Washington Report, November 15, 1982, Page 5

Lobby Activities

For Arabs:

The recent expansion of the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) in both size and scope is due in large part to funds generated by its newly-formed subsidiary, the Middle East Policy & Research Corporation (MEPARC).

Formally launched last September, MEPARC is providing its corporate and individual clients with data and analyses in 11 different areas relating to the Middle East, ranging from legislation and voting records of congressmen on Capitol Hill to media coverage of Mideast events.

MEPARC's founder and president, Robert Joseph—who is also president of NAAA—told The Washington Report that the corporation has been well received so far by the business community and that it is already generating additional financial resources for NAAA. It was designed, according to Mr. Joseph, to fill what he referred to as an "information gap," For example, he said that business executives are often unaware that their corporation supported a candidate in an election who in turn voted consistently against the company's interests in the Middle East. By tracking contributions made by corporate political action committees and the voting records of congressmen who received the PAC money MEPARC can keep them informed of how well their company's money is being spent, according to Joseph.

Meanwhile, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has begun distributing to its chapters a 22 minute film which it had made on last summer's siege of Beirut. The 16 millimeter film, "Report From Beirut: Summer of '82," features scenes of the devastation as well as interviews with Palestinian and Lebanese residents and with foreign doctors who were working in Beirut at the time. The film—narrated by ADC's Executive Director, Dr. James Zogby—will eventually be distributed to universities and high schools across the country, ADC officials say.

For Israel:

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has launched a campaign to convince the Reagan Administration to pre-position war supplies in Israel.

The centerpiece of the drive is a nineteen page position paper, "The Strategic Value of Israel," written by Dr. Steven Rosen, AIPAC's new Director of Research and Information. In it he tries to make the case that the U.S. would be better off financially and strategically if it used Israel as a staging area in the Middle East instead of relying on other countries in the region and on airlifting supplies from the U.S. Dr. Rosen, formerly a senior analyst at the Rand Corporation, argues among other things that pre-positioned equipment in Israel could even be used as a "swing-force" in Europe at less cost than transporting men and equipment from the U.S. But so far, he claims, there has been a "systematic exclusion of Israel from U.S. defense planning for the Middle East and the Mediterranean."

The report appears to have been written months ago, judging by one sentence which refers to Egypt's "future" repossession of the last third of Sinai in April of 1982. AIPAC has apparently decided that the time is ripe to push for a resumption in the discussions between the U.S. and Israel on military cooperation, the first step toward any pre-positioning arrangements. A U.S.-Israel "strategic cooperation" agreement was suspended by the U.S. last year after Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, and has not been re-instated.

AIPAC says the report is the first in what will be a series on issues affecting U.S.-Israel relations.