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)
May/June 2009 Postcard
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Cut and paste html (for emailing your Sen. or Rep.:
DEAR SENATOR:
On March 22 the German cargo shipWehr Elbe, chartered by U.S. Military Sealift Command, unloaded thousands of tons of U.S. arms, including some containing white phosphorus, at the Israeli port of Ashdod. The weapons, we are told, are not part of Israel’s $3 billion-a-year weapons allowance. They were meant to re-enforce a U.S. stockpile in Israel—but Israel can use these munitions if it wants.
You were legally and morally obligated to stop delivery of these weapons when you came into office. By then it was clear that Israel had slaughtered hundreds of civilians and destroyed Gaza. Even Israeli troops, on Feb. 13, began describing their unprovoked assaults on defenseless civilians.
U.S. weapons must not be used in attacks against civilians. Please halt all U.S. arms shipments to Israel until an international investigation clears Israel of committing grave violations of international law. Please re-examine the 10-year agreement to give Israel $30 billion in U.S. military aid.
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Address:
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A piece of white phosphorous still burning at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) primary school in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 24. (AFP photo/Olivier Laban-Mattei).
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The U.S. Military Sealift Command began to plan a delivery by sea of a huge shipment of U.S. weapons to Israel in early December, before Israel launched its 22-day attack on Gaza. On Dec. 20 theWehr Elbe, a German cargo ship, loaded 989 standard 20-foot containers of U.S. munitions in Sunny Point, NC and set sail for Astakos, Greece. The Greek government refused to permit the transfer of the weapons onto a Greek ship to transport the containers to Israel. The Wehr Elbewandered around the Mediterranean for weeks until March 22, when it finally unloaded only 325 containers at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just 25 miles north of Gaza. Where the rest of the cargo is stashed is anyone’s guess.
When asked about this weapons shipment on Jan. 13, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the shipment was destined for a U.S. pre-positioned ammunition stockpile in Israel. Under a U.S.-Israel agreement, munitions from this stockpile may be transferred for Israeli use if necessary.
