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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1999, pages 3, 94-96 Letters to the Editor
I have just finished reading your publisher's piercing piece on "Israel's Cult of Disinformation," in the September Washington Report. The article is remarkable as much for its insight and force as for its moving, clear-cut honesty. Nothing like truth, pure and simple, brought into the clear light of day, can have such a shattering impact. I liked the way he organized his argument around the "verbal paradigm" concept, which in his elaboration approaches the status of a powerful deconstructive tool! Dr. Hisham Sharabi, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Over 50 years ago some 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes by armed Israelis. Israel has been pursuing its aggression ever since while thumbing its nose at the U.N. and ignoring U.N. resolutions calling for repatriation or compensation of the refugees. Nevertheless, Israel has been allowed to continue its membership in the United Nations. Some horrendous atrocities were carried out, including the massacre of Palestinian villagers at Deir Yassin. Two of the leaders of the Jewish militias that committed the massacre, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, later became prime ministers of Israel. All of the above has taken place with no attention from our United States. The result is, the bigger Israel becomes, the smaller Palestine becomes, in spite of the total numbers of their respective populations. Will President Clinton earn a real apple upon his cap and a real life legacy for himself and his administration through backing the really deserving Palestinian "underdogs"? Stay tuned. Frank J. Burris, Fallbrook, CA (age 96)
For decades the Israelis have preached peace while making war on the Arabs. How many times have they said, "After the election we will make peace"? Now it is déjà vu all over again with pledges to "leave Lebanon within a year" and "allow" a Palestinian state on land that Israelis barbarically stole from the Palestinians. Then, "after talks, we will return the Golan Heights to Syria." Israeli leaders know they can promise anything and then create a situation that will disrupt any promise. And, thanks to a complaisant U.S. media, we accept their lies, murders and thefts. Why wait a year to get off Lebanese land? The Israeli forces could pack up and roll out within a week. Daily we are told of reparations for Jews. When will Palestinians receive reparation for their homes, businesses and farms and when will there be holocaust museums all over the world commemorating the slaughter and displacement of the Palestinian Arabs? Virginia L. Oldham, Dallas, TX
The Washington Report is the most informative magazine about U.S.-related events in the Middle East. I enjoy reading it. However, most of the time reading your articles makes me sad and a little hopeless. Elias Neno, Hatfield, PA Sad is okay. Hopeless, never. People of Middle Eastern descent in the U.S. are just beginning to find their voice and realize their power within the U.S. political system. Together, but only together and not divided among themselves, they can change this country for the better, very quickly, both in terms of liberating their fellow Americans from a foreign policy contrary to U.S. traditions and interests dictated by the Israel lobby, and also in terms of reinjecting some of the morality into U.S. national life that has been so visibly diluted in recent years.
You fill an important gap in Middle Eastern affairs. Keep the faith. S.S. Nyang, Silver Spring, MD Thanks for the kind words, which are particularly heartening when they come from a distinguished scholar and spokesman for Muslims in America like you.
Most importantly, the Washington Report brings balance to otherwise extremely biased media accounts of the events affecting the Middle East and its people (Palestine and Palestinians in particular). Above all, the Washington Report brings back the humanity and dignity so often missing from other reports of the Palestinian people. In an ocean of negative portrayals of Palestinians and Arabs throughout the Western world, your magazine reminds its readers what truth, fairness and justice are supposed to be about. It encourages its readers to look at all sides of the issues and it reminds us of our responsibility to stand up against oppression! Dr. Soraya Mekerta, Atlanta, GA
I apologize for getting this to you so late. I have had a number of complicated cases in my medical practice over the past few months that have nearly consumed me. Things are finally settling back down and I remembered that I had not yet contributed this year. Keep up the good work. As long as you are publishing, there is hope. Clyde A. Farris, West Linn, OR We'll be publishing as long as God gives us the strength and baritones in our Choir of Angels like you give us the means. Thanks for your help and encouragement this year and over many previous years. It's significant that the experience of a few childhood years in Jordan as the son of a USAID officer (as recounted in your chapter in Seeing the Light: Personal Encounters with the Middle East and Islam) opened your eyes to the injustices being suffered by the Palestinians. Now if only we could duplicate the experience for Americans who are unable to go to see for themselves.
