Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 1996, p. 3

Letters to the Editor

We’ll Miss Elmer Berger

We all mourn the loss of Rabbi Elmer Berger, who relentlessly fought for justice in Palestine for over 50 years.

As a Jew he was deeply concerned for the integrity of Judaism, the principles of which have been grossly violated by Zionist ideology. It is a pity that he could not live to see the resolution of the conflict and the redress of grave injustices perpetrated in the name of Judaism.

Harriet Karchmer, New York, NY

Rabbi Elmer Berger was a long-time personal friend of both the publisher and the executive editor of the Washington Report, both of whom turned to him regularly for guidance. A fearless leader, who was both an original thinker and a man of unimpeachable integrity, he had devoted friends and followers all over the world, as Grace Halsell’s personality piece on p. 12 of our October issue made clear. In this issue see Norton Mevzinsky’s obituary on Rabbi Berger on p. 25, and Rev. L. Humphrey Walz’s thoughts on p. 108.

Mideast Specialist

You produce the best product of its kind in print. You have vastly increased your scope and area of interest, but continue to concentrate heavily on the interaction of Arab-Israeli and other interests with the U.S. Congress, administration and the American public, including academia. In an age when media coverage of foreign news tends to decline, your service is unique. Keep it up!

John Cooley, Nicosia, Cyprus

Foreign Mail Service

Ours is a very typical problem concerning the Cypriot mail service. I was two months out of Cyprus and, returning home late August, I very much wondered about the fate of my copies of WRMEA. You saved my autumn, and that of my wife as well. Many more thanks.

Timo Vuorela, Larnaca, Cyprus

Late But Stimulating

Unfortunately, since I receive your magazine late, I am not always able to digest it in a timely fashion. The late arrival is caused by my working abroad with a mailing address in the U.S. I eventually get to read your issues and find them stimulating.

Charles Oliver, Pennington, NJ

The Shaky FLAME Organization

Enclosed please find a copy of a letter that I sent to Harper’s Magazine canceling my subscription. Harper’s has published on page 85 of its October issue an ad for the shaky organization FLAME. Since I do not condone the spreading of misinformation about the Middle East, I canceled my subscription to Harper’s.

I thought that you might be interested in sharing this information with your readers. I enjoy your lonely voice and hope that you will keep speaking out.

Thank you and good luck!

Fadi V. Nahhas, Cold Spring, KY

We’ve published your letter in Other People’s Mail starting on page 49. And we hope that as we keep speaking out, our voice will become less and less lonely.

No Chance for Publication

It is impossible to get a letter to the editor that is critical of Israel published in a Pittsburgh paper.

W.S. Bodnar, W. Mifflin, PA

Okay. Write the letter to the Pittsburgh editor but drop a copy to us for “Other People’s Mail.”

My Moral Obligation

I am from Pakistan and it is my moral obligation to thank you for providing such extensive information in your special issue on Pakistan. Americans will be much better informed after reading your report. It was a great job. May the Almighty bless and keep you.

Shujaat Ali, Fort Worth, TX

The Truth Helps Me

Probably the Washington Report is the only publication in the U.S. that tells the real story (the truth) about what is going on in the Middle East. It is the voice of concerned citizens in the U.S. It has helped me make important decisions on election days, deciding for whom I will vote.

Ghassan Khaled, Philadelphia, PA

My Sole Source

The Washington Report is my sole source of balanced, hard factual information and opinion on events and issues that impact on the Islamic people. As long as you continue to publish, there remains hope in our society that reason will eventually prevail. After I read each issue, I pass it on to someone whom I feel should be better informed. Your last issue went to a recent acquaintance that I made in Canada while on a holiday.

Robert L. Ackerman, New Alexandria, PA

Thanks for making us better known among potential subscribers. Expanding our subscription base is the only way we ever will free ourselves from perpetual financial crisis.

Your Work is Translated

My name is Liaqat Ali and I occasionally write an Urdu column in the weekly newspaper Pakistan Link, published in Los Angeles. Last week, when I visited the library, I saw your magazine. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the essays and pictures on Pakistan in your journal. I decided to write a thank you column which Link published this week. I am faxing the original Urdu column and an English-language translation, with many thanks. God bless people like you.

