October/November 1995, pgs. 3, 84-88

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor are selected, edited and abridged on the basis of relevance, accuracy, taste and available space. The editors do not have facilities to respond to individual letters, or to clear in advance published letters, as edited, with the writers.

A Perfect Balance

I especially enjoy getting some balance in Mideast reporting. You seem to be one of the few publications that is balanced—neither anti-Semitic nor pro-Zionist. Thanks. Keep it up.

Jon Einswold, Birmingham, AL

We're anti-liar, pro-hero, and old enough to know that every tribe, sect or nation, with no exceptions, has too many of the first kind and too few of the second.

Pakistan's Darkest Hour

Please bring Pakistan into closer focus. It is passing through its darkest hour with an internal enemy as destructive as her father. Benazir shows scant respect toward human rights and the killings in Karachi mean nothing to her. She emphasizes the ratio of murders to the population in New York and comes out with a cock-and-bull yarn that Karachi is much better off! In spite of the dire poverty of the people, she squandered millions to build a mausoleum for her father who was hated by the people and was hanged as a murderer! She heads the People's Party which is reeking with corruption and has earned the name of "10 Percent Party." Please talk to the intelligentsia and businessmen of Pakistan and favor us with a report. Thank you.

Mr. Sunny Faraz, Gaithersburg, MD

OK. We'll check our lens and, meanwhile, if you ever develop strong opinions of your own on Pakistan, don't hold back on our account.

The Coverage on Oman

The report "Oman, A Model for All Developing Nations" in the July/Aug. issue of the Washington Report was very interesting. I went to Muscat in 1993, and was greatly fascinated by the tranquility of the country. I visited Oman again in July 1995.

The location, size, friendly people, mountains, beaches, history and the peaceful life will attract anybody to visit that country repeatedly.

His Majesty Qaboos bin Said Al-Said is a visionary and a patriot. He loves his country and people above everything. What the Sultanate of Oman has accomplished in two decades is quite phenomenal, and I wish and pray that they may proceed even faster to turn the country into a tourist haven, so that others also can enjoy that beautiful land.

A. S. Mathew, Oglethorpe, GA

Roni Ben-Efrat and Challenge

Your June 1995 issue with the article/interview with Roni Ben-Efrat is very valuable. I'd like to know more about her work for peace, especially the magazine, Challenge, she helped to create. Can she be contacted?

Rubin Falk, Asheville, NC

The address for Challenge magazine is P.O. Box 32107, Jerusalem 91320. Subscription price for the United States is $30 for one year (6 issues).

Why Be Silly About Lebanon?

Your "Letter from Lebanon" sometimes is silly! I want more serious and thorough and honest news about that country. Until now you've seemed to concur with H. Kissinger's and G. Shultz's views about Lebanon.

Salma Haddad, Worcester, MA

You really know how to hurt a guy. We've always felt secure in the knowledge that we don't concur with either of those two on much, and that if either of them ever seems to start agreeing with us on anything, we'll probably have to change our minds.

Correct U.S. Policy

I would be interested in seeing U.S. policy in Iraq corrected.

James A. Armstrong, Belmont, MA

So would we. Now if we could only agree on how.

Discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls

We have appreciated the Washington Report for many years, even though we face declining health as we approach 80 years of age. Andrew Killgore and Richard Curtiss will remember me for my work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which I brought to the attention of the world in 1948, when I was acting director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. Dr. Millar Burrows was director that year, and he appointed me to care for the School for two weeks while he went to Baghdad.

I had a hobby of Hebrew paleography which enabled me to date the Scrolls to ca. 100 B.C. My book, one of many (The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Personal Account), has gone around the world. I still have about 150 copies from an overrun of its third printing. My final book will now complete the publication of all the Scrolls I photographed in color. Thus I will continue to be involved in the Middle East, biblical matters, etc. Cordially,

Dr. John C. Trever, Laguna Hills, CA

Thanks for calling our attention to the remaining copies of The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Personal Account, which we acquired too late for this issue's catalog but which our readers now can purchase from the AET Book Club for $9.95. (Bookstore price is $11.95.) When your latest book is out, we hope we will be involved in distributing it, too. Meanwhile we continue to enjoy and occasionally reprint cartoons on the U.S. and the Middle East by your talented son, John P. Trever, editorial cartoonist for the Albuquerque (NM) Journal.

