THE ARAB LOBBY COMES OF AGE

...Abourezk did not stand for reelection...

...With Dutton acting as shepherd, they met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had lunch with the editors of the Washington Post, and made the rounds of the various Arab embassies...

...It's great," says Richardson, who joined the six-year-old organization last fall, "people are actually looking for an Arab point of view...

...Dutton says that he spends most of his time on legal work for the Saudis, but also meets with the Saudi ambassador, Ali A. Alizera, several times a week, "to talk about interesting pieces of Middle East legislation and go over the New York Times...

...The NAAA's newly elected president, Georgetown Arab culture historian Hisham Sharabi (see September moment) adds, "We have always banked on black support...

...perhaps a third of this is funded by membership dues, the rest by "sympathetic" American businessmen, mainly oil corporation executives...

...In a memo he sent the Saudi embassy in early April, Dutton already predicted that...

...A. Linwood Holton, former governor of Virginia and ex-Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, who advises Arabs on Congressional relations...

...The main themes of the book were the Saudis' military weakness—and their need for American airpower, specifically our most advanced fighter, the F-15...

...and the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, a 1200 member group that works closely with the NAAA and is the main source of pro-Arab campus propaganda...

...That lobby takes its direction from the Government of Israel and carries its fight in Washington on behalf of the Government of Israel...

...At Dutton's urging, Riyadh agreed to send Prince Turki al-Faisal, director of the Saudi intelligence service, to Washington, along with several other members of the royal family, to help present the case for the arms sale...

...Each of the above has made its often strident voice heard, in one way or another, during recent Congressional debates on Mideast policy—particularly the fights over the Saudi-Egyptian arms package and anti-boycott legislation...

...banks, (see October moment...

...now, when either the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or the House International Relations Committee considers legislation regarding American foreign policy in the Middle East, as they did last May, Richardson or one of the other NAAA officers is routinely summoned—along with their not-so-happy counterparts at AIPAC...

...What we have here is not a mere highly-paid stable of legal whizzes," says Leonard Davis, director of information and research for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee...

...air arsenal—with the sale of 100 of the same planes to Israel and a detachment of relatively unsophisticated F-5Es to Egypt The arms package clearly put America's special relationship with Israel in a different light and threatened to set a new precedent by conditioning the sale of weapons to our traditional Israeli allies with the sale of the very same Gordon Sander is a free lance journalist whose work has been in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Week in Review and other national periodicals...

...This theme—that the Arab-American community is essentially more patriotic at heart than the Jewish community—recurs throughout NAAA literature...

...AEI officers, for their part, claim that the timing of the publication of Tahtinen—as well as the cogent extract included in the press release—was merely coincidental...

...The National Association of Arab-Americans (NAAA) One of the first organizations outside the Carter Administration to take credit for the historic Senate vote—and righdy so—was The National Association of Arab-Americans, the only Arab-American organization that is actually devoted to political affairs and registered to lobby the Congress...

...and Counterpoint, a regular series of ever-so-slightly biased papers dealing with American foreign policy in the Middle East, e.g., "On Turning Frogs into Princes: Or Why President Carter is Right in Opposing Israel's Settlement Policy...

...The canny Dutton clearly anticipated victory...

...Among those currently receiving generous fees to represent Arab interests in Washington and cultivate a climate more receptive to the Arab case are: • The law firm headed by Clark M. Clifford, former Defense Secretary, and one of Washington's most powerful attorneys...

...Richard G. Kliendienst, Attorney General during the Nixon Administration...

...Clifford receives a $150,000 yearly retainer from Algeria...

...With only 2,000 members its grassroots support can at best be described as weak...

...the Middle East Institute, a pseudo-think-tank whose officers and board members include many anti-Zionists and ex-State Department Arabists...

...however, he says, he hesitated before accepting...

...Nevertheless, Jewish observers are mostly concerned about the NAAA's potential effect on the legislative process...

...Nevertheless, the NAAA is being accorded increasing respect on the Hill, partly because of Richardson's political finesse (previously Richardson was President of the American Near East Relief Agency, a Palestinian relief organization), partly because it was simply at the right place at the right time...

...it is more difficult to document, much less counteract, the lobbying efforts of the growing number of highly paid former Federal officials who are busy putting their connections and expertise at the service of Arab clients...

...A good example of Fred Dutton's usefulness came last year when the Congress took up legislation aimed at countering the Arab boycott against companies that do business with Israel...

...Calling the Senate vote "the most dramatic development on Capitol Hill in recent years," NAAA public relations director John Richardson, a veteran pro-Arab Washington activist, noted that the arms deal "opens the door to a more constructive and balanced American approach to the Middle East...

...The Egyptian Ambassador, Ashraf Ghorbal, not only has been in Washington since 1968, but he follows the issues, reads the Congressional Record, and constantly makes himself available to speak on Mideast topics...

...Well, if that scares the Jewish lobby and friends of Israel, so be it...

...Richardson may be pardoned for beating his chest...

...The question is: will Americans listen...

...In May, it lodged a suit against the U.S...

...in Federal Court for allowing Israel to use American weapons during its incursion into Lebanon, in alleged violation of the Arms Export Control Act...

