AMEU’s The Link: “In the Beginning…”
The Link, published on a bi-monthly basis, is Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU)’s primary education and information tool. More than 175 issues of The Link have followed since the first issue written by Humphrey Walz appeared in 1968.
For the first two decades of its existence, The Link was virtually the only national periodical published for a diverse audience by an American non-profit organization that persistently challenged the prevailing myths and stereotypes about Arabs, Muslims and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
About This Issue
Jack Sunderland, AMEU’s first president, once told me that he and a couple of others drew up the papers of incorporation for AMEU at the office of Ryan Associates, a Public Relations firm in New York City. And while they were hammering out the purpose of the organization, Jack recalled the head of Ryan Associates dropped by the room and asked what they were doing.
Jack said they were starting an organization to create some balance in the media by advancing the rights of the Palestinians.
According to Jack, the Ryan associate turned around and left the room with the parting comment: “You won’t last a year.”
In fact, the associate knew what he was talking about. The time was June 1967, days after the Six Day War, and Israel had just emerged the gutsy David who had slain the Arab Goliath.
Still, the associate was wrong:
We’ve lasted 50 years.
And counting.
–John F. Mahoney, Executive Director