Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1997, Pages 3,77-81

Letters to the Editor

Seeing the Light

We ordered and received a total of 17 copies of Seeing the Light. As of today 11 have been put in the mail to four friends and to seven journalists with national reputations. Most, I am sure, will be too busy to read it all. But just maybe someone in their office(s) will read and pass on points of interest. The remaining copies will go into university libraries.

WRMEA did a fine job in putting Seeing the Light together. It is a fine way to impress upon those "strangers" the idea that what one reads in the major media may not always be the exact truth, and that it is true that more than 75 percent just echoes Israeli government and lobby propaganda.

It was pleasing to read of just "average Joe Blows" reaching conclusions (from reading this publication) which my wife and I reached after living more than 17 years in the Arab world and also about what we discovered about the media and politicians when we returned in 1968. Of course there were a number of pieces written from personal experiences which more or less paralleled our own.

Please continue your outstanding work.

Gip D. Oldham, Dallas, TX

Don't Give Up

Reduce the number of pages, reduce the number of issues, reduce the number of illustrations, but don't reduce the determination to continue! Don't give up. Don't still the voice of rightness and righteousness. I wish my $100 were $100,000 at least.

All the best.

Colbert C. Held, Waco, TX

"As Printed"

Enclosed please find my contribution to your "Other People's Mail" section.

I have taken the liberty of including my original version "as submitted" and the printed, edited version from the Los Angeles Times of May 28, 1997.

Although no longer actively involved in politics, I continue to contact my friends in the legislature regarding U.S. foreign policy when I feel they need a gentle nudge—or well-placed kick!

My best wishes to you and for your continued good work. And, again, thanks to Mssrs. Curtiss and Killgore for your help in my 1996 congressional race.

John V. Flores, Alhambra, CA

You'll find your "as published" letter to the L.A. Times in this issue's "Other People's Mail" starting on page 48. We hope your withdrawal from politics isn't permanent. The very few members of Congress who dare to speak out for an even-handed U.S. Middle East policy need reinforcements.

Let Me Help

I read with dismay your letter outlining your financial difficulties. However I should not be surprised, given your fair reporting on matters that have traditionally been given one-sided treatment by the Western press.

I am enclosing a small check now, but please remind me by the end of the year and hopefully I will be able to help more. In addition, I have taken the liberty of copying your letter and giving these to some of my friends (especially in the Flint, Michigan area). I am hopeful some extra contributions will come your way from here.

We pray for your continued existence to influence here and abroad.

Yousuf Ali Siddiqui, Bloomfield Hills, MI

The Pro-Israel Control Over Media

I didn't know that a magazine such as yours existed! Everything is so completely controlled by pro-Israel money. I have wondered "Does anyone care about the Palestinians?"

Congratulations on your efforts.

P. Kaderli, San Diego, CA

Zimmermann Telegram—Buy Now, Pay Later

The speculation "that Britain issued the Balfour Declaration in exchange, not for something she hoped would happen in the future, but for something that had already happened in the past"—namely acquisition of an unenciphered copy of the Zimmermann Note from Berlin Zionists to be used by Britain as sensationalist propaganda to bring the United States into World War I—is plausible and intriguing ("The Balfour Declaration and the Zimmermann Note," WRMEA Aug./Sept., 1997). An analogous buy-now-pay-later scheme, this time with Zionists giving a promissory note to a down-and-out American presidential candidate, may explain why the United States recognized the just-declared State of Israel before Arab corpses at Deir Yassin had time to cool.

In his forward to Israel Shahak's Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Gore Vidal relates a "story about Truman and the serene corruption of American politics...John F. Kennedy told me how, in 1948 Harry S Truman had been pretty much abandoned by everyone when he came to run for president. Then an American Zionist brought him two million dollars in cash, in a suitcase, aboard his whistle-stop campaign train. That's why our recognition of Israel was rushed through so fast."

A point of potential confusion here is that Truman's first whistle-stop train ride occurred in June of 1948, while U.S. recognition of Israel occurred on May 14. I wrote to Gore Vidal about this difficulty and he replied, "Jack Kennedy thought the bribing of HST true...the date a politician collects his bribe has nothing to do with the execution of the favor."

