of Netanyahu. Clinton teaches the people of Israel to appreciate when they are not being believed or supported in their goals by the mass of Americans, apart from the religious right.

Many Jews have jumped at the chance to support the relief for the people oppressed by the Serbs in Kosovo. It is a mystery how some can feel mercy for the Muslims in Kosovo but none for those next door. But, it is a part of human nature.

Warren Dahlstrom, Sr., Fairfax, VA

Swinging Hard in Canada

In the enclosed article from the June 23-29 Hour of Montreal Lyle Stewart really comes out “swinging hard” against those who attempt to deny or to minimize the genocide of the Serbs against the Kosovars. Perhaps the recently discovered documentary evidence of Serbian planning and carrying out of the killings of Kosovars, at the highest levels of the Serbian government and military, will convince such Serbian sympathizers as Ramsey Clark and Noam Chomsky of how wrongly and gullibly these otherwise well-intentioned men accepted despicable Serbian lies and propaganda.

Gerald Parker, Montreal, Canada

Thanks for the Lyle Stewart article, which arrived too late for this issue’s Other Voices. We found it pertinent to what seems to us an astonishing unwillingness on the part of many people to accept the grim realities of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo (even after the exhumation of some of the victims) or else to blame the Serb genocide on NATO. If the controversy continues, we’ll try to include the article in the next issue of Other Voices.

You Disappoint Me!

I am very disappointed by your editorial position supporting NATO’s recent campaign in Yugoslavia. While you acknowledged in passing that it was a violation of international law for NATO to start bombing without U.N. Security Council approval, you seemed to justify it because it was enemies of Muslims who were being bombed—this time.

In countless articles over the years up to and including the current issue, your writers have depended on the principles of international law to challenge countries such as Israel that would rule instead according to the law of the jungle. I believe it is a mistake to abandon your principled position and help allow NATO—mainly the U.S. and Britain—to shred the law and bypass the U.N. when it suits their purposes. While it is far from perfect, international law is one of the only protections that weak countries and peoples have against the world powers that would dominate them.

It is doubtful that humanitarian concern for Kosovar Albanians was a discernable priority among NATO planners. As your own magazine notes, the U.S. and Britain are enforcing a humanitarian disaster on the people of Iraq through their punitive economic embargo. NATO also supports vicious Turkish repression of the Kurds on a scale far larger than Yugoslavia’s repression of Kosovar Albanians. It was likely, and in fact some NATO leaders had predicted, that the initiation of bombing would trigger an intensification of repression by Serb forces in Kosovo, but NATO plunged ahead without even developing contingency plans to deal with a possible flood of refugees. The NATO action, combined with ethnic cleansing by official and/or unofficial Serb forces, has multiplied the suffering of the Kosovar Albanians many times. Civilians throughout the rest of Yugoslavia have seen their country’s economic infrastructure damaged severely by weeks of savage, nearly indiscriminate bombing. Hatred has been sown for years of conflict to come.

The primary goal of U.S. leaders appears to be not humanitarian, but the conversion of NATO from a Cold War-era, defensive alliance into an interventionary force that can be used in strategic locations (read: the Middle East) whenever the U.S. president directs. International law is an impediment to NATO’s complete freedom of action, and I am sorry that you are taking a position that helps eliminate this impediment. This is undoubtedly not the last time that the pretext of “humanitarian intervention” will be invoked by the U.S. or NATO to begin dropping bombs somewhere. If history is any guide, the next recipient of our humanitarian bombs is likely to be a militarily weak, predominantly Muslim country whose government has dared to challenge the interests of the U.S., Britain or Israel.

Yours in peace, Geoffrey M. Young, Lexington, KY

We believe that when a mugging is taking place a citizen’s first duty is to go to the assistance of the victim. Let the police read the mugger his rights after you’ve decked, disabled and disarmed him. At the time the bombing began, we reported that a U.N. Security Council resolution to stop the genocide was impossible to obtain because both Russia and China said they would veto it. We also reported, and deplored the fact, that the U.S. was unwilling to go to the U.N. General Assembly for action under “uniting for peace” provisions of the U.N. Charter because that would constitute U.S. recognition of this procedure, which has been used and would be used again to pass General Assembly resolutions to halt Israeli actions against the Palestinians.

We could have sat back and said, “See, our one-sided Middle East policy is getting Kosovars slaughtered, too bad.” Or we could support the less desirable but nevertheless effective methods adopted by NATO under U.S. and British leadership to stop the slaughter. We have not the slightest doubt that what NATO did was far better than taking no action at all, and we’re proud of the stand we took.

We’re astonished at your assertion that humanitarian concern for the Kosovars by NATO planners was “doubtful.” Why, then, was NATO there at all? As for your implication that we only oppose genocide when Muslims are the victims, we fear you don’t know what this magazine is about, or why it was founded. All three of the founders served proudly in the military to help halt the genocide by the Nazis, and later served as diplomats in equally dangerous circumstances, as it turned out, to help halt the genocide practiced by the Soviet Union. Why would we change sides now?