On Aug. 8, I will be refusing to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Aug. 8 is my draft date. I have decided to refuse service in the IDF for reasons of conscience. The IDF has been duly informed of my position as I have appeared before the committee for conscientious objection, which refused to see my objection as one of conscience. As a result, I will most likely be sent to jail on that day. At this point it is not clear how long I will be sent away for. It depends on how I will be tried. I consider the question of freedom of conscience to be a worthy cause for me to fight for, and I also think objecting to serve in the IDF is an act of principle, aimed at fighting oppression and ending the racist and unintelligent policies of our government. My intention is to make a large public protest about conscientious objection and have a lot of people and organizations backing me. I would like to ask you for your support in my struggle. I think freedom of conscience is a democratic battle of large importance, and I do not think I should be sent to jail for my conscience. I'd like to add that I'm not the only one who is refusing to serve in the army out of reasons of conscience. Some of you perhaps read the article this weekend in Ha'aretz about the person who is now sitting in jail for refusing to serve. There is also another young person, named Dan Shohet, who is going to refuse service in the occupied territories. Some may consider our two cases different, and they are in many ways, but our political positions are very similar, and we both are objecting for political reasons of conscience. There are more young people who are going to refuse to serve in the army in the very near future. This is not a singular battle, but one which is on-going for many young people like me. Raz Lotahn: gidonraz@netvision.net.il or Tel. 02-6439696; Cell phone 053-252572; fax 02-6412533
I did something I've never done before today. Tree planting has always been part of the Zionist mythology of "turning the desert green," and a convenient way for the Israeli Jewish National Fund to extract money from American Jews. Naturally, this reverence for trees does not extend to ones on Palestinian land, which are routinely bulldozed by the occupation forces, to make way for Jewish-only settlements and bypass roads. But the JNF has made it so convenient to plant a tree that you can do it online, to commemorate births, marriages, dead loved ones, Bar Mitzvahs and so on. I couldn't resist so I ordered a tree today and had inscribed on the certificate: "1 tree has been planted in honor of Hilmi Shusheh, Killed in confrontation with an Israeli settler." As you will recall, seven-year-old Hilmi Shusheh was killed three years ago, allegedly by Nahum Korman, a settler from the militant Hadar Beitar settlement. Last week a Jerusalem court acquitted Korman, despite medical evidence that the boy had been beaten to death with the butt of a gun. Korman said that the boy fell as he chased him, after Korman's car had been stoned. According to B'Tselem, Israeli soldiers routinely receive lenient treatment for attacks on Palestinians. The transaction cost me $18. But seeing the certificate: priceless. I shall check on it every day to make sure it is not removed. Ali Abunimah, Chicago, IL
I was born here in the U.S.A. eight decades ago, the son of Lebanese. I am reading your September issue with 32 pages on Cyprus and one page on Lebanon. What the hell is wrong with you guys? Lebanon is the most prominent country among all the Arab countries. They call it even now the most sophisticated of the Middle East. Why don't you do something about it? Visitors from the U.S. and other parts of the world who travel all over return and praise Lebanon more than any other country. Lebanon is the only country with a democratic government. They dress normally and speak several languages. They have the best climate, summer and winter resorts, mountains, snow and water galore. There are fruits and vegetables sufficient for the people. The land of milk and honey. Your friends the Jews claim that they are the Chosen people of the Lord. He gave them the desert, the heat, no water and no snow. Reverse the advertising of Cyprus and write more about Lebanon Alexander A. Tounian, Stockton, CA What is it about special issues that drive presumably sane readers nuts? For some 18 years we've published one or two articles in nearly every issue about Lebanon and more on Israel and Palestine. Once or twice a year we do some supplementary pages on countries which otherwise are seldom mentioned in our columns. These have included Cyprus, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Every one of these has been slanted toward tourism and positive accomplishments because we believe the best way for Americans to come to appreciate the Middle East is to see it for themselves. Maybe instead of being so defensive about Lebanon where some of our staffers and volunteers have lived for years, for all the reasons you enumerate, you should wake up and smell the cardamom.
