Washington Report, December 1988, Page 50

A Page From The Publishers

Salute

The Year the Earth Moved

It's correct to say that the brave kids over there, the Palestinians of the intifadah in the Israeli-occupied territories who won't take it any more, are responsible for the changes in public opinion over here. It's equally correct to say that the November 15 Palestine National Council statement from Algiers, unequivocally supporting a two-state solution to the Palestinian/Israeli dispute, presents the Palestinian case in terms both comprehensible and acceptable to the American public.

It's a good time, therefore, to salute the literally thousands of Americans who have spent so much time this year laying the groundwork for a new American approach to the Middle East. People from all over the US have been writing and talking to their representatives in Congress, and executive branch officials, about violations of Palestinian human rights, Israeli violations of restrictions on the use of US weapons, and about putting some strings on US aid to Israel to get Israelis and Palestinians to the same peace table on the same day to discuss the same peace plan. Other individual Americans are working patiently and successfully with editors, clergy, educators, and librarians to create the public opinion climate necessary to support initiatives by elected officials.

Many organizations have had extraordinary successes during the year. James Zogby and his American Arab Institute (AAI) representatives all over the United States deserve a special salute for a magnificent job last summer in getting support for Palestinian statehood into at least 10 state Democratic Party platforms. They capped this with a discussion of Palestinian self-determination on the floor of the Democratic convention at Atlanta which revealed overwhelming rank-and-file support for a balanced plank embracing Palestinian self-determination and Israeli security.

Throughout the year, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), led by its national chairman, former Senator James Abourezk, and ADC President Abdeen Jabara, conducted a remarkable series of "Eyewitness Israel" tours in which opinion leaders, congressional staffers, and concerned Americans paid their own expenses for truly balanced visits to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. We say "truly balanced" because ADC sent its guests to talk with Israeli officials as well as Palestinians. How many of the thousands of Americans who took advantage of expense-paid tours arranged by local Jewish community councils were exposed to both sides of the coin? Perhaps some of them should tell ADC they'd like to pay their own way back for another look.

ADC Members

We Didn't Get to Say Goodbye

As we reported in the previous issue, the foundation that had funded a group subscription for all members of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs was not able to renew the project. As a result, October's was the last issue mailed to ADC members and we have no way of reaching them to tell them the honeymoon is over. We would appreciate it if ADC members who also are Washington Report subscribers could announce this in local ADC chapter meetings.

Members who want to become subscribers have various alternatives. The simplest is to send in $15 for a one-year introductory subscription. Those who wish to combine a subscription and renewal of their ADC membership can send $30 either to the Washington Report or to ADC. This will purchase a $20 ADC membership and a $15 Washington Report subscription, at a savings of $5.

If you're really an organizer, you might do what individuals in two ADC local chapters are doing right now. They are signing up a portion of the ADC chapter membership for a group subscription to the Washington Report. That entities everyone who signs on to a subscription at $5 each. Please don't do this for groups of fewer than 15 people, however, and please give us all of the names and home addresses at one time. The only way we can offer group subscriptions at this price is by processing them in groups.

Make a Difference

Yes, We Need Volunteers

On Page 30 of this edition we've provided an answer to a letter by one of many persons who have volunteered their services, but don't live in the national capital area. We do need help around the country, and it's taken a while to determine what's worth doing and what isn't. Thanks to a few good men and women all over the US, now we think we know. A lot depends, of course, on the volunteer's skills and interests. If the tasks suggested sound like you, please call the Washington Report and its parent organization, the American Educational Trust, to introduce yourself. If you live in the Washington, DC, area, we need a coordinator for this effort as well. And if you have a totally different idea of how you think you can help, let us know. It might beat any of the things we're doing now.

This Month

Donate Subscriptions

Bulk mail subscriptions to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs now cost $7.50 per year to service. But we offer donation subscriptions to libraries, journalists, clergy, educators, and members of Congress and their staffs at $5. How do we do it? With the help of a choir of angels who make untied donations to the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment. Names of some of those angels for 1988 are inscribed elsewhere in this issue. They provide the $2.50 difference for literally thousands of institutional and opinion-molder subscriptions. If you're a little tone deaf and even humming is a problem, you still can help. Send $5 donations for subscriptions to designated libraries, clergy members, talk show hosts, members of Congress, teachers, etc. in your area.

It helps especially if you discuss donated library subscriptions with librarians first, showing them the magazine and securing their agreement to make it available to the public. That saves us two rounds of correspondence. From our point of view, library donations are the most valuable of all, because they expose the Washington Report to new readers, and they bring it new subscribers and donors. Some small town and suburban librarians in the past have cited limited space on their shelves and limited interest among their patrons for a periodical on the Middle East. It's a good idea to check back with them now. A lot has happened in the past year, to our magazine and in the Middle East. For better or for worse, the Middle East isn't that far away from any American any more.

Donated subscriptions go with a letter explaining how long the subscription will continue, and who made the gift. At the end of the year we contact the recipients first (unless the donor instructs us otherwise) to see if they want to renew at their own expense. Then we inform the donor of the results. These designated gift subscriptions are also tax exempt, so long as the check is made out to the AET Library Endowment.