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From: yoavh@nsc.UUCP (yoavh)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Jesse Jackson - the Petrodollar Stops Here
Message-ID: <607@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Feb-84 04:17:12 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.607
Posted: Tue Feb  7 04:17:12 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 01:08:45 EST
Organization: National Semiconductor, Sunnyvale
Lines: 35

Mike Kelly brings up two points in his reply to my article:

 1) "As Jackson himself pointed out, there are 22 nations in the
     Middle East.  To consider 21 our enemies and 1 our friend is silly."

Both Jackson and Kelly imply here that the US sacrifices good relations
with Arab nations by maintaining the same with Israel.  

This is not true.

In fact, the US has good relations with many Arab countries.  Egypt recieves
nearly as much aid from the US as Israel, and relations between the two 
countries are very close.  We are strongly allied with the Lebanese, 
whose army we are training.  We constantly hear from the Administration about 
our "good friends, the Saudis" (they're not, but that's another story 
entirely), and we directly and indirectly support countries such as Sudan.

 2) "...why doesn't the New York Times report on page 1 the contributions 
     from Zionist organizations to candidates?"

Here he equates donations from Americans to presidential candidates with
foreign contributions designed to influence American organizations.  

As I understand it, Americans of all religions, ethnic backgrounds, and 
creeds have the right (and responsibility) to lobby their government and be
involved in the political process.  Surely no one would suggest that black 
Americans shouldn't try to affect US policy concerning Africa, or that they
should not attempt to elect candidates who represent their interests.

However, influence peddling by foreign powers is another story altogether.
Last I heard, none of the members of the Arab League were citizens of the 
US - in fact, many of the member countries are known for their extreme 
hostility to America, which has resulted, on occasion, in them doing 
nasty things like trying to shoot down American planes.