My only objection to the Balfour Declaration speculation is that it was written by an "American with extensive personal involvement in the Middle East who has written under a nom de plume because of professional concerns." This may be literally true, but a real American would have signed his or her real name. If America is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave, the objective of bringing the truth to light is pointless, because the Zionists have already won.

John Hartung, via America Online

We're inclined to the same point of view about the need to stand up and be counted, but "John Cornelius" explained that his concern is not for himself but for someone on the family tree who is subject to professional retaliation in academia. Come to think of it, that probably proves your point.

Skeptical of Zimmermann Theory

The main problem I have with the Cornelius article is the one I have with most conspiracy theories. The authors hear hoofbeats and infer zebras instead of horses. In Africa they may be right, but not in Europe or America.

I think it is a basic mistake to conflate the Balfour Declaration with the Zimmermann Telegram. The assumption is that since they happened about the same time, they must be related. A lot of things happened in those tumultuous days and a lot of events coincided, which does not mean that one caused the other to happen. Some did, some didn't.

On the specific issue of the Zimmermann Telegram, the most elemental mistake in the article is misnaming the German diplomatic code. It was not 7500, but 0075. This is not trivial because the British were sending out a lot of disinformation to cloud the fact from the Germans (and the Americans) that they had cracked it, or at least part of it.

The reliance on a time line in the Cornelius theory ignores the fact that 0075 was a new German code, more complex and difficult to crack than its predecessor. To assume that a message sent in that code on Jan. 16, 1917 would be easily cracked (and in a way to conceal from the Germans that it has been cracked) by mid-February is to ignore the difficulty and subtlety of deciphering. (My information on this comes from David Kahn's The Code Breakers, page 272 et seq.)

One important need was to conceal the cracking of the code. Another was to verify the missing elements. The solution was to get a similar message (there were several including one sent via U.S. diplomatic channels!) to compare texts to fill in the missing words and to conceal the crack. That was done by stealing the message re-sent to the German Embassy in Mexico. Since the embassy did not have access to 0075 the text was sent to Mexico in a code which had already been broken.

According to Kahn, one of the British methods to conceal the success of "Room 40," the British code-cracking group, was to suggest that messages had been handed over intact by traitors. There was one false report, deliberately spread to cover the deciphering, of an agent captured who gave the text of the telegram. I wonder if this new report of a Zionist cell in the German Foreign Ministry may be a distant playback of that 80-year-old disinformation effort by the wily British.

Jim Anderson, Washington, DC

(Jim Anderson is Washington correspondent for the Deutsche Presse Agentur [DPA].)

Zimmermann Telegram Obtained by Good Spycraft, not Treachery

The article suggesting that the Balfour Declaration was issued by Great Britain in exchange for the British being provided with a plain-text copy of the Zimmermann Telegram by unknown Zionists (WRMEA, Aug./Sept., '97) is fatally flawed. In "The Balfour Declaration and the Zimmermann Note," the author recounts the story of the interception of the famous 1917 telegram, which proposed an alliance against the U.S. between Germany and Mexico and possibly Japan, the revelation of which by Britain was the main cause of the U.S. entry into the First World War.

It is recounted how German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sent the message to Washington for relay to the Germans' Mexico City embassy in a relatively new cryptographic system, designated 7500, and that the British had intercepted the message, but could not fully decrypt it. However, the British could almost completely read a German code designated 13040 that had been in use for a long time, and they knew that the Germans' Mexico City ministry would probably receive their copy of the message in code 13040, which they themselves could read. Therefore the British decided to try to obtain a copy there. It so happened that they had an operative in the telegraph office in Mexico City. Therefore, on Feb. 6, 1917, Admiral Reginald Hall, Britain's director of naval intelligence, issued instructions to obtain copies of all recent German cables sent to the Mexico City ministry. An enciphered copy of the relevant cable was in British hands on Feb. 19, and was quickly decrypted in full. The author of the recent article, perhaps knowingly, completely omits the fairly well-known fact that the telegram was obtained in Mexico, stating that "all we know is that somehow or other the unenciphered text of the Zimmermann Note came into British hands."

Additionally, many past suggestions that the Zimmermann Telegram was obtained by and readable through theft of a plaintext copy are demonstrably false: the copy of code 13040 as provided by the British to the Americans in 1917 bore the unmistakable marks of painstaking cryptanalysis, and decryption of the Zimmermann message would have not been possible before it reached the British. And Admiral Hall and the British preferred the Germans and others to believe in loss of this code through theft or treachery rather than cryptanalysis, and they actively promoted this suspicion.