...Doubtless, they will be heard from again...

...Two years later Dutton was offered his first contract by the Saudis...

...as have the envoys of the moderate Arab governments of Jordan and Kuwait...

...Of the above, Fred Dutton, the Saudis' chief legal representative in Washington, is probably the most candid about his work...

...oil and pharmaceutical corporations, and whose officers frequently testify in Congress— although it is not registered as a lobby...

...We feel that black Americans are potentially more understanding of the Palestinian issue," John Richardson recently told a reporter from Encore Magazine...

...What is emerging is a powerful attempt to influence the power structures of the United States...

...These are some of the questions that American friends of Israel were asking themselves in the aftermath of the U.S...

...Clearly, the NAAA is still unable to mobilize the two-and-a-half million strong Arab-American community as effectively as AIPAC enlists American Jews...

...Raymond Close, former CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia, now an advisor to Saudi Arabia...

...If there could be such an alliance, it would be very significant—a major political turning point...

...senator of Arab ancestry...

...Finally he took the job, and has been representing the Saudis ever since...

...the Israeli lobby will go through an adjustment period trying to face their first-ever defeat and to try to bring a deeply split Jewish community together so that pressure will be applied on political hopefuls as directly as possible...

...One of the NAAA's biggest supporters, and probably its favorite dinner speaker, is Senator James Abourezk (D., South Dakota), the only U.S...

...their constant presence on the Hill during the days before the Senate vote on the Carter Administration's arms package no doubt helped swing several votes to their side...

...For years, the NAAA had been regarded as little more than a crank organization, about on a par with Defenders of Wildlife...

...the Americans for Middle East Understanding, a tax-deductible organization located in New York whose officers include propagandists John Davis and Joseph Ryan and which publishes The Link, a pro-Arab newsletter whose contributors include PLO representative Isam Sartawi...

...They're afraid of the truth...

...They aren't afraid of all that oil money...

...As Dutton tells it, he was hooked up to the Saudis through his old friend J. William Fulbright...

...Fulbright suggested Dutton, among a few others, and Warner passed the advice along to Riyadh...

...his term expires with this Congress...

...J. William Fulbright, former and longtime chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

...Senate's decision to vote, 54—44, in favor of the Carter Administration's controversial "all or nothing" arms package, which tied the sale to Saudi Arabia of some 60 F-16 jet fighter planes— perhaps the most advanced weapon in the U.S...

...The vote was significant in that it constituted the first major defeat of Washington's pro-Israel lobby in many years...

...And Others In addition to the National Association of Arab Americans and the various, highly paid foreign agents mentioned above (whose number, incidentally, is continuously increasing), there are a number of other organizations, institutes, and associations which might be construed as belonging to an Arab lobby...

...Clearly, the weakling had hidden muscles—or perhaps he just hadn't flexed them yet...

...More recently, the Arab-American organization has been working to establish its own White House liaison, as well as to "disintegrate" the traditional black-Jewish alliance...

...Put another way, the Arab lobby is now a force which must be reckoned with...

...They're the best money can buy...

...Of all the Arab embassies in Washington, the Egyptian is generally considered the most politically sophisticated...

...Sale of F-15 Planes for the Defense of Saudia Arabia," principally designed to emphasize Saudi Arabia's military "weakness" and dispel doubts that Riyadh would ever use its air force in another Arab-Israeli conflict...

...the American Palestine Committee, a one-man outfit operated by fervent anti-Zionist Norman Dacey, who publishes anti-Israel advertisements, fights the tax-exempt status of the United Jewish Appeal, and has pushed for Justice Department investigation of the Israeli lobby...

...And so on...

...Richardson dismisses this as paranoia...

...First, there are the Arab embassies themselves...

...Every Senatorial office received a copy...

...Fulbright is annually paid $25,000 by the United Arab Emirates and $50,000 by Saudi Arabia...

...This is the final article in his three-part series...

...The Saudis and Egyptians received support from yet another source last May—the American Enterprise Institute...

...But the Saudis didn't feel that they could take their appeal directly to Capitol Hill...

...According to Dutton, the Saudis wanted to know just how serious the bill was, what chance of passage it had, and how it would be handled by Congress...

...As a countervailing force, the Arab-American lobby should continue to carry its fight for American interests and for the long-range benefit of the American people...

...Dutton's insights and connections also proved of value during the battle over the Saudi F-15s...

...Gerald Parsky, former Assistant Treasury Secretary for International Affairs, who heads the Washington office of the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutchen and advises Arabs on politics and investments...

...The Senator told Warner that the Saudis "didn't handle themselves well" in Washington and ought to hire a representative...

...nevertheless, just a few days before the arms package vote, the AEI circulated a clearly biased press release touting the publication of a new book, National Security Challenges to Saudi Arabia, written by the Institute's Assistant Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, Dale R. Tahtinen...

...He really works the Hill," says one observer admiringly...

...only 300 members showed up at the organization's annual convention in May...

...Frederick G. Dutton, former Kennedy aide, principal adviser to Robert Kennedy during the 1968 presidential campaign, now receiving an estimated $200,000 a year to represent both the Saudi government and its state-owned oil and gas monopoly, Petromin...

