The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 354
Sampling of public opinio11 on the Gulf War The Washington Post, June 23, 1991 "Meanwhile Bandar, a nephew of Saudi King Fahd and perhaps the most powerful Arab representative in Washington was also seeking support for the war from Jewish organiz. ations and intellectuals. From August to the war's end, Bandar held meetings with representatives from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, the American Jewish congress and AlPAC. He consulted regularly with Jewish Democrats on Capitol Hill, including Solarz and Levine. In January, he invited three well-known Jewish policy experts Martin Indyk from the AlPAC-linked Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Michael Mandelbanm from the council on Foreign Relations, and Eliot Cohen from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies- to inspect the Saudi military. "It was a remarkable departure" Cohen said. "The Saudis bad never looked favourably on Jewish intellectuals". The Saudis were immediately interested in Jewish backing for war against Iraq, but they also wanted to neutralize opposition to future arms sales from the United States. " "What we are told by Prince Bandar was that as long as Saddam H�ein effected hegemony over the Mideast, no movement on the Palestinian issue was possible" said American Jewish Congress Director Henry Siegman. Siegman said Bandar implied that if Saddam H�ein is no longer, most countries would then approach the issue on pragmatic terms. " (Washington correspondent John Judis) The Record: Sunday Feb 3, 1991 "ILLUSION OF DIPLOMACY MARCHED U. S. TO WAR. BUSH NEVER WANTED REAL NEGOTIATION. " By John E. Mack and Jeffrey Z. Rubin (Mack is professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Psychological Studies in the Nuclear Age. Rubin is professor of psychology at Tufts University and executive director at Harvard Law School. They wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times: 354