As to exposure through treachery, the information that the message contained was of such importance and sensitivity that it would be a tightly guarded secret. Its contents would have been restricted to only a very few trusted people, specifically, Zimmermann's personal secretary, the chancellor, and only a few others, if any, and to the ambassador to Mexico and a few others involved in the message's relay and decryption.

Had there been any traitors involved in this particular message's handling, other information of such import which was vital to German interests would almost surely have been divulged to the Allies. No evidence of such high-level spying has ever surfaced, so we may be fairly certain that there was no such espionage in this case either (i.e., there was no "Mega" operating at the highest levels of the German government at that time. Unfortunately, we can't say the same for our own present government.).

While, as the author notes, the Balfour Declaration was first proposed around the time of the Zimmermann Telegram affair, the two events almost certainly are merely coincidental. The author himself notes that the Balfour Declaration was not finally made until November 1917, a full seven months after the release of the Zimmermann Telegram, a long time after its release.

What did Great Britain get in return for the Balfour Declaration? Money. Britain, after three years of war, was almost broke. Money talks, and Britain received money from international Jewry for its war effort. (However, the British did not prostitute themselves as cheaply as our honorary Knesset members in Congress do today.)

The British obtained the Zimmermann Telegram solely through cryptanalysis, and not treachery on the part of Zionists, or others.

Reverdy S. Fishel, Arlington, VA

P.S.: Are "John Cornelius" and the person who spilled the beans on the existence of Mega one and the same?

Since we don't know who revealed the contents of intercepted telephone conversations between the Mossad station chief in the Israeli Embassy in Washington and his superior in Israel in which the existence of "Mega," a source for intelligence about the U.S., was mentioned, we can't answer your question.

Other Comments on Zimmermann

I read with great interest the special report by "John Cornelius" in your August/September issue proposing a correlation between the Balfour Declaration and the Zimmermann Telegram. I believe that careful consideration of the historical background will show that there were more significant factors that played a role in the ensuing tragedy of the Palestinians and Palestine. If I want to assign a level of importance to the Zimmermann Telegram, it has to be quite minor. I am enclosing some comments of my own on the subject. They represent another point of view which, I hope, will be of interest to your readers.

Shakir A. Abbas, Newberry, FL

The article by "John Cornelius" originally came to us as a letter to the editor, just as did your comments. So we've turned your comments into an article printed on p. 97 of this issue. Although we don't agree with all of your points, we found it a well-presented interpretation of events leading up to the partition of Palestine. We realize also that it is widely accepted among Middle Easterners that Britain had an ulterior motive in "planting" a Jewish community in the area of the Suez Canal. We think this is a rewriting of history, trying to supply a rational explanation for British conduct that created great instability—very much like current Arab acceptance of the idea that the U.S. supports Israel as a "strategic asset" rather than the strategic liability that all U.S. Middle East specialists of our acquaintance would call it (see article p. 25). Nevertheless, your well-expressed point of view is widely held in the Middle East and certainly deserves equal consideration with our own.

Widening Your Circle of Readers

I have just finished reading the Aug./ Sept. issue of the Report and am again very pleased with your reporting. I am also very upset with the U.S. lack of even-handedness in the Palestinian-Israel deadlock.

For years, since I was in middle school, I have supported the Palestinian cause and have worked very diligently to spread the word about the occupation and the cruel treatment by Israelis.

I am now 75 years young and still fighting for the cause. It seems that I will not see the peace and the justice I have yearned for all these years. Our only hope is for each generation to carry on the work that many were and still are doing.

In reading the interview with Metropolitan Saliba, I was pleased with his remarks and his hope for a future Palestine. We belong to the Antiochian Orthodox Church in Flint, Michigan and so I am sending you a list of people who could and should be future subscribers to the Report. I hope you will be able to send the Aug./Sept. issue because of Metropolitan Saliba's interview. I always save and distribute my copies at church so many are familiar with the magazine.

I recently sent a $100 donation as well as subscription renewal for two years. May you continue your in-depth reporting and may the rest of the country tap in on your information.

Sylvia M. Sophiea, Flint, MI

We are sending a complimentary copy of the Aug./Sept. issue to each name on your list of potential Antiochian Orthodox subscribers.

