How to Communicate Concern Over US Middle East Policy to Members of the US Congress who oversee US State Dep't Middle East Policies

The time has come for those who advocate for Israel to communicate directly with members of two major US Congressional committees which oversee US middle east policy:



The Middle East Subcommittee of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee

http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/subcommittees.asp?committee=7



The Neat East Subcommittee of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee

http://tinyurl.com/2wkcqco




It also behooves those who advocate for Israel to send carefully written letters to the staffers of these committees.



Letters to members of the US Congress should ask the US Congress to

carefully reconsider support for the Fatah dominated PA and for UNRWA, because:.



1. The Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority is anything but peace partner, especially since Fatah declared its commitment to continued war against Israel at the Fatah summit which occurred last August.



http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=3780&q=1




2. The Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority conveys a consistent message of continued virulent incitement against the state and people of Israel.

Palestine Authority Incitement Reports:



http://tinyurl.com/36c4lvj



http://tinyurl.com/276xcne



http://tinyurl.com/2dsgmrk




3.The Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority education system inculcates the next generation of Palestinian children to liberate all of Palestine.

http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=2028&q=1



http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=1309&q=1



http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=987&q=1




http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=3779&q=1



http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=3086&q=1



http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=3063&q=1



http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=2984&q=1




http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=2035&q=1





4. UNWRA, funded to the tune of 30% of its budget by the US government, continues to confine descendants of Palestinian Arab refugees to the squalor of "temporary" refugee camps,under the specious premise and promise of the right to return to Arab villages from 1948,while fueling the camp residents with a zeal to recover "their lands" within Israel.

http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/bin/search.cgi?match=AND&keywords=unrwa

http://israelbehindthenews.com/library/pdfs/MY_UNRWA_Report_2009_US_.pdf

“UNRWA in Gaza & Terror Groups:The Connection” at http://israelbehindthenews.com/reports.html

http://israelbehindthenews.com/UNRWA.html

5. The Fatah-dominated Palestinian armed forces are now armed and trained by the American military with the idea that the Palestinian armed forces will quash Palestinian terrorist organizations. The PA armed forces have made it clear that they have no intention of quashing any Palestinian terrorist groups.

http://israelbehindthenews.com/library/pdfs/Assessment_of_US_Military_Aid_to_Fatah_US.pdf

Hoyer-Cantor Letter in Support of Israel: DOCUMENT

327 Representatives were signatories to the letter.

Dear Secretary Clinton:

We are writing to reaffirm our commitment to the unbreakable bond that exists between our country and the State of Israel and to express to you our deep concern over recent tension. In every important relationship, there will be occasional misunderstandings and conflicts. The announcement during Vice President Biden's visit was, as Israel's Prime Minister said in an apology to the United States, "a regrettable incident that was done in all innocence and was hurtful, and which certainly should not have occurred." We are reassured that Prime Minister Netanyahu's commitment to put in place new procedures will ensure that such surprises, however unintended, will not recur.

The United States and Israel are close allies whose people share a deep and abiding friendship based on a shared commitment to core values including democracy, human rights and freedom of the press and religion. Our two countries are partners in the fight against terrorism and share an important strategic relationship. A strong Israel is an asset to the national security of the United States and brings stability to the Middle East. We are concerned that the highly publicized tensions in the relationship will not advance the interests the U.S. and Israel share. Above all, we must remain focused on the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear weapons program to Middle East peace and stability.

From the moment of Israel's creation, successive U.S. administrations have appreciated the special bond between the U.S. and Israel. For decades, strong, bipartisan Congressional support for Israel, including security assistance and other important measures, have been eloquent testimony to our commitment to Israel's security, which remains unswerving. It is the very strength of this relationship that has, in fact, made Arab-Israeli peace agreements possible, both because it convinced those who sought Israel's destruction to abandon any such hope and because it gave successive Israeli governments the confidence to take calculated risks for peace.

In its declaration of independence 62 years ago, Israel declared: "We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land." In the decades since, despite constantly having to defend itself from attack, Israel has repeatedly made good on that pledge by offering to undertake painful risks to reach peace with its neighbors.

Our valuable bilateral relationship with Israel needs and deserves constant reinforcement. As the Vice-President said during his recent visit to Israel: "Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the U.S. and Israel when it comes to security, none. No space." Steadfast American backing has helped lead to Israeli peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. And American involvement continues to be critical to the effort to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

We recognize that, despite the extraordinary closeness between our country and Israel, there will be differences over issues both large and small. Our view is that such differences are best resolved quietly, in trust and confidence, as befits longstanding strategic allies. We hope and expect that, with mutual effort and good faith, the United States and Israel will move beyond this disruption quickly, to the lasting benefit of both nations. We believe, as President Obama said, that "Israel's security is paramount" in our Middle East policy and that "it is in U.S. national security interests to assure that Israel's security as an independent Jewish state is maintained." In that spirit, we look forward to working with you to achieve the common objectives of the U.S. and Israel, especially regional security and peace.


