Just Call Me 'Uncle Jim', Saudi Propaganda, Academia Subverted - MER FLASHBACKS
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Just Call Me 'Uncle Jim', Saudi Propaganda, Academia Subverted - MER FLASHBACKS

December 4, 2001

This week MER FLASHBACK articles from December 1996:

"I am delighted to call Jim Zogby my friend. We share values and passions ranging from social justice to baseball... He is also far more willing to meet and work (publicly!) with the Jewish community than many of our leaders are with the Arab American community... There are no good reasons to attack his person nor to demean his name as an epithet." Rabbi Jack Moline - Washington Jewish Week, 12/19/96

MER - Always in the public eye, Jim Zogby, President of the self-created Arab American Institute (AAI) is one of those who has sold out his community more than any other self-annointed Arab American "spokesman". Admittedly articulate with words, Zogby has gained notoriety and wealth cooperating with the Zionist community and the U.S. government throughout the years of the Intifada. [Update: Rabbi Moline is one of the more prominent "liberal" Jewish rabbis in the Washington area, most recently known for pounding the podium with a rock at Zionist rallies endorsing Israeli tanks and gunships crushing the Palestinian people into submission as part of the apartheid-style "peace process".]

S A U D I P R O P A G A N D A I N A M E R I C A

This week's LIE OF THE WEEK goes to an entire feature section in the publication WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS. Published with considerable encouragement and support from the Arab establishment, especially the Saudis, this publication is in actuality a sophisticated propaganda vehicle with the primary purpose of distorting coverage of Middle East affairs in ways to the benefit and liking of the kings, royal families and "client-regimes" who rule, oppress, and squander the resources of the region. These headlines from the Sept 1995 issue of WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS -- with pictures of past and present Saudi Kings adorning the top page of the extensive cover feature about Saudi Arabia: . "THE YEAR 1995 WILL GO DOWN IN MIDDLE EAST HISTORY AS THE YEAR THAT SAUDI ARABIA GOT ITS SECOND WIND..."

"...SAUDI ARABIA'S REMARKABLE NEW CABINET."

"...THE SAUDI ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS VERY GOOD NEWS FOR THE UNITED STATES." PLUS A GUSHING BOOK REVIEW BY FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AND WASHINGTON REPORT EDITOR RICHARD CURTISS OF "DESSERT WARRIOR" BY HRH (that's "His Royal Highness" -- if anyone is wondering -- GENERAL KHALED BIN SULTAN.

In the old colonial bastion, England, the wealthy Arab establishment has its exclusive, lavish dining clubs; its extensive lists of readily available women; a variety of political and journalistic hacks to do its bidding; and the publication MIDDLE EAST INTERNATIONAL to twist things their way among academics and intellectuals.

In the new superpower, America, the same fat-cat Arab establishment -- increasingly self-centered, increasingly parasitic, and increasingly despicable -- led by a group of Saudi businessmen along with members of the Royal family, and working in tandem with old-line State Department Arabists at the American Educational Trust (AET), also has their publication, this one seductively known as WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS.

Many publications accept features of paid advertising from governments, and sometimes corporations -- identifying them as such. But there's no need for the Saudis to purchase a paid advertising section, and to so label it, when it comes to the WASHINGTON REPORT -- for what appears in its pages is practically the very same thing masquerading as journalism and information.

If we had a "Lie Of The Year", for the current cover feature WASHINGTON REPORT would definitely be nominated...and would be likely to win! No doubt former Ambassador Andy Killgore (now Publisher of WASHINGTON REPORT) and Dick Curtiss (Executive Editor) have rushed copies to the Gulf to show off to their patrons and benefactors.

ACADEMIA CO-OPTED AND SUBVERTED

Michael Rothschild 5 November 1996 Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs Princeton University Princeton, N.J.

Dear Dean Rothschild,

I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet and speak with you last week here in Washington. However, the apprehensions I mentioned to you about the event that brought us together were very much validated (from my perspective obviously) when the evening's program took place.