Imprisoned Dr. Anwar Haddam

I had the pleasure of attending the UASR round table discussion in which your executive editor gave a well-rounded speech on the American­Israeli relationship. I was the high-school teacher who asked about Mossad's infiltration of Islamic movements. I recently read the Aug./Sept. issue of your magazine in which you published an open letter of thanks to his supporters from Dr. Abu Marzook. I also recall that your magazine interviewed him while he was in prison.

I have a similar request. Dr. Anwar Haddam of the Islamist Front in Algeria was recently imprisoned here in Virginia. I would appreciate your objective/journalistic perspective or an interview to be done with Dr. Haddam. He has been on a hunger strike since May 21, now 49 days on just water. His wife, a medical doctor, three daughters and son are also living in Virginia. If you need their addresses/telephone numbers I would gladly oblige.

Looking forward to more insightful news coverage and thanking you in advance,

Wafa Hozien, Herndon, VA

Thanks to you, to reader (and AET angel) Ibrahim Alwazir, and to others who have made this request, we'll do it.

Caring About the Future

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs means a lot to me. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and United States-Israel relations, the Washington Report is the only publication in North America that "tells it as it is."

Your magazine has gained the utmost respect and admiration among its readers who care about the future of America and who hope for a just peace in the Middle East.

Parviz Saghafi-Ezaz, Flushing, NY

Misinformation and No Information

Enclosed is my check for $20. I truly wish it could be more but I am almost 71 and am on a fixed, very low income.

The mere thought of your fine magazine going under is most frightening. Yours, indeed, is the one light at the end of the tunnel of lies, misinformation and no information. You must be enabled to carry on as splendidly as you always have.

My small donation seems so insignificant by itself but if all your subscribers gave that much or more, I am sure it would have to help.

Pat Williams, Redding, CA

If all our subscribers gave an extra $20 we wouldn't have to keep begging, and we could be a monthly that appears 12 times a year. Thanks.

My Beacon of Light

I sure don't want to be kept in the dark by losing my only "beacon of light" on the Middle East.

May you, and we, prosper so that you can enlighten, especially, those of us who have not yet "seen the light."

Tim Hanley, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Early Christmas Shopping

Now is not the time to quit! Now, more than ever, we need you to hang in there and continue to put out the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. We will all have to work together on this.

I am doing my Christmas shopping early this year—see enclosed list. If any of the books on my list are no longer available, keep that amount for your use.

I am enclosing a check for $500. If I figured right, $301 of that is for books. The rest is for you to use. I hope it will help.

Tanis Diedrichs, Cedar Falls, IA

Thanks for this check and your earlier one of $250. You and people like you saved us this year from the consequences of our disastrous shortfall in 1996. Next year we hope to keep spending and income in equilibrium.

Readers may also note that a special order form for the AET Book Club is inserted in the center of this magazine.

A Reader Since 1990

Please accept my second donation for this year of $500. I am not bragging about this donation. On the contrary, I feel I am not doing enough to support you.

I have been reading the Washington Report since August 1990 and I will continue to do so as long as the Washington Report continues to support the Palestinian people for their freedom and justice.

You are definitely sailing against the wind, but someday things will change and the American people will realize that Palestinians deserve freedom and justice like other nations.

You can always count on my support. Thank you and keep up the good work.

Name withheld, Doha, Qatar

Another Apologist for Israel

Thank you for your factual response to Gerardo Joffe (another Israeli apologist) regarding the attack on the USS Liberty. We have had a running battle of words in our newspapers—and it is heartening to know there are Americans out there who care about our fellow Americans.

My sister and I were honored and privileged to have been invited to attend the No Greater Love 30th Memorial Service for the victims of the brutal Israeli attack. It was heartbreaking to see the pain of those who were directly involved and the families of those who were killed. The greater pain is the bottom line. They have been rejected by their government for 30 years.

People always ask "Did you lose someone on the Liberty ?" Up until a short time ago, my answer was always "No, but I care about them." However, my response should have been all these 30 years—"Yes, 34 fellow Americans. May they rest in peace knowing many of us really care."

I thought you might be interested in the letter I wrote our newspaper which responded to Richard Wilkins' (of the Israel, right or wrong, Amen corner) justification of Israel's actions in the conflict.

