[Peace] Fwd: Tell Congress: US Taxpayers Should Stop Arming Israel, Demand Real Accountability

Mon Mar 6 10:54:28 MST 2023

Jeff does a great job outlining the issues.

Tony Palomba
781-664-3525

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jeff Klein, Massachusetts Peace Action <info at masspeaceaction.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 6, 2023 at 9:00 AM
Subject: Tell Congress: US Taxpayers Should Stop Arming Israel, Demand Real
Accountability
To: Anthony Palomba <palomba10251 at gmail.com>

Call Congress Now

*Tell Congress:*

*US Taxpayers Should Stop Arming Israel,*

*Demand Real Accountability*
<https://click.everyaction.com/k/59740164/394959601/-1844833984?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9QRUFDVC9QRUFDVC8xLzcyNTAxIiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjM2UwNjJmLTI3YmMtZWQxMS1hOGUwLTAwMjI0ODMyZTgxMSIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicGFsb21iYTEwMjUxQGdtYWlsLmNvbSINCn0%3D&hmac=5s6q2nf-9S3SxjoeHsRtZNc_tx_KB_PGD0pS_NvkO_o=&emci=0d7d7ea8-ecba-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=5c3e062f-27bc-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=255660>

Dear Anthony,

*This year, as every year, US taxpayers will finance the Israeli military
to the tune to $3.8 billion.* In 2022 Congress – with little debate and
almost unanimously – even added an additional $1 billion over and above
this amount to fund the replenishing of rockets Israel expended in its
latest attack on Gaza. Only a handful of House representatives
dissented. (*Thank
you, Ayanna Pressley for your NO vote!*)

*Cumulatively, **US aid to Israel amounts, in current dollars, to hundreds
of $billions**.* This is despite the fact that for decades Israel has
defied international law and UN resolutions, while maintaining and
deepening its occupation, unilaterally annexing Occupied East Jerusalem and
the Syrian Golan Heights, expanding illegal settlements, denying
Palestinian human rights and frequently attacking its neighbors.

*IT'S TIME TO END ISRAELI IMPUNITY AND STOP CONTINUED US MILITARY FUNDING
WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY!
<https://click.everyaction.com/k/59740165/394959604/-1844833984?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9QRUFDVC9QRUFDVC8xLzcyNTAxIiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjM2UwNjJmLTI3YmMtZWQxMS1hOGUwLTAwMjI0ODMyZTgxMSIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicGFsb21iYTEwMjUxQGdtYWlsLmNvbSINCn0%3D&hmac=5s6q2nf-9S3SxjoeHsRtZNc_tx_KB_PGD0pS_NvkO_o=&emci=0d7d7ea8-ecba-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=5c3e062f-27bc-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=255660>*
*Tell Congress: US Taxpayers should Stop Arming Israel*
<https://click.everyaction.com/k/59740167/394959607/-1844833984?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9QRUFDVC9QRUFDVC8xLzcyNTAxIiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjM2UwNjJmLTI3YmMtZWQxMS1hOGUwLTAwMjI0ODMyZTgxMSIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicGFsb21iYTEwMjUxQGdtYWlsLmNvbSINCn0%3D&hmac=5s6q2nf-9S3SxjoeHsRtZNc_tx_KB_PGD0pS_NvkO_o=&emci=0d7d7ea8-ecba-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=5c3e062f-27bc-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=255660>

This is imperative given the recent election of an Israeli government on
aggression overdrive:

--*The new Israeli government* led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party
includes parties which openly express racist and what can only be called
fascist views. They are saying out loud what were the actual, though quiet,
policies of all previous Israeli administrations. This will only entrench
the policies that international human rights organizations – including in
Israel – have rightly characterized as Apartheid.

-- *All parties in the Israeli governing coalition* support permanent
control of the Occupied Territories, with annexation as the fundamental
goal. (The US claims to support a “two-state solution” but refuses to do
anything when Israel makes it impossible to achieve.) Israel has launched a
massive increase in illegal settlement housing units, escalated military
raids, and instigated a surge of settler violence against Palestinians in
the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem. This culminated recently in the
violent Israeli army invasion of Nablus, with 11 Palestinians (including
civilians) killed and many more wounded, followed by 400 settlers rampaging
through the Palestinian town of Hawara, killing 1 and wounding over 100.

--*Israeli annexation measures* involve stepped up land seizures and the
expulsion of Palestinians, as in Masafer Yatta and the Jordan Valley, along
with collective punishment such as neighborhood lockdowns, home demolitions
and mass arrests without trial. The fanatical Bezalel Smotrich, minister in
the new Israeli government in charge of the West Bank, has written that the
only options for Palestinians in the annexed territories will be to accept
Israeli rule without political rights, emigrate – or be killed if they
resist. At the same time Israel has outlawed Palestinian human rights
organizations as allegedly “terrorist” – all of this over objections from
the US.

