Middleeast Books

Middleeastbooks.com is a project of the American Educational Trust, a non-profit, non-partisan organization incorporated in 1982 in Washington , DC , by retired U.S. Foreign Service Officers.

For more than 25 years, the American Educational Trust (AET) has been promoting U.S.-Middle East understanding with an emphasis on informed debate on the Arab-Israeli peace process. Early in AET's development, its founders established the AET Book Club to meet the recognized need for quality books about the region and U.S. policies there.

To provide these books, the American Educational Trust began importing thousands of titles about the Middle East from Europe . Four times a year shipments crossed the Atlantic in sea containers to be sold by the newly-formed AET Book Club. Years later, American publishers began to recognize the market for quality, objective books about the Middle East, and began printing thousands of titles in the United States.

In August of 2003, AET partnered with Celebrate Presence, a project in Hereford , MD selling Palestinian arts and crafts, to create International Marketing for Middle Eastern Artisans (IMMEA). In 2005, AET assumed responsibility for a large portion of the project, and these products were officially incorporated into the organization as the Palestinian Arts & Crafts Trust (PACT).

PACT aims to supply a growing demand for Palestinian products and, in turn, to help sustain traditional industries in Palestine during their ongoing struggles. Under the pressures of occupation and international sanctions, these traditional and unique products are increasingly at risk of disappearing as viable industries. PACT is proud to make our small contribution to maintaining external markets for these products. We hope that you will help us support these traditional industries that provide a dignified livelihood for Palestinians and that will eventually serve as important foundations for a Palestinian economy ready to flourish in peacetime.

Both the AET Book Club and PACT are advertised in and supported by AET's primary project, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a magazine published nine times per year in Washington , DC . The Washington Report began in 1982 as a bi-weekly eight-page newsletter. Today, it is a 76-page full-color magazine recognized worldwide as a leader in its field. The Washington Report publishes a wide variety of views from and about the Middle East by Muslim, Jewish and Christian writers, many of whom live or have lived in the region.

http://middleeastbooks.com