Dear Friends of the Washington Report,

The Arab Spring was contagious: so many people around the world want change—or, at the very least, to have their grievances heard. Political leaders, mainstream media and the usual talking heads first ignored, then derided frustrated protesters who gathered in public squares from Cairo to Cleveland and Damascus to Dallas. The protests “are leaderless, unfocused and lack a central theme,” according to the same sages and pundits who talked Americans into the longest war in U.S. history and now urge sanctions or attacks on Iran, Syria, Yemen and Pakistan.

Neighbors, coworkers, teachers, doctors, librarians, grocery store check-out clerks—just about everybody we strike up a conversation with these days—are just as frustrated as the protesters. Americans are tired of economic dysfunction on Wall Street as well as partisanship and bickering on Capitol Hill. They’re sick of wasting billions of tax dollars on weapons, including annual military aid to Israel, instead of investing in education, health care, infrastructure and jobs. They’re tired of electing politicians who ignore their own constituents and traipse around the country—or to Israel—pledging loyalty to the very lobbyists, corporations and nations that got us into this mess. The time is ripe for change.

This past summer most U.S. voters were horrified when the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a sham nonprofit which shares the same address, employees and board members as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), sent 81 House members—26 Democrats and 55 Republicans—on a junket to Israel in the midst of their own country’s fiscal crisis. Congress passed a law in 2007 banning lobbying groups from paying for House members to take such trips—but the law included a provision, dubbed by Public Citizen’s Craig Holman “the AIPAC loophole,” which exempted non-profit groups. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs highlighted these trips in articles, postcards and action alerts in hopes that next summer (and next election), representatives will stand tall and “just say no” when the Israel lobby offers quasi-legal gifts with strings attached.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens around the world signed petitions supporting Palestinian membership in the U.N. Palestine already is recognized by 128 states, representing 5.5 billion people out of the world’s total population of 6.8 billion. But right-wing pro-Israel organizations have lobbied hard to block this historic U.N. vote, and, with U.S. elections looming, they’ve received plenty of help from Capitol Hill and the White House. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the House Foreign Affairs Committee chair, and her ilk have attacked the U.N. and are trying to halt U.S. aid to Palestinians.

Since our first issue nearly 30 years ago, the Washington Report has worked tirelessly to expose and document AIPAC’s relentless pressure on both Democratic and Republican political leaders to pass public policy that benefits Israel rather than their own American constituents. We publish the names of candidates and the amounts of pro-Israel PAC contributions they receive, and the outrageous support for Israel that money buys. We remind readers that U.S. aid to Israel, to the tune of more than $3 billion a year—money badly needed at home—is spent building illegal settlements and the separation wall on Palestinian land, and making daily life as difficult as possible for Palestinians.

American voters finally are beginning to see who’s working on behalf of a foreign country instead of for them. Although this is a dangerous and chaotic time—with the drumbeat for a war on Iran growing louder and the Constitution’s guarantees of civil liberties being increasingly diluted—it is also a moment of opportunity. The Washington Report’s voice is needed now more than ever, as Americans seek answers and information they cannot get from the mainstream media.

We—along with our dedicated writers, staff, interns, volunteers, readers and donors—are committed to changing America’s foreign policy and working with other nations for justice and peace, not endless wars. Buy Palestinian olive oil, olive oil soaps, pottery and handicrafts and, of course, books and DVDs [see enclosed booklist] from www.middleeastbooks.com. Give Washington Report subscriptions to everyone you know this holiday. Your gifts can help Palestinian farmers and craftsmen, not to mention writers, survive. Please help make it possible for us to continue to reach out to frustrated readers and voters, so that together we can...

Make a Difference—Today!

Sincerely,

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”ˆBook 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 andRemember These Childrenbooks 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 AngelsChoir.