At a time in history when more than a million people have been killed and one of the most advanced countries in the Middle East practically destroyed -- this on top of what has happened in recent years to Lebanon, the Sudan, Algeria, Iran, and the Palestinians -- to have three like-minded Princeton professors simply repeating politically-correct ideas in a rather incestuous manner seemed to me intellectually undignified. It's one thing for the politicians to act this way, as deplorable as that it itself has become. But for educators and intellectuals to act in this way is truly depressing, though not quite up to a P.R.I. (painful rectal itch).*

Seriously, everyone from Amnesty International to the Vatican has deplored what has been done to Iraq, a former White House Press Secretary has called the Gulf War itself a "plot", a former Attorney General of the U.S. has called American policies "war crimes", the U.N. has issued a report that over a half-million children have been killed because of the sanctions, and the resultant "peace process" has been roundly condemned as duplicitous and fraudulent by major personalities in this country and abroad. And yet we who studied international affairs at Princeton are offered not one word of any of these perspectives but instead are subjected to a cacophony of platitudes and misleading (certainly extremely incomplete) analysis. Furthermore, such events do not seem to me at all consistent with your recent comment about the WWS being a "dynamic forward-looking institution" - not when it comes to matters relating to the Middle East anyway.

Sincerely,

Mark A. Bruzonsky * Note to MER readers: The main refrain and joke of the evening was the repeated expression from the Princeton Professors -- led by Richard Ullman, formerly a member of the National Security Council -- that Saddam Hussein was only now a P.R.I. (painful rectal itch) because the war had at least greatly weakened Iraq militarily and financially. Mark Bruzonsky graduated with a Masters In International Affairs for Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School in 1975. PLUS A GUSHING BOOK REVIEW BY FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AND WASHINGTON REPORT EDITOR RICHARD CURTISS OF "DESSERT WARRIOR" BY HRH (that's "His Royal Highness" -- if anyone is wondering -- GENERAL KHALED BIN SULTAN.

In the old colonial bastion, England, the wealthy Arab establishment has its exclusive, lavish dining clubs; its extensive lists of readily available women; a variety of political and journalistic hacks to do its bidding; and the publication MIDDLE EAST INTERNATIONAL to twist things their way among academics and intellectuals.

In the new superpower, America, the same fat-cat Arab establishment -- increasingly self-centered, increasingly parasitic, and increasingly despicable -- led by a group of Saudi businessmen along with members of the Royal family, and working in tandem with old-line State Department Arabists at the American Educational Trust (AET), also has their publication, this one seductively known as WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS.

Many publications accept features of paid advertising from governments, and sometimes corporations -- identifying them as such. But there's no need for the Saudis to purchase a paid advertising section, and to so label it, when it comes to the WASHINGTON REPORT -- for what appears in its pages is practically the very same thing masquerading as journalism and information.

If we had a "Lie Of The Year", for the current cover feature WASHINGTON REPORT would definitely be nominated...and would be likely to win! No doubt former Ambassador Andy Killgore (now Publisher of WASHINGTON REPORT) and Dick Curtiss (Executive Editor) have rushed copies to the Gulf to show off to their patrons and benefactors.



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December 2001


Magazine



U.S. and Israel Now Have Iraq In Their Sights
(December 31, 2001)
Britain's Telegraph Newspaper is well-plugged in with both the Americans and the Israelis, and is helping fan the flames of the likelier than not upcoming collision with Iraq. At the moment the U.S. is short of cruise missiles.

Sub-Continent Rushes Toward Conflagration
(December 31, 2001)
Pakistan and India are readying their military forces - including their ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons - for war.

Israelis Preparing The Way for 2002 - Now a Potentially Cataclysmic Year
(December 31, 2001)
Yasser Arafat remains under town siege in Ramallah, and his personal as well as historical nemesis, Ariel Sharon, continues to attempt to provoke more Palestinian hatred and violence which he will then use to justify still further Israeli military escalations, potentially cataclysmic in the year about to begin.

