- ACTION ALERT
- August 1, 2007
- Contact: (202) 939-6050 ext. 106
- newseditor@wrmea.com
-
- Oppose $30 Billion in Military Aid Package to Israel
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- The United States plans to increase military aid to Israel
by 25 percent-from $2.4 billion to $3 billion per year, guaranteed for
the next 10 years. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters in
Jerusalem on July 29 that President George W. Bush agreed to this new $30
billion military aid package when they met at the White House on June 19.
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- This agreement is appalling for many reasons:
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- 1. U.S. taxpayers are being asked to donate $30 billion
to help Israel buy weapons at a time when our own nation's financial resources
are stretched thin. According to a June 28, 2007 Congressional Research
Service report, the U.S. has spent $611 billion on the "war on terror"
since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including $567 billion in Iraq alone.
Our own economy, schools, and health care are in shambles thanks to this
war that many, including President Bush, believe is being fought to protect
Israel.
- 2. Israel routinely violates the U.S. Arms Export Control
Act and Foreign Assistance Act by using U.S. weapons to commit human rights
violations against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. Israel uses U.S.
military aid to continue its illegal 40-year military occupation of the
Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Israel illegally
used U.S. weapons, including cluster bombs, when it carried out attacks
on civilians in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon last summer.
- 3. To add insult to injury, Israeli and U.S. mainstream
media are trying to confuse Americans by describing a proposed $20 billion
U.S. military sales package to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries as
"aid." The distinction between possible arms deals with the Gulf
and military aid to Israel has been deliberately blurred.
- 4. The United States is financially rewarding Israel
at a time when the Jewish state is ignoring Arab peace overtures and intentionally
starving Gazans. Israel is preventing humanitarian aid, salaries, food,
water and electricity from reaching Palestinians imprisoned behind Gaza's
Israeli-controlled borders.
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- Write or telephone those working for you in Washington,
DC demanding that the U.S. withhold all military aid to Israel until that
country agrees to makes peace with its neighbors.
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- For more information on U.S. policy in the Middle East,
subscribe to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs <<http://wrmea.com/subscribe/index.htm>www.wrmea.com/subscribe>.
-
- Write or Telephone Those Working for you in Washington.
-
- President George W. Bush
- The White House
- 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
- Washington, DC 20500
- (202) 456-1414
-
- White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
- Fax: (202) 456-2461
-
- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
- Department of State
- Washington, DC 20520
- State Department Public Information Line:
- (202) 647-6575
-
- Any Senator
- U.S. Senate
- Washington, DC 20510
- (202) 224-3121
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- Any Representative
- U.S. House of Representatives
- Washington, DC 20515
- (202) 225-3121
-
- E-Mail Congress and the White House
- E-mail Congress: visit the Web site <<http://www.congress.org/>www.congress.org>
for contact information.
- E-mail President Bush: <<mailto:president@whitehouse.gov>president@whitehouse.gov>
- E-mail Vice President Cheney: <<mailto:vice.president@whitehouse.gov>vice.president@whitehouse.gov>
-
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- The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, PO Box
53062, Washington DC 20009. Phone: (202) 939-6050, Fax: (202) 265-4574,
Toll Free: (800) 368-5788, <http://www.wrmea.com/>www.wrmea.com Published
by the American Educational Trust, a non-profit foundation incorporated
in Washington, DC to provide the American public with balanced and accurate
information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states. Material
from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs may be printed with out
charge with attribution to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
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