Ms. Nancy Young
Adult Reader/Information Services
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601

Dear Ms. Young

In your letter dated June 18, you informed me that the Library's periodicals committee arrived at a consensus not to add the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs to the Library's collection after having "examined this magazine and discussed it and evaluated it in relation to our collection and needs." You also mentioned that the Library already has a subscription to Middle East Policy (formerly American Arab Affairs).

Regardless of the fact that a library may or may not have a subscription to another periodical dealing with the same subject, it is rather peculiar that it would deny its readers and additional source of information. This is, for instance, what Marcia Melton, Periodicals Librarian at Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona, said in a thank-you note after receiving a subscription gift to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: "Thank you very much for the subscription to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. It will be placed in our library's periodical browsing collection where it is open to all students. I am sure it will get use."

Also I would like to draw your attention to the following:

1. I made similar subscription gifts to Tarrytown and Greenburgh public libraries. Both of them accepted the magazine. Similarly, a friend of mine in Yonkers offered the magazine to other libraries in the county without encountering any difficulties.

2. Middle East Policy is published quarterly, not monthly like the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. It is rather a scholarly journal concentrating on analysis and research papers and not much on news, events of the moment and topical questions. The two serve different purposes.

3. The most astonishing thing in your letter, however, is when you said that this decision was taken after evaluating the magazine "in relation to our collection and our needs." How can that be when the Library is subscribed to Commentary, a magazine sponsored by the American Jewish Committee; Tikkun, a "Jewish recross of politics, culture and society;" and Midstream, sponsored by the Zionist Theodor Herzl foundation. Where is the balance in your collection, if I may ask? And how can that satisfy your needs?

4. A number of mainstream periodicals and dailies received by this and other libraries are overtly pro-Israel. The New Republic is a good example. In a letter sent to potential subscribers, the Editor-in-Chief, Martin Peretz, described Arab civilization as "failed" in contrast to Israel civilization, which he calls a "success". Imagine the uproar in Zionist and neo-conservative circles if Martin Peretz had said the opposit!

In light of the above, it is my hope that the periodical committee will take a second look and reconsider its decision.

Sincerly,

Medhat Credi