Hard Versus Soft News

I have been reading the Washington Report since the mid '80s when you were more of a newsletter. While the new format is wonderful, those old mags were pretty informative if not so pretty. I'd rather have frequent, more condensed information than infrequent, glossy "soft news" people stories. I receive a number of quality publications but read yours more thoroughly than any other. My husband and I rely on you for the truth about what is going on in the country of his birth as well as throughout the Middle East.

Deanna Steinke, Cathedral City, CA

Thanks for the kind words and good advice. This year we're doing 8 issues (1 more than in 1993 and 1994) and hope to maintain that formula from now on.

Faculty and Student Subscriptions

Thank you very much for sending me a package of 50 copies of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs of July/Aug. 1995 which I have distributed among interested faculty and my students. Since WRMEA is required reading for my History of the Modern Middle East class, here is a list of students requesting a group subscription for six months. Thank you very much.

Karim Khan, University of Hawaii, Leeward Community College, Pearl City, HI

And thanks for the bunch of paid subscriptions. For similar limited duration group subscriptions (for a semester, academic year, whatever) readers should contact circulation director Sabrina Ousmaal at 1 (800) 368-5788, press 2.

Consistently Comprehensive

The Washington Report is the only source I've found for consistently comprehensive and accurate reporting on news related to the Middle East.

Janet E. Mendelsohn, Napa, CA

Some Modest Proposals

You tire of adulation from your readers so we will dispense with that.

You rejected my proposal for finishing articles on succeeding pages instead of skipping around. So much for that—although my recollections from free trial subscriptions and newsstand reading are that the New Republic, which is a much older and more widely read publication, does not force its readers to thumb around so much.

But I have another idea. When I start reading an article I like to know something about the author, and I don't like to skip to the back of the book. Why not put your brief description of the author in a little paragraph at the bottom left of the beginning page?

Your reprint of the Plocker article from Yediot Ahronot interested me for several reasons. One is shown in my letter to my two senators and one congressman. The other is that the editor of our widely read Middle East Peace Now "Connections" newsletter, who is a Middle East academic, picked this up on Internet and wanted to include it in our current edition. He was outvoted by the board, but we are reconsidering. We will probably print it in our next edition but are looking forward to a critique from somewhere. Could one of your staff or stable of writers comment on this? As to the degree of exaggeration, for one thing, but also as to the accuracy of the author's statistics?

I was almost sorry to see the September edition, because I had thought you were all taking a well-earned rest. But as usual I read it all the way through on the day of receipt.

C. Patrick Quinlan, Edina, MN

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! The New Republic in its present debased form is not really much older and, as for being more widely read, ask yourself honestly—when is the last time you read it "all the way through on the day of receipt"? Most distressing, however, is your opening sentence, since we never tire of adulation from our readers. With all that said, we're printing your letter to your congressmen in "Other People's Mail," page 42, and we think you're right about putting the descriptive line about the author on the first rather than the last page of his or her article. We'll start with the December issue. As for an assessment of the Plocker article, we think his figures showing Israeli per capita income on the verge of surpassing U.S. per capita income may reflect some overconfidence, but so far as we know their appearance in a major Israeli daily did not excite any rebuttals. Perhaps our own readers will add their comments. We'll add for the benefit of Minnesota readers that your "Connections" newsletter can be obtained by sending $15 to 615 West 3rd St., Hastings, MN 55033 or, for cautious folks, a sample copy at no charge may be requested.