"We Will Win Nuclear War"! Crisis Escalates Further!
(December 31, 2001)
As the year turns, not since fourty years ago, not since1962 and the "Cuban Missile Crisis", has the world faced the possibility of an iminent orgastic nuclear war between two major countries.

The "Muslim" Bomb - Both Pakistan and Iran now Targeted in addition to Iraq
(December 30, 2001)
The Israelis have a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons; and in fact helped instigate the very regional arms race they are now so worried about; then fueled it further by ongoing attempts to crush and subjugate the Palestinians while colonizing still more territories.

Now, let's talk about terrorism, shall we?
(December 30, 2001)
If you are still shaken by the horrifying scenes of September 11, please observe a moment of silence for the 5,000 civilian lives lost in the New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania attacks. While we're at it...

"Internationals" Victorious For The Day Over Israeli Army
(December 30, 2001)
You've got to hand it to these international activists, they are succeeding at the moment at least in drawing attention to what the Israeli occupation is really all about, they are putting their bodies on the line, they have now finally after so many years and provocations begun to organize and demonstrate for real. But there are a few serious problems in this.

India-Pakistan War Brews - Potential Nuclear Conflagration Looms
(December 29, 2001)
No matter what American and Israeli officials now say in public, at some point the "war against terrorism" as defined in Washington and Jerusalem was likely to begin to quickly expand in unforeseen ways in both the Middle East and the sub-continent.

Islamic Militants Attack Israeli Patrol, Defying Arafat's Truce Call
(December 29, 2001)
Ignoring Yasser Arafat's truce order, two members of the militant Islamic Jihad group on Friday attacked an Israeli army patrol in the Gaza Strip in a failed suicide mission.

U.S. INVESTIGATING WHETHER NUKES IN COUNTRY
(December 28, 2001)
"I wouldn't be the least surprised if there were a nuclear explosion in Israel or the United States." Congressman Chris Shays (R-Conn.) Chairman of the House subcommittee on national security

The Real "OBSTACLE TO PEACE", and Egypt Targets Women - MER FLASHBACK
(December 28, 2001)
It's front-page news! Bill Clinton says Israeli settlements are an "obstacle" to peace. But this isn't the real story; nor are settlements the real obstacle.

INDIA, PAKISTAN PREPARE FOR WAR
(December 26, 2001)
Both India and Pakistan in recent days have deployed substantial combat forces to important strategic areas along their borders and with tension continuing to mount the Indian army has ordered residents in border villages to leave.

Pakistan warns of nuclear conflict with India!
(December 25, 2001)
As in Palestine, the Kashmir conflict originally resulted from Western policies in the last century. Now both conflicts threaten to explode into wars of mass destruction in this century.

The Terrible State of the Palestinians
(December 24, 2001)
After all his bluster and threats, Yasser Arafat remains essentially an Israeli prisoner in Ramallah, one of the militarily-surrounded Palestinian Bantustans that Arafat himself helped create when he put his pen to various Israeli schemes for which he received, quite literally, billions of dollars in payoffs and arms which he then distributed to cronies and entourage to keep himself in power.

Holy Land ShowDown - Will He or Won't He?
(December 24, 2001)
An atmosphere of tension and expectation has descended on Bethlehem as Palestinians wait to see whether their leader, Yasser Arafat, will successfully defy an Israeli ban on his travelling to the town for a highly symbolic Christmas Mass.

Israel Searches Convoy for Arafat...Political Brinksmanship Awaits Clock
(December 24, 2001)
As the clock ticks toward Christmas Eve and Midnight a grand game of political brinksmanship is underway between the two old protagonists, Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat.

Israel Prepares For Arafat's "Walk" or Copter to Bethlehem
(December 23, 2001)
It's even possible Arafat could tomorrow win this round in what has evolved into a kind of personal Sharon-Arafat political wrestling match. We're all anxiously waiting to see just how this drama is going to unfold Monday; and whether Arafat can even approach the political skill and timing of Mahatma Gandhi.

