Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1998, Page 138

American Educational Trust Publishers' Page

We Said in This Space…

…in the previous issue that its “most significant item” was the report that America’s Muslims now have a national political coordinating council. It’s so significant, in our opinion, that we’re taking a day off in the second of what we call “production weekends” (and the rest of the staff call “hell weekends”) to prepare a first-hand report for our next issue on that council’s first meeting in Dallas on March 21.

Depending on the Decisions...

…that the council makes, we believe, America’s six to eight million Muslims will either remain ignored or reviled by most U.S. politicians, as they largely have been to date, or they may emerge as America’s own dragon slayers: the group that offsets the Israel lobby’s monopoly on foreign policy making, and enables the American people as a whole to make their own important foreign policy decisions based not on domestic ethnic or religious considerations but on traditional American support for human rights, self-determination and fair play. One reason that political professionals voted the Israel lobby America’s...

Second Most Powerful Special Interest...

…(after AARP) in a survey by Fortune Magazine (Dec. 8, 1997 issue) is that for all practical purposes it is unopposed. It gets its way through AIPAC-coordinated political donations to candidates all over the United States and through less organized but fairly consistent bloc voting by between 80 and 90 percent of the American Jewish community in national elections. Arab Americans have never been able to mount anything comparable. However, Muslim Americans, linked nationwide by some 1,500 mosques which can’t recommend, but which can transmit recommendations of local councils and a national Muslim Coordinating Council, could change all that forever.

Will They? Or Will U.S. Muslim Leaders...

…just compete with each other to back the winners and get the resulting White House invitations, political appointments and other favors? It will depend on whether U.S. Muslims have picked national leaders whose primary loyalty is to themselves, or to their community. In the latter case they will judge candidates solely on their support for “Islamic issues,” like an even-handed Middle East policy, and not on who they think will win. Given the fact that there are more Muslims than Jews in the United States, that the disparity is growing, and that the Muslims are concentrated in key states like California, Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois and a few others without which no presidential candidate can win, they will have the power to change U.S. foreign policy overnight—if they vote and donate as a bloc, instead of canceling each other out. We’ll tell you more in the next issue...

After We Return From Dallas.

Subscriptions to Our New Supplement…

…“Other Voices,” have doubled since the last issue. It you haven’t subscribed yet, look at the table of contents on p. 5 of this issue and see what you’re missing. It comes bound into the magazine for those who have paid the additional $15 subscription fee. If you want to subscribe retroactively, you may. Issue 1 was bound into every copy of the January/February issue of the Washington Report as a free sample. Issues 2 and 3 were not.

New “Other Voices” Subscribers...

…may have those two issues mailed retroactively, or they can start with issue 4 which will be bound into our next (May/June) issue. “Other Voices” is available only to subscribers to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. If you’re a donor of library subscriptions, you may want to add “Other Voices” subscriptions when you renew the subscriptions for your local public library and its branches or school or university libraries by adding $15 to the $20 regular library subscription rate.

Reader Selma Abdo of Syracuse, NY...

…telephoned several times to say that she can’t stop thinking about Mohammed Ali Abu-Swai, the little boy on our December cover who is pictured crying in the ruins of his family’s demolished home in the Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood of East Jerusalem. She cried herself each time she discussed with executive director Delinda Hanley the possibility of getting the photo made into a poster. We located the photographer, Khaled Zighari, in a Jerusalem hospital where he is recovering from a bullet in the head inflicted by the Israeli military, which now seems to be targeting journalists covering West Bank events. (He was one of 10 journalists shot in two separate incidents on March 13.) He gave us reproduction rights to the photo at no charge. Now Ms. Abdo and friends (see Angels’ Choir, p. 123) have donated $500 toward printing costs. So you can purchase the first copy of the poster for $5 to cover cost of the mailing tube and postage. Additional copies of the same poster are available for the printing cost of $2 each, with supplies unlimited. In fact, selling copies is probably a good way to raise some funds at programs of your own church, mosque or other organization. Call Delinda.

If You Want to Write for Us…

…“Pro-Israel McCarthyism” is one of only two categories (see also “An-Nakba Alert” on p. 12) in which we’re looking for unsolicited articles. Otherwise, forget it. We no longer have room even for all of our regular department editors, and now rotate their columns, omitting some from each issue. But if you’ve had a personal brush with professional or personal intimidation by the well-heeled bullies of the ADL, free-lancing punks like the JDL, or some local vigilante in your newspaper, radio station, office, school, library, neighborhood, or town, we’d like to publish your story and we’ll protect your identity if we must. If you’re thinking of a lawsuit, we might also be able to give you advice on that.

And If You’re a Little Scared...

…think of photographer Khaled Zigari who puts his life on the line every time he goes to work, or Mohammed Ali Abu-Swai and the thousands of kids like him living in tents or shacks because the fanatics running Israel are working to turn them all into little terrorists by treating them and their parents with indescribable cruelty

Your Story Can Help End That.

Just be sure your manuscript is double- spaced, and leave the editing to us. If it isn’t Pulitzer material when you send it, it will be by the time we publish it. We hope to put the collected articles into a book in a year or two. In the meantime, if we get an ideological terrorist or two tried and maybe jailed...

That Would Be All Right Too!

Mystery Challenge Still Out There.

A couple of issues back we appealed for one new donor who could provide $150,000 to start a brand-new service that we think can have a huge effect on U.S. public opinion. We didn’t get the grand slam donor, but now we have one participant at $50,000 and two at $5,000 each. With $90,000 to go, please let us hear from you so we can kick it off this summer.

Our Last 1997 Angels’ Choir Roll Call...

…was on p. 119 of the March issue. The first roll call for 1998 donors starts in this April issue on p. 123. The beginning of the year is always the most perilous for us since donors to the tax deductible AET Library Endowment (Federal ID#52-1460362) tend to wait until the end of the calendar year. Whether you’re planning to deduct your donations from your 1998 income tax (in which case use the AET Library Endowment) or not (in which case make the check either to “AET” or “Washington Report”—there’s no difference) you can use the postage paid envelope at the center of this magazine. Gift subscriptions also are counted toward a seat in the Angels’ Choir, so get your contribution in now, when we need it most, see your name in every Choir listing until the end of the year and...

MAKE A DIFFERENCE, this month!