My letter was printed June 5, and as you will note, the articles and pictures of us at the service appeared June 7 and 9. Well, this really drove Wilkins bonkers and his letter of July 2 was printed in response.

I have sent a copy of his letter to Rocky Sturman and John Hrankowski (of the Liberty crew) for their rebuttal to Wilkins. I am sure they can take good care of his nonsense.

We have talked up the WRMEA hoping to generate new/renew members for you. Hope you have had at least one or two from the Syracuse area within the past week or two.

The enclosed is just a small token—I dearly wish it could be more.

Again, thank you, thank you for your great response to Joffe.

Selma Abdo, Syracuse, NY

And thanks to you for your contribution and for two good letters from the Syracuse Herald-Journal which we've reprinted in "Other People's Mail," starting on p. 48 of this issue. The amount of coverage given to the USS Liberty anniversary by both the Herald-Journal and the Syracuse Post-Standard shows that community activists like you and your sister Evelyn can influence editors.

The Malta Story Should Be Reprinted

I shall be very grateful if you will kindly forward the attached full-page story published in one of our English weeklies in Malta to Mr. James M. Ennes, the author of Assault on the Liberty as I do not have his home address.

As you see, the story is intended to mark the 30th anniversary of "an act of military recklessness manifesting the same reckless disregard for human life" to quote the American government, which at first condemned the Israeli deliberate attack but which later sadly and disgracefully treated it as a non-event.

I have read the Ennes book as well as that by Mr. John E. Borne, namely The USS Liberty: Dissenting History vs Official History, both of which I obtained from the AET Book Club along with some 30 other titles during my now 10 years as a regular subscriber to your splendidly informative magazine.

As I regularly read every issue of the magazine from cover to cover without fail, I am well acquainted with your most interesting articles.

From what I read I am convinced that the full-page story in our Sunday Times published in March would never be allowed to appear in the USA in The New York Times or The Washington Post.

What is astounding and unbelievable is the unjust treatment received by the crew by the various American administrations and by Congress while the USS Liberty was sold for scrap for $101,666.66 so that the very name of a gallant but unfortunate ship disappeared from history.

Knowing this, any non-American would ask: "Have the crew and the ship been such a disgrace and dishonor to the high traditions of the United States Navy that they deserve this treatment?"

Please excuse this long letter. Allow me to conclude with a remark: Dr. Alfred Lilienthal in his monumental The Zionist Connection II (Veritas, paper ed.) p. 567, said: "Only the Malta News dared print that the attack on the Liberty was no mistake." Incidentally, the Malta News, now long since defunct, was then a daily.

With anticipated thanks and best wishes,

J. Cachia, Paola, Malta

We'll pass the Malta Times article by John A. Mizzi on to Jim Ennes. The color illustration that accompanied the article is in fact the painting from the cover of his book, Assault on the Liberty, obtainable from the AET Book Club catalog starting on p. 107 of this issue.

Can She Be Turned Around?

On a Sunday "Washington Journal" on C-SPAN with host Steven Sculley and guests Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ariana Huffington, the first question from a listener was on the power of the Israeli lobby in blocking an investigation of the USS Liberty. Both guests ducked the question, although Ms. Huffington said she did not know enough about the subject. Ms. Huffington is a columnist and chair for the Center for Effective Compassion. If you could furnish an address either by mail or in your magazine I would appreciate it. Although a strict conservative, Ms. Huffington is not afraid to express her opinion. I remember in the early 1980s even Charley Reese, whose most recent syndicated column on the USS Liberty I'm enclosing, wondered what all the fuss in Israel was about with some Arabs being beaten up. He has made a complete turn-around.

Robert Dolan, Pensacola, FL

Ariana Huffington can be reached at 3299 K St. NW, Suite 402, Washington, DC 20007 and Jesse Jackson at 820 1st St. NE, Washington, DC 20002. Jesse Jackson doesn't need converting. He knows the truth but he's become timid about expressing it. Ariana Huffington may be sincere in saying she doesn't know enough about it, although she should. We, too, were impressed at the characteristically straightforward language in the Charley Reese column on the USS Liberty you sent us, but unfortunately had no room for an "Other Voices" section in this issue. Maybe next time.

Ignoring the Real Issue

I was surprised by a letter from President Clinton in reply to one I had written about the continuing conflict in the Middle East. I had sent the same letter to both of our senators and our three local representatives. The only other one who responded, Rep. Rick White, also ignored the real issue.

