Organizing Statement of Principles of the new

COMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST (COME):

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.

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 (Currently in formation - if interested in becoming involved please contact Mark Bruzonsky at 202 362-5266, Ext 276 or by Email to MAB@MiddleEast.Org.]:

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 Howard Baumgartel - Emeritus, University of Kansas; 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 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; Professor Mohamed El-Hodiri, University of Kansas; Professor Richard Falk - Princeton University; Professor Ali Fatemi - American University, Paris; Michai Freeman - Berkeley; Prof. S.M. Ghazanfar -University of Idaho (Chair Economics Dept) ; Nader Hashemi - Ottawa, Canada; Professor Clement Henry, University of TX (Austin); 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; 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, Journalist, Portland; Professor Seymour Melman, Columbia University; Dr. Avi Melzer, Frankfurt; Professor Alan Meyers, Boston University; Kamram Mofrad, Idaho; Professor Peter Pellett - University of Massachussetts (Amherst); Professor Tanya Reinhart, Tel Aviv University; 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;  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); Professor Majid Tehranian - Director Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy (University of Hawaii);