May 2004

      
     Important MER Information and Update
                       www.MiddleEast.Org
 
There have been many attempts over the years to put roadblocks in our 
way and in fact to prevent MER from continuing in one way or another.  
Such attempts to force us to close, to co-opt, to falsely defame, and 
more recently to block or censor,  are more and more it seems part of 
the realities of our times and more and more matters we have to be able 
to deal with.  These developments are also more and more a part of "Mid-East
 Realities" overall and thus these are challenges we also have to be 
able to face up to.  

Precisely because it is so difficult to start and to continue to publish
in a truly independent, expert, and hard-hitting way focusing on 
matters relating to the Middle East -- that is precisely why so many 
people have come to value MER, appreciate what we have already been able
to achieve, and want to make sure we can continue and expand.  The 
importance of crucial information, insights, commentary, and analysis --
carefully selected and edited as well as carefully combined with expert
analysis about the region, its history, and also about what is really 
happening in Washington about the Middle East -- has never been greater.

This is all the more true when unprecedented new efforts at intimidation
and repression, as well as actual censorship and pressured self-censorship
are underway.   Pushed hard by the Washington neocons and many of the 
groups associated with the Israeli/Jewish Lobby the U.S. Congress is 
setting up a 'monitoring' group for Middle East studies centers at 
colleges and universities throughout the United States, and the State 
Department is setting up a new office to monitor "anti-semitism", which 
is wrongly but quite purposefully defined to include outspoken 
opposition to Israeli and U.S. policies.  The clear threat is to bring 
still further problems down on those who dare speak up and to use 
selective funding, administrative pressures, and stacked tribunals to 
reward those who toe the line and to punish or push under those who do 
not.

Just last week leaders at nine of the top universities in the U.S. 
publicly protested to the Ford Foundation against the new restrictions 
being imposed on universities who receive major foundation grants -- 
again the result of pressures coming from groups associated with Israel 
and wanting to block or repress students and professors from speaking up
in opposition to Israel and in support of legitimate Palestinian rights.
As the Associated Press reported a few days ago:

"In a letter sent to the New York-based foundation last week, the 
provosts of nine prominent schools - including Harvard, Yale, Princeton 
and MIT - said they're not in a position to regulate everything said by 
students and faculty members who benefit from Ford grants.  ' Whatever 
university administrators may think of the merits of the political views
 expressed, these fall under the protection of freedom of academic 
speech' they wrote." 

The troubling thing of course is that the situation has already become 
so repressive that such letters have to be written at all; and then that
they have to be made public in order to raise the warning flag for us 
all about what is going on these days.

Thanks to the calls and messages we have had from so many of you we do 
realize that it is precisely because what we are doing through MER is so
insightful, tough-minded, refreshingly candid, and on target -- and 
that it comes from persons not only expert about the Middle East 
situation but also about what is going on in Washington -- that we 
should in fact considerably expand our efforts at this critical time and
actually pursue a greater agenda to gain a larger following and have a 
larger impact.

Our motto has always been:  "News, Information, & Analysis That 
Governments, Interest Groups, and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To 
Know!"   And for a number of years now we have been suggesting, "If you 
don't get MER, you just don't get it!"  

It was the famous Washington journalist of the past, I.F. 'Izzy' Stone, 
who said:  "The purpose of good journalism is to comfort the afflicted 
and to afflict the comfortable!"  And we certainly have felt that it is 
our responsibility to continually focus on what is being done to the 
powerless and to the oppressed, while exposing the distortions and lies 
of those who are powerful, wealthy, and all too often these days 
dangerously self-righteous.

The truth and meaning of all three of these expressions have in fact 
become considerably more important in recent years.  But in these years 
it has also continually become more and more difficult to continue with 
MER.   And indeed, if we are to continue and grow we now have to be 
prepared for even more difficult times ahead.

In the past there have been many attempts to co-opt or to undermine MER,
and there have been more recently serious attempts to block and censor 
MER in a number of ways, including by AOL and others with this purpose 
in mind.  Very frankly there have been persons of Jewish background who 
told us they would help provide financial support for MER, but only if 
we would be positive about the 'Peace Process' and not be so highly 
critical of Israeli policies.  More recently there have been persons of 
Arab background -- including a Lebanese official at the World Bank and a
Palestinian businessman in Canada -- who came to us saying they wanted 
to help support MER, but only if the tough articles dealing so revealing
with  the Arab 'client regimes'  and the Arab American groups were no 
longer published.

MER is the unique publication and embryonic organization it is today 
because we have steadfastly refused to be co-opted by anyone or to tone 
down or twist our articles and commentary based on who is willing to 
provide financial support.  We pride ourselves in serious hard-hitting 
truth telling to power at all times, as difficult as that can oftentimes
be.   But at the same time the additional reality we need to face is 
that we have had to work harder and harder to deal with the continual 
attempts to inhibit, slander, co-opt, block, censor, and defame MER.   
To say the least, it has not always been easy to handle all aspects of 
this overall situation;  and in fact more and more time and effort and 
money have had to be expended to do so.

At this time, in addition to everything else, we have been working hard 
on a whole new concept which we think can attract a far greater 
following and influence.  We want to literally take a major step and 
move to a new level of information and commentary updating everything 24/7
and seriously providing in real time the crucial analysis and focus so 
missing from the coverage of today's news by the corporate-sponsored and
lobby-twisted media.  You will be able to preview what we call the ME 
REPORT at www.MEReport.com.  So far this is only a basic start, just a 
preview demonstration, of what we are now capable of doing if we can 
raise the financial support to make this effort successful on a much 
expanded basis with updates quite literally throughout the day every day.
If we can do that through ME Report then we will finally be able to 
give voice to and emphasis to the really important things that people 
need to know but otherwise will not know in a very useable way -- and 
not only about past events but also about current developments breaking 
in the news everyday.

