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Welcoming Madeleine! - MER FlashBacks
MORE READER'S COMMENTS RECEIVED THIS WEEK
"I enjoy receiving your articles. Thank you for seeing
past the
deception and reporting the truth. Perhaps some
day a more
enlightened public will actually learn to recognize
the propaganda
that dominates the media in matters of the Middle
East."
David Rector - Milwaukee, WI
"Thank you for giving us MER. It is absolutely
indispensable in trying to
understand the politics of the Middle East, as well
as that of the USA."
Louis Godena
MER FLASHBACKS - 3 Years Ago, Sept 1997:
PATHETIC SIMPLE-MINDEDNESS:
WELCOMING MADELEINE!
MER - Washington - 5 Septebmer:
There are many reasons for the sad state of affairs
in today's Middle East, for the miserable situation the Palestinians face,
for the hypocrisy and duplicity of American policy toward the Middle East.
Among these reasons are the pathetic simple-mindedness that often- times
comes from some who actually believe themselves to be part of some amorphous
"peace movement".
Sadly, many academics as well as many involved with
the church in the U.S. fall into this category. And of course then there
is "Peace Now", a duplicitous group
that has always in reality been closely linked to Israel's Labor Party,
confusing, misleading, and sponging up the money, concern and guilt of
so many gullible
American Jews for so many years.
On the Arab-American side, the hopelessness of organizations
like ADC and AAI has been discussed at length in previous MER articles.
This week a very good example of this simple-mindedness
has been circulating on the Internet. It starts with some well-meaning
but hopelessly naive Christians
living in Bethlehem; then gets circulated by a suspect Palestinian,
Issa Sarris, rather ludicrously distributing such things from Jerusalem
in the name of "Freedom
Network, Linking Palestinians & their friends"; and then gets distributed
in the U.S. by an academic, Betsy Barlow, at the University of Michigan.
Here's the letter to Madeleine Albright:
Dear Secretary of State Albright:
You should see the view from our apartment in Bethlehem!
Tonight, over the Church of the Nativity, all of the crosses
are lighted.
It's a glorious sight.
The reason? This afternoon Israel lifted the "internal
closure" of
Bethlehem. Tonight horns honked. And people are relieved.
Thank you for all that you did to encourage this important
confidence
building measure on the road to restarting the peace talks. We are
delighted that you are coming to the region and recognize that you
will
have a virutally impossible task.
If there is to be peace in the Middle East, it will be
important for both
sides to candidly deal with the tough issues, including Jerusalem,
the
future of settlements in the Occupied Territories, the refugee issues,
etc. that you know only too well.
Your task certainly will be to help both Israel and Palestine
be more
flexible and look for ways that both can affirm justice for the other
and
an inclusive society.
Bethlehem tonight is beautiful. I wish you could see it.
And I wish you
could visit the peace tent on Manger Square that is sponsored by the
ecumenical youth group. On the tent are these words:
"The effect of justice will be peace,
And the result of justice: quietness and security forever." Isaiah
32.17
Rev. Dr. Betty Jane Bailey
Rev. Dr. J. Martin Bailey
(American citizens)
MER NOTE - The above letter was initially distributed by Issa Sarris,
a Palestinian in Jerusalem, using new Internet capabilities supported by
the U.S. Government,
George Soros, and InterNews (a front-group working with both the USG
(through USAID) and the Soros Foundation); then further distributed by
Elizabeth Barlow, Program Coordinator of the Center for Middle Eastern
& North African Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
For a far more refreshing and brutally honest assessment of U.S. involvement
in today's "Peace Process" get the current MER Newsletter at http://www.MiddleEast.Org/newslet.htm.
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DIANA - THE SAUDI CONNECTION
MER - Washington - 2 Sept:
At American University in Washington, D.C., there
is a very large building with the name ADNAN KHASHOGGI writ large for all
to see. Former Arab League Ambassador Clovis Maksoud has his office nearby.
It's also quite an embarrassment however.
Once praised as an international businessman, Khashoggi
is now known to have been an international arms salesman and a swindler
working closely with the Saudi Royal family as an intermediary. Criminal
indictments and law suits galore are now associated with his name. AU took
his money before the crash, and remains stuck with his name, though rumors
abound the university has been looking for some other wealthy patron to
make a new deal with.
The family fortune of Emad Mohamed "Dodi"
el-Fayed can be traced not to Egypt, but rather to the two sources of Muslim
cash and unbridled corruption in our era - the Saudi royal family and the
Sultan of Brunei.
Indeed, the main reason Dodi's father has
been unable to obtain British citizenship and wasn't even sure he'd be
able to bury his son in England, can be traced back to his very shady business
dealings where he repeatedly lied about the source of his funds and on
whose behalf he was acting.
The connection to the Saudi royal family is through
Dodi's mother, the sister of Adnan Khashoggi. And irony of ironies,
much of the money that has built the Mohamed Fayed empire and that however
indirectly contributed to the death of the Princess of Wales, so known
in recent days for her anti-land-mines and humanitarian efforts, began
as commissions and profits from arms sales.
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