You may be interested both in the president's reply and my return letter. I doubt he will reply to this one. How can he justify a policy with such a double standard, and which is in such direct violation of what we piously claim to be our most cherished beliefs?

As long ago as 1929, when the first Arab uprising against Zionist activities broke out, U.S. Consul General Knabenshue, in Jerusalem, cabled the State Department that the Palestinian position was more compatible with U.S. ideals than that of the Zionist Jews who, he felt, had provoked the uprising.

John O'Connor, Seattle, WA

We've printed President Clinton's letter to you and your response in this issue's "Other People's Mail" starting on p. 48. Readers may also be interested to know that a very long first chapter by noted writer Vincent Sheean in our newly issued book Seeing the Light: Personal Encounters With the Middle East and Islam gives a first-hand account of the Zionist instigation of the 1929 riots, by one who was there.

Suspicions About NATO Expansion

This letter is more or less to unburden an idea that has been simmering for some time about the issue of NATO expansion. Call me suspicious, but here's my idea:

(1) The United States has been taking it on the chin recently in the United Nations. Those 100+ to 2 or 3 votes where we and Israel are revealed as standing virtually alone against the world are noticed, if not acknowledged.

(2) Congress, ever beholden to the Israel lobby, exhibits increasing hostility to the United Nations, even to the point of threatening to welsh on our financial commitments, a convenient cover for the administration to back away from the United Nations as a forum for international problems. Many seem to have forgotten that the United Nations was created in the aftermath of the holocaust (small H) of World War II in recognition of the need for some agreed international morality. "Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it" is still a valid truism, seemingly forgotten by the new boys and girls in power.

3) NATO, originally conceived as a military alliance against Soviet aggression in Europe, is obviously a useless and costly anachronism, certainly not a candidate for expansion.

(4) Nevertheless, NATO always had a non-military side, "the allies" in World War II forming a club of somewhat like-minded democrats and, from the standpoint of the U.S., a club in which we were recognized as the leader.

(5) Presto! Expand NATO to include the Eastern European countries recently freed from Russian domination—but which can safely be relied upon to accept U.S. hegemony, for financial reasons if no other—and you have a new, more easily controlled substitute for the United Nations, which was "getting out of hand" in any case. The new club could comfortably be counted upon to reflect the foreign policy interests (whatever they are) of the United States. George Bush triumphant with the New World Order!

Albert Doyle, Vly Cottage, NY

We'll have to ponder your theory. For one thing, watching the talking heads chewing over the NATO expansion issue on TV, we noted that some of the craziest of the media Zionists vigorously opposed any NATO expansion at all. However, you're probably right.

Regarding the "Persian Gulf"

We would like to draw your attention to your executive editor's article entitled, "High-Level Private Task Force Attacks 'Dual Containment' Policy," on page 24 of your June/July 1997 issue.

We are puzzled by the fact that you have used the fictitious term "Arabian Gulf" in reference to the body of water with the legitimate and historical name "Persian Gulf." Such a prestigious publication as the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs should know that the name "Persian Gulf" has been used for that geographical location for as long as its history has been documented. Such a fabrication from a well-known publisher and editor is an insult to every educated person's intelligence. We sincerely hope that your journal's high standards are maintained by quickly correcting this inadvertent yet obvious error.

Once again, we deeply appreciate your utmost attention to this very important matter. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Faramarz Fathnezhad, Director, Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, DC

We generally try to follow official U.S. government terminology on this touchy issue since, while Iranians call it the Persian Gulf, the Arabs call it the Arabian Gulf. This became complicated during the Gulf war because, as best we could tell, the Pentagon officially called it the "Arabian Gulf" and the State Department officially called it the "Persian Gulf." That's when we began calling either one, and sometimes the Arab/Persian Gulf or vice versa. Your letter and another one launched us on a new search for ultimate truth and wisdom. The State Department geographer's office told us it's definitely and unequivocally "Persian Gulf," and since it took us a week to get a response from that office we decided it might take even longer to get a response from the Pentagon, which is bigger. So we'll use Persian Gulf, but we'll let any of our authors who prefer to use Arabian Gulf follow their hearts. Thanks to you and other readers who called this to our attention.