The Peace Process and Development

Allow me to offer my gratitude for the insights on the Middle East, particularly concerning the so-called Peace Process and the machinations of the Clinton administration, which I find most authentic only in your Washington Report. I continue to support Arab causes in small ways, about the best one can do as a retiree with minimal pension. Among my projects for this fall are two papers at a Third World Studies Conference in Omaha, one on the water situation in the Middle East, and the other on how the peace process is slowing development for the Palestinians.

Dr. Hal Fisher, Professor Emeritus, Salem, OR

Thanks for your kind words and, after the conference, you might think about turning your papers on either topic, particularly the second one, into double-spaced articles of 1,100 words or so for this magazine. Good luck.

Obscene Relationships

I appreciate greatly the unyielding manner in which you try every month to reveal the obscene—almost incestuous—relationship between the president and the Congress on one hand and the Israeli lobby and organizations within the American Jewish community on the other. What is outrageously scandalous: no one in a position of power and authority ever opens his mouth. Everybody is silent as if nothing is happening. Maybe they will start talking after their retirement from government service...

Ms. Dorothy Bartman, Chicago, IL

We hope so. We did, and we haven't stopped ever since.

Buchanan for President

We would like to see Pat Buchanan elected president. This "New World Order" should be examined. The news media do not want to talk about it, like it doesn't exist. Pat brings it to us. Who is behind it? There is a lot of talk about it here in the Northwestern underground newspapers. It is never mentioned in the mainstream newspapers or on TV unless they insinuate it's an idea of some crazies.

John B. Sheppard, Yelm, WA

We think "the New World Order" is many things to many people. To us it represented the rule of law which would prevent a Holocaust, or Bosnian genocide, from ever happening again. (Note we use the past tense because the idea of a world which would in fact ban once and for all the acquisition of territory by war—the cornerstone of the United Nations Charter—certainly has died on Bill Clinton's watch.) To you, perhaps, "the New World Order" represents "jack-booted thugs" who would kill a man, his family and even his dog because he chose to sit up on top of a mountain defiantly mouthing off, even though he really wasn't bothering anyone. We guess we'll just go on fighting for our version, but join you in fighting against your version, and that way we'll probably aggravate everyone. Never mind. As one of our World War II buddies just reminded us this month in his newsletter, if you're never criticized, you may not be doing much.

True Toll at Deir Yassin

There is a discrepancy on the toll of the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948. Your July/Aug. issue gives the usual figure on page 6, "more than 250," while page 12 of April/May gives "200." But I distinctly recall a report by an Israeli historian a few years ago correcting the figure to about 100, stating that research showed that Laborites had exaggerated it in order to blacken further the perpetrators, Begin's Irgun and Shamir's Stern Gang. Couldn't you find that report and correct an ongoing error?

Anthony F. Saidy, MD, Los Angeles, CA

P.S. Persistent queries to your office have failed to produce your issues that appeared between March and July/Aug. 1993, which I missed, or even to confirm that there were any. Could you oblige me?

It's difficult to "correct" an historical error when the historians don't agree. As you may recall, the perpetrators of the massacre poured gasoline over many of the bodies and ignited them in an effort to hide evidence of this crime. The horrible greasy smoke rising from smoldering bodies only attracted further attention, including that of the representative of the International Red Cross who first had arrived while some of the killing and much of the looting by Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir's minions still was continuing. There are many discrepancies in the various accounts, but you'll find one attempt to recall some of the facts on page 48 of this issue. The April/May and June 1993 issues are on their way to you.

The Mordecai Vanunu Campaign

Since we last wrote in April, supporters of Mordecai Vanunu have continued to receive censored letters from the Israeli prisoner of conscience. A consistent theme woven throughout these letters, its threads unsevered by the censor's razor, is the incompatibility of democracy and the nuclear state. Sam Day, Coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordecai Vanunu, has had ample time to reflect on this theme, and shares some of his thoughts in the enclosed "Open Letter to Mordecai Vanunu."

Among the recent letters from Vanunu was one to the editor of the Israeli daily newspaper Ma'ariv, published April 19. He wrote:

The time has come for you to stop calling me "The Atom Spy," as I never was a spy, and have never acted in the service of any intelligence agency. Despite the courts finding me guilty of aggravated espionage and treason, it cannot alter the fact that I was not a spy.

A couple of weeks later, Clyde Haberman, writing in the New York Times, avoided the spy slander, choosing instead to reduce Vanunu's act of conscience to greed. In a May article titled "Israel Lifts Secrecy Veil From Spy Convictions—Silence About the Prisoners is Ended," Haberman wrote that Vanunu was convicted of selling nuclear secrets to a British newspaper [emphasis added], an assertion that even the newspaper involved denies. In the United States, those who reveal nuclear secrets, no matter if they are eloquent and accomplished journalists like Sam Day, are consistently ignored. And then, with Mordecai Vanunu, when the truth of his actions can no longer be ignored by the likes of the New York Times, oblique lies are repeated about his motives.

Vanunu, no less than other advocates of nuclear disarmament, must surely have been disappointed as silence on critical issues prevailed at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference. The power of nuclear states to bully the world was demonstrated there again in April and May. The United States bulldozed opposition to the indefinite extension of the treaty, while also blocking approval of means for the periodic review of the treaty and the compliance of nuclear states to the disarmament provisions of the treaty. Meanwhile, Arab League signers of the treaty sought passage of a resolution calling on all Middle East states to sign the treaty and accept international inspections of nuclear facilities. The original text singled out Israel by name for not having signed the treaty. But after hours of arm-twisting, the Arab League resolution was replaced by a tamer one sponsored by the U.S., Russia and Britain, and lacking any specific reference to the only rogue nuclear state in the region. Among nuclear powers, there is no shame in such politicking, nor is there shame in the American media for its failure to report the NPT as anything but a rousing success.

Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa

U.S. Campaign to Free Mordecai Vanunu, 2206 Fox Avenue, Madison, WI 53711

P.S. Please continue to send donations, information requests and other correspondence directly to the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordecai Vanunu, at the Wisconsin address. Sam Day will resume his active role as coordinator of the Campaign upon his release from prison in late August. And we will continue our support for Vanunu and other peace prisoners in the pages of the Nuclear Resister .

Thanks for your letter. We have reprinted "An Open Letter to Mordecai Vanunu" by your coordinator, Sam Day, comparing his conditions of imprisonment in Wisconsin with those being imposed upon Mordecai Vanunu, in Israel, in "Other People's Mail," page 45 of this issue.

Antiochan Orthodox Titles

On page 77 of the July/Aug. issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, I believe the correct caption beneath the picture should read Rt. Rev. Paul Saliba and Most Reverend Metropolitan Philip, but you would have to check with the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in New Jersey regarding that. Monsignor is the title of a prelate used in the Roman Catholic Church and not in the Orthodox Christian Church.

I have just returned from Atlanta, where the 100th anniversary celebration of Antiochian Orthodox Christian presence in North America was held. His Eminence, Metropolitan Philip, has embarked on a plan and course of action for the Orthodox Church in the 21st century, and it is quite impressive.

Judith Howard, Alexandria, VA

You are correct about "monsignor"—Reverend Saliba's proper title is Right Reverend, or Archimandrite. His Eminence, Metropolitan Philip Saliba's title, Archbishop, was correct as written.

Barbaric and Fascist Settlers

You guys are doing an excellent job. Thank God that we have people like you telling us the truth about issues relating to the Middle East. And thank you for telling the American people about the barbaric and fascistic activities of the Israeli government and the Jewish settlers of Palestine. Keep up the good work and God bless you.

Name Withheld, Morton Grove, IL

"Each One Reach One"

Having read that Fred Emde of Appleton, Minnesota was interested in Bosnia, I sent him the June Washington Report. By return mail he wrote, in part:

"Thanks for sending me a copy of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Today [August 21] I am subscribing to it."

Helen Overdiek, Hopkins, MN

That's the "each one reach one" concept in action—and we're aware that by watching letters to the editor and op ed columns you've been bringing us new subscribers ever since we began publishing 13-1/2 years ago.