Arab Regimes Helped Bring Sharon To Power - MER FlashBack
(December 23, 2001)
It was the Arab client regimes themselves, especially the Hashemites in Jordan and the Egyptians, who actually helped bring Ariel Sharon to the pinnacle of power in Israel. This from MER archives four years ago:

"It's a humiliation for the entire Palestinian people"
(December 23, 2001)
"This is an example of the arrogance of occupation. It's a humiliation for the entire Palestinian people, Christians and Muslims... Sharon is playing with fire -- he wants blood and tears instead of Christmas carols."

Yasser's Historic Moment Monday To Walk Peacefully Into History
(December 22, 2001)
As we said the other day, we're all aware that Yasser Arafat's record of doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons in the right way is rather tarnished, to say the least. But even tarnished almost consumed historic figures sometimes have their possible moments of historic redemption.

War Year 2002 - Stage Set for "Transferring" Palestinians, "Jordan is Palestine"
(December 22, 2001)
If major wars and more "terrorist incidents" break out in the Sub-Continent and elsewhere in the Middle East region, as now seems likely in the weeks and months immediately ahead, that is just what Ariel Sharon and the "right-wing" Israelis -- with at least acquiescence from Barak, Peres and the so-called "left-wing" Israelis -- have been waiting for.

Darkness in the Once Holy Land
(December 21, 2001)
"The Oslo agreements were a sham... The understanding on the Palestinian side was that Oslo would eventually lead to Israeli withdrawal from the territories. In fact, the accords turned into a state-run land grab of astounding proportions..."

Arafat Threatens to Walk to Bethlehem - NewsFlash!
(December 21, 2001)
Just a week ago now MER wrote of the urgent need for Arafat to "do a Gandhi". "Message to Arafat - Do a Gandhi, right now, before it's too late!" was the title of the MER article published last Friday at this time. And it seems MER's impact is even greater than we imagined!

U.S. and Israel Cozier And More Intertwined Than Ever
(December 21, 2001)
The United States plans to offer Israel an expanded missile defense cooperation relationship. The cooperation is meant to follow the model of the current U.S.-Israeli Arrow-2 joint program.

Time to Suspend Israel from the U.N. General Assembly
(December 20, 2001)
The General Assembly could act seriously today; it has the power. And there is the precedent as well -- South Africa in the days of Apartheid. The U.S. has no veto in the GA; something that under today's conditions, and precisely because of last week's "astounding" Security Council veto, should be acted upon.

"So let's hope the president will resist the siren calls for new wars"
(December 20, 2001)
Warnings have already come, and in public, from all over. The Germans, the French, the U.N., there's already quite a long list. But the Americans are definitely planning to march forward on their crusade...there are many "phases" already not just planned but in various forms of execution.

Peres Himself "Shudders"; and "Evil" Israeli-Style Unleashed
(December 19, 2001)
Shimon Peres ought to know. This is hardly the first time the Israelis have been caught at what for most of the world deserve to be categorized as "war crimes." And for every time they have been caught there are ever so many other times that the dastardly things they have done have been successfully hidden from view, so far that is.

Thank You Der Spiegel
(December 18, 2001)
We've yet to see the full English translation of yesterday's important article by Publisher Rudolf Augstein of Der Spiegel. But right away we can certainly comment that it's about time German intellectuals and journalists realized that precisely because of their past they have a special obligation to stand up against racism and facism and brute militarism -- from whatever quarter it rears its ugly tentacles.

LIES, TRICKS, DECEPTIONS...then and now?
(December 17, 2001)
Was what the world watched a few days ago, originally broadcast direct from the Pentagon no less, the real OSB and the whole truthful story of the conveniently found and timed tape? Was this just a part of the real but more more complex and convoluted story? Was there a CIA Sting involved as has been reported by the establishment British press in London over the weekend?

Destroying Saddam/Bathist Regime Being Planned by US, Israel
(December 17, 2001)
When you send a recently retired Marine Corp General and regional Commander to the Middle East as your "Peace Negotiator" it's war not peace you have in mind. But the popular press is ever-so-gullible and compliant of course.

