Peace, Roy

Formed in 1984, Churches for Middle East Peace is a coalition of 24 national Church denominations and organizations, including Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. It works to encourage U.S. government policies that actively promote a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ensuring security, human rights and religious freedom for all people of the region.

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Peace, Roy

Week in Review ….

Settlers Turn on Palestinians and on Israel [December 10 – December 17] Date posted: 17/12/2011 By: MIFTAH The week was packed with events, both good and bad. At dawn today, December 17, Majed Nabaheen, 35, was killed in the Breij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip after being shot by Israeli soldiers just outside his house. Israeli shelling was already taking place in nearby agricultural land. On December 10, another Palestinian died, 27-year old Mustapha Tamimi who was shot on December 9 and died later of his wounds. Tamimi, a familiar face in the Nabi Saleh weekly protests against Israeli land expropriation in the village, was shot at close range in the face with a teargas canister by an Israeli soldier. Thousands of Palestinians, including presidential secretary general Tayyeb Abdel Rahim, participated in Tamimi’s funeral. Two people were injured and dozens suffered from teargas inhalation. Four protesters were arrested during the procession. The week was marred by a number of settler attacks against Palestinians, namely against holy sites. On December 15, Al-Nour Mosque in the village of Burqa near Ramallah was torched and spray-painted with racist anti-Arab and anti-Muslim slogans a day after a similar attack took place on the Akasha mosque in west Jerusalem. Last week, a mosque was torched in the Nablus area village of Burqin, all by “price tag” settler groups who are protesting Israel’s attempts to evacuate illegal settlement outposts. Settlers also raided the northern West Bank villages of Yasouf and Haris, torching two cars. According to local sources, the settlers snuck into Yasouf after midnight and wrote the words “price tag” on the village walls. Also, in the Nablus-area village of Duma, Israeli settlers set fire to a water tank and a car. On December 16, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in Hebron after they had finished burying a settler and his wife in the nearby cemetery. He added that the clashes in the Tal Rmeida neighborhood had begun after one of the settlers spat on a young Palestinian man, which sparked a swift escalation in clashes between both sides. But Israel was given a taste of its own medicine on December 12 when setters turned on their own people. Fifty settler youth entered a central West Bank military base, threw rocks and vandalized military vehicles, including the pelting of the deputy Regional Brigade commander with stones, setting fires, and throwing paint. The settler vigilantes acted out in response to reports that the army was planning to evict a West Bank settlement. The youths were warded off by Israeli security forces. That same evening, 17 right-wing activists, three of them minors, took over a church on the Jordan-Israel border in what they said was a “message” to Jordanian authorities to “keep out of Temple Mount affairs”, in reference to the closing of the controversial Moroccan Gate bridge that leads to Al Aqsa Mosque compound. Seventeen settlers, who belonged to the so-called “hilltop youth” were arrested. The settlers took over churches near the Qasr al-Yahud holy site, which is the believed site of Jesus’ baptism after crossing the border fence into a closed military zone between the two countries. Also on December 12, settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles east of Qalqilia and lightly injured three Sowwan family members including a 5-year old girl. Not all settlