• 1- FOC US I THE AMAZING MARKET PLACE American Arabs 'Free Speech' Contest Is Used To Bash Israel VICTOR M. BIENSTOCK Special to The Jewish News A We've de-classified the name of our huge classified section to call it what it really is: THE AMAZING MARKET- PLACE of budget-priced saleables and services. For information how you can advertise to almost everyone in your community, call 354-6060. Apartments • MU M RC A Egt • 00• • =§11111. 40 = §0 MEMO gi ■ 11.11 ■11,1 EMEM§SMMOMEN §§€M0=§§§M§§§M§R gr—r—§ Mr— r—a4 • •- NA ra- NES MOM RWE En MR Mg MIN ing §§§E§€ Mg I Sitters 111 I Travel 111 1 I Pets A g A ■••■ agg Paft.:::rms4M NIUMMEga aaamom =Namur THE JEWISH NEWS 112 FRIDAY, AUG. 21, 1987 campaign to organize the 2.5 million Arab- Americans, ostensibly to encourage their greater participation in the American political scene and give them a bigger voice in American foreign policy decisions, is cynically making use of the bicentenary celebration of the Constitution to convince American collegians that Jewish influence threatens free speech in this country. The Constitution-free speech project is generously funded to the extent of several million - dollars by 12 businessmen from Saudi Arabia, a country which has no constitution, no freedom of speech and no guarantee of other human and civil rights. It is being presented in adver- tisements which have ap- peared in 260 college newspapers across the coun- try announcing "The NAAA Foundation Essay Contest" as an effort to warn the na- tion that American Jewish ef- forts in behalf of Israel are a threat to free speech here. According to Jeffrey L. Pasley, a writer for The New Republic, the advertisement described the contest as "sponsored by the NAAA Foundation, a charitable organization which carries out educational programs on Middle East subjects!' The sponsor is not otherwise iden- , tilled. Contestants are re- quired to submit a 2,500 word essay. There will be 200 prizes of $10,000 each, and the ten national winners will each receive an additional $4,000. The subject designated for the competition is "The Development • of American Middle East Policy: Is Free Speech Threatened?" It is, Pasley points out, "an odd jux- taposition of subjects. The ex- planation is that NAAA stands for the National Association of American Arabs, though the organiza- tion made NAAA its legal name a few years ago." He quotes David Sadd, NAAA president, as defen- ding this tactic by asserting that "the lack of identifica- tion in the ad was very pur- poseful. As Americans operating here, we reject the idea that we have to stand up and say, 'We're Arabs! " Sadd, the reporter says, sees nothing incongruous about identifying Benjamin Franklin and George Washington with opposition to Jewish influence in American foreign policy. "We're wrapping ourselves in the flag on purpose," he told Pasley. "You know that some of the Founding Fathers were very anti-Semitic!' • The advertisement, which warns that "today, the freedom of speech, which is the hallmark of our Constitu- tion, may be threatened," cites former Rep. Paul Findley, who was one of Israel's sharpest foes in the House, as an authority on this "We're wrapping ourselves in the flag on purpose. Some of the Founding Fathers were very anti- Semitic." threat. It recommends that contestants read Findley's book, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Con- front Israel's Lobby, in which he blames his election defeat on the Israel lobby, assails American Jewish political ac- tivities in behalf of Israel and denounces the Israel lobby's alleged power over Congress. Pasley describes the Findley book as "mainly a laundry list of incidents in which Jewish groups pressured or sought to defeat or discredit political op- ponents!' In_ other words, he says, "the book describes a group enthusiastically exer- cising its rights under the First Amendment, not deny- ing these rights to anyone else?' Tom Braden, Washington columnist and TV personali- ty, one of the two "honorary chairmen" of the contest, in- sists that contestants can take either side of the free speech issue. "Students can argue one side or the other of this essay topic: free speech is threatened, free speech is not threatened," Braden told the writer. Sadd, however, points out that his group wants students to "think about the implications" of the Israel lobby's power. Pasley concludes that students counting on some of that prize money for next year's tuition "might be well advised not to take the spon- sor's claim of neutrality too seriously." He pointed out that "if NAAA wanted to make the case that there is widespread discrimination against Arabs and the Arab viewpoint in American socie- ty — without the pompous in- sistence that this raises con- stitutional questions or the ugly insinuation that an all- powerful Jewish lobby. is behind it — the group would be on firmer ground!' Both Braden and his co- chairman, Carl Rowan, a syn- dicated Washington cor- respondent, who was a White House assistant press secretary in the Kennedy Ad- ministration, are well-known as Critics of Israel and of American aid to Israel. In one column last year, Rowan assailed the U.S. policy of refusing to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization. He warned that "we are doubly wrong to think that if we could just find a pretext for killing Qadhafi, there would no longer be bands of Arabs, of angry Palestinians, who would volunteer for suicide missions against Americans and American installations!' At the time of the Senate fight over the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia in 1981, Rowan quoted unnamed sources to the effect that "the Jews have a majority of the Senate in their pockets!' He also warned American Jews of the "lifting of the level of public resentment of the `Jewish lobby' and of anti- Semitism in general!' Rowan, Pasley reports, "will get $5,000 to make a speech and hand out the checks at the contest's awards ceremony in Washington in September. Braden serves for free out of devotion to the cause!' NEWS 1'1' Help Ethiopians Washington, D.C. — The Chicago Jewish Federation recently presented to the American Association for Ethiopian Jews the first of two donations totaling $25,000. The funds, to be us- ed toward the cost of the AAEJ's CHAI family reunification program, will enable at least eight Ethio- pian Jews to be reunited with their relatives in Israel.