Israel's Congressional Influence

A U.S. congressional resolution recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was passed in Congress in June by a vote of 406-17. As if Congress didn't have more important issues affecting Americans to vote on, they selected the most explosive issue in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It's not really such a surprise when you consider how many millions the Israel lobby spent on last year's congressional elections. In addition, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee provided all-expense-paid vacations to Congress members and their families on a tour of Israel. Senator Paul Coverdale of Georgia, and U.S. Reps. Bob Barr and John Linder and their families were just a few of the recipients.

The truth of the matter is that the Israeli lobby has bought the Congress and the presidency.

It brings back memories of years ago of Donald Bergus, a former ambassador to Sudan and retired diplomat who once wrote:

"At the State Department we used to predict that if Israel's prime minister should announce that the world is flat, within 24 hours Congress would pass a resolution congratulating him on the discovery."

James J. David, Marietta, GA

Knesset Bans of Christian Literature

I am enclosing a copy of a news item that was printed in the June 1997 issue of The Church Around the World newsletter. It seems that the Israeli Knesset has given preliminary approval to a law prohibiting the publication, distribution, advertisement or even possession of Christian literature.

The very same newsletter mentions in a separate item that a committee has been set up by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to promote religious freedom outside the U.S. Maybe the committee should look into the continued abuses of human rights and religious freedom occurring against Christians and Muslims in Israel and the occupied territories.

I think it is the height of hypocrisy for the U.S. to bash China on their human rights policy and lack of religious freedom and then continue to send billions of dollars in aid to Israel while remaining silent on Israeli abuses.

Peter R. Akras, Wading River, NY

cc: Tyndale House Publishers,351 Executive Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188

cc: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, 2201 C St. NW, Washington, DC 20520

The worst hypocrisy is that practiced by Israel-first American journalists like A.M. Rosenthal of The New York Times who lend themselves to the Israel lobby-sponsored campaign to charge abuse of Christians in certain Muslim countries and China while totally ignoring the fact that the anti-missionary bill in the Israeli parliament, which has passed the first of three required readings in the Israeli Knesset, probably poses a threat to Christian ministers visiting Israel and definitely is a serious threat to resident Christians, particularly Christian converts of Jewish origin, against whom it is aimed and undoubtedly will be enforced.

We certainly have no problem with U.S. journalists spotlighting religious persecution wherever it exists. What we find astonishing is that the Israeli anti-missionary bill is ignored in the U.S. mainstream press and, with the exception of the clipping from The Church Around the World, virtually ignored by U.S. Christian publications as well. The people it's aimed at are the "Jews for Jesus" and other Jewish converts to Christianity and other religions whom Israelis seem determined to treat as apostates who must be punished. If the law passes all three readings, these Jews-turned-Christian residents of Israel may soon find themselves doing one-year jail sentences, perhaps over and over again. The fact that U.S. Christian journalists seem so oblivious indicates that they apparently don't really regard people who were born Jewish, but have converted, as real Christians. We suppose we shouldn't be surprised, because the same U.S. Christian journalists don't seem to find Palestinian Christians worth defending when they suffer at the hands of Israeli occupiers.

Rejoining Your Choir of Angels

I am very happy to again join your Choir of Angels and, being 94 years of age, yet hopeful that I live to see the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in every schoolroom as an adjunct to the study of modern United States history. It most certainly lays out the pattern of a great upcoming political struggle concerning the control of political (and, consequently, the economic) affairs of our once-grand country, by a sectarian group-cult.

It was a bit perplexing to read a remark in the June/July issue of WRMEA attributed to our Bubba (while he was walking arm-in-arm with Nit-an-yahoo) that he could be interested only in "letting the Palestinians and Israelis work out their own difficulties." Then why does Clinton freely supply Netanyahu with surpluses of military fighting materiel? If the latter didn't have all that weaponry, he might have to think about settling his country's disputes.

Keep up the splendid work, all of you. Time will reveal that your efforts were prime in saving what is to be salvaged of what is, or was, the most wonderful country on earth. We will back you to the utmost limits.

Frank J. Burris, Fallbrook, CA

We assume Zionism is the "cult" to which you refer.

Never Give Up

Never give up your great work!

Gerry Toy, Portland, OR

Find Friends Elsewhere

I have appreciated the magazine very much. I have quoted it and let friends read it. And will miss the news you let us hear.

But some of us are getting older, going into rest homes, and do not have the money to pay for information the Report contains.

