The events of the past year demonstrate the great need for independent critical reporting and analysis of the Middle East and US policy there -- reporting and analysis that only Middle East Report provides.

The key word is independent. This is what allows Middle East Report to be critical, to speak the truth about Israel's ferocious effort to crush the Palestinian uprising and at the same time call attention to state violations of human rights in Syria, Jordan, Iran and elsewhere. We can speak frankly about the dilemmas that confront groups like the PLO. And we have no government contracts or corporate advertising which might constrict our scrutiny of US intervention in the region.

But this independence has a price. It means that Middle East Report relies on you, our readers and subscribers, for the financial support that keeps us going and helps us grow. A subscription to Middle East Report represents only about one-third of what it costs us to produce the magazine and send it to you. To help make up the difference, and to help us reach out and take advantage of the tremendous interest that the Palestinian uprising has stirred in this country, we need your financial support.

Several weeks ago, in mid-June, we mailed out our annual appeal letter to all our subscribers. We ask you all to respond as generously as you can. We need to raise $30,000 from this appeal. This is not what we would like to get. It is what we need to continue this unique project and to increase the numbers of people we reach.

For those of us who have been working on issues of disarmament, peace and justice, there have been many exciting and heartening developments over the past year. Nowhere is this more true than in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But for all the hope and progress that the uprising has generated, a great many obstacles remain. The need to promote basic changes in US policy is more pressing than ever, and in this campaign a magazine like Middle East Report is absolutely vital.

So please be generous. Last year's response to the appeal was very heartening. Some six hundred readers, with gifts large and small, helped make the magazine better and more widely read than ever.

We need all that help again, and more, as we consolidate our new office and staff team. Our goal this year is to get a thousand donors. This means we need to hear from you.

We are very excited about what we can do now, but we definitely need your support. We especially need Sustainers -- readers who contribute $100 or more. But every gift is important, no matter how small. If you put the appeal aside when it arrived in the mail, please get it out and send it back today with your contribution. If you did not get an appeal letter, you can help just the same by sending your tax-deductible contribution to MERIP Appeal, Suite 119, 1500 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005.

Please do it today.