Sincerely,

STENY HOYER
Majority Leader

ERIC CANTOR
Republican Whip

HOWARD L. BERMAN
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN
Ranking Republican Member, Committee on Foreign Affairs

GARY ACKERMAN
Chairman, Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia

DAN BURTON
Ranking Republican Member, Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia

See this and related postings at Israel Behind the News

U.S. Ex-Officers Warn Of Decline In Israel Ties

from: Middle East News Line

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Scores of senior retired U.S. officers have warned of
the decline in American strategic cooperation with Israel.

Close to 50 generals and admirals have signed a letter that termed
Israel a key element in U.S. global strategy. In a letter organized by the
Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the retired
officers, who have toured Israel, said the Jewish state was highly important
to U.S. policy in the Middle East and Mediterranean region.

"We brought with us our decades of military experience and, following
unrestricted access to Israel's civilian and military leaders, came away
with the unswerving belief that the security of the State of Israel is a
matter of great importance to the United States and its policy in the Middle
East and Eastern Mediterranean," the letter, released on April 2, read. "A
strong, secure Israel is an asset upon which American military planners and
political leaders can rely."

JINSA said the letter was organized in wake of an assessment by U.S.
Central Command that relations with Israel were harming Washington's efforts
to form alliances with Arab and Muslim countries. In March, Vice President
Joseph Biden was quoted as telling Israeli leaders that their policies,
including Jewish construction in Jerusalem, were endangering U.S. soldiers
in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"While we recognize, as [Centcom chief] Gen. [David] Petraeus did, that
American support for Israel is used by our adversaries to foment
anti-Americanism, we also recognize that the important countries of the
region won't like us any better if we shed Israel as an ally," JINSA said.

"They will wonder how quickly we will shed them when they are inconvenient."
JINSA has been lobbying the Defense Department and U.S. military
regarding Israel since the early 1980s. In January 2010, the organization
released a report that asserted that Washington was denying Jerusalem -- the
largest recipient of U.S. military aid -- a range of weapons in what could
harm Israel's military superiority over its Arab neighbors.

The letter, planned for publication in major U.S. newspapers, quoted the
generals and admirals as expressing "grave concern" over tension between
Jerusalem and Washington. The retired senior officers said they could not
rule out the prospect that "political differences may be allowed to outweigh
our larger mutual interests."

The admirals and generals said Israel and the United States have engaged
in defense and military cooperation at all levels. The letter cited
training, law enforcement, counter-insurgency as well as research and
development.

The United States would require Israeli cooperation for a range of
threats, the officers said. They said this would include nonconventional and
ballistic missile proliferation as well as CI operations.

"As American defense professionals, we view events in the Middle East
through the prism of American security interests," the letter said. "In the
Middle East, a volatile region so vital to U.S. interests, it would be
foolish to disengage -- or denigrate -- an ally such as Israel."

See this story and more at Israel Behind the News

The Philadelphia Bulletin: Netanyahu Locked in Heated Debate with Obama

by David Bedein

U.S. Order to Wiretap Israeli Embassy Revealed

“Ambush” is the word that was widely used in the Israeli media to describe the reception that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was given at the White House on Tuesday.

The Israeli media cited a number of steps that were taken by the White House in order to “humiliate” the prime minister, who received “the treatment reserved for the president of Equatorial Guinea,” to use one pundit’s description, or that of “the last of the wazirs from Lower Senegal,” as another pundit put it.

President Obama abruptly left Mr. Netanyahu in the middle of their meeting to go eat dinner with his wife and daughters, reportedly urging the prime minister to meet and consult with his aides “so that if he changed his mind he could inform the president right away.”

“I’m still around. Let me know if there is anything new,” the Israeli media quoted the president as saying.

President Obama reportedly made a list of demands from Mr. Netanyahu, which include Israel’s consent to extend the settlement construction freeze beyond its Oct.1 expiration date and to expand the areas of Jerusalem that it annexed after the 1967 war.

The president also reportedly asked to secure Israeli consent to redeploy its military forces in a way that would restore the situation on the ground that existed prior to the Palestinian uprising in September of 2000.

After 25,000 Palestinian terror attacks between 2000 and 2005, which took the lives of 1,370 people, Israel redeployed its forces throughout Arab populated areas in Judea and Samaria, to reduce Arab terror infiltration.

Mr. Obama also reportedly demanded that Israel release of hundreds of Palestinians who have been convicted of murder and attempted murder.

Throughout the visit, Mr. Netanyahu held personal consultations at the Israeli embassy in Washington, and not on the phone, for fear of being wiretapped.

Most recently, an Israeli lawyer in the employ of the U.S. Justice Department, Mr. Shammai Leibovitz, revealed to reporters in Washington that his supervisors asked him to log translate transcripts of Hebrew language wiretapped phone conversations that emanated from the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Mr. Leibowitz refused to abide by this request and was fired from his position after he met with a reporter and has been indicted for sharing classified documents from the Justice Department with the media.

See this report in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this report at Israel Behind the News

Israel's New Enemy: America?