In response to some recent letters' discussion, my Encyclopedia Britannica (1973 ed.) states that in April 1914 the population of Palestine was about 690,000-700,000 Christians, 85,000 Jews and 535,000 Muslims. During the First World War Palestine lost population, says Brtiannica further. The stated loss of population is consistent with what I have read elsewhere: that many recent Jewish immigrants to Palestine from European countries had kept their European citizenship, as protection against taxation and military conscription by the Ottoman government that then controlled Palestine. (Theoretically these immigrants owed taxes and military service to their country of citizenship, but they were beyond the effective reach of its authorities.) Under the international law of the time resident aliens had three choices: (1) support the host government's war effort; (2) get out; or (3) be imprisoned. The most popular option was to "bail out." (Especially in the case of Jews with Russian citizenship, when that country declared war on the Ottoman Empire on Nov. 1, 1914.) Many people overlook a significant cause of the mass emigration of the late 19th century and early 20th: Every major European country except Great Britain, as well as many of the smaller ones, had compulsory military service, and many of the émigrés were simply "draft dodgers" and their families! (The United States was also a popular destination for emigrants, because it did not have compulsory military service in peacetime.) It is a bit of irony that the young Adolf Hitler fled Austria for Germany for the same reason: He had failed to report for military service and the police were looking for him. (The Austrian authorities had him dead to rights, because up until his 18th birthday--at which time he was supposed to report--he received an orphan's pension from the state!) Also according to my Britannica, the population of Palestine at the time of the late 1947 U.N. vote to partition it was 35 percent Jewish and the remaining 65 percent mostly Muslim Arabs. The 65 percent non-Jews were virtually 100 percent opposed to partition! Roger D. Leonard, Bowie, MD
Enclosed is a copy of a letter which was published in The Tuscaloosa News on Aug. 6, 1999. My source for the figures regarding the dwindling number of Christians now living in Jerusalem is Catholic Near East, the bimonthly magazine published by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Peter Kenney, Birmingham, AL Your letter is in "Other People's Mail" starting on p. 59.
In each issue of the Washington Report you have a section on contacting our national officials in Washington. I am puzzled why it is that you list the telephone numbers with the 202 area code which costs $$ to call. For example, any senator or representative can be reached at 1 (800) 505-0145. Let's save $$ to Ma Bell and send it to WRMEA! Don Langlois, Phoenix, AZ We've checked and you're right. Thanks and we assume, of course, that our readers will take your advice on what to do with their savings.
The Division for Outreach was instrumental in the early-mid 1990s in work which led to the establishment of ALAMEH, the Association of Lutherans of Arab and other Middle Eastern Heritage, and ultimately to the naming of the Arab and Middle East communities as a fifth ethnic group recognized by this church and represented in the Commission for Multicultural Ministry. D.O. has also worked with ALAMEH in the establishment thus far of two new congregations among Arab and other Middle Eastern peoples in this country. In early July, I participated in the third biennial ALAMEH Assembly, held at Salam Arabic Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, NY. The keynote speaker was Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and Palestine. A Lutheran World Federation news release about his speech is enclosed. I also received there a copy of the June 1999 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs containing the article entitled "Lutherans in the Middle East and in the United States: A Story of Partnership." This excellent article tells a lot about the partnership between the ELCJ, CMM, ALAMEH and Salam congregation. It is true that the article says nothing about the Division for Outreach role in this story, but you can be assured that that does get said when ALAMEH meets. Nevertheless, I am very pleased by this kind of coverage of Lutheran ministry with Arabs in a national magazine which is read by many Middle Easterners in this country, as well as by U.S. "Arabists" and the U.S. foreign service community. Susan Thompson, Executive for Newly-Organized Congregations, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Division for Outreach, Chicago, IL
In the July/Aug. issue on p. 17 Geraldine Brooks wrote about Dr. and Mrs. Qubain who are interested in establishing a "special" fund for Palestinian refugee camp children. Then, however, she only supplies an e-mail contact number. Would you be able to supply me with a mailing address? Or some way to reach the Qubains? Unfortunately, for many of us, e-mail is still a long way off and many individuals living overseas don't realize this. I want to learn more about the fund and quite possibly participate in it, but I cannot reach anyone involved. Thank you in advance for your help. Linda Thain-Ali, Diyarbakir, Turkey The address is: Dr. and Mrs. Fahim Qubain, 752 Forge Road, Lexington, VA 24450; phone (540) 261-7232; e-mail qubain@rockbridge.net
