—Voices from the Sensible Center—

Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans—
Interpreting North America for the Middle East

Current Affairs

3 The Real Shultz Stands Up—Humphrey popped into the office today, just before our deadline. We tried to explain to him, as briefly as we could, that Secretary Shultz is really not that different a person from what he was last year—even though there has been a shift in the U.S. relationship with Israel since then. We're not sure if what we said sunk in, since it turned out that he had something else on his mind.

4 U.S. & Saudi: Talking Business—The U.S.-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation has had its eighth annual meeting at the financial "summit" level—i.e., with its co-chairmen, the Saudi Minister of Finance and the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, on hand. As usual, they had both ups and downs to talk about, but moved ahead on some useful joint ventures.

5 Lobby Activities—The grassroots are being heard from in the American Midwest and West, where groups of citizens are petitioning city halls to put a resolution calling for cutbacks in aid to Israel onto upcoming election ballots. Meanwhile in the East, Israel's sympathizers in Washington have formed yet one more political action committee to help elect pro-Israel candidates to Congress.

Regular Features

2 Editorial—It looks as though for the next 12 months, at least, we are going to be watching a new love affair blossom between the U.S. and Israel—complete with a background of violin music, sonic booms and the percussion of artillery. It's a worrisome prospect, because in the long run it will exacerbate, not solve, the underlying tragedies of the Middle East.

6 Facts For Your Files—A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations.

7 Book Review—Alfred Lilienthal, a Jewish American who for more than 35 years has been hammering away at the importance of distinguishing between Judaism and Zionism, has now come out with an updated paper-back version of his five-year-old book, The Zionist Connection. Our reviewer makes it clear why the book lives up to its name.

8 Personality—There are lots of people in Washington who provide Middle East expertise to other experts. George Atiyeh is one of them, and the very special knowledge which he makes available comes from a very special place.