Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2007, pages 5-6

Letters to the Editor

An AET Endowment?

Enclosed is a check for $50. Please use the contribution for an urgent purpose, whatever you all choose.

In response to your letter, we would be willing to contribute to an endowment.  Our income is very limited, but we would be willing to contribute a one-time endowment of $400 or $500. If 600 to 1,000 families did so, perhaps you would have an endowment.

David and Yolanda Harrison, San Antonio, TX

We sincerely thank you for your support and offer to contribute to an endowment fund. We are extremely proud to celebrate our 25th anniversary—but discouraged at times that we still are struggling to pay salaries and the printer. At this crucial time in our nation’s history, we believe the Washington Report is needed more than ever. We urge readers and supporters who, like you, would be willing to make a one-time contribution toward an endowment to call executive director Delinda C. Hanley at (800) 368-5788, ext. 106. Help us be around for another 25 years!

The War Tapes

Thank you for your wonderful piece on “The War Tapes” (December 2006 Washington Report, p. 38). The DVD is now available at <www.thewartapes.com>.

The film made the shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. That is, we were voted onto the list of 15 films from which the 5 nominations will be picked later this month.

Sergeant Bazzi volunteered to serve in Afghanistan and is leaving for training in a month.

Chuck Lacy, Executive Producer, “The War Tapes,” via e-mail

By the time this issue is in the mail, the Academy Award nominations will have been announced. We hope you’ll be among the nominees so we can root for you on awards night! Especially in light of the president’s decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, Americans need and deserve to see the realities of the mission our soldiers are being asked to undertake.  

Patriot Missiles to “the Area”

I see that Bush II says that the U.S. is sending Patriot missiles to “the area” (of Iraq). What does he mean by “the area”? Precedent leads us to believe that when the U.S. sends something free and desirable to the Middle East, and is evasive as to exactly where that stuff is going...it usually ends up in Israel! I wonder, therefore, if they are sending the Patriots to Israel. And if so...why?

I don’t know if you remember the last time the U.S. sent Patriots to Israel. It was during the first Gulf war. Then, when the U.S. went to take the Patriots out of Israel, it was found that there were some key components of the systems missing. Also missing were a number of extremely sensitive spares and data packages. About four years later, the European press reported that Israel was selling “Patriot-type, anti-ballistic missile technology” to...the CHINESE! With friends like that, who needs enemies? Typically, the U.S. press just buried the whole episode.

But getting back to the Patriots that Bush is sending over this time: IF they ARE going to Israel, why? It is of no use at all against the threats that have faced the U.S. in the Middle East. So why send them? Well, the UK press has been reporting that there are indications the Israelis are getting ready to make a strike against Iran. Also, Iran has said that if Israel hits them, then they are going to hit back. In that case, my friends, there WOULD be a use for the Patriots. Could it be that the U.S. is starting to build a little shield for the Israelis? Is there any other reason to be sending Patriots to “the area”? Brother Sadr has very few ballistic missiles.

You heard it here first.

Bill Lightfoot, via e-mail

More on Dual Citizenship

I am enclosing a check to renew my subscription and to send a gift subscription, plus a donation to AET.

Although other readers have, in previous issues, brought up the question of how many members of the Bush administration are holders of dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, I think it would be even more illuminating to see a definitive list of all high-level administration officials who are Jewish Americans, because a comparison of their numbers with the number of Arab Americans or Muslims in high level positions would seem to reveal a deliberate policy of racism on the part of our government.

As a parting comment, I bring to your attention an AFP article from 2005 about Israel’s selection of U.S. financier Stanley Fischer to head Israel’s central bank. The interesting thing about this appointment is that Israeli law prohibits high-level government officials from holding dual citizenship. Fisher must, therefore, renounce his U.S. citizenship and become an Israeli citizen before he can be confirmed in his position. Our “parliament of fools,” our U.S. Congress, the best congress that money can buy, might well take a lesson from the Israelis here. U.S. law of course, does not have any such provision.

William Fuller, Valdosta, GA

The best source for information on the number of Jewish Americans in a given U.S. administration typically is the American Jewish or Israeli press. A compilation of “The Jews in Clinton’s Court,” for example, appeared in the Sept. 2, 1994 edition of the Israeli daily Ma’ariv. Whether they have dual citizenship or not, however, all American Jews, whether public officials or not, are eligible to become Israeli citizens.

Kindness and Consideration

Get real. Israel has always treated its neighbors and adversaries with a kindness and consideration it would in no way receive if their roles were reversed.

If these knuckle-heads had the atom bomb (as does Israel) do you honestly believe they would hesitate using it to wipe Israel off the face of the earth? Get serious; present the facts instead of posturing for popularity.