Peace Process Legitimizes Robbery

Smashing through all past and present rhetoric about the Israeli/Palestinian "Peace Process" is a short but poignant quote from Fawaz Turki's small 1972 book, The Disinherited, that summarizes the "Peace Accords": "formally selling out [of] our birthright...and legitimizing the most blatant robbery in the history of modern times."

George Sherman, Manhattan Beach, CA

Israel's Peculiar Censorship

Enclosed please find the following:

(1.) The Jerusalem Times' English publication of an article previously sent to you;

(2.) Ha'aretz's Hebrew publication of the same article (which took some courage on Ha'aretz's part);

(3.) Al-Quds' attempted Arabic publication of this same article (which was squashed by the Israeli censor); and

(4.) The International Herald Tribune's abridged publication of Uri Avnery's letter defending me against Abraham Foxman's attack.

You will not be surprised to know that none of the numerous American newspapers to which I sent this article has had the courage to publish it. I therefore hope that you will seriously consider publishing the Jerusalem Times version in "Other Voices."

John V. Whitbeck, Paris, France

We'll go a little further. We've printed the article in "Other Voices" on page 114 and also indicated which paragraphs were censored. We think our readers may find it interesting, not to mention puzzling, to watch the Israeli censors at work in preventing a Palestinian Arabic-language newspaper from printing the full text of an article that they permitted to be published in full in the Jerusalem Times, a Palestinian English-language newspaper, and in Ha'aretz, a Tel Aviv Hebrew-language daily with wide circulation. The way the article is censored makes no sense at all unless the purpose was just to make what was left meaningless and thus force the Palestinian editor to throw out the article altogether, which is what he did. It is this maddening inconsistency in deciding what laws are to be enforced, and when and against whom and how often that makes Israel's military occupation so frustrating for Palestinians. Of course its original purpose was to make daily life under occupation intolerable, and thus drive the Palestinians to leave their lands voluntarily. Instead, however, it is driving some of them to such acts as bombing civilian buses in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. As always it raises the question of who's to blame when the victim can't take it any more and strikes back at other innocent victims—the original victim or his tormentors?

The Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

I find the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs extremely useful to get the otherwise unreported side of the news, especially how the Israel lobby distorts U.S. foreign policy. It also helps counter the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias of the American media.

Theodore Wright, Latham, NY

Thanks both for kind words and the donated library subscription.

Keep Your Voice Credible

There have been increasing incidents of flagrant human rights abuses against Palestinians by agents of the Palestinian National Authority. These are not isolated incidents, they are widespread and systematic. They have also been well documented and criticized by Amnesty International. (See enclosed article.)

If the Washington Report wants to continue being a credible voice, it will have to be as forceful in denouncing such atrocities as it did when Israel committed them.

John Dirlik, Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada

The article you enclosed is by Shyam Bhatia, whose Arab bashing in Britain may be on a par with Steven Emerson's Muslim bashing in the U.S. Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned about authoritarian tendencies within the PNA security services and do not wish to minimize or overlook them—even though there is no danger of their being under-reported in the pro-Israel U.S. media. Thus Janet McMahon's interview with Gaza human rights lawyer Raji Sourani, who has been imprisoned successively by the Israeli government and the PNA, on page 12 of the September issue, which you probably had not seen at the time you wrote your letter. That said, however, we think it is grossly misleading to imply that Israeli government and PNA human rights violations are in any way comparable. Of the more than 1,200 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers since the beginning of the intifada, some 330 were under 16 years of age. Approximately 47,000 Palestinians under 16 were treated for injuries inflicted by Israeli forces. Of these, hundreds were grievously wounded or maimed for life. Has the PNA been even accused of either killing or wounding a single Israeli or Palestinian child? Israeli children killed in bus bombings or firebombing of Israeli settler automobiles have, so far as we know, been the victims of Palestinian extremists of the radical right and left. It is presumably these extremists who are the principal victims of PNA arrests, and we're not sure quite how the Palestinian authorities are interrogating them in the interest of halting the violence against civilians. If, as the Bhatia article charges, PNA interrogators are using exactly the methods they learned from Israeli interrogators when they were the victims in Israeli prisons (and which are authorized as "mild physical coercion" by Israeli law, which also authorizes literally "shaking" people to death when lives are at stake), then indeed the PNA interrogators are to be condemned and we will do so when specific cases are reported.

