| Dear Friends of the Washington Report:
Those of us who care about peace and justice in the world have some serious
work to do in the coming months. By this time next year U.S. voters will have
elected a new president. That means we have just a few months to engage candidates
and bring the issues we care about into the public debate: Pakistan is in serious
trouble; Lebanon is still picking up the pieces (and cluster bombs) from Israel’s
July 2006 invasion; the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 has turned into an
occupation with no fixed end in sight. The U.N. estimates that 2.25 million Iraqis
are displaced inside their country, and another 2.2 million have fled to neighboring
states. Having learned nothing from the debacle in Iraq, Washington is setting
the stage for a major confrontation with Iran. Once again we’re doing the Israeli
two-step: “First isolate, then annihilate.” What do our would-be presidential
candidates propose to do about these problems?
Palestinians and Israelis are
at a crossroad this year. It’s past time for Palestinians to have their own state.
Six decades after they lost their civil and human rights in 1948 it’s time for
refugees to come home, if they so choose. After 60
years it’s also time for Israel to live in peace with all its neighbors. The
60th anniversary of al-Nakba, which will be observed on May 15, 2008,
could mark an historic opportunity for individuals, organizations, unions, political
parties, communities and the world-wide solidarity movement to pool resources
and campaign for a rights-based solution to end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As always, thanks to your support, the Washington Report will be there.
We’ll report on “the campaign of freedom and return,” and proudly document your
actions, speeches, art exhibitions, music, films, parades and protests. We yearn
to write articles describing Israelis tearing down the apartheid wall and roadblocks,
and demanding the evacuation of West Bank settlers. We can’t wait to portray
the long overdue birth of a Palestinian nation and the return (al-awda)
of refugees, as well as a return to the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Palestinians
need help from every one of us in the coming year to help make this happen. A
just peace must include those Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. Israel has
closed Gaza’s borders, prevented food and medical supplies from reaching its
residents, and cut off vital electricity and fuel supplies as collective punishment.
The U.S. government is standing by and letting Israel impose this cruel and inhumane
siege. In Iraq, sanctions imposed between the two Gulf wars hurt innocents and
damaged U.S. standing in the world. Sanctions in Gaza also are killing the weak
and corrupting the oppressors.
What Concrete Steps Toward Peace Can Washington
Report Readers Take?
- Increase your involvement with local, national, and
international organizations working for peace. Help the Washington Report continue
to cover their activities and to send magazines and “Remember These Children”
books to events across the nation. Keep up with Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions
(BDS) activities and Nakba Anniversary activities, conferences and actions
in your community.
- Write letters or speak to candidates, legislators, editors,
radio talk show hosts, and journalists. Send them updated fact sheets to point
out American double standards when it comes to the al-Nakba and occupation.
See our postcards or action alerts for ideas.
- Join our e-mail action alert list
(see our home page <www.wrmea.com>).
We’ll help keep you informed about events and recommend actions you can take.
- Sponsor advertising campaigns. Do you have contacts in corporations or your
business community? Help us find donors to support a Washington Report advertising
campaign in local and national newspapers.
- Promote and attend concerts, art exhibits,
films and plays. Art can help address truths too painful for words.
- Give
meaningful and educational gifts. Buy books and films from the AET Book Club, <middleeastbooks.com>.
Help us distribute educational films and books to libraries, universities and
schools.
- Promote the Palestinian economy: Purchase fair trade olive
oil, ceramics, embroidery, keffiyehs, and other items from Palestine Arts and
Crafts Trust, at the AET Book Store in Washington, DC or on the Web at <www.middleeastbooks.com>.
- Bring
along a copy of the Washington Report when you lobby. When you
make your campaign contributions explain your reasoning and expectations as
you write your check.
- Use the simplified donation form on the back of this letter
to help us keep publishing the Washington Report and to give gift subscriptions
to help educate others—and, if you can, join our Angels’ Choir. Use the separate
book list to order books and films. We’ve also included an optional survey of
suggestions—and a wish list—to help us improve the Washington Report.
Washington Report writers have spent nearly 26 years educating
Americans about U.S. foreign policies in Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon
and the rest of the region. Your generous donation, or a charitable bequest in
your will, will help ensure that this vital work continues and endures. Together
we can change U.S. foreign policy, bring a just peace and security to the Middle
East and...
Make a Difference—Today!
Sincerely,
Since the first issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs was published on April 5, 1982, we not only continue to provide readers with hard-to-find timely news, but also:
- Disclose lobbying activities by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC);
- Continue to pursue a court case that reached the Supreme Court to require AIPAC to disclose its finances;
- Tabulate pro-Israel PAC contributions to Members of Congress;
- Examine congressional Middle East-related voting records;
- Track cumulative U.S. aid to Israel;
- Identify and profile neocons in and out of the U.S. government;
- Report countless community events around the country—at universities, think tanks, churches, mosques and synagogues, from debates on Capitol Hill to protests in the streets of Iowa;
- Published and continue to update Remember These Children, which documents the violent deaths of Palestinian and Israeli children under the age of 18 since Sept. 29, 2000, and which has been used by peace organizations around the world. The name, date and cause of death for each child killed is available on the Web site <www.rememberthesechildren.org>.
- Report Israel’s “creeping annexation” of the West Bank;
- Published “Translations from the Hebrew Press” by the late Israel Shahak;
- Gather the best national and international news stories to reprint in our “Other Voices” supplement;
- Distribute tens of thousands of Middle East-related books through the AET Book Club, and provide free Library Book Packages donated by our readers;
- Offer free subscriptions to libraries, diplomats, Members of Congress, Canadian Members of Parliament, journalists, U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and incarcerated prisoners;
- Published Stealth PACs: Lobbying Congress for Control of U.S. Middle East Policy, by Richard H. Curtiss (four editions); Seeing the Light: Personal Encounters With the Middle East and Islam, edited by Richard H. Curtiss and Janet McMahon; 50 Years of Israel, by Donald Neff; and the children’s book The Flag Balloon by Frances Copeland Stickles. We also have republished and redistributed books in danger of going out of print, including Paul Findley’s Deliberate Deceptions and James Ennes’ Assault on the Liberty, and have helped distribute thousands of copies of Paul Findley’s They Dare to Speak Out and Silent No More;
- Collected the signatures of nearly 100 retired diplomats to a 2004 letter to President George W. Bush calling for the United States to serve as a truly honest broker and renew negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, and led a delegation to Palestine that summer;
- Launched Palestinian Arts and Crafts Trust (PACT), which offers for sale pottery, embroidery and other traditional handicrafts by Palestinian artisans, while educating the American public about Palestinians’ rich cultural heritage;
- Provided a professional camera to Jerusalem photographer Khaled Zighari after his was stolen when he was beaten by the IDF on the first day of the al-Aqsa intifada;
- Published a series of posters, including “50 Years of Palestinian Dispossession,” Khaled Zighari’s photo of Mohamed Ali Abu-Swai crying amid the rubble of his family’s home, and “Israel Targets Children,” Laurent Rebour’s photo of 13-year-old Fares Udah facing an Israel tank, 10 days before he was shot dead by Israel Defense Force troops;
- Maintain the highly searchable Web site <www.wrmea.com>, which provides, free of charge, archived Washington Report articles from our first quarter-century. The site gets more than 10,500 visits a day, averaging 18 minutes a visit!
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