ANOTHER TACK: The cat's out of the Bag By Sarah Honig (February 24) Dear MK Taleb a-Sanaa, I am writing to thank you. As you might guess, I didn't vote for your United Arab List. But you did well enough without my support, got five members into the Knesset and now have the largest Arab faction there. You might be surprised to get this personal note, because I always thought that you bristled with more hostility towards Zionist Jews than even your most outspoken Arab parliamentary colleagues. However, though you might not know it, you helped clear up a pesky mystery for me by letting an ugly, mangy, flea-bitten cat out of the bag. You didn't try to clean it up or make it more appealing. You pulled it out and proverbially flung it in my face. You confronted me with the filthy feline's unadulterated wretchedness and ill-temper. For that I owe you a debt of gratitude. You see, for a couple of weeks prior to your good deed, I was perplexed to an extreme. At the bottom corner of a Yediot Aharonot inside page, I found a neglected little story by reporter Faiz Abbas, which asserted that the American Embassy in Tel Aviv is striving to make sure Israeli Arabs won't remain apathetic to the referendum on the Golan. The Americans predict it will yet take place because somehow, by hook or by crook, they are intent on reviving the comatose talks between our eager-to-please prime minister and representatives of the tyrant from Damascus. This is a must for Bill Clinton. Before he is rendered a lame duck, he must have one last stab at the Nobel Prize so as to overshadow Monica's indelible contribution to his historic legacy. The fact that Israel's security - indeed, even its long-term ability to survive - is at stake, is a negligible consideration for a man who has so little time to repair his reputation. So representing their president here, American diplomats are reported to be profoundly concerned by opinion polls, which they study assiduously and which indicate that Israel's Arab citizens might not flock in significantly impressive numbers to cast their ballots and turn the scales in favor of the agreement which Clinton is so eager to sign on the White House lawn. Abbas's brief report quoted a senior Arab figure as saying the diplomats warned him gravely that a fatal blow will be struck to the peace process if Ehud Barak's government does not win the referendum. The Golan, heaven forfend, might even remain in Israeli hands! This, the Americans impressed upon their Israeli-Arab interlocutor, is something which it behooves him to prevent - as an Arab patriot. "Israeli Arabs can tip the balance in favor of ceding the Golan, providing enough of them turn out to vote," the diplomats stressed. The embassy spokesman was quoted by Abbas as calling these talks with Israeli Arabs "routine." But another Arab politician told Abbas that the American diplomats went on to "express interest in our financial needs," and offered to help with generous funding so that Israel's Arab electorate can be shaken out of its indifference. FRANKLY, I refused to believe much of what Abbas reported. I was sure his editor was likewise skeptical, or he wouldn't have placed the item almost out of sight. Besides, my well-honed political correspondent's instincts told me that had there been a sliver of truth to any of this, the public outcry would have been deafening. The notion of a foreign power so brazenly meddling in our internal affairs should have been too much for the Israeli body politic - Left or Right - to take. The gall of this intervention is too colossal. It couldn't be that the Americans have lost so much shame, or that we Israelis have lost the last shreds of what remains of our tattered national pride. On second thought, however, I may have been naive, considering that there was little squawk over the reports that Clinton sent his top campaign spin docs - Messers. Carville, Greenberg and Schrum - to get Barak elected last year, and that he has lately assigned them again to help Barak win the referendum. Thoroughly bewildered, I decided to keep tabs on this lost little story. But I was getting nowhere. Hardly anyone knew what I was talking about, while our foreign minister expressed unreserved satisfaction with American assurances that they are up to nothing untoward. My initial skepticism seemed borne up. It appeared that Abbas had filed a bizarre news brief of no consequence. Then, Taleb, came you. Without much ado, you confirmed boldly that Barak's best friend in Washington was indeed trying to swing the referendum vote. You said that "while meetings with Arab leaders here may be passed off as taking a polite interest in Israel's affairs or as a legitimate attempt to gauge the local mood, it's clear that if the Americans can exert any influence on the vote, they will certainly try." You took undisguised delight in rubbing it in. You've never concealed your relish in mocking the Jews, even in their own parliament. But you know what, Taleb? I somehow believe that you would not taunt us as you do if we hadn't fully earned your abuse. If we can pretend that the blatant injury to our independence - right here in Tel Aviv - never occurred, if we are ready to overlook and forgive, if our government is willing to tacitly rely on help from its best foreign friend to con its own citizens, then we deserve no better. The obsequious have no right to complain about being treated disrespectfully. Sincerely, Sarah P.S. The cat's disgusting, but I touched and smelled it and it even hissed at me. I can now vouch unequivocally that it's real.