Please see the forwarded message below.
Best,
Kris
---Forwarded Message---
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 16:26:44 -0600
Sender: ELCA Mid-East Networking List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: Ann Hafften <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: "Urgent Action" from CMEP 041205
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dec. 5, 2004
>From the ELCA Middle East Networking List...
Corrine Whitlatch of Churches for Middle East Peace asks us to circulate
this "Urgent Action on direct aid to Palestinian Authority" as quickly as
possible.
December 3, 2004
RE: URGENT ACTION on direct aid to PA
Rep. Gary Ackerman has initiated a "Dear Colleague" note asking members to
sign a letter to the President that supports the Administration's plan to
provide $20 million in direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority. I
encourage you to call, email or fax a message to your representative as soon
as possible. While the letter to the President makes no demands of Israel,
it is a step in the right direction relative to helping the Palestinians and
encouraging "strong U.S. engagement" toward a two-state solution.
Howard Diamond, in Ackerman's office, is aiming for a sign-on deadline of
December 7 because the Administration intends to announce the aid provision
on December 8. But Howard told me today that if they don't have enough
signers by then, the deadline will be extended to December 17. Members
return (to Washington) on December 6; your communication ... Monday,
December 6, or Tuesday, December 7, is certain to be timely. I will inform
the Email Network if the deadline is extended.
I heard about Mr. Ackerman's letter week before last. At that time the plan
was to go immediately to the President with sign-ons by about eight members,
including Rep. Lois Capps. But now, there is a letter "demanding no aid
until violence ends" sponsored by Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and C.L. "Butch"
Otter (R-ID). The Weiner/Otter letter is an anti-Palestinian diatribe that
characterizes the aid provision as "underwriting an organization that
supports terror." With House Majority Leader Tom DeLay an outspoken opponent
of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and a Palestinian state, the contest
within the House is especially significant.
YOUR MESSAGE:
This is (YOUR NAME) from (YOUR CITY) calling to urge (REPRESENTATIVE'S NAME)
to sign onto Rep. Gary Ackerman's Dear Colleague in support of $20 million
in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. The House of Representatives
should help President Bush bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
(optional) I'm a member of (YOUR DENOMINATION/CHURCH) and a supporter of
Churches for Middle East Peace. Hope for peace in the Holy Land would be a
wonderful Christmas gift to the nation and the world.
The Ackerman "Dear Colleague" and letter to the President follow:.
December 2, 2004
Dear Colleague:
With the Bush Administration soon to announce a plan for $20 million of
direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in order to help the
Palestinians pay back debts owed to Israel, I write to ask you to join me in
sending the attached letter of support to the President.
The death of Yasir Arafat creates a new opportunity for genuine Palestinian
political reform along the lines called for by President Bush in June 2002.
Limited direct U.S. assistance will send a vital message to both
Palestinians and others in the international donor community about our
nation's commitment to seizing this key moment.
Like many of you, I have been an outspoken critic of the PA and of Yasir
Arafat's bloody-handed leadership. Having taken in billions of dollars of
international assistance, Arafat's leadership produced only violence,
terrorism, mistrust, stagnation and corruption. There is ample reason for
skepticism.
If circumstances had not changed, I too would doubt the wisdom of direct
assistance.
But there is now, as there was not before, an opportunity to help transform
the situation, to bring the violence and chaos to a decisive end, and to
renew Israeli-Palestinian political engagement. The current package of
direct assistance being proposed, even though it is limited, will help
restore Israeli confidence in the PA; will help leverage international
contributions needed to keep the PA on its feet; and will signal other
nations about America's commitment to achieving peace.
I hope you will join me in supporting this effort. If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact me, or Howard Diamond (x5-2601) in my
office, or David Adams (x6-7813) of the Minority staff on the House
International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia.
Sincerely,
s/GARY L. ACKERMAN
Ranking Minority Member
House International Relations
Subcommittee on the Middle East
and Central Asia
-----------------
December 2, 2004
The President
The White House
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President:
We write to express our support for direct assistance to the Palestinian
Authority and to urge you to seize the new opportunity to advance the
prospects for Middle East peace that follows the recent change in
Palestinian leadership. The $20 million in direct assistance being
considered by the Administration would send a critical message of American
support for the emerging Palestinian leadership and, we hope, help leverage
the kind of international assistance that will be necessary to help the
Palestinian people to begin recovering from the losses suffered over the
past four years of conflict.
As we know from our experience in 2003, unless Palestinian leaders can both
restore law and order to Palestinian society, and by extension, gain control
over Palestinian terrorist groups, as well as provide the Palestinian people
with tangible benefits in exchange for rejecting extremism, we will likely
see yet another choice opportunity to bring peace closer slip away.
Strong U.S. engagement, including direct assistance to responsible
Palestinian leaders, is the right choice at this critical moment. With
stringent controls to prevent misuse, and appropriate transparency measures
to ensure that our aid's uses are well and publicly known, the United States
can make an significant contribution to the prospects of a new, democratic,
and peace-oriented Palestinian leadership, one capable of resolving their
conflict with Israel. Indeed, we believe that our national commitment to the
survival of Israel as a Jewish democratic state, secure in
internationally-recognized borders, would be best served by just such a
measured step. We also believe that helping the Palestinian Authority to
meet its past financial obligations to Israel will help to restore ties of
trust and dialogue, a development that would benefit both Israelis and
Palestinians.
As you declared on June 24, 2002, "My vision is two states, living side by
side in peace and security. There is simply no way to achieve that peace
until all parties fight terror. Yet, at this critical moment, if all parties
will break with the past and set out on a new path, we can overcome the
darkness with the light of hope. Peace requires a new and different
Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born." Your words
are just as true and right today as they when you first said them.
In the coming days, tough decisions will be required of the Palestinians,
who will have to demonstrate a new capacity to fulfill their commitments, to
establish viable institutions and to decisively end the violence and
terrorism directed at Israel. This hard work will have to be done by
Palestinian leaders and by the Palestinian people. Already, rejectionists
and radicals are at work trying to bend this moment to their vicious and
brutal purposes. Their challenge must be met head-on by responsible
Palestinian leaders, ready to seize this moment for peace.
But the success of moderate Palestinian leaders is not at all assured and we
know that peace will not come through impassive hoping, or high-blown
rhetoric. We cannot create this peace for the two parties, and we cannot
compel either one to accept our version of it. But we can make a difference.
Extending limited, direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority is an
appropriate step that recognizes the new opportunity for progress that
exists, and will give credence to the new reform-oriented Palestinian
leaders who have made clear their readiness to end their people's conflict
with Israel.
The United States has been engaged in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict
ever since it began. We do so because of our deep and abiding national
interests in the Middle East and because of our nation's historic commitment
to extending the blessings of peace and freedom to all nations and all
people. We stand ready to work with you to achieve our nation's longstanding
goal of finally bringing an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sincerely,
______________
Corinne Whitlatch, Executive Director
Churches for Middle East Peace
110 Maryland Ave. NE #311
Washington, DC 20002
Phone, 202-543-1222; Fax, 202-543-5025
www.cmep.org
---- ---- ---- ----
If you have received this bulletin directly from us, it is because you
subscribed to the ELCA Middle East Networking List. Please forward this
bulletin to others who are interested in a just peace for Palestine and
Israel.
To Join (or Leave) this List, go to www.elca.org/middleeast .
Ann Hafften
Coordinator for Middle East Networking
Division for Global Mission, ELCA
www.elca.org/middleeast
800-638-3522, ext. 6466
---End of Forwarded Message---
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