Washington Report, November 1988, Page 50

A Page from the Publishers—The American Educational Trust

Media

Carlucci and Sixty Minutes Skewer AIPAC

The US media bored two new holes in the wall of silence about Israeli influence on America so painstakingly constructed of carrots and sticks by Israel's American lobby. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, nerve center of that many-faceted lobby, was held up to public scrutiny October 23 on CBS's weekly news hour, "Sixty Minutes." Not as hard-hitting as usual, Mike Wallace nevertheless raised the curtain for a glimpse at AIPAC's role in what may someday be considered as one of the most shocking pages in American history.

The impact of the Israel lobby's work on the US government and ordinary Americans was graphically described by US Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci October 21 at a Huntingdon, WV, conference sponsored by George Naifeh's American Arab Affairs Council (AAAC).

Pro-Israel lobbying groups and their supporters in Congress, Carlucci said, are helping foreign powers, including the Soviet Union, to take over from the US "positions of confidence and influence" in the Middle East. At the same time, Carlucci said, successful pro-Israel lobbying efforts to thwart sales and military relationships with Arab countries are costing the US "tens of billions of dollars worth of jobs."

Saudi Arabian Deputy Information Minister Fouad Al-Farsy told participants in the conference, one of a series being held around the US, by the AAAC, that the US had lost $68 billion by the Saudi decision to purchase arms this year in Britain rather than in the US, because of continuing congressional opposition to military sales to Arab states.

The news is not that these truths were voiced, as they are increasingly even in this election year by American officials, but that the media covered them. The Washington Post put both Carlucci's and Al-Farsy's remarks on its front page, space seldom allotted to bad news about Israel and its American claque, or to the opinions of moderate Arab leaders.

This Month

ADC Members: We Didn't Even Get To Say Goodbye

We lost a lot of readers this month, and didn't even have time to say goodbye. Starting at the beginning of 1988, members of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee received a monthly copy of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs as a privilege of membership. As the year progressed, however, ADC membership soared, and the Washington Report grew in size from 32 pages to 52 pages. The original grant from a US foundation to support the ADC group subscription ran out well before the end of the year. We offered to carry the subscription to the end of 1988 if the foundation would pick up a somewhat increased tab for 1989. It couldn't, nor can ADC or the American Educational Trust. So the music died and the party's over.

We've started individual subscriptions for the 20 percent of ADC members who told us to do so if the group subscription ran out. That leaves a lot of members unaccounted for. If you know some, please tell them what happened, and that we're hoping for their subscriptions too.

The membership terms enjoyed by other groups listed on our masthead still apply. ADC chapters, or groups within a chapter, who wish to enter a group subscription can do so by paying $5 per member, rather than the normal $15 annual individual rate.

We also have worked out with ADC a joint membership-subscription rate. If, at the time you subscribe or renew your $15 individual subscription to the Washington Report, you would like to join ADC as well, ADC will reduce its membership cost to you from $20 to $15. Got that? Send $30 and you get a $15 year's subscription to the Washington Report and a $20 year's membership in ADC (which welcomes members of all ethnic and religious backgrounds).

Next Month

This is the last pre-election issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. We've probably never done anything more important than naming all candidates for Congress who have accepted donations from pro-Israel PACs, and revealing the amounts they have accepted-as we have in this and the three previous issues. We'll certainly do it again two years hence. But those charts are space eaters and we've had to put a lot of our normal fare aside.

Next month we'll be back with "Other People's Mail," showing who's writing what and to whom, and perhaps helping readers to get into the game. We'll also have our normal four to six pages of "Other Voices," including a shocker naming the original foreign sponsors of the Jewish Defense League and its murderous offshoots in the US and in Israel.

We want more "Seeing the Light" submissions from our readers, suggestions for personalities and subjects you'd like us to cover, and questions you want answered. We especially want your letters when you think we've made mistakes, not struck a balance, or no longer speak for you.

Coming Up

Don't worry about clipping and saving the PAC chart, in this and previous issues. Next February, when all of the returns for 1988 have been filed, the American Educational Trust will issue a "White Paper" with everything you need on Middle East PACs to prepare for serious action in the 1990 elections. The list price of the white paper will be $9.95, and two for that price to Washington Report subscribers. Pre-order if you wish, or we'll tell you when it's available.

Make a Difference

Bulk mail subscriptions to the Washington Report now cost $7.50 per year to service. But we offer donation subscriptions to libraries and librarians, journalists, members of Congress and their staffs, educators, and clergy at $5. How do we do it? Through the help of a choir of angels who make untied donations to the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment, Those donations provide the $2.50 difference for each gift subscription.

If you can, make an untied tax-exempt donation to the endowment before the end of the year. Your name will be listed in the appropriate category for 1988 in the December or January issue of the Washington Report, and permanently in the AET brochure. Categories are basso profondo ($2,500 or more), Baritones and Contraltos ($1,000 or more), Tenors and Sopranos ($500), Accompanists ($250), and Hummers ($100).

If you're a little tone deaf and even humming is a problem, you can contribute $5 donations for subscriptions to designated libraries, clergy, talk show hosts, members of Congress, teachers, etc. in your name.

Donated subscriptions go with a letter explaining 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.

There's no quicker way to make a difference, starting this month.

Make A Difference