Unfortunately this brings us to a whole different category of actions which, we think you will agree, cannot be treated as ordinary human rights violations. How is the PNA to deal with any collaborators with the Israeli authorities who choose not to withdraw with the Israeli occupation troops? You know and we know that known collaborators in Gaza, Jericho and, eventually, the West Bank, whose information has led to the killing by Israeli death squads of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Palestinian young people, are going to receive exactly the same treatment that was meted out to collaborators by people who had suffered and died during World War II under brutal military occupation in countries liberated by allied armies as diverse as Norway, Denmark, France, Italy, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The Israelis will not permit these people to be tried in Palestinian courts and few Palestinians will voluntarily choose to live among them. The Israelis are going to have to let these Palestinian collaborators live permanently within Israel or remain silent when they are executed, extra-judicially, by the people they betrayed. It's not clear whether the specific, and only, example in the Bhatia article is such a collaborator. We think you'll agree that it's not a minor point, and should not have been totally ignored, as in the article you submitted, by any unbiased and responsible journalist. Last but not least, Ramallah, where this person allegedly was detained and tortured, is not yet under PNA jurisdiction. More pertinent is what is happening in Gaza and Jericho.

A Mixed Blessing

Your magazine is a mixed blessing—excellent for my mind and a disaster for my blood pressure. Keep up the good work. You are a light in the darkness.

Name Withheld, Rocky Point, NY

Leaving Copies Around

You may find it desirable to encourage your readers to leave copies of the Washington Report magazine in whatever waiting rooms they frequent. This would not cost anything, and might result in your reaching many more members of the public.

I found the plastic envelope in which the Washington Report was sent in the past helpful—since the address label was on the wrapper rather than on the magazine itself.

Robert Knox, Lothian, MD

You're getting this issue in a plastic wrap because it's the best way for us to include a calendar and a holiday book order form for readers. We understand your point, however. If you leave your copy in the waiting room of a doctor, dentist or hospital you're not enthusiastic about having your name and address still on it. So here's what we suggest. For each issue there eventually are extra copies—overruns from the printer, newsstand returns, etc. Tell us your needs. A few readers have standing orders for 5 or even 10 extra copies. One always gave away the copy he read each day on the bus to anyone who asked about it (until he bought a car and moved to the suburbs). If any reader would like such an order at no extra charge, tell Sabrina in circulation why and let her see what she can do. In any case, if you don't keep your copies of the Washington Report, it's helpful to give them away, or you might even send a year's file back to us. We're constantly getting requests from libraries for replacement copies. It seems that some libraries have chronic theft problems with our magazine. (Wonder who would do that?) Anyway, we cover the original label with a blank one and send replacements to libraries at no charge, thanks to readers who recycle with us.

Your Unique Analysis

The Washington Report does an excellent job keeping me informed on issues relating to the Middle East. It's very difficult to find out about some things in the "mainstream" media. The Washington Report helps bring this news and a unique analysis to me.

Rami A. Kishek, Southfield, MI

It's unique because it's both informed and uninhibited by what are euphemistically called "the realities of publishing or broadcasting about any issue touching on Israel." It means, however, that in lieu of lots of advertisers we need generous readers. You'll find names of some of them listed in the next issue's Angels' Choir. We hope, of course, that the next issue's list is a smidge longer than the one in our September issue.