Finally, the violations of human rights in Kosovo began on direct orders from Slobodan Milosevic in 1989 when he revoked its autonomy. The random killing of civilians then began nine years later in October 1998, and by the time the NATO bombing began, about one-quarter of the Kosovars already had been displaced. Displacement of 25 percent of the U.S. population would be 65 million people. Wouldn’t you have wanted that halted, even by bombing?

Stop All “Ethnic Cleansing”

Now that Mr. Clinton and prominent politicians have denounced “ethnic cleansing,” can we not interest them in stopping the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians which we have paid for for 50 years?

Ray Stewart, Richmond, IN

No TV in 1948

Excuse my scrawl. I’m sending a little donation—it’s not much—but it’s a thank you from the heart for your courage and for raising the banner of truth in an area where truth is hidden from Americans.

I was glad we stopped the Serbs and rescued Kosovo.

I kept thinking—If only there were TV in 1948—Americans would have seen for themselves the massacre in Deir Yassin and the destruction of 400 Palestinian villages and the ethnic cleansing of the people by the Israelis. There wouldn’t be AIPAC and the U.S. would not be run by people whose first loyalty is to Israel. Our Congress might still have corruption, but maybe would not be craven and the integrity of conscience might have reigned. If the people had seen with their own eyes, it wouldn’t have mattered what the media said! Alas.

My check is to cover renewal, too. By the way, “Other Voices” used to be tucked in by rubber glue—easy to roll out. I like to separate it. This time it was stapled in. Separating it tore pages.

Name withheld by request, Massachusetts

P.S. My eyes are failing but I’m reading as fast as I can with the sight left. The Washington Report tops my list.

Thanks for your donation again this year. Other Voices was stapled into the July issue because we also sent it as an introductory copy to Washington Report subscribers who had not paid the extra $15 for a separate subscription to Other Voices as you did. This issue goes back to normal, hopefully with a lot of new Other Voices subscribers.

The Lottery Didn’t Pan Out

My reaction to the appeal for financial assistance that I received a few days ago, was a loudly proclaimed wish to WIN THE LOTTERY. But since that did not happen I can only send what I can send, and I persuaded my husband to add his contribution. I do so hope that the response from everyone will be very generous.

I send my best wishes and hopes for continuity!!!

Edna Homa Hunt, Cambridge, MA

Israeli Attacks on Lebanon

The Israeli June 27 brutal attack on Lebanon’s infrastructure deserves the immediate condemnation of the United States. As an American studying at Lebanese American University, I must say I am ashamed of my country’s apathy toward this murderous Israeli attack on Lebanese civilians in Beirut and south Lebanon.

I watched from my dorm room as Israeli jets roared overhead, and tracer bullets from anti-aircraft streaked the sky. I was able to witness first-hand the horror faced by the Lebanese civilians so often from the brutal Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. The Israeli attack was in response to the Hezbollah Katusha rocket attack on the Israeli border city of Kiryat Shemona. While I acknowledge and lament the two Israeli casualties, it does not justify this murderous and disproportionate attack by the IDF. Furthermore, Hezbollah was responding to the shelling of Lebanese villages this past five days that wounded several Lebanese civilians.

I ask my fellow Americans, would you not do the same if your homes and villages were being targeted daily by a brutal aggressor? It is time for the United States to distinguish between resistance and terrorism. Hezbollah is no different from the KLA in Kosovo, who were fighting for their homeland against a foreign aggressor. It is time to end our hypocrisy of blindly ignoring Israeli aggression while condemning it in Kosovo and the rest of the world. Only the United States can force Israel to respect international law and withdraw from southern Lebanon. Until we do this, the innocent blood spilled in the Israeli attack stains our own hands as well as the Israelis.

Jefferson B. Fletcher, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon

Thanks for your thoughts, with which we agree. We have included in this issue’s Other Voices (included only with magazines sent to those subscribers who send the additional $15 subscription fee) an article by Robert Fisk which establishes clearly the fact that the Hezbollah rocket attack on Kiryat Shemona, for which the Israeli aircraft were “retaliating” with attacks in which nine people were killed, was not the beginning but somewhere in the middle of a series of tit-for-tat attacks which began with shelling by the Israeli-funded and directed South Lebanon Army (SLA) of Lebanese civilians.

Screaming In My Sleep

The specter of chemical, biological and radiological potentials, and the foreignness of U.S. foreign policy, especially with regard to our unhealthy relationship with Israel, is enough to cause a sober person of serious military interests to scream in his sleep. (Especially considering what must be the attitude of too many justifiably aggrieved members of political splinter groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and others.) I am reminded of a statement by Charles Lindbergh in his book Of Flight And Life : “The improvement of our way of life is more important than the spreading of it. If we make it satisfactory enough, it will spread automatically. If we do not, no strength of arms can permanently impose it” (p. 39).