Greetings from Abu Dhabi. Thank you so much for putting all your back issues on the Web. That must have been one heck of a job! I'm sending a $100 check to help "the cause." I'm also ordering Gordon Thomas' Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad. You know, it really warms my heart, as a crackling fire in the hearth does, when I sit back and contemplate how our hearty, noble and admirable Israeli allies blackmailed our president in his affair with Monica Lewinsky, which closed the door on our finding out the identity of the Israeli mole, Mega, who was responsible for one of the biggest thefts, if not the biggest, of top-secret U.S. intelligence. In terms of torpedoing U.S. presidents, there is considerable evidence linking the Israelis to the assassination of JFK. It's too hot a subject to touch in the WRMEA, but nevertheless there is evidence, and such subversive acts as this blackmailing, which nearly led to Clinton being removed from office, lends credence to the charge of Israeli complicity in the JFK assassination. (How come I doubt that that subject will ever come under public scrutiny?) Keep up your great work. And you can publish my name as a donor in each issue. Tim Hanley, United Arab Emirates We will. But let us add that while we know that lots of people in the Middle East associate JFK's assassination with the possibility that he was on the verge of re-orienting U.S. Middle East policy toward a more even-handed approach, there is no hard evidence linking that to his death.
Several months ago I read about a 1982 proposal of the World Zionist Organization to divide the Arab nations into smaller units. The proposal prioritized the dismemberment of Iraq in a manner that resembles the current division of Iraq by the U.S. via the no-fly zones. I originally read about the Zionist proposal in a book, Kuwait and Iraq: A History Suppressed by George Schoeman, published in 1990. I also found the Zionist proposal on a Web site called "Truth, Justice and Human Rights in the Middle East." I printed out copies of p. 1 of the Web site where I found the Zionist proposal, and p. 1 of the specific section ("Part II") of the Web page where the document is located--it is under the subsection called "Israel's Aggression and War Crimes." I also printed a copy of the first page of the proposal with its heading, "The Zionist Conspiracy to Divide Arab States into Small Units." Hopefully, this will help you locate the document if you are not already aware of it. In talking with people I know who follow events in the Middle East, none had ever heard of this proposal. Most were aware of Israel's noncommittal response to defined borders but not about plans to dismember the current Arab states. Nevertheless, the most expansive borders Israel has defined would include considerably more Arab territory than they acquired in 1967. I wonder why no mention of this proposal has ever been made by any of the Arab organizations in the U.S., even though the document was distributed as a pamphlet by Arab students in the U.S. in 1982 and the U.S. divided Iraq using the no-fly zones. Has the proposal just been dismissed as insignificant by those who are the most informed about Mideast issues? I thought some of its recommended actions have been implemented since 1982. I think a document that predicted the future so well was noteworthy enough to mention. Considering the current U.S. policy in the Middle East, especially with regard to Iraq and Lebanon, I took note of it. I would appreciate some feedback even if it is just to say I found something that's totally insignificant. Dr. Ingrid Swenson, Deltona, FL
Dr. Robert Morey is a demagogue who panders to American and Canadian fears about the supposed "threat" of Islam to North America. Among other things, it is his hate literature which Mark Harding, himself more gullible, probably, than malicious (unlike Morey), used and which got him into so much trouble, being jailed, tried for hate crimes, and required to do reparations for the hate that he sowed using Morey's contemptible literature, in Toronto. However, it is time to alert your readers about this mountebank, now that the article, "Islamic Terrorism: a Primer on Front Groups and Islamic Terrorist Organizations" has appeared, in The Truth Seeker (which I redub "The Truth Shirker"!), May/June 1999 issue. This ignoble article slanders every important Islamic interest group in our countries, and associates them with some groups in the Middle East, allegedly or actually involved in "terrorist" (usually,"freedom-fighting") activities. Morey has really outdone himself in this ugly article, as bad as his earlier articles and books have been. (I have prepared an entire dossier on this hatemonger, exposing his errors and the shallowness of his pseudo-scholarship.) I do not need to comment on the article in the May/June issue of his hate-rag of a magazine. The errors in logic are obvious, the character assassination very evident, the allegations absurd (for one thing, how could any people so marginalized