"Lobocracy," Government By Lobby

The article by Frank Collins on "The Israeli Nuclear Arsenal" (July/Aug.) refreshingly reveals again the illegality of the U.S. military aid to Israel under the Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. This aid, compounded by the economic aid, past and present, has made Israel the most powerful player in the Middle East, and the seventh most prosperous country in the world, as measured by the gross domestic product per capita. When the government's budget for virtually every sector of the American economy is being cut or analyzed for cuts (like social security), it is patently obscene to continue to provide Israel with several billions more of American taxpayers' money, which to the consternation of a number of foreign countries, amounts to about 40 percent of the current foreign aid budget. Since the national security interests of the United States, geopolitically, are diametrically opposed to those of Israel, the Zionist lobbies have emerged as a "lobocracy," government by lobby, subverting the American political system and draining the Treasury of billions of dollars.

Robert Lyon, Professor Emeritus, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

How U.S. Funds are Misused

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is the only source of which I am aware that provides objective analyzes of Israel-Palestine relations and of how U.S. funds are misused by the Israeli government. WRMEA also is the only magazine that reports on Israeli-influenced PAC activity.

Ernest Schroeder, Bethesda, MD

You Are a Needed Supplement

I am retired and mostly interested in Palestinians regaining territory and self- rule. The Washington Report supplements the Milwaukee Journal and the Christian Science Monitor and the local media and CNN. Although I am swamped with information, the Washington Report is the most interesting. I like the present format but I lack the time to read it all.

Imogene Christensen, Sturgeon Bay, WI

So give up the Milwaukee Journal. We didn't think much of some of their coverage of the dedication of the USS Liberty Memorial Library in Grafton, WI anyway.

You're Wrong on Iraq

I agree with you on the Palestinian-Zionist conflict and disagree with you on Iraq. I find you a good source of information difficult to obtain in other available publications.

Julio Kouri, Overland Park, KS

Actually, sometimes when we talk on the radio or to other journalists about Iraq, we begin to suspect that we disagree with ourselves.

I Call to No Avail

I read the Washington Report from cover to cover! It is the only way I can keep abreast of what is really happening—as our country swallows and ignores all of Israel's transgressions against the Palestinians!! I call legislators in my District—#1 Indiana—to no avail! Your publication is very important to me and thanks for your diligence.

Catherine Dixon, Munster, IN

Perhaps Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN) ignores your calls because he doesn't ignore the pro-Israel PACs that gave him $2,000 in the 1994 election cycle, for a career total of $10,200. Since our readers are either too (choose one) poor, upright, or stingy to get the attention of most of their representatives in Congress, at least we can expose who those representatives really are representing in our forthcoming fourth edition of Stealth PACs, Lobbying Congress for Control of U.S. Middle East Policy, which will have the lowdown on every member or candidate for Congress from 1976 right through 1995.

You Need to be Spread Around

I think your publication is great—it just needs more coverage—libraries, schools, bookstores.

Fuad Elmani, Larchmont, NY

OK. But for that we need a little more help from all of our readers. Ask yourself, if your public library, your former university library, and the major bookstores or newsstands in your city don't have it, who's going to fix that? We're serious. In a previous issue we published the account by one of our readers who over a one-year period in his wealthy (and heavily Jewish) suburb of a major Midwestern city went from librarian to supervising librarian to library board of directors to county board of supervisors—and now his gift subscription is in his local public library. We know most of our readers are busy, and find confrontations distasteful. But he was a medical student when he did all that, and had grown up in a family of medical professionals who hadn't given him much preparation for taking on officious people twice his age who were doubly difficult because in their hearts they knew he was right and they were wrong. So ask yourself, am I busier than a medical student? And if the Washington Report isn't in your local public library, who's responsible?

It Could Have Been My Letter

I just wanted to express my appreciation for the Washington Report. As I opened the March issue, my second purchased issue, I read Maher Awad's letter and thought at first I might have written it myself and somehow forgotten about it. I feel just like Maher. My father first recommended the magazine when I declared my "outing" as an Arab American. I did not have the money or concentration to pursue a subscription then, but now over a year later and with a three-month-long stay in the West Bank under my belt, I have gotten my act together. I hope someday I will contribute to the magazine.