--*After Israeli soldiers killed journalist and US citizen Shireen Abu
Akleh*, the US government asked for a serious investigation. The Israelis
have announced that they will refuse to cooperate.

--*Attacks or threats of attacks against Israel’s neighbors* – including
the use of US weaponry to invade Lebanon, regularly bomb Syria and now
openly plan for war against Iran -- constitute clear violations of US arms
export laws. Israeli units perpetrating regular crimes against Palestinians
in the Occupied Territories also violate the terms of the Leahy Law, which
is supposed to sanction foreign military units which commit gross human
rights violations.
*Send an Email to Congress*
<https://click.everyaction.com/k/59740169/394959609/-1844833984?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9QRUFDVC9QRUFDVC8xLzcyNTAxIiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjM2UwNjJmLTI3YmMtZWQxMS1hOGUwLTAwMjI0ODMyZTgxMSIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicGFsb21iYTEwMjUxQGdtYWlsLmNvbSINCn0%3D&hmac=5s6q2nf-9S3SxjoeHsRtZNc_tx_KB_PGD0pS_NvkO_o=&emci=0d7d7ea8-ecba-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=5c3e062f-27bc-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=255660>

*What is the US government response? Handwringing.  *

Our government has announced that it is "deeply troubled," “extremely
concerned,” or “deeply dismayed by Israel’s latest actions.” Secretary of
State Blinken said: “Like previous administrations, Democratic and
Republican, we strongly oppose such unilateral measures, which exacerbate
tensions and undermine the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution.”

*But the US $billions continue to flow unconditionally to Israel.*

There is no chance Israel will change direction on its own, without
meaningful pressure from outside. Polls indicate that young Israelis are
even more rightwing than their parents.

Words without consequences have no impact on Israel, if it knows it will
continue to get US funding to do what it likes. Only days after the US
engineered a UN Security Council rebuke of settlement expansion, Israel’s
new government announced plans for another 7,500 new settler units.

*IT'S TIME TO END ISRAELI IMPUNITY AND STOP THE CONTINUED GIFT OF US-FUNDED
ARMS!*

Israel and its lobbyists will claim that cutting off US taxpayer-funded
arms for Israel will leave the country defenseless. That is not true. But
it would mean that Israeli taxpayers, rather than those in the US, will
bear the full burden of paying for the Israeli policies which cause it to
be an armed camp so it can maintain its occupation and threaten its
neighbors.

And, of course, we have many more urgent uses at home for the $billions we
give to Israel every year.

*WHAT YOU CAN DO:*

*--Click here to SEND AN EMAIL TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
<https://click.everyaction.com/k/59740171/394959613/-1844833984?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9QRUFDVC9QRUFDVC8xLzcyNTAxIiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjM2UwNjJmLTI3YmMtZWQxMS1hOGUwLTAwMjI0ODMyZTgxMSIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicGFsb21iYTEwMjUxQGdtYWlsLmNvbSINCn0%3D&hmac=5s6q2nf-9S3SxjoeHsRtZNc_tx_KB_PGD0pS_NvkO_o=&emci=0d7d7ea8-ecba-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=5c3e062f-27bc-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=255660>*

*--CALL AND EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE: 202-456-1111;
 email: comments at whitehouse.gov <comments at whitehouse.gov>.*
*Tell Congress: End $30 Billion of US Military Aid to Israel*
<https://click.everyaction.com/k/59740173/394959617/-1844833984?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9QRUFDVC9QRUFDVC8xLzcyNTAxIiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjM2UwNjJmLTI3YmMtZWQxMS1hOGUwLTAwMjI0ODMyZTgxMSIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicGFsb21iYTEwMjUxQGdtYWlsLmNvbSINCn0%3D&hmac=5s6q2nf-9S3SxjoeHsRtZNc_tx_KB_PGD0pS_NvkO_o=&emci=0d7d7ea8-ecba-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=5c3e062f-27bc-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=255660>

Thank you,

*Jeff Klein*

Palestine-Israel Working Group

P.S. Don't forget to *take action today!
<https://click.everyaction.com/k/59740175/394959619/-1844833984?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9QRUFDVC9QRUFDVC8xLzcyNTAxIiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjVjM2UwNjJmLTI3YmMtZWQxMS1hOGUwLTAwMjI0ODMyZTgxMSIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAicGFsb21iYTEwMjUxQGdtYWlsLmNvbSINCn0%3D&hmac=5s6q2nf-9S3SxjoeHsRtZNc_tx_KB_PGD0pS_NvkO_o=&emci=0d7d7ea8-ecba-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&emdi=5c3e062f-27bc-ed11-a8e0-00224832e811&ceid=255660>*

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