We are also working hard on a new faster and more reliable way to 
deliver MER articles and information worldwide, with bulletins and 
articles automatically being delivered to your computer and with the 
capability to allow persons receiving MER to regularly chat with and 
soon to talk on-line with key writers and activists, as well as with 
each other.  This is called MER ONLINE and at this time we are working 
to be able to make the initial version of this available very soon.  
When working this will make it far easier to receive MER articles and 
information quickly and will get around those censorship practices now 
taking place.  But again efforts of this kind require considerably more 
financial support that we have; and for this we can only turn to persons
like you who have come to know and value MER, independent  persons who 
appreciate what we are doing and why it is so necessary as well as so 
difficult.

Which of course brings us squarely to the crucial organizational and 
financing issues which we now have to take on forthrightly.    A truly 
independent, honest, and hard-hitting effort like MER has to have truly 
independent financial support to make it possible to continue, to expand,
to have growing impact, and to stand up to all the pressures and 
roadblocks thrown into our way.  We also need the financial backing to 
do some serious promotion and media relations to make MER much better 
known.   The Catch-22 of all this is of course that the more one is 
having an impact, the more the powers that be -- those interest groups, 
lobbies, governments and corporate media concerns of which we speak -- 
try to find ways, usually under the table ways, to try to discredit and 
to try to make it too difficult and too frustrating to continue.

We know of course that most people can only afford a small contribution,
that most people cannot afford to contribute a large amount of money 
monthly, or even yearly.   We ask you to contribute what you can at this
crucial time and we promise you to continue to make MER even more 
uniquely worthwhile and insightful.    Checks in the amounts of  fifty 
or a few hundred dollars coming from a sizeable number of persons can 
amount to an important source of the support we now need.  We realize of
course that such contributions coming from many people are also an 
expression of concern and appreciation that goes beyond just the 
monetary value and makes an important statement in itself.

But we also know that some of you can afford to make more sizeable 
contributions; and very frankly that is very critically needed at this 
time.  When it comes to making it possible for MER to continue in a 
serious way, and then to making the daily ME Report and MER Online 
projects possible and successful, we have to turn to those of you who 
have the financial means.  This is in a sense a unique opportunity for 
those of you with substantial means to in effect join us as a publisher 
yourself.  We have already done so much of the hard work to get MER 
going as we have, and we have already set in motion the important plans 
we've just outlined that can result in MER having considerable more 
potential and impact.  

But now the reality is that it those of you of can afford sizeable 
financial contributions will really determine just what we can do and 
just how well we can do it.   

This week will determine just what we are going to be able to do and 
what we are not going to be able to do.   At this point, having taken so
many positive steps in the past few years to make MER possible, to 
reorganize MER last year, and to deal with difficult problems and 
roadblocks that have been put in our way, it is to our financial base 
that we now have to urgently turn.  To deal with these problems and to 
reorganize MER we have had to borrow and now we have to immediately 
raise $12000 right away.  We urgently need to purchase new equipment 
that can greatly streamline and improve our capabilities, greatly 
enhance our productivity, and which will make possible the plans we have
been working on for ME Report and MER Online.   We need to pursue a 
promotion campaign with radio and TV talk-shows, we need to be in touch 
with students and university centers, we need to start publishing MER Op
Eds in newspapers, and we need to make ME Report a daily reality and 
get MER Online off the ground.  Indeed there is so much that needs to be
done, and which we will do, if we can have your serious support to make
it all possible.

Checks made to MER should be sent to:

MER
P.O. Box 4918
Washington, DC 20008

Contributions online and can be made using the popular Paypal service if
 you have an account.   Using Paypal send to MER@MiddleEast.Org  which 
is now verified with Paypal.

As I have emphasized in this update, many problems and difficulties have
 been put in our way.  These are a part of "Mid-East Realities" in the 
largest sense of that expression.  We know the times are urgent and we 
simply must find the ways not only to continue but to considerably 
improve and expand.  In short, we are seriously determined and committed
 to overcome all of the problems and difficulties if we can have your 
serious help and support.  We've already shown over the years how much 
we can do and that we can rise to new challenges and overcome new 
obstacles if that is necessary.  Indeed, one significant sign of having 
a growing and significant impact is in fact when then try harder to stop
you from continuing to do so.  

So we ask you this week to respond in a tangible and serious way with 
your financial support.   As you do we are going to use this week to 
take new organizational steps that are needed, to put in place new 
procedures and safeguards, and to get MiddleEast.Org back in operation 
in more robust ways than ever.  We need to now take all of these steps 
to enable MER to move forward and then to get both ME Report and MER 
Online into operation, something we know you will much better understand
and appreciate when you can use them daily as we have already begun 
testing.   

In short, now is the time when your help and support is more imperative 
and more crucial than ever.  

Thank you sincerely for reading this extensive summary about MER and for
your concern, your understanding, and your support.

                    Mark Bruzonsky
                    MER Publisher


MID-EAST REALITIES
www.MiddleEast.Org
Phone: (202) 362-5266
Fax:  (815) 366-0800
Email:  MER@MiddleEast.Org


     MER
 P.O. Box 4918
Washington, DC 20008






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