This is a time for serious people to seriously speak up.   With the new
Committee On The Middle East (COME) we have organized to do so.
Please read this detailed "Statement of Principles" followed by the list 
of the International Advisory Board of COME.  And to join with us at 
this crucial time email your name, address, phone and fax numbers to  
COME@MiddleEast.Org  and we will send you additional information.

         C O M M I T T E E    O N   T H E   M I D D L E   E A S T 
                        "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

             (If interested in becoming involved message to 
                COME@MiddleEast.Org or call 202 362-5266]:

Arab Abdel-Hadi - Cairo, Egypt
Professor Nahla Abdo - Carleton University, Ottawa (Canada)
Professor Jane Adas - Rutgers University (NJ); 
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; 
Professor Michael Astour - University of Southern Illinois; 
Professor Mohammed Benayoune - Sultan Qaboos University, Oman;
Professor Charles Black - Emeritus Yale University Law School; 
Professor Francis O. Boyle - Univ of Illinois Law School (Champlain); 
Mark Bruzonsky - COME Chairperson (Washington); 
Linda Brayer - Ex. Dir., Society of St. Ives (Jerusalem); 
Professor Noam Chomsky - Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Ramsey Clark - Former U.S. Attorney General (New York); 
John Cooley - Author, Cyprus; 
Professor Mustafah Dhada - School of International Affairs, 
     Clark Atlanta University;
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; 
Prof. S.M. Ghazanfar - University of Idaho (Chair Economics Dept); 
Prof. Kathrn Green - California State Univ (San Bernadino); 
Nader Hashemi - Ottawa, Canada; 
Professor Clement Henry - University of TX (Austin); 
Zahra Hemani - New York University Law School;
Professor Herbert Hill - University of Wisconsin (Madison); 
Professor George Irani - Lebanese American University (Beirut); 
David Jones - Editor, New Dawn Magazine, Australia; 
Professor Elie Katz - Sonoma State University, CA; 
Professor George Kent - University of Hawaii; 
John F. Kennedy - Attorney at Law, Washington; 
Ted Keller - Emeritus San Francisco State University;
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; 
Dr. Avi Melzer - Frankfurt; 
Professor Alan Meyers - Boston University; 
Professor Michael B. Mills - Vista College; Berkeley, CA
Kamram Mofrad - Idaho; 
Ms. Minerva Nasser-Eddine - University of Adelaide, Australia;
Professor Ruud Peters - Universiteit van Amsterdam;
Professor Peter Pellett - University of Massachussetts (Amherst);
Professor Glenn Perry, Indiana State University; 
Professor Shalom Raz - Technion, Haifa; 
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 founder - deceased); 
Professor Herbert Schiller - University of California (San Diego); 
Dr. Manjra Shuaib - CapeTown (South Africa); 
Professor J. David Singer - University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); 
Marlyn Tadros (Ph.D) - Deputy Director, Center for Human Rights (Cairo);
Professor Majid Tehranian - Director Toda Institute for Global Peace 
    and Policy (University of Hawaii);

        The Committee On The Middle East
        P.O. Box 18367
        Washington, D.C. 20036
        24-Hour Phone: (202) 362-5266, Ext 266
        Fax: (202) 362-6965
        Internet: COME@MiddleEast.Org
        Web: WWW.MiddleEast.Org/COME.HTM