THREATS AND DISINFORMATION AGAINST MER
Letter to Readers -- MER THREATENED: "YOU NEED TO BE TERMINATED AND
PUNISHED!"
Threats from a "Powerful" and "Proud" Palestinian Jordanian and in
the U.S. from Arafat-connected Palestinian Americans.
"Sirs, ...As a Palestinian from a powerful family in Nablus, and a proud Jordanian
citizen, I was both shocked, angered and deeply aggrivated by your irresponsible editorial
about the release of Sheik Yassin. Jordan, and "the Hashemite regime" have
always been the shoulder to lean on for the Palestinians and there plight. His Majesty
King Hussein, personaly took it upon himself to do what ever is in his power to secure the
rightful future for Palestine and the Palestinians... You... need to be terminated, and
your defamations of the King and Country that has sacrificed so much for there Palestinian
cousins should not go unpunished ! I can assure you that I will forward your last article
to the concerned authorities, and promise you to do my utmost in order to rid everyone of
you..."
Sincerely Fady L. Shaka'a - Jordan 10/1/97
========================================= MER Articles about Jordan can be found at:
=========================================
MER - Washington - 4 October:
Threats, intimidation, blackmail, disinformation, cooptation, infiltration -- this is
the norm in today's Middle East. The client regimes in power throughout the region are
among the most corrupt and repressive in today's modern world; and the Israelis after
generations of dispossessing and occupying the Palestinians are now instituting an
"Apartheid Peace" guaranteeing much more conflict still to come.
Indeed, rarely have countries so rich in resources, not to mention history and culture,
so badly served their people; so squandering their financial, political and human capital;
and in the case of the Arab "client regimes" so prostrated themselves to a
foreign power.
We're received various threats in various ways, but rarely as blatant and identifiable
as the one below from a "powerful and proud" Palestinian with allegiance to
Jordan's Hashemite Regime.
We know we must be doing something right and beginning to have both a growing following
and impact, including in the Middle East, when this kind of thing happens.
Most of the efforts to try to discredit and mislead people about MER and persons
associated with us, however, come from organizations and persons working with the
Israeli/Jewish lobby; and more recently from right-wing Palestinians in the US associated
with Arafat's "Palestinian Authority". In the past few months a few of them have
begun spreading deceptive and fallacious rumors about MER hoping to undermine MER by
creating confusion and doubts.
This is the way these people have been operating for years, actually; and since the
"peace process" cooperation between some of the Jewish groups and some of the
Palestinians has begun as well. Trading on their Palestinian names for credibility because
they have neither personal credentials nor truthful information, these persons have acted
as both disinformation agents and enforcers for some time -- and they seem to be stepping
up their activities in recent months.
Now we have to admit we're proud MER has gotten onto their radar screens. And we've
also heard that important persons in the Arafat regime have in a sense unleashed some of
their agents in the U.S. to try to undermine MER and put roadblocks in the way of our flow
of hard-headed and tough-minded information and analysis.
Led in Washington by the shallow and corrupt PLO Representative, Hassan Rahman, and by
the very slippery and duplicitous head of the "Arab American Institute", Jim
Zobgy, these people usually work under-the-table and out of sight if they can. Once and
awhile their trails and the disinformation they spread can be traced; usually its
difficult to pin things down... and we're not going to getside-tracked into that game
anyway.
Our response then? We're going to continue doing what we have been doing...trying to do
it better and more effectively. Specifically:
1) We've considerably improved our Web site and much previously published information
is now available there -- please take a look:
2) We're going to look more regularly at disinformation from the Arab side, as well as
the Israeli/Jewish side -- stay tuned in fact for a new feature: "Zogby Watch!"
3) With your help and support we're going to have a monthly on-line magazine and
newsletter.
4) Please continue to forward to us mail you receive and questions you have; and in
return we'll do our best to keep you updated and respond appropriately. And if there is
enough interest and support, we'll set up a weekly time when those of you supporting our
efforts can easily get in touch by phone to discuss any matters of specific concern.
And please remember: If you have specific ideas and information, and if you want to
help and support MER, please don't hesitate to get in touch as we're very eager to hear
from you and very much in need of your support and encouragement.
Thank you again for your concern, your interest, and your support.