"Enemy: "a person who feels hatred for, fosters harmful designs against, or
engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or
opponent." - Dictionary.com

Despite Vice President Joe Biden's recent pledge of unswerving fidelity to
Israel during his recent visit there, the rhetoric and pressure directed by
the Obama administration against the only fully functioning democracy in the
Middle East more accurately resembles the behavior of an enemy. Increasingly
under this administration - but also present in Republican administrations -
America's policy toward Israel is full of "harmful designs" and
"antagonistic activities." The intentions may not be deliberate, but the
outcome would lead to the same injurious end.

The latest pretext for putting more pressure on Israel to do more in the
"pursuit of peace" comes from a decision by Israel's Interior Ministry to
construct 1,600 new housing units in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of
Ramat Shlomo, which is located in "disputed territory." To the Palestinians
and their Arab and Muslim neighbors, most especially Iran and Syria, all of
Israel is "disputed territory." It is difficult to understand why the U.S.
State Department thinks not building a few houses is going to dissuade
Israel's enemies from wanting less than they want now.

The failure of this formula has been evident for decades, but U.S. policy
continues to employ it, always with the same results. Whether Israel's
concessions have been unilateral - most recently with its abandonment of the
Gaza Strip, which predictably led to terrorist attacks from that territory -
or negotiated deals which the Palestinians have never lived up to, Israel
always ends up getting its pocket picked. Then, the United States, the U.N.,
Europe and Russia demand that it put more valuables in its pocket so the
thieves can continue their thievery.

Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and
Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists
regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here.

A Washington Post headline illustrates the deteriorating relationship
between the two nations, "U.S. Pushes Netanyahu to Accept 3 Demands." There
is no similar demand that the Palestinians and especially Hamas, which has
said it will agree to nothing less than the eradication of Israel, should
accept anything, not even the minimal acceptance of Israel's right to exist.
Meanwhile, Hamas has called on Palestinians to launch a third "intifada."

After apologizing to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the "offense" of
the housing announcement during Biden's visit, Netanyahu reminded the
Israeli parliament that Israel has been building in east Jerusalem for four
decades. He said, "The building of those Jewish neighborhoods in no way hurt
the Arabs of East Jerusalem and did not come at their expense."

That doesn't matter when the wrong formula is employed. In this twisted
thinking, whatever Israel does is unjustified so long as the
Palestinian-Arab-Muslim side is unhappy. What part of annihilation does the
State Department not understand? What State is blind to is that the
"Israeli-Palestinian conflict," as it is erroneously labeled, is part of a
worldwide religious war against all things Jewish, Christian, secular,
modern and Western.

Making demands of only one side before serious negotiations begin,
especially on matters of Jerusalem, so-called "refugees" and borders,
effectively pressures Israel into making concessions on all three, which
would severely damage its prospects for continued existence.

How about first making these demands of the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim side:
(1) A pledge of no more war with Israel, or terrorism; 2) a declaration by a
powerful Islamic cleric that their God no longer requires them to kill
people who don't believe as they do; and 3) no more teaching in Palestinian
textbooks and in their media that Jews created AIDS and descend from monkeys
and pigs?

After those three demands are met, the State Department can start making
demands of Israel. Not before. Anything less puts America on the wrong side,
along with Israel's (and America's) enemies. Or hasn't State noticed that we
share the same enemies?

See the original article in the Jewish World Review
See this and related postings at Israel Behind the News

The Philadelphia Bulletin: Differences Emerging between Israel and US over Iran

by David Bedein

JERUSALEM - The intelligence communities of Israel and the United States differ over Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons.

“I think that beyond that there is, of course, a certain difference in perspective and difference in judgment, difference in the internal clocks and difference in capabilities,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

In a Feb. 26 address to the Washington Institute, Mr. Barak acknowledged that Israel and the United States might not bridge their differences over Iran’s capabilities. He said the U.S. objections to Israel’s assessment should not block any campaign against Tehran’s nuclear program.

“And I don’t think that there is a need to coordinate in this regard,” Mr. Barak said. “That should be understood. It should be an exchange of views. We do not need to coordinate every step.”

The statement marked a rare occasion that Mr. Barak, regarded as the most U.S.-oriented member of the Israeli Cabinet, played down the need to coordinate with the administration of President Barack Obama. Mr. Barak, however, stressed that Israel supported Mr. Obama’s policy to employ diplomacy rather than military means against Iran.

“We clearly support the attempt to solve it through diplomacy,” Mr. Barak said.

The Israeli government has been pressing the U.S.administration for a timetable for harsh U.S. sanctions on Tehran, beginning with a gasoline embargo that would spark critical fuel shortages in Iran.

Instead, Washington has moved cautiously in efforts to draft sanctions against Iran. The State Department has ruled out significant measures against Iran’s energy sector.

For his part, Mr. Barak did not rule out the prospect that Iran could develop what he termed “second or second-and-a-half generation of nuclear warheads.” He said these warheads could be installed on ballistic missiles that could reach Moscow or Paris.

“If Iran will not be stopped from moving there, it will reach a certain point of nuclear military capability, and one can close his eyes and see what it means,” Mr. Barak said. “What is really needed is significant sanctions, effective ones with a time limit, together with the Russians and the Chinese.”

See this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this report at Israel Behind the News