Three Views: Obama's Visit to Israel
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Palestinian children during a visit to the Church of the Nativity in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, March 22, 2013. (ATEF SAFADI-POOL/GETTY IMAGES)
Grave Threats to the Middle East
Lebanese Kurds wave the Kurdish flag and a flag picturing Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan during Persian New Year, or Noruz, celebrations in Beirut, March 21, 2013. (JOSEPH EID/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
To the Victor, the Spoils
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lipid (c) with former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who resigned his position after being indicted on charges of fraud and breach of trust, at the Feb. 5 swearing in of the 19th Knesset. (URIEL SINAI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Getting the Words Right: Israel Isn’t Occupying Palestine—It’s Conquered It
Israeli soldiers take pictures of each other in front of Israel’s illegal apartheid wall near the Qalandia checkpoint outside Ramallah, March 30, 2013. Israeli troops earlier had clashed with Palestinian demonstrators commemorating the 37th anniversary of “Land Day.” (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
The Cyrus Cylinder—Often Referred to as The “First Bill of Human Rights”
Clay, Babylon, Mesopotamia, after 539 BCE D x H: 7.8-10 x 21.9-22.8 cm British Museum, London, ME 90920 Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum
Two Views: King Pyrrhus and the War on Iraq
Prosthetic legs for wounded American soldiers at the Center for Intrepid rehabilitation gym at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, Aug. 7, 2012. (JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES)
September/October 2008 Postcard
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Cut and paste html (for emailing your Sen. or Rep.:
DEAR SENATOR:
Thanks to the efforts of pro-Israel lobbyists, Congress slipped extra military aid for Israel into an amendment to special legislation covering funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Otherwise—like almost every other federally financed program—it would have been hung up in a “continuous resolution” as Democrats and Republicans fight over the federal budget.
The United States is spending $10 billion a month for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, much of it borrowed from China. Our economy is suffering: Americans are losing their homes, jobs and health care. People are being forced to choose between buying food, gas or medicine. Our schools, bridges, levees and infrastructure are in desperate need of upgrading.
I find it astounding that my tax dollars are going to a country in violation of more than 60 U.N. resolutions and international law—with no strings attached.
Please use my tax dollars at home—not to protect a brutal military occupation.
FROM:
Address:
City, State, Zip:
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U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (DCA)
promising AIPAC on June 4 that Congress will expedite extra aid for Israel. (AFP photo/Tim Sloan). |
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Bypassing the normal appropriation process, Congress approved an increase of $170 million in aid to Israel on June 26. The Bush administration and Israel signed an agreement on Aug. 16, 2007 giving Israel $30 billion in military aid over the next 10 years beginning this October—an increase of about 25 percent from current figures. Unlike U.S. military aid provided to any other country, the new deal allows Israel to spend 26.3 percent of its U.S. aid on arms from Israel’s own robust domestic military industry; other recipients must spent all their aid on American weaponry.
The new defense package for Israel has no strings attached. It is not conditioned on diplomatic progress toward making peace with its neighbors, halting settlement activities or withdrawing from Palestinian territories. This give-away is not in the American interest.