Neighborhood Bully - A Former U.S. Attorney General on American Militarism
(December 15, 2001)
When I picture a high-ranking government official, I think of someone who is corrupt. I think of a corporate shill. I think of someone who is not a friend to the people of this country. I think of Lord Acton's famous line about power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Israeli Stage Set For Regional War and Destruction
(December 15, 2001)
"Arafat's real crisis is among his own people. They see him as just an Israeli sheriff who happens to speak their language."

Message to Arafat - Do a Gandhi, right now, before it's too late!
(December 14, 2001)
Palestinian support groups in the US and elsewhere are pathetically weak, terribly lead, and still engaged most of the time in rather juvenile uninformed internal debates about who is who and what is what. But even so, once and awhile there's a good idea circulated in their incestuous and bloated email forums, though there is hardly ever any follow-through in any serious way.

Arafat's Last Stand... European Betrayal... Devastation and Catastrophe...
(December 14, 2001)
"Arafat came as collaborator as much as liberator. For the Israelis, security - theirs, not the Palestinians' - was the be-all and end-all of Oslo. His job was to supply it on their behalf."

Arafat in Bunker; Israeli Missiles Seek Bin Laden; Propaganda Campaigns Escalate
(December 13, 2001)
Greatly emboldened because there have not been the kinds of major demonstrations and violent clashes in Arab and Muslim countries that some predicted, the U.S. and Israel have decided to push forward with crushing military power, still more covert CIA actions, and further administrative and financial restrictions worldwide.

Israelis Spies Held by U.S. While Israelis Unleash More Death and Destruction
(December 13, 2001)
The very day the White House went to great lengths to position the Israeli flag right behind the President, and to purposefully highlight the Star of David to the greatest degree possible, the whole subject of Israeli espionage against the U.S. has also unfurled once again.

Israeli Spying in USA, Part I
(December 13, 2001)


Israeli Spying in USA, Part II
(December 13, 2001)


Israeli Spying in USA, Part III
(December 13, 2001)


Israeli Spying in USA, Part IV
(December 13, 2001)


Boycott the USA Says Famous Egyptian
(December 12, 2001)
When Egypt's most popular television commentator, Hamdi Qandil, called for a boycott of U.S. goods, which his government opposes, it got past the censor. But he was stopped from repeating it.

Israel: The 51st State?
(December 12, 2001)
September 11th, 2001, has become the tragedy of opportunity for Israel; a perfect turning point in which the "war against terrorism" analogy has been fully exploited by Ariel Sharon's radical right-wing government to sustain, even intensify, the horrors of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

What Drives A Bomber to Kill the Innocent Child? MER FLASHBACK
(December 11, 2001)
I once asked the head of the Lebanese Hizbollah if he could explain to me how the mind of a suicide bomber works. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah was dressed in his black turban and robes. He had formerly been the Hizbollah's military commander in southern Lebanon and from his legions had emerged the first Arab suicide bombers who would - after more than a decade and a half - sap the morale of Israel's retreating army.

"...Symbol of Hatred and Fury of This Filthy War"
(December 10, 2001)
They started by shaking hands. We said 'Salaam aleikum' - peace be upon you - then the first pebbles flew past my face. A small boy tried to grab my bag. Then another. Then someone punched me in the back. Then young men broke my glasses, began smashing stones into my face and head.

Robert Fisk Nearly Beaten to Death
(December 9, 2001)
Robert Fisk is one of the world's preeminent experts about the Middle East and world affairs. He is the longest serving Western correspondent in the region. He is also an extraordinarily courageous person who always conducts himself with great determination, fortitude, and professionalism.

Just Call Me 'Uncle Jim', Saudi Propaganda, Academia Subverted - MER FLASHBACKS
(December 4, 2001)


Lies About "Peace" and a "Palestinian State" - Then and Now
(December 1, 2001)
More than twenty years ago now another American President was promising a complete "settlement freeze" and a "transitional period" leading to a "Palestinian State". The notion that George W. Bush is doing so for the first time, sui generis, is not only blatantly historically fallacious but downright disingenuous.




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