I hope you can draw some funds from other sources.

Martin Reinecke, Sioux Falls, SD

Happily we're gaining many more new subscribers than losing old ones. Meanwhile, speaking for the founders, who are getting a mite creaky, are there any particular rest homes you recommend?

Complimentary 1997 Calendar

Recently while I was visiting a friend, I picked up a copy of your Washington Report on Middle East Affairs that he had on his desk. I must say, I enjoyed reading it. I got information here that I wouldn't have been able to get on the "mainstream media."

I was wondering if you can send me a free sample copy of your magazine. Also while I was visiting my friend, I noticed that on his wall he had an elegant-looking calendar. I understand that the calendar was produced by your magazine. Would it be possible for you to send me a 1997 calendar? Thanks so much.

Nick Teng, Plainview, NY

We've sent a sample copy and a 1997 calendar, but your December issue with the 1998 calendar will cost you a $25 subscription.

Through God's Grace

I would like to send more, but for now it will have to do. I hope through God's grace that someday you will not have to solicit for funds. Thank you for a very informative magazine. I think that every Muslim household should have this magazine. Maybe you should have another fund-raising in November.

Abdul Hamied Begg, Miami, FL

Actually, that's exactly what we plan to do. But the November fund-raising letter will solicit help for our 1998 publishing programs.

Why Aren't Those Communities Helpful?

Enclosed is our $100 one-time contribution to help keep things going during the current crisis.

It seems to us that the American Arab and Muslim communities should be more active and generous in their support of AET. Indeed there are numerous successful businesses and companies owned by people of Arab and Middle East extraction in America who would be able to underwrite the expense of AET. We cannot understand why some of the more wealthy ones are not doing their part. Are they being asked?

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Gardner, Houston, TX

Actually U.S. Middle East policy is a problem for all Americans, not just Arab and Muslim Americans. Fortunately for us, donors from all backgrounds, including a high percentage of Muslim Americans and Christian Arab Americans, have come to the rescue, as you can see from the names listed in our 1997 Angels' Choir (p. 118).

Thanks for the Books

Thank you for your letter of 28 April and the 11 books given to the Hoover Institution Library in return for our paid subscription to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Of the 11 titles that you sent, I have selected six to be added to our collection. I am confident that they will be of value to users of our Middle East Collection. Indeed, I am surprised that most of those six titles are not already held by the Hoover Institution or Stanford University Library.

Five of the books, unfortunately, duplicate titles that we already hold. They are, listed in brief, Israel's Lebanon War; Reflections of a Palestinian; Anti-Zionism: Analytical Reflections; Armed Conflict in Lebanon, 1982; and Going All the Way. Would you be willing to trade?

With thanks again, Edward A. Jajko, Deputy Curator, Hoover Institution, Middle East Collection, Stanford, CA

Better hang on to the duplicates. Books we present to libraries, along with issues of the Washington Report itself, seem to disappear from library shelves. We'd like to think that library patrons love our publications so much that they can't resist the temptation to keep them. Librarians tell us, however, that it's the ones who don't love us who do the stealing.

Commendation to Edna Homa Hunt

Please allow me to commend and thank Dr. Edna Homa Hunt for her two splendid and exquisitely eloquent essays which were published consecutively in the Washington Report.

"A Very Personal Commemoration," which Dr. Hunt wrote for the 30th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Palestine (June/July '97 issue), left a deep bleeding hole in my heart and conscience. Like her, I blame the Clinton administration for allowing such inhuman injustices against the Palestinians to continue, the colonial Israeli government with its extremist and heartless bully Netanyahu, and the current weak P.A. and its President Yasser Arafat who have rendered the Palestinian just cause powerless and helpless.

Her second essay "The Many Faces of Terrorism" is brilliant, very informative and truthful. Like Edna, I, too, am stunned by the silence of the Jews in Israel, the U.S. and worldwide. Except for the Israeli peace and human rights activists; some writers and editors, especially of Challenge magazine and The Other Israel newsletter; and of course the great Israel Shahak and his monthly translations (or explanations) from the Israeli newspapers, their silence is frightening and inexcusable. But I'm also stunned by the Arab countries' horrible and stupid silence. If they could unite, speak out and defend their Palestinian brethren's cause, which is really theirs also, they could change history. Thanks again.

Nuha Marchi, Orlando, FL