FLAME is non-profit organization that collects money and uses it to run "advertorial" style essays concerning Israel in many Jewish publications. It is run by Gerardo Joffe, who you may not know by name, but is regarded as being one of the top direct marketing mavens--he started Haverhill's. and later sold it to Time/Life, and currently sells "Cosmomaut Watches" on line--

At any rate, Gerardo specializes in writing compelling direct marketing letters--and his business at FLAME consists of writing alarming fundraising letters aimed at wringing contributions out of little old ladies, and apparently, Martin--he's been at it since 1987--last year it was about $950,000--

Gerardo points out, at the FLAME website, that he takes no salary, nor does anyone else. To prove he is telling you the truth, he also shows you financial statements--his accounting categories vary wildly from year to year, as do the expenditures.

The organization currently spends about $300-400k per year on comissionable advertising. Any guesses on who gets the commissions? And between $30-50k on direct marketing services(gosh, who do you suppose that they hire to do that?) And between $35,000 and $150k per year (depending on the year-it goes up every year) to repay loans to Gerardo and his wife--funny that the loan money never showed up in any of the financials--

None of nearly one million dollars that the raised last year went to Israel--though a big chunk of it seems to have gone into a Smith Barney investment account--Gotta hand it to you, Martin--you sure know how to pick em"---