December 1989, Page 58

The American Educational Trust

Publishers' Page

Now's the Time to Help

For 1989 the American Educational Trust set three goals: Expansion of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, establishment of a speakers' service, and documenting the illegal "steering" by which the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) uses political action committees (PACs) to control US Middle East policy.

AET met its goals. The magazine expanded its format to 60 pages a month and has increased full-rate subscriptions by 50 percent. The speaker's bureau is operating thanks to one donor who provided half a year's cost, and three others who matched it. AET's president and theWashington Report's editor joined in a formal complaint to the Federal Elections Commission against AIPAC and 54 PACs this spring. In January 1990 AET will publish Stealth PACs, a book documenting how deceptively named pro-Israel PACs work and exactly how much each congressional candidate in the United States has received from them since 1976.

In addition we set a goal for Washington Report subscribers: To become one of AET's own "thousand points of light" by providing $60 and the names of 12 "opinion molder" individuals or institutions to receive 12 issues of the Washington Report, for a total of 12,000 new donated subscriptions.

Opinion Molder Donated Subscriptions

Our subscription list now includes 2,100 libraries. Once a library receives a gift subscription, it generally renews on its own.

We have about 1,200 recipients in congressional offices. At least one copy of the Washington Report goes to every member's office. But there are as many as 45 people in some, and there are key committee staffers not affiliated with any specific congressman. We're prepared to send donated subscriptions to any staffer, and to the Capitol or home office or private residence of any congressman. We know these subscriptions are read, because individuals are referred by their congressmen to us, either for general information or for specific articles that someone in the congressman's office has read in the Washington Report.

Media subscriptions are also important. We can tell you which nationally syndicated columnists read the Washington Report, because we recognize our ideas in their columns. We also know because it's the big boys and girls in journalism who pay for their subscriptions to theWashington Report and always have. The two most widely syndicated columnists in America have paid for their subscriptions, always on the first invoice, for seven years. It's also easy to tell which radio talk show hosts read the Washington Report. They seek our suggestions for guests, and if the guests are our own writers, they ask questions based upon our articles or AET Book Club selections.

Our total media list is now about 5,000 and climbing very rapidly, thanks largely to our "points of light." Sometimes we get a thank you for a gift subscription from the publisher, chief editor, or editorial page editor of a daily newspaper. Occasionally, such a person will also send us an article inspired by one of ours, or a reprint from his or her own publication of one of our articles.

Mostly, though, we have to take it on faith that the journalist gift subscriptions are being read, and are helping to open up the media, particularly the dwindling number of dailies not yet owned by the chains which, along with the "Eastern establishment press," have done such a superb job of keeping readers misinformed about the Mideast.

Some editors have admitted to us that they really didn't know what myths they were perpetrating until they read the Washington Report and Paul Findley's They Dare to Speak Out.(By Jan. 1, 1990, AET will have sold or donated 52,000 copies of the Findley book since it was first published in 1984. Readers can donate a copy to anyone in the US or Canada for $5, and AET will pay the postage.)

In the case of donation subscriptions for clergy and educators, also in the thousands, in most cases the donor knows the recipient and can evaluate the results for himself. We do, however, receive a lot of fan mail from both categories, and a high percentage renew their gift subscriptions themselves.

If you've added the totals above you might conclude that we've reached our target of 12,000 for 1989. Not so, since the totals include many opinion molders who subscribed in previous years. We think we can reach our target, however, if readers who like the idea but haven't yet sent their lists do so now. If you can't come up with 12 or more names, we'll find some to match your donation-particularly from among libraries and clergy who say they want to continue receiving the magazine but can't afford it themselves.

In short, we think our AET donation subscription program is effective and important right now. If you haven't yet become a 1989 "point of light," please do so. If you plan to deduct your contribution from your 1989 income tax, date your check before the end of the year, and make it out to the tax-exempt "AET Library Endowment."

A Little Bragging

We've been predicting that our press run would soon pass 30,000. In fact it did with this issue. We're reaching a lot of folks, and once reached, most find some time for us every month. We know because we see our words in letters to the editor that our readers send us from all over the US and Canada.

A Little Begging

Last month we reported that with our increase in activities, we were looking at a shortfall between revenues collected and spent of $85,000, enough to put us out of business. There was a heartening response, partly from 1988 donors who just hadn't gotten around to contributing in 1989, and partly from new donors. The shortfall now looks like $30,000. If we collect that in December, it doesn't mean we start 1990 with all bills paid, but at least our donors will still be open. Please help if you haven't to date in 1989.

Make a Difference, This Month

The most important thing taxpayers can do right now is encourage members of Congress to clamp down on economic and military aid to Israel. If you write your representatives, ask why they planned to shield aid to Israel (and aid to Egypt, which is always a percentage of aid to Israel) from Gramm-Rudman cuts, when aid to other countries was offered no such protection. You may wish to ask Congress to reject loan guarantees or special US measures to provide aid for resettling Soviet Jews in Israel until Israel provides firm guarantees that it will spend no funds, from the US or of its own, to settle Jewish immigrants in the West Bank or Gaza-areas the US says should go back to Arab rule.

If you believe Congress should put strings on existing US aid to Israel, you can make that clear by photocopying the inside back cover of this magazine. Its message is that it is immoral for Americans to underwrite religious discrimination, racism and the denial of human rights abroad when all are illegal and intolerable at home. Send copies to both of your senators and your representative in the House. Then send an extra copy to Rep. Gus Yatron (D-PA), the congressman who is abusing the public trust by using his chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommitee on Human Rights to block Congressional hearings to bring these cruelties into the open. That page is going into 30,000 households. Use yours to send Congress, and particularly Gus Yatron, who address is 2205 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515-3806, a message. You'll make a difference, this month.