Dear Friends of the Washington Report:

The world has changed dramatically since our previous biannual donation appeal last November. For one thing, President Barack Obama is listening to, not lecturing, Middle East leaders as he formulates a new U.S. foreign policy and tries to find peaceful solutions to issues that endanger our planet. President Obama’s June 4 speech at Cairo University marked a “New Beginning” between the United States and Muslims around the world. Americans have a president who respects, understands and even appreciates the diversity of other cultures and faiths—one who realizes America’s one-sided support for Israel has not helped either country. The world can’t wait much longer for a Middle East peace agreement, and Obama has the courage to tackle it now.

  

It helps that the Israel lobby has lost its grip on U.S. foreign policy in the region. Recent polls indicate Americans’ support for Israel has dropped from 71 percent to 44 percent in one year. Israel faces growing international condemnation for its 2006 attack on Lebanon, its recent 23-day assault on Gaza, its hostility to the creation of a Palestinian state, and now its election of a hawkish right-wing government. After decades of occupation, illegal settling of half a million Israeli Jews on land captured in 1967, economic strangulation of Gaza and the West Bank, and construction of walls, checkpoints and prisons instead of peace, the world—including a growing number of Americans—has lost patience with the quarrelsome state.

A new pro-Israel lobby, J Street, more representative of American Jews than the hard-line American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is seeking a peaceful, diplomatic end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Even Israelis are finding Israel’s belligerence tiresome: the number of emigrants now exceed the number of immigrants, and almost half of the country’s young people are thinking of leaving. J Street points to recent polls by the Dahaf Institute, published in the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, that find a majority of Israelis support the establishment of a Palestinian state and a settlement freeze.

Washington Report readers know that, at last, peace may be in sight—but it will only happen if we work together and show the U.S. president, his administration, Congress, and leaders around the world, that we insist that it happen. We challenge our readers—in every country—to devote time, energy, creativity and money, and to make a commitment to recruit new people—young and old, students and senior citizens—to work for peace.

As a subscriber, you already know the 27-year-old Washington Report is a vital tool for peace. Non-subscribing Internet readers from around the globe can now instantly purchase the latest issue for $3.00 and download it from our new and improved Web site or order a digital subscription. Activists will particularly enjoy the new interactive calendar and job marketplace features. After establishing a free account, event organizers from Tampa to Tulsa can enter information about upcoming conferences, banquets, panel discussions or demonstrations for all the world—especially potential participants—to see.

We are very excited by both the job marketplace and the calendar’s potential for putting like-minded people in touch and in action. In addition, our e-mail action alerts reach many thousands of activists and journalists. Make sure we have included you on our e-mail action alert list by signing up on our home page.

The American Educational Trust Book Club, , is still the best source for informative books, films, music, handicrafts, and even olive oil and olive oil soap. Thanks to your donations, we recently sent a package of three superb books to 600 recipients, including members of Obama’s cabinet, legislators, and governors. (We’d like to send others, like the new James Scott book on The Attack on the Liberty reviewed in the July 2009 issue.) We try to provide help and publicity to important efforts like the Free Gaza movement, which is trying to deliver paper and books to Gazans.

Due to the uncertainty of the economy, however, all these efforts are in serious jeopardy. Like other organizations which depend on charitable contributions, we’ve noticed that even people who haven’t lost their jobs or savings are afraid to spend money, make donations or fulfill their zakat obligations. But we are still here—and still asking for your help to continue.

Events in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places on earth are moving so fast that it’s hard, but ever more essential, to keep up. And just when citizens need more information from a variety of reliable sources, newspapers and other media are folding up or slashing their pages, staff, and budgets. Free multi-media, Web-driven news and blogs, some unedited and inaccurate, others frankly superb, are sweeping in to replace traditional news sources. Many of us rely on this new media, specially tailored to our interests and biases. Some Washington Report readers have suggested we, too, cut costs and only publish online.

But how can people consider new viewpoints if they’re only reading what they’re used to? Potential readers couldn’t stumble across the Washington Report in a library, newsstand, university or conference, or peruse a copy found on a friend’s coffee table or in a doctor’s waiting room. If there were no print editions of the Washington Report to pass along, would anyone remember to search the Web when a co-worker, fellow worshipper, friend, or radio talkshow caller cited a Washington Report article to make a point? Who can predict what will inspire a real thirst for knowledge about politics in the U.S., Middle East and Muslim world? If the Washington Report vanishes as a magazine, we’ll only be speaking to our Internet-savvy choir and close a door to converts.

Please contribute money and donate extra subscriptions to make sure this doesn’t happen! While this magazine’s future may be uncertain, we are convinced that now, more than ever, it is essential to keep “telling the truth.” The stakes are high, but together we can Make a Difference Today!

In our previous surveys many of you encouraged us to support Palestinian workers by building up our fledgling store, Palestinian Arts and Crafts Trust (PACT). Thanks to the vision and tireless efforts of AET Book Club's previous director Matt Horton, and its new director Adam Chamy, we’ve accomplished this exciting—and expensive!—task.

We now have a wide variety of special gifts, so please do your holiday shopping in our store on 18th Street in northwest Washington, DC, or log onto <www.middleeastbooks.com> to make your selections. Instead of spending your money on splashy gadgets and gifts, choose something lovely and affordable—pottery, embroidery, fair-trade olive oil and soap—to help support a struggling Palestinian artisan or farmer. Purchase a book, DVD, CD, solidarity item, or subscription to the Washington Report to help educate someone you care about. Your gift will also tell the recipient that peace and justice matter to you.

Year after year the Washington Report has managed to squeak by. Just when things look hopeless, a generous donation—or more often, many hundred smaller ones—come along to save the day. 

Washington Report writers have spent nearly 28 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 peace and security to the Middle East and...

Make a Difference—Today!

Sincerely,

Amb. Andrew I. Killgore President

Richard H. Curtiss Executive Editor

Henrietta Fanner Member, Board of Directors

  

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. 

What Concrete Steps Toward Peace Can Washington Report Readers Take?

1. 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 other activities, conferences and actions in your community.

2. Write letters or speak to candidates, legislators, editors, radio talk show hosts, and journalists. See our postcards or action alerts for ideas.

3.  Join our e-mail action alert list (see our home page ). We ll help keep you informed about events and recommend actions you can take.

4. 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.

5. Promote and attend concerts, art exhibits, films and plays. Art can help address truths too painful for words.

6. Give meaningful and educational gifts. Buy books and films from the AET Book Club, . Help us distribute educational films and books to libraries, universities and schools

7. 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

8. 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.

9. Use this donation form 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.

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