New Jewish Agenda Convention Urges Recognition of PLO The New Jewish Agenda (NJA), in its first national convention since its founding meeting in 1980, came out strongly for a policy of mutual Israeli-Palestinian recognition and for inclusion of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in peace negotiations. The resolutions represent some of the wor (Author not identified) • 2 min read
Harvard and the CIA A scandal erupted in October over covert CIA funding of ostensibly scholarly projects at Harvard University. This has confirmed long-held suspicions that at least some US academic research on the Middle East is only a cover for intelligence work. The setting is Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. One (Author not identified) • 4 min read
From the Editors (October-December 1985) Lest anyone be tempted to dismiss the title of this issue as unduly melodramatic, we would like to call attention to an early November meeting of the Council of Settlers of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. According to its bimonthly newspaper, Aleph Yud, the settlers decided to take an “active stand” agains The Editors • 2 min read
Breaking the Silence “Forget about ideology; we see the facts on the Hi ground.” The Palestinian woman speaks softly but firmly, recounting the tragedies of her people. It is obvious, she says, that Zionism is the central issue in the Middle East. “Because of Zionism, I live in America instead of Palestine. You can’t ig Denis Doyon • 8 min read
MER Article The Gulf Between the Superpowers Anthony Cordesman, The Gulf and the Search for Strategic Stability: Saudi Arabia, the Military Balance in the Gulf, and Trends in the Arab-Israeli Military Balance (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984). Occasionally, when an important head of state arrives in Washington for consultation without a previou Scott Armstrong • 11 min read
The Reagan Administration in the Middle East Under the Reagan administration, the United States has waged “the second Cold War” with particular forcefulness in the Middle East. Washington has moved combat forces into the region repeatedly since 1981: to engage first Libyan warplanes over the Gulf of Sidra, then Lebanese militias and Syrian for Fred H. Lawson • 23 min read
Getting to the War On Time Fifty thousand troops move across the desert in 100 degree-plus temperatures. F-18 jet fighters scream through the air and strafe the rock and sand below. Tanks maneuver over rough terrain to pound enemy positions. A buzzer goes off in a soldier’s helmet: The computer-guided laser network at the Arm Martha Wenger • 23 min read
Militarism, Monetarism and Markets The policies of the Reagan administration strive to recapture the nearly unlimited US power of the 20 years following World War II. Through the late 1960s and 1970s, US global dominance steadily declined in all but the military realm. This decline occurred during a period of intense global economic James Cypher • 37 min read
MER Article ADL, Pro-Arab Propaganda in America Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Pro-Arab Propaganda in America: Vehicles and Voices (New York, 1983). Martha Wenger • 1 min read
MER Article Israeli, American Military Confer on Combat Stress On January 2-6, 1983, I attended the Third International Conference on Psychological Stress and Adjustment in Time of War and Peace, sponsored by Tel Aviv University. The first two conferences in the series, convened in 1975 and 1978, were also held in Tel Aviv. According to the organizers, the conf A Special Correspondent • 2 min read
MER Article From the Editors (November/December 1983) On Sunday night, November 20, we paused along with millions of others in the US to watch ABC’s television drama of nuclear devastation. “The Day After” abstracted its fictional crisis from current headlines by having its US-Soviet confrontation occur over Berlin rather than Lebanon or Nicaragua. On The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article From the Editors (September 1983) ”We oppose the militarization of internal conflicts, often abetted and even encouraged by massive US arms exports, in areas of the world such as the Middle East and Central America, while their basic human problems are neglected.” Most people, we believe, would readily support such a straightforward The Editors • 3 min read