and impoverished sponsor so many of these North American groups as Morey states that the Palestinians do?), and I know, from being a member of several of them, that this is just plain hate-filled rubbish. The fact that the article starts on what seems such a "sweetly reasonable" tone makes what follows all the worse. This is sheer Zionist (actually, "Christian Zionist") propaganda. It is time to expose this charlatan and demagogue for the cheap opportunist that he is! Gerald Parker, Librarian, University of Quebec, Montreal We have read Dr. Morey's articles and it is very much of the Steven Emerson guilt-by-association school of slander. Amidst some probably real foreign terrorist groups allegedly associated with Osama Bin Laden, Morey lists virtually every Muslim-American organization in the U.S. and also the ADC, which was founded by a U.S. senator and is the largest Arab-American group which has been in the U.S. political mainstream for 20 years, including some that are purely religious, not political. We wondered how he could do this until we spotted the following murky sentence on the back of Dr. Morey's newsletter describing his attendance at a Southern Baptist Evangelism convention in California: "They gave me a table to share with the men (sic) our materials on the cults, the occult and false religions such as Islam." Maybe to Osama Bin Laden Christianity is a "cult" or "false religion" too. The difference between these two terrorists is that one allegedly uses bombs and one uses bigotry and guilt by association, which, sad to say, are even more dangerous than bombs.
Yesterday I met a man who complained about the moral decay in our country. I agreed. He spoke about the president. I agreed. I spoke about the sanctions and the death of 1.5 million Iraqis. He said, "Who cares?" So few people care. So few people are interested. The public is badly misinformed as well as uninformed. What can we do to get their attention? Joyce Bacon, a long-time peace activist, has proposed that we each wear black arm bands as long as the sanctions against Iraq and the bombing continue. Just as yellow ribbons came to symbolize a prayer for the return of men from battle, let's have our symbol of Black Arm Bands create an instant recognition of death of innocents through starvation, through lack of medicine and medical equipment, through destroyed infrastructures, and through bombing. All enforced and committed by the United States of America. Will you join us in wearing our Black Arm Bands while we cry out for an end to war and an end to the suffering and deaths of the Iraqi people? Betty Molchany, Alexandria, VA
I have decided not to renew my subscription, nor will I recommend your publication to friends, as I have done in the past. The reason is this: while your reporting on the Middle East, particularly on the Palestine question and its ramifications in American politics, has been excellent, your position on the recent U.S./NATO war against Yugoslavia was not only profoundly mistaken but reprehensible. I can have no respect for nor trust in a publication that acts as a conveyor for the calculated deceptions of the establishment. If you had cared to, it was easy enough to find out the truth about NATO's aggression, not in the mainstream press, of course, but through the Internet. One Web site, for instance, provided hundreds of articles by scholars and journalists explaining what was really going on and the reasons for it. You, instead, chose to parrot what could be found on the network news and similar outlets. You would not do that on Palestine. Why then on Yugoslavia? Surely, it cannot be that the only victims of aggression who concern you are Muslims? Or can it? Ralph Raico, Buffalo, NY We just published in our September issue 30 pages laying out the positions of the Greek- and Turkish-speaking Cypriots in exquisite detail, and to the apparent satisfaction of both sides. We think that should address your final question.
As schooled and skilled as you are in media direction, I'm shocked you've eaten the officially packaged pretext for the destruction of Yugoslavia. It's disappointing. All I can imagine is that you're enthralled by the scenario: a displaced people returned to its homeland--justice served. Unfortunately the parallel, Palestinians and Kosovars, is the very opposite of perfect. It's a wonderful thing, no doubt, that Arab nations are hurrying some relief to Kosovars displaced by the brutality of civil war and the terror of NATO's humanitarian bombs. This Balkan war, however, has never been about God but about Mammon and might. In the July/August issue you dismissed Darko Nadic of Belgrade with "We think if you could have seen the daily television footage..."--and then something about NATO's good intentions. Please. I'm sure Mr. Nadic was insulted too. Don't plead international law in one instance and then celebrate its violation in another. James Lee von Bockmann, Carbondale, IL
In the enclosed article from Hour of Montreal, Lyle Stewart really comes "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 to blame it on NATO. If the controversy continues, we'll try to include the article in the next issue of Other Voices. |
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