Liaqat Ali, San Leandro, CA

Thanks for the kind words. We’re reprinting your article from Pakistan Link in this issue’s “Other Voices” (p. 123). The following is the address and telephone number of Pakistan Link, printed weekly in English and Urdu, for any of our readers who may wish to subscribe: Pakistan Link, 11222 La Cienega Blvd., Suite 244, Inglewood, CA 90304, tel. (310) 337-1188, fax (310) 337-1189.

Those U.S. Financiers of Likud

Your reprint (July 1996) of the article by Barton Gelman that first appeared in the May 26 Washington Post Magazine which names a handful of anti-peace, pro-Eretz Israel, ultra-religious American Jews is one of the most disturbing pieces of in-depth reporting I have ever read. How shocking that these Likud-loving hate-mongers could physically assault Israel’s Labor party diplomats in the United States and manipulate our U.S. congressmen to withhold funds promised by our government for the reconstruction of the West Bank and Gaza.

First of all, I would like to know the names of the 14 Republican congressmen with whom Gelman reported Binyamin Netanyahu met in August 1995 and whom he urged to oppose permitting funds to go to the West Bank and Gaza.

Is it legal for a foreign politician to give orders to American legislators?

How depressing to learn a half-dozen rich American right-wing Jews are spending millions they have made in the U.S. to finance the illegal take-over of Arab residences in East Jerusalem, having other structures demolished and terrorizing Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Hebron.

Is it legal for American dollars to be spent this way overseas? If the same amount of millions (probably sent tax-free) were being sent to right-wing groups in Germany, there would be a worldwide outcry.

I wrote in the July 1996 issue of the Washington Report about Dr. Irving Moskowitz who siphons profits from a California bingo parlor to pay for extremist militant Jewish groups in Israel (while the city of Hawaiian Gardens has filed bankruptcy, Moskowitz is sending huge amounts of money to Israel). In the October issue, the article on Netanyahu names his biggest financiers as attorney Barry Slotnik, whose clients are the Italian and Russian Mafias, Ted Arison, who owns cruise lines in the U.S., and Marvin Josephine, the head of ICM, a huge U.S. publishing house.

Even if these Likud sympathizing millionaires have a right to send their money to whomever they wish, shouldn’t it be published and brought out in big advertisements?

Pat McDonnell Twair, Los Angeles, CA

You Touch My Emotions

Your articles raise my emotions. I am a Muslim but as an American I don’t understand why the U.S. is so pro-Israel. There is so much ignorance and apathy toward the people of the Middle East that it scares me as to the consequences. Is this a conscious effort to put down the Middle East—and Muslims in general and to portray them as fanatics linked to economics?—meaning is this a region to be retained as a consumer product dumping ground by keeping it backward and unable to produce goods for itself?

Riaz Khan, Pasadena, CA

Giving Us a Human Face

Having for many years admired your integrity in providing American Muslims a human face in the media, it was indeed an honor to meet your executive editor in person at the first Annual Convention of the American Muslim Alliance, at which he spoke on Muslims and the 1996 election.

At a time when Islam-bashing is fashionable and the psychological terrorization of American Muslims flourishes with impunity in the mainstream media, your willingness to stand up for the essentially voiceless underdogs is a source of reassurance and comfort to us.

I trust that as we become better organized and more influential in our pluralistic society we will not forget our indebtedness to you for your concern about our fledgling communities.

Abdul Cader Asmal, Chairman of Communications, Islamic Council of New England, 470 South St. Quincy, MA 02169

Thanks for your kind words. We’re printing a copy of your letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal on p. 52 of this issue.

Please Let Me Correct You

This is in reference to your article titled “Survey Finds U.S. Muslims Liberal on Public Issues, Conservative on Family Values,” which appeared in the October 1996 issue of the Washington Report. Your piece has done a wonderful job in reviewing the survey results. Your favorable reading of the study’s conclusions is very encouraging. However, the conclusions were prepared by the American-Muslim Research Center (ARC), not the polling firm as you mentioned. Please make a note of this correction.

ARC was established in April 1996 through the sponsorship of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. ARC is devoted to providing accurate and scientifically sound analysis on a variety of subjects related to the American Muslim experience. Among the Center’s work is the issuance of an annual report reviewing the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States. In addition, the Center publishes occasional papers such as the survey in question.

Mohamed Nimer, Ph.D., Director, American-Muslim Research Center, P.O. Box 34447, Washington, DC 20043.