Will Kennedy, Cordele, GA

We can’t tell you how glad we are to learn that holding Israel to account has become popular in America. You’ve made our day! Nor can we help but wonder if you’ve urged Canada or Mexico to show the U.S. the same kind of kindness and consideration Israel lavishes on its neighbors.

From Georgia O’Keefe Country

Many thanks for reacquainting us with your journalistic/publishing efforts courtesy of a copy of the Jan./Feb. issue of the Washington Report. A welcomed confirmation of the “universality” of the Report's scope is to be found on p. 53, where there’s an advertisement for Casa del Rio in Chama, New Mexico—Georgia O’Keefe country. As a kid growing up in Santa Fe, I used to hike and chase rabbits in those hills of stunning color and form, long before the arrival of tour buses and bed-and-breakfast lodges. 

But I digress. What I want to say is that you are still sane and walking might be considered a miracle, given the time and emotional resources you devote, year after year, to the preparation of the Report. 

It’s been said that whenever there’s a cause, a need or an injustice somewhere, someone responds to the imperative to do something about them. The founders and staff of the Washington Report clearly have been that someone regarding the need to deal energetically and credibly with the nightmares of violence and injustice tearing people apart in the Middle East. Many lives are richer for what you do, and we admire you immensely. 

Bob and Etty Proctor, La Luz, NM 

We greatly appreciate your words of encouragement and support. It can be an uphill battle, but we know that more and more Americans not only are learning the truth about the U.S. role in the Middle East, but are speaking out to say they don’t like how their tax dollars are being spent. And when we’re able to sponsor our Gaza correspondent, Mohammed Omer, on his first U.S. speaking tour, we not only know it’s all worthwhile, but are humbled to hear of his own perseverance in the face of the daily horrors that constitute life in the Gaza Strip. See his report starting on p. 20 of this issue.

Corrections From the Source

Despite the diligence of Washington Report editors and proofreaders, a couple of the authors’ errors slipped into the published version of “U.S. Appeals Court Affirms Designation of Kahane Chai, Kach as Terrorist Groups” (Jan./Feb. 2007 Washington Report, p. 19).

Instead of reading “over the past 30 years, Kahane Chai has operated…,” the article should read “over the past 30 years, Kahanism has operated...” Kahane Chai’s certificate of incorporation was filed with the New York Department of State on April 15, 1991. The certificate lists the initial directors as Avi Zahler of West Lawrence, New York, Sharon Katz of Woodmere, New York, and Binyamin Kahane of “Ksar Tapuach, Israel.”

Also, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Aamir, got “to” not “into” the prime minister’s car. While eyewitnesses reported “4 or 5” shots being fired, later reports indicate that only two bullets entered Rabin’s body, with a third injuring a security guard.

DC Investigative Journalism Collective, via e-mail

More on Robert I. Friedman

A mention was made in the article entitled “U.S. Appeals Court Affirms Designation of Kahane Chai, Kach as Terrorist Groups” about the late Village Voice reporter and Kahane movement expert Robert I. Friedman. First, when and how did he die? Second, why isn’t his first book, The False Prophet, mentioned at all in his third book, Red Mafiya?

Howard S. Yee, Minneapolis, MN

According to his extensive Village Voice obituary, Friedman died of cardiac arrest on July 2, 2002, at the age of 51, seven years after contracting a rare disease in Bombay, India, where he was researching a story on women abandoned to slavery by their families. Four years after his biography of Meir Kahane appeared in 1990, Friedman published his second book, Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel’s West Bank Settlement Movement. His final book, Red Mafiya, published in 2000, concerned Russian organized crime in this country.

Illinois, Not Ohio

In her otherwise excellent article “Pro-Israel PACs Not Invincible in U.S. Mid-Term Elections; Complications Ensue,” Janet McMahon makes one mistake.  In the insert titled “Rahm Emanuel, Boy Genius? Not So Much,” she mistakenly states, “in Ohio, for example, he dumped an anti-war candidate who in 2004 ran a close race against incumbent Rep. Henry Hyde in favor of Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq military veteran.” Actually, the elections she refers to took place in Illinois. The candidate Emanuel “dumped” in favor of Tammy Duckworth was anti-war Christine Cegelis. Less known, however, is the fact that Cegelis had even-handed views on the Middle East conflict and sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people. During her 2004 campaign, she attended a function arranged by the ADC Chicago Chapter, during which she expressed these views. During the recent primary elections campaign, she advocated a nuclear weapons-free Middle East and that India, Pakistan and Israel should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. I strongly suspect that her views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, more than her anti-war position, are what made her less suitable for Emanuel’s agenda.

Hatem Galal, M.D., Riverside, IL

You’re right, of course, and we thank you for alerting us—and, more importantly, our readers—to the error. For more background on Emanuel’s backing of Duckworth over Cegalis see Andrew Cockburn’s “Meet Rahm Emanuel, The Democrats’ New Gatekeeper” (March 2006 Washington Report, p. 30).

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