To: Readers and Supporters of MID-EAST REALITIESDate: 12/21/98Website: http://www.MiddleEast.OrgRe: WE NOW NEED YOUR HELP IF WE ARE TO CONTINUE IN 1999
As you know we have recently been forced to suspend publication of MID-EAST REALITIES.
We did so very reluctantly and with considerable regret after trying for many months to
find the financial support needed to continue MER, just a few thousand dollars a month.
One of the additional "realities" about the Middle East that few wish to
openly and honestly discuss is that nearly all of the organizations and institutes that
deal publicly with Middle East affairs are controlled and manipulated in one way or
another by the sources of funding they continually court or which helped establish them in
the first place. And these sources of funding are, with very few exceptions, tied into the
U.S. government, organizations and persons associated with the Israeli/Jewish lobby, or
those working in tandem or under-the-table with the various Arab
"client-regimes".
The main reason we have so few organizations and media persons able and willing to
speak up knowledgeable and honestly about what is happening in the Middle East, and
especially about what is happening in Washington about the Middle East, is this financial
predicament. If one allows oneself to be manipulated and twisted into conformity, or at
minimum to cut many corners, pull many punches, and refrain from discussing many subjects,
funds of various kinds are available. If one insists on being independent, honest, and
forthright about what is really happening in our world and in the U.S. capital -- and of
course these are the basic hallmarks of MER which explain our growing following around the
world -- the opposite is the case; and indeed all kinds of pressures and rumors result to
either bring about conformity or push one under.
Now we all face this situation together. We have established MER on the Internet and
the weekly half-hour TV program we'd like to also now put on the Internet, making it
possible for all of us come together and to help all of us know and understand what is
really going on -- in the region, and in Washington which increasingly dominates the
region.
Some of you can afford to contribute substantially to this unique and vital effort,
some less so. Others of you we understand are just getting by and not able to do so. We
want to keep making MER widely available to all; we do not want to set up specific
subscriptions and access restrictions. We want all who are concerned and interested to be
able to continue benefiting from MER -- as the many messages and calls we keep receiving
make so clear. And if you have any doubts just read for yourself at: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/commentsx.htm.
But to do these things we have to have the serious help and support of those of you are
able. Please do not put off any longer doing your part in this exceptional situation.
It is all of us collectively who in effect publish MER; and that is why it is so
uniquely insightful and valuable. Not the oil companies through their grants to such
places as the Middle East Institute. Not the Arab regimes through their many means of
providing funds to various Arab American and Muslim "client organizations",
among them the "Arab Network of America" on TV and Zogby's "Arab-American
Institute". Not the Israel-oriented Jewish organizations that have set up and
infiltrated so many publications and media outlets and now have their powerful
"Washington Institute" constantly propagandizing everyone, including most of the
cooperating Arab regimes. And not the U.S. government which now has so many ways of
providing funds and support to so many groups, more and more indirectly and often
covertly, including the U.S Institute for Peace and the various think-tanks scattered
throughout Washington which rely in one way or another on the Congress, the CIA, or the
Pentagon for their support.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
At this time, since we have already laid the groundwork and set MER in motion, your
financial support is the key. We need to raise at least five thousand dollars by the end
of the year to make it possible to keep our web site alive (with all the prior articles
and information we have published to date) and to resume publishing MER. We very much want
to resume publication of MER on a regular basis, often with daily articles and expanded
analysis and information of the uniquely insightful kind we have become known for.
So for the next two weeks we will conduct our first intensive fund-raising drive,at the
end of which we will determine what we will be able to do. Pleasesend your checks to MER
at:
MER POBox 18367 Washington, D.C. 20036
The year ahead is going to be an exceedingly difficult and historic one. The forces of
misinformation and disinformation are stronger than ever and being provided with more
funding and capabilities all the time. The U.S. and Israeli governments, and the
cooperating Arab "client regimes" are working harder and harder to support those
who will do their bidding, and to undermine those who will not. In general you know this
depressing situation, and that's why you are among the many thousands of MER readers all
over the world. Let's make sure we continue at least to do something about this by at
least revealing what is going on with sophistication, expertise, and forthrightness.
Indeed, what we really should do in the year ahead is not only resume publishing of
MER, but make MER much better known and useful by using the unique advantages of today's
Internet.
Meanwhile, for the time being, we will try to republish the best of MER articles and
editorials from the past -- especially since many of you have just joined us in the past
few months.
And we urge all of you who have not done so recently to visit our unique web site which
we will continue expanding and improving if your financial support makes it possible for
us to do so:http://www.MiddleEast.Org.
