| Subject: the craven 89
� Eight-nine senators sent an AIPAC-directed letter to Pres. Bush asking him to get out of Israel's way in Palestine. ========== Open Letter to President George W. Bush, Dear President Bush, � Please release the names of the 89 U.S. Senators who signed a letter asking you to not "hamper Israel" (NYT,Nov. 17, 2001, p.1)in its military actions against the Palestinian people. Senators are elected representatives of their States. When their actions are likely to be controversial or contrary to constituents' security and economic interests, they must be exposed. � These 89 Senators have chosen sides in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict even though Americans as a people do not bear a grudge against Palestinians. Many who know the history of Zionism and Israel see the Palestinians' struggle as legitimate. Some see it as akin to America's own fight for liberty in 1775. We doubt that the Palestinians' weapons of choice would be thrown rocks or self-annihilation with hidden bombs if they had other means of pressing claims to their homelands. � Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem advance even, or especially, as world attention focuses on the "peace process." The Palestinians "pay" for negotiations by agreeing to forgo violence, only to see further confiscation of their lands occur under cover of the negotiations. Half of the 200,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank came after initiation of the 1993 Oslo Peace Agreement (Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2001). The West Bank is now like a Swiss cheese: Israeli settlements linked by militarized Israeli-controlled roads and checkpoints that Palestinians can traverse only after delay and humiliation. � If few Americans have strong views about the Mid-East struggle, it is because they are not well informed. The big media see to it that Israel's atrocities are covered lightly if at all. Most Americans do not know that Palestinians in the West Bank sometimes go days at a time without running water because Israelis shut off the taps. Or that Palestinian water consumption (including agricultural uses) is 60-90 liters per capita per day compared to 280 liters per capita per day for Israelis on the West Bank (New York Times, p. wk9, Sept. 2, 2001). That Israelis have filled in Palestinian wells, have uprooted their groves of ancient olive trees, and have bulldozed down houses and barns, crushing farm animals and all else before them. � Americans recognize, nevertheless, that they have both an ethical and a security interest in arriving at a just peace in the Mid-East, and they are surprisingly united in assessing why they came under attack at the World Trade Center on September 11. A poll released in early October by Reuters Israel but not reported in America shows that 46% of Americans want to "rethink" the United States' relationships with Israel -- ending military and economic aid, and ending U.S. support for that state.� According to the poll, 58% of Americans saw U.S. ties to Israel as "a major" cause of the attacks on New York and Washington, and "Forty-six percent said the United States should consider changing its Middle East policies to reduce the violent backlash against it." � In the United States, Americans who doubt the media spin about the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on 9-11 may believe that they are alone. They are not. � Many think it is common sense to credit what terrorist who attacked us say about their own motives. The terrorists say that the United States' reflexive support for Israel is one of three major causes of the attacks. Why not believe those who voluntarily tell you why they commit a crime? Who would know better than the terrorists themselves why they perpetrate atrocities? � But the big media tell us they know better. The big media have a dog in this fight and tell the American people that we are hated for our democracy, our liberty, our success! � Not satisfied with assaulting our common sense and sense of justice in the Israeli/Palestinian struggle, the big media are now preparing the public for wider U.S. military involvement. For example, "The Beltway Boys" (FOX News channel, November 17) speculated on the military agenda after mop-up operations in Afghanistan; one trickster jovially asked, "What next?" and was answered, "Iraq." � American boys and girls should not be used to fight Israel's dream war. Israel has long desired that the United States would annihilate its enemies, especially Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon. And the second tier, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. � The 89 Senators who press President Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to favor Israel in the Mid-East conflict will not rest. The U.S. military is next to be enlisted in the service of Israeli goals. The approximately $3 billion annually in economic assistance and $4 billion in military support from American taxpayers to Israel is apparently not sufficient! � The letter in which Senators urged President Bush "not to restrain Israel from retaliating fully against Palestinian violence and to express his solidarity publicly with Israel soon... stemmed from a meeting two weeks ago between leaders of the American Jewish community and key senators.... Particularly active in providing advice on the letter was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC], the principle lobbying group for Israel" (NYT, Nov. 17) � President Bush, please release the names of the craven 89 Senators who put the interests of Israel ahead of the interests, integrity, and security of the American people. We need to know. � Sincerely � Virginia Abernethy � Nashville, TN 37205 |
