THERE IS A LENGTHY FOOTNOTE TO THE *ED PASSAGE HERE THAT I WILL BE OPEN IN APRIL, 2000.COME BACK TO THIS PAGE THEN.
I sent Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev a registered letter on August 6, 1986 containing a request for his cooperation equivalently (and am asking that you be given a copy of it, with a List of Contents for the overall submission, so "The Arab League" understands my reasoning).
I will be contacting "The World Council of Churches" very soon again to see whether they also can provide cooperation.
None of us are terrorists, Mr. Maksoud, and if it is possible to secure the hostages' freedom, it may come down to which of us will cooperate and do what we can with respect for the lives of clearly innocent people.
Recent public reports following the release of Reverend Jenco by "Islamic Jihad" indicate that a "religious settlement" may be the solution to the freedom of the remaining hostages.
I reiterate what i do here in this "open letter"--including pointing out that i have done this work in part on behalf of "a Christian concern" and that "11% of the final salary settlement for the work has been pledged to be donated to charity by me on behalf of that "concern"--because the politics (such as they are) in the "International Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis" would not preclude coordination of this effort with that understanding re settlement of the hostage crisis and to date has never expressly opposed a legitimate settlement of the issue of Palestinian autonomy or expanding the basis of existing "peace, security, and justice" to include everyone living in the Holy Lands or affected by whether these goals can be achieved peacefully.
In fact, to the contrary, the work has always been carefully prepared to make such goals more achievable.
I will trust, Mr. Maksoud, that you can discern my underlying point in drawing Mikhail Gorbachev's attention to the attachments to the statement to himtaken from the contexts cited in the List of Contents provided, .
Presumably also you would realize the significance of what is indicated to the Soviet General Secretary in relation to recent Reagan Administration foreign policy emphases.
I began preparing this statement to you prior to news reports on the recent American-Soviet bilateral efforts to encourage a peaceful settlement of the Iran-Iraq war, but certainly you can see how that would relate to this submission's intentions.
The Americans and Soviets are working to prepare for a second Reagan-Gorbachev Summit, sir. Obviously both sides "hope" that progress can be made to apply their energies in such ways that the tensions in the Middle East can be eased and peace will be achievable sooner for those peoples affected.
Rather than infer that this initiative is purely representative of American interests, as you see by what is brought to Mr. Gorbachev's attention by me, i am presently enabling the Soviets to express whether they have commitments to such a basis of legitimate "peace, security, and justice" for "all of us" as we suggested in 1978, around the time of the Camp David Summit.
In past, Mr. Maksoud, reacting to an Israeli release of many political prisoners in exchange for fewer Israelis in return, i suggested that it would not be the 'bad bargain' many critics claimed if those freed all in future acted in good faith to make legitimate and mutual peace more certain.*
THERE IS A LENGTHY FOOTNOTE TO THE *ED PASSAGE HERE THAT I WILL BE OPEN IN APRIL, 2000.
COME BACK TO THIS PAGE THEN.