My military experience: WWII, battles of Normandy, “The Bulge,” winning medals. I don’t feel that I owe any “minority” anything.

You’re doing a great job!

Major (retired) Gibson D. Kemp, Lubbock, TX

Show Numbers

Every six months I’d like to see a list of casualties of both Palestinians and Israelis killed or wounded.

Robert Yelenic, Converse, TX

Good idea. We’ll try.

You’re Consistent

Your magazine is the only thorough, honest, insightful and consistent printed source available in the United States. It also is well-written and interesting. You are to be congratulated.

Tito Howard, Front Royal, VA

Limit Financial Resources

I appreciate your reporting of the facts of Israeli authorities’ violence toward Palestinians who resist occupation of their lands and the building of settlements by Israelis on lands not their own. Is it too much to hope that U.S. authorities will step up their objection to such activities in an objective way such as what they are doing in Kosovo—not in war but in limiting their financial aid to Israel and supporting the U.N.?

Fawzi Haddad, Tacoma, WA

Why the Preference for Israel?

Having lived in the Middle East (Iran and Lebanon) for many years, it appalls us to see and read about the preferential treatment bestowed upon the state of Israel by the United States government. Why should our tax dollars benefit Israel, which is responsible for the horrible plight of the Palestinians since 1948? The Israelis never let anyone forget the Holocaust!

G. and J. Saghi, San Francisco, CA

Widen Your Coverage

I like the Washington Report just as it is. I really doubt that changes would improve it. I like the wide coverage of your reports, and, indeed, would urge you to have more on Kurdistan, Central Asia and Indonesia, as well as Pakistan and Turkey. I am most active in Palestinian/Bosnian/Kosovar and Kurdish justice issues, but all areas interest me. Muslim (Islamic) and Christian issues of a religious and legal nature also interest me very much. You are doing a great and essential work!

Gerald Parker, Montreal, Canada

Historic Profiles Needed of Arabs

Although your present format can scarcely be improved upon, with news and events rapidly occurring, it’s best to receive them early instead of months later. Few of us have time to read the Washington Report from cover to cover, much as we’d like to.

I would like to see, even one-half page each, a profile of an Arab inventor, scientist, healer, etc.—whether historical or living.

Trini Marquez, Skyforest, CA

An Anti-Heroic Age

You are all authentic heroes in an anti-Heroic age. God bless you and grant you the resources to continue your work.

Truth crushed to earth will rise again.

Lewis Elbinger, Washington, DC

I Skip A Lot in the WRMEA

Your magazine keeps me informed but it takes forever to read it. I skip a lot of it—there’s too much. I prefer an emphasis on Israel/Palestine issues and our response to them.

D. Safie, Charlottesville, VA

This Great Nation, America

I enjoy each and every page of the Washington Report. Please keep the same format. God bless everyone at the Washington Report. You have taught me how to understand the political process in America. Although I am foreign-born, I have shown your magazine to many of my U.S.-born friends and have encouraged them to subscribe or have donated subscriptions to them so they may get to know what is happening in this great nation called America.

Hirant Gulian, Cliffside Park, NJ

Aware of Hypocrisy in U.S.

Your magazine is the only source of information that presents events in the Middle East in a different perspective than that presented by the rest of the media in the United States. It is very informative and strengthens one’s belief that that American media is horrendously one-sided and hypocritical. It also makes readers aware of the hypocrisy of the American government.

Anonymous, Corning, NY

Format far too long

One of my most frustrating experiences with the Washington Report is its long format. It is too verbose and I do not have enough time to read it. Limit your articles, please, and condense! You are trying too hard to be too many things at the same time. I still support and applaud your efforts.

H. Sayed, Fort Collins, CO

We understand your frustration, but at the same time virtually all of the kudos from readers are directed to the writers who produce the long, expository and well-backgrounded articles. We’ll try to cut the length a little and maybe provide more photos. Then let us know how we’re doing with your next renewal.

Discovered in the Library

I first discovered your magazine in the library. I have to rescue it each time, so that some other patron doesn’t make it disappear. It was an eye-opener, particularly on Israeli intentions and the settlements.

Anonymous, Los Angeles, CA

When you note that an issue has been “disappeared,” call it to the attention of the librarian. We will replace stolen issues, but a lot of libraries have developed strategies to catch and humiliate the self-appointed death squads. They often travel in pairs, with one acting as a lookout and the other disappearing the Washington Report into a large purse or shopping bag. Obviously they’re really scared of the unvarnished facts, so let’s ensure that every library in North America has its own subscription. More than 4,000 do already.