The Washington Report is a unique and informative synthesis of news from or of concern to our diverse communities at home and abroad and of course a source of desperately needed truth. I cannot wait for my subscription to begin. In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, the truth and accuracy of the Washington Report unfortunately makes it stand out as one of a few such voices in the media. Thanks for all the work!!!

Nadia Jabri, Los Angeles, CA

You're welcome!!! Your reference to our March issue reveals to our readers how far we've fallen behind the daily mailbag. So readers who have written the perfect, brief letter but haven't seen it in our pages, shouldn't give up yet. It may be working its way to the top. Your letter also gives us the excuse to remind readers that if they send articles, not letters, for our perusal, they must be double-spaced. Otherwise they don't get perused.

This Media Wasteland

Reliable and comprehensive news of Middle East developments is hard to come by here in this media wasteland.

J. Thomas McAndrew, Tucson, AZ

Maybe we can do for the media desert of accurate interpretation of Middle East events what Arizona Highways magazine did for the harshly beautiful part of the world in which you chose to settle down—get people to take a second look, see things as they are, treasure what's unique and improve what needs work.

Palestinians Need to Compete

I would appreciate your focusing on the failure of Palestinians to compete in the American arena. Much of the activism of the past has dissipated. Activists have not been utilized or respected. Primary organizations are atrophying.

Why has the Palestinian leadership been so ineffectual at capitalizing on the American people's sense of fairness and justice as well as opposition to foreign aid? Are they blind to the opportunities available to them in the American political arena? In summary, how can one account for the inability to operate within America's system of competing special interests?

Brent C. Riley, Roanoke, VA

Good questions all, which we have pondered, to little avail, for the 13 years we've been publishing. We would say first that Palestinian Americans have refused to become a voting bloc, which we believe hundreds of thousands of other Arab Americans and fair-minded non-hyphenated Americans would be delighted to join, out of deep distrust of or divisions among their own leaders. That's no one else's fault. Probably more important, however, is the media and financial gangup against them. The media bias for Israel is monolithic. Its chosen instruments are deeply and incurably bigoted and (dare we say it without sounding bigoted ourselves?) profoundly un-American. By this we mean these publishers, editors, columnists and advertisers are consciously and shamelessly deceptive and unfair. Worse, at least half of the $750 million American Jews raise "for Israel" annually stays in the U.S. to strengthen the organizations that blackmail, bribe and distort the American political system to do Israel's will. Further, we are convinced but can't yet prove, that a significant amount of U.S. taxpayer aid to Israel finds its way right back to the U.S. to fund the extraordinary public relations machinery that lobbies for more aid to Israel by further corrupting the U.S. political system. The fact that Israel's legions of paid and volunteer American minions get away with all of this is not the fault of Palestinian Americans. It's the fault of all of the rest of us who are too timid and ignorant to blow the whistle!

An Exceptional Value

I have only the time and finances to subscribe to one magazine that specializes in the Middle East. I find that WRMEA is by far the best, and gives exceptional value. My only regret is that I don't have more time to read it more thoroughly. I particularly like your book service. However, I'd like to see a brief (one-paragraph) rundown of each new book offered—just showing the cover of the book is not that informative. As well, your book order service could be improved. It often takes one month for my orders to be mailed off, after you have received my check.

Name withheld by request.

That's the kind of constructive criticism we need to better serve subscribers. This month, with 2,250 book donation packages being mailed to libraries, we've practically worn a trench in the sidewalk between our offices and the post office two blocks away, and that has slowed regular service. Nevertheless, we hope you'll give us another report card with your next renewal.

You Make Me a Better Citizen

WRMEA is very important to me. The information you provide is not available anywhere else. It helps me be a better U.S. citizen. Please continue your excellent work. Thanks.

Ms. Mary Salim, Flint, MI

We're aware from reading our own "activism" columns over the years of just how hard you personally have worked to inform Americans about the Middle East and thus be "a better U.S. citizen." Praise from people like you is praise indeed.