Organizing Statement of Principles of the
new
COME Home Page
COMMITTEE ON
THE
MIDDLE EAST
TOWARDS A NEW MIDDLE EAST
U.S. policies in the Middle East have for too
long been determined by the power and money of special interest groups
as well as by narrow nationalist economic exploitation. This has led to
a grossly hypocritical situation in American foreign policy in dealing
with the nations and peoples of the Middle East. While the U.S. government
constantly professes a strong belief and commitment to democracy, human
rights, and national self-determination, far too often the same U.S. government
actually supports tyranny, repression, massive arms sales, despotism, and
ongoing subjugation.
The Committee On The Middle East, COME, is an
independent association of concerned individuals, many of whom have personal
connections to the Middle East region and many of whom are experts about
the region. As an organization COME is primarily concerned with helping
the peoples of the Middle East achieve true democracy and self-determination
along with safeguarding the human rights and improving the economic conditions
of all the peoples in the region.
To these ends COME is concerned with helping Americans
understand the realities and the complexities of the situation in today's
Middle East and with stimulating new American policies that are fully consistent
with professed American values.
COME's Ten Principles for a
new U.S. Middle East foreign
policy:
1) A complete withdrawal of the Israeli army and
intelligence services from the territories occupied by Israel during the
1967 war in accordance with numerous United Nations resolutions thus allowing
for the creation of a fully sovereign Palestinian State with U.N. membership,
capital in East Jerusalem, and serving as a democratic homeland for all
people of Palestinian origin including those who were forced to flee Palestine
during the 1948 and 1967 wars and during the years of Israeli occupation.
2) A major redistribution of American aid throughout
the Middle East region including providing the new Palestinian State --
once established, internationally recognized, and having held totally free
national elections unfettered by Israeli constraints and manipulations
and to which all Palestinians everywhere were enfranchised including those
forced to live in exile -- with a significant amount of economic aid as
was done for Israel during its formative years.
3) Serious and consistent support for true democratic
principles, an independent press, truly free elections, and rapid political
evolution away from the repressive monarchies, dictatorships and "client
regimes" that prevail in the Middle East region today, most of whose origins
can be traced back to Western manipulations that began earlier in this
century and have continued to the present day.
4) A rapid phasing out by the turn of the millennium
of American economic, military, and intelligence support for monarchies
and dictatorships that engage in press censorship, torture, and political
intimidation, or that refuse to allow their people the basic rights enshrined
in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other widely recognized
international human rights covenants.
5) A major yearly decrease in American arms sales
to the Middle East making it possible for the countries of the region to
quickly shift toward desperately important economic and social priorities.
6) An immediate end to sanctions against Iraq
-- sanctions whose result has been nearly genocidal according to numerous
international studies and one of whose main goals has been to keep Iraqi
oil from reaching world markets -- except for military arms sales restrictions
that are equally applied to all other key countries in the region.
7) An end to the misguided policy known as "dual-containment"
designed to perpetuate long-pursued Western policies of "divide and rule"
and which continue to encourage the development of competing blocks and
the resultant further escalation in regional tensions and arms sales.
8) An end to the excessive power and intimidation
of special interest groups and Political Action Committees (PACs) over
the policy choices of the American Congress and Presidency, especially
the inordinate and self-serving influence of both the Israeli/Jewish lobby
and that of the Arab Gulf States led by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
9) The immediate release of Israeli "Nuclear Prisoner
of Conscience" Mordechai Vanunu from imprisonment and establishment of
a nuclear free zone by the turn of the millennium throughout the region
so that no country in the area will feel compelled to possess nuclear,
biological, chemical or other weapons of mass destruction.
10) A serious new commitment to the principles
of political and economic democracy which have been flagrantly violated
throughout this century by repeated Western intervention in regional affairs
designed to control natural resources and economic markets through the
establishment and manipulation of pliable "client regimes" who have in
turn seriously damaged the economic, social, and political institutions
of the area and grossly retarded the entire region's development.
In pursuit of these basic principles and concerns
COME sponsors a weekly television program, MID-EAST REALITIES; provides
expert independent, honest, and knowledgeable spokespersons to speak with
the media about Middle Eastern developments; issues Statements and Reports
dealing with key concerns; and provides weekly information and analysis
updates on the Internet at "WWW.MiddleEast.Org."
.
COME Advisory Committee
To become involved please email to COME@MiddleEast.Org
or call 202 362-5266:
.