...The former Kennedy advisor also arranges numerous meetings between Saudi officials and American government officials to discuss relations between the two nations...

...Meanwhile, Dutton also helped out by compiling and distributing to Members of Congress a persuasive, carefully-phrased 15 page document, "Questions and Comments on the President's Pending Authorization of U.S...

...Hence Dutton's efforts—it appears—came to be focussed on encouraging the amendments that were in any case being worked out by the Business Round Table and representatives of the Jewish community...

...Dutton makes no apologies for his work: "The work is interesting, exciting, existential...

...However, despite intensive, round-the-clock campaigning against the package by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the principal Washington lobbyist on Israel's behalf, along with the opposition of a majority of Democratic Senators, the measure passed...

...It also pays very well...

...Other groups whose activities bear watching by concerned Jewish groups include the five Arab Information Centers, based in Washington, New York, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco, respectively, whose directors are frequent contributors to newspapers and television talk show guests...

...Kliendienst receives $120,000 a year from Algeria...

...The conservative think-tank claims to take a neutral stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict...

...One day in 1973 Fulbright was discussing the Middle East with Rawleigh Warner, Jr., chief executive officer of the Mobil Corporation, one of the clients of Dutton's law firm...

...This literature includes Focus, a slick, bimonthly publication that resembles a corporate house organ and features a montage of news, interviews, and short, snappy, if rather specious, disquisitions on subjects like the PLO ("No doubt the Palestine Liberation Organization does contain elements which advocate and perform acts of'terrorism.' That it does, however, does not justify labeling the entire organization as terrorist...

...Dutton tried to persuade his clients that the pro-Israel forces on the Hill were indeed strong, that Americans very much resented the boycott, and that some sort of anti-boycott legislation was probably inevitable...

...NAAA's annual budget is $200,000, says Richardson...

...Bert Lance, Carter's former director of the Office of Management and Budget, still busy as a front-man for Saudi-based businessmen trying to buy U.S...

...No Arab envoy rivals his insight into the play of light and shadow on Capitol Hill, the shifting moods, the personalities who count," The Washingtonian recently said of Ghorbal, whose unfailing charm has won him—quietly—a number of friends in the Jewish "establishment...

...Saudi Arabia needs the 60 F-15 fighters ordered from the United States in order to defend itself against more heavily armed neighbors in the Middle East, and the sale would be in the American interest," the press release began...

...The suit was later dropped—supposedly because its "objectives," i.e...

...Given the intensely pro-Israeli position of many in the Democratic Party, he feared that working for the Saudis might mean a premature end to his political career...

...The reasons were complex, but one consequence was to draw attention to AIPAC's less well-known, younger counterpart— a somewhat amorphous alliance of pro-Arab agents and organizations which we shall call, for lack of a better term, the Arab lobby...

...Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, had been met—but not before it had generated considerable publicity...

...The organization scored its first major public relations coup last December, when it was instrumental in arranging a meeting between President Carter and 16 various Arab-American political and community leaders...

...The central conclusion of the discussion was that the bill should be amended so that Riyadh could "live with it...

...Just six months before the historic Senate vote, Washington Post staff writer Robert Kaiser had concluded that, "by comparison to the many groups and individuals— many well-financed—that support Israeli interests here, the Arabs and their friends appear to be the political equivalent of Charles Atlas's 98-pound weakling...

...At one time, most of the Arab ambassadors based in Washington had little grasp of the ins and outs of American politics...

...Major points made by the delegation, which was headed by Richardson himself, included emphasis on a comprehensive Middle East settlement, Israeli withdrawal from all administered territories, Palestinian self-determination and recognition of the PLO, increased assistance to Lebanese reconstruction, and a protest of "human rights violations" by Israel...

...American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), located in Washington, which sends $300,000 a year to Palestinian refugees, most of it donated by U.S...

...By contrast, their immediate predecessors were more noted for their partying...

...The NAAA has a great deal of work to do, not only in ending racism of all kinds, but also in becoming a countervailing force to the Israeli lobby," Abourezk told NAAA conventioneers last May...

...Former Sen...

...In the meantime, every effort will be made to use old Congressional friends and older but once effective pro-Israeli rhetoric to stop such high profile Arab victories as the F-15 sale to Saudi Arabia...

...A number of new activities were launched in 1978 by NAAA...

...It isn't difficult to see why the Arabs are getting a better reception in this town when they have people like Dutton and Clifford working for them," says Art Buchwald...

...weapons to America's newfound Arab "friends...

...it involves personal growth...

...This is the first time in history that the Arab perspective on things is being taken seriously...

...Foreign Agents The NAAA's activities are fairly easy to trace...

...The Saudi ambassador, Ali Ali-zera, has also been winning plaudits of late...

...Now, partly at the instigation of concerned Arab-Americans, most of the 20 Arab League governments seem to be making an effort to bolster their presence in the capital by sending over cool, yet aggressive, American-educated representatives who know something about how to get a bill through Congress—as well as how to work the Washington cocktail circuit...