Middle East “Peace Process”

Especially now when some of the press seem to think the “Middle East peace process” is equal to Middle East peace, WRMEA serves a function of reminding us that that process is supposed to lead somewhere and that we haven’t yet arrived.

There also are too few means of learning what is really happening in the region. Once the news passes through the filters of censorship, editing and advertising pressure, the crux of the story is often left behind. Your refusal to bend to the requirements of such “filters” is both gratifying and courageous.

Name withheld

But also darned expensive and we haven’t yet figured out how to produce income that offsets the outgo of printing a monthly magazine.

Your Solid Information

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is the one and only solid source of news on the Middle East and the Islamic world. We worked in Iran for six years (1956-62) and in Saudi Arabia for seven years (1978-85)—as well as two years in Singapore (1969-71). Only people like you who have lived and worked there can give us the truth on Middle East and Asian news.

John Cazort, Springfield, MO

Your Balance is Appreciated

Since the regular media is loath to fully express a balanced view on Middle East affairs, the WRMEA is appreciated very much in our family. I look forward to each issue.

R.E. Rice, San Diego, CA

Accuracy Is Good, Too

Your accuracy in reporting is your best feature.

J.A. Bou-Sliman, Milan, WI

Long-Range Peace Effort

For the long-range peace effort in the Middle East, it is essential that there is an Arab or Muslim voice with some degree of moderation and examination of facts as they are in the Arab world. The revision of history may sound good to the street, but leads, as it did for some 50 years, to one disappointment after another. Perhaps the time has come to explore the truth, whether it supports the Arab or Israeli version. The Washington Report comes close to probing realities, but still publishes items written by professional Arabists who live on continuing the conflict. (There are in the U.S. and Israel similar “professionals” who are doing the same damage on the Israeli side.) It is essential that there is somewhere an Arab or Islamic voice following the changes and attempts at rapprochement in the Middle East. Why not the Washington Report?

Joseph Gottfried, West Palm Beach, FL

P.S. The Arab world needs a voice of moderation.

Maybe moderation is in the eye of the beholder. We think the conflict can be ended, but only on the basis of truth and justice.

Just Be Objective

I just want to read a magazine that is objective and covers the news of interest to me in depth. I can’t get this information from the U.S. news media who more often than not are under the command of pro-Israeli power groups.

Fauzi Tayim, Westerville, OH

Accurate Information

This is the only magazine I can count on for accurate information and analysis on events in the Middle East and the Muslim world.

G.M. Haniff, St. Cloud, MN

Your Depth of Coverage

This is one of the best and most informative publications I subscribe to—its depth of coverage, its wide area of interest is simply superb and serves the interest of experts and students alike. It is good in quality all round.

M. Matambanadzo, Slippery Rock, PA

Media Censorship

The Washington Report gives me information I cannot find anywhere else. I feel that the censorship we have in our media is somehow broken by the Washington Report. Thank you.

Maria L. Kusion, Palos Verdes Estates, CA

A Complex Magazine

The Washington Report is a complex magazine and affects me in different ways. It does keep me informed and, at various times, the various articles fire me up, make me angry, compassionate, hopeful, active and maybe more effective. That is to say, the magazine does not strike a single note. The several departments stand on their own feet instead of somehow being homogenized into a single tone as in the case of, say, the Nation or the Progressive. I don’t always agree with everything in the magazine and I know that the magazine does not agree with everything that I write. The fact that your prestigious magazine publishes me is a source of continual pride.

Frank Collins, Woodbridge, VA

We treasure such comments by other writers and, in your case, editor as well, of the monthly U.S. edition of Dr. Israel Shahak’s “From the Hebrew Press.”

Taken for a Ride

The Washington Report keeps me fired up because it is the only source of information about how the U.S. gets taken for a ride by the Israeli lobby. In general I agree with you about everything.

Ray E. Stewart, Indianapolis, IN

A Well-Traveled Reader

I greatly enjoy The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. When I receive a copy, I read it from cover to cover. It is very informative. It is the only publication that I know of that will tell the truth about Israel and its Arab neighbors. Also, it tells us about other countries in the region and the Indian subcontinent.

I am greatly interested in Middle East affairs and the Indian subcontinent. I have traveled in Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India. Also, I have been to Kashmir. I have made seven trips to India. Kashmir and Palestine should become independent states.

I always look forward to receiving the next issue of the Washington Report. You are doing a great job. Keep up the good work.

Ray F. Dively, Baden, PA

You Tell Us Everything

The Washington Report is the only balanced and truthful source available for policy issues, events and activities pertaining to—and in—the Middle East. Without the facts that the Washington Report can be counted on to give issue after issue, we would be left to speculate about what’s really happening—with our government, politicians and in the Middle East. Good work!

Muhammad As’ad Berdine, Tucson, AZ

Better Times to Come

Your magazine keeps me hopeful of better times to come. You also have a “slant,” though slight, that undermines Muslims. Please stop calling so-called Muslims who kill innocent people of any faith “Fundamentalist” Muslims. Call them “Revisionists,” because what they do is far from the basic and “Fundamental” teachings of Islam.

Mohammad Amin Alqarim, Corpus Christi, TX

In fact we don’t refer to “fundamentalist” Muslims very often, except in direct quotes from others. The term we use most frequently is “Islamists.” But even that leads to problems in situations like Algeria where the Islamist mainstream seems willing to use peaceful democratic means to attain power, but a small but extremely violent minority is using terror and murder of hostages and of civilians to achieve its ends.

Good Luck for Your Efforts

The Washington Report means a lot to me and I wish you all good luck for your efforts.

A.N. Saba, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Thanks. We need it.

Demonstrated Principles

The Washington Report has been a source of comfort by demonstrating that principled men of integrity are able to take a balanced view of conflicts in the Middle East without bias and with compassion and hope. I am aware that yours may be a rare voice in the media and that your Report may not be popular with the powers that be and therefore my appreciation of the role you are playing is even more profound.

Bahu Nabil, Athens, Greece

You’re Way Out There

The Washington Report is the most informed, informative and comprehensive journal (magazine) on the Middle East and Mediterranean which institutions and individuals have in the U.S.A. Nothing else reaches it.

Robert C. Smith, Sacramento, CA

An Essential Tool

Having spent 18 years in the Middle East, and given the sparsity and inaccuracy of news in the local press and TV, I find the Washington Report an essential tool to keep myself informed, and more objective than otherwise.

J.B. Lowenstein, Lincroft, NJ

A Welcome Antidote

I am a professor of political science and find your coverage of Middle Eastern politics a welcome antidote to the mainstream (New York Times, etc.) American media on these subjects. I am able to bring this new perspective to my students and they generally appreciate it.

Prof. M.J. Sullivan, Philadelphia, PA

Plundered Wealth Is a Given

We have plundered the wealth of this nation through massive giveaway programs to ungrateful nations such as Israel, and indentured future generations with the debt load. Yet the mainstream media treat this as a given. Your publication is the only one that has exposed the flimflam. God bless you and keep up the good work.

R.C. Tilton, Miami, FL

More About Europe Needed

Please give us some news about the control Zionism has in Europe and the rest of the world. At times I think you give us too much of the Middle East and I know Zionism is at work all over the globe. You would become more desirable and speak to more people. Thank you.

A.H.

We’ll do our best, but in fact we think the Europeans are shaking off this influence much more successfully than are Americans. The Europeans seem to be taking an increasingly proactive stand in helping the Palestinians, while the U.S. pretends not to notice that the Likud government is deliberately smothering Palestinian Authority attempts to get some economic activities off the ground.

We’ll certainly try to do better in keeping readers informed on developments in Europe.

Don’t Change?

Don’t change! I love your magazine. It keeps me informed and active politically. Without you I’d be a lost soul in this country. You keep me in touch with the things I care about most. There is so much important information on each page of the magazine.

However, you’re not giving us enough of both sides of the story on Iraq—what’s really happening there. They are suffering because of the U.S.!

Also, please, give information on how to find contemporary Arab films and art! You are lacking in the arts.

Emily Jacir, Dallas, TX

As I Saw It

Having lived in Egypt and Israel/Palestine, including the West Bank, I know when I’m being snowed, which is what the mainstream media does. The WRMEA gives the real news as I saw it when I was there.

Derek D. Riddle, Philadelphia, PA

How About Medical Care in Israel?

I think your magazine performs an important function. I’m 67—my wife is 68. She has leukemia, and Medicare doesn’t cover much for a condition like hers. I’d like to know what kind of medical coverage Israelis in Israel have compared to what a senior citizen in the U.S. has. If we’ve got $3 billion a year for them and their care is better than ours—I’d like representatives of the U.S. government to explain why to me.

Don Kitt, Mercer Island, WA

That Israeli Lock

The WRMEA maintains the highest standards. It is my primary source of information on Middle East affairs and especially on the Israeli lock on domestic politics and our foreign policy.

Charles L. Cutting, Jr., Shelburne, VT

U.S. Politicians Lack Credentials

The Washington Report is the best publication in the U.S. about Middle Eastern affairs because it treats the issues with depth, fairness and conscientious reporting. It keeps me well informed about activities behind the daily news events. The publishers and writers are to be commended for their courage, honesty and patriotism, qualities typically lacking from the credentials of U.S. politicians on Middle East issues.

Adnan Derbas, San Diego, CA

Leave it Alone

I like your Washington Report exactly as it is.

Jean L. Baker, Lombard, IL

Unpleasant References to McCarthyism

From time to time I’ve seen derogatory references in the Washington Report to “McCarthyism.”

This is very distressing as it is constantly used by liberals in the U.S. to attack and silence opposition. No doubt your reporters are thoughtlessly using it. McCarthy was a hero and a true patriot in the eyes of millions of Americans. I urge you to read his two books: McCarthyism: The Fight for America (1952) and America’s Retreat from Victory (1951), both published by Devin-Adair, New York. You should never again allow any attack on “McCarthyism” if you value freedom.

Dolores Lawless, Post Falls, ID

The kind of “McCarthyism” we refer to is “pro-Israel McCarthyism,” which is practiced against us, among many, many others, by secret “rap sheets” circulated by AIPAC and ADL which seek to discredit their victims not on the basis of anything they’ve said or written, but on the basis of alleged association with others they’ve already discredited. In our July 1992 issue we published an article by a former AIPAC employee describing how that organization does it. The FBI investigations of ADL activities in Los Angeles and San Francisco, which we covered at the time, describe that organization’s similar activities.

The Sad Truths Revealed

The Washington Report is truly a godsend. I read each issue from cover to cover and look forward to each upcoming edition, despite the sad truths which are revealed about the U.S. role in promoting continued suffering of Palestinians vis-a-vis the billions of tax dollars we send to Israel, year after year.

Mary E. Dixon, Springfield, IL

A Funny Thing Happened to Our Media

A funny thing happened with American media on their way to informing the public about what’s happening in the world.

A major pronouncement is made in Europe; it comes over on the news wires; the mainstream news organizations ignore it. The 15 or 16 countries who comprise the European Union issued a 900-word declaration Oct. 1 on the Middle East peace process that I got off the Internet. This was the key paragraph:

“The European Union reaffirms its policy on the status of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is subject to the principles set out in U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, notably the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, and is therefore not under Israeli sovereignty. The Union asserts that the Fourth Geneva Convention is fully applicable to East Jerusalem, as it is to other territories under occupation.”

I didn’t find this in either The New York Times or Los Angeles Times; I didn’t hear it on the major TV networks, on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, or anywhere else. When Michael Parks, managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, speaking at a synagogue forum Oct. 14, was told during Q & A that the statement had been made and was asked if American news organizations had carried it, he said, “I saw it on the AP wire. But, more to the point is that the Europeans may not renew trade agreements with Israel.”

Well, I don’t know if that’s more to the point than his conscious decision to not report the EU’s declaration. Israel’s governments, both Labor and Likud, have worked hard for years to separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank. And people forget. Even Arafat, for a long time, has not been heard to say that East Jerusalem is illegally occupied territory and is not under valid Israeli sovereignty. A majority of the U.S. Senate totally banished the thought when they passed the bill requiring the U.S. Embassy to relocate from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bad faith abounds.

But the unkindest cut of all came when the forum adjourned and people stood around chatting. A Jewish friend came up to me, obviously troubled, and asked, “Why is the LA Times so anti-Israel?”

Don Bustany, co-chair, Arab-Jewish Speakers Bureau of Los Angeles.

Passed Around

This note is to the best magazine published in the United States about the Middle East. I read it and pass it around to my friends, urging them to subscribe.

Wafiya El Hassany, Bethesda, MD

Try holding a gun to their heads. We need about 25,000 more full-rate subscribers and we’ll never have to go begging again.

You’re Not Sensational

The Washington Report is the only publication that tells it like it is without being sensational. It is a badly needed information source that you find nowhere else. Please let these comments be anonymous. Thank you.

Name withheld, Worcester, MA