COME Advisory Committee: Ms. Arab Abdel-Hadi
-
Cairo; Professor Nahla Abdo - Carleton University (Ottawa);
Professor Elmoiz Abunura - University of North Carolina (Ashville);
Professor Jane Adas - Rutgers University (NJ); Oroub Alabed
- World Food Program (Amman); Professor Faris Albermani -
University of Queensland (Australia); Professor Jabbar Alwan, DePaul
University (Chicago); Professor Alex Alland, Columbia University
(New
York); Professor Abbas Alnasrawi - University of Vermont
(Burlington);
Professor Michael Astour - University of Southern Illinois; Professor
Mohammad Auwal - CSULA (CA); Virginia Baron - Guilford,
CT.; Professor Mohammed Benayoune - Sultan Qaboos University (Oman);
Professor Charles Black - Emeritus Yale University Law School; Professor
Francis O. Boyle, University of Illinois Law School (Champlain);
Mark Bruzonsky
- COME Chairperson (Washington); Linda
Brayer - Ex. Dir., Society of St. Ives (Jerusalem); Professor
Frank Cohen - SUNY Binghamton;
Professor Noam Chomsky
- Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (Cambridge); Ramsey Clark - Former
U.S. Attorney General (New York); John Cooley - Author, Cyprus;
Professor Mustafah Dhada - School of International Affairs, Clark
Atlanta University; Zuhair Dibaja - Research Fellow, University
of Helsinki; Professor Mohamed El-Hodiri
- University of Kansas;
Professor Richard Falk - Princeton University;
Professor Ali Ahmed
Farghaly - University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); Professor
Ali Fatemi - American University (Paris); Michai Freeman
- Berkeley; Professor S.M. Ghazanfar - University of Idaho (Chair,
Economics Dept); Professor Kathrn Green - California State University
(San Bernadino); Professor M. Hassounda - Valdosta College (GA);
Professor Clement Henry - University of Texas (Austin); Professor
Herbert Hill - University of Wisconsin (Madison); Professor
Asaf Hussein - U.K.; Yudit Ilany - Jerusalem; Professor George
Irani - Lebanese American University (Beirut); Tahir Jaffer
- Nairobi, Kenya; David Jones - Editor, New Dawn Magazine, Australia;
Professor Elie Katz
- Sonoma State University, CA; Professor George
Kent - University of Hawaii; Professor Ted Keller - San Francisco
State University, Emeritus; John F. Kennedy - Attorney at Law, Washington;
Samaneh Khader - Gruadate Student in Theology, University of Helsinki;
Professor Ebrahim Khoda - University of Western Australia; Guida
Leicester, San Francisco; Jeremy Levin - Former CNN Beirut Bureau
Chief (Portland); Professor Seymour Melman - Columbia University
(New York); Dr. Avi Melzer - Frankfurt; Professor Alan Meyers
- Boston University; Professor Michael Mills - Vista College
(Berkeley, CA); Kamram Mofrad - Idaho; Shahab Mushtaq
- Knox College; Professor Minerva Nasser-Eddine - University
of Adelaide (Australia); Professor Peter Pellett - University
of Massachussetts (Amherst);
Professor Max Pepper, M.D. -
University of Massachusetts (Amherst);Professor Ruud Peters -
Universiteit van Amsterdam; Professor Glenn Perry - Indiana State
University; Professor Tanya Reinhart
- Tel Aviv University; Professor
Knut Rognes - Stavanger College (Norway); Professor Masud
Salimian - Morgan State University (Baltimore); Professor
Mohamed Salmassi - University of Massachusetts; Qais Saleh - Graduate
Student, International University (Japan); Ali Saidi - J.D.
candidate in international law (Berkeley, CA); Dr. Eyad Sarraj
- Gaza, Occupied Palestine; Henry Schwarzschild - New York (original
co-founder - deceased); Professor Herbert Schiller - University
of California (San Diego); Frank Scott - writer, Marin County
(CA); Peter Shaw-Smith - Journalist, London; David Shomar -
New York; Dr. Manjra Shuaib - CapeTown (South Africa);
Robert Silverman - Montreal; Professor J. David Singer - University
of Michigan (Ann Arbor); Professor Majid Tehranian - Director
Toda
Institute for Global Peace and Policy (University of Hawaii);
Dr. Marlyn Tadros - Deputy Director, Legal Research and Resource Center
for Human Rights (Cairo); Professor John Williams - William
and Mary College; Ismail Zayid, M.D. - Dalhousi University (CA).
Identifications are only for purposes of identification; only individuals
are associated.
.
The Committee On The Middle East - P.O. Box
18367- Washington, D.C. 20036
24-Hour Phone: (202) 362-5266
Fax: (202) 362-6965 Internet:
COME@MiddleE.ast.Org
Home Page: www.MiddleEast.Org/come.htm
24-Hour message number: 800 724-6644,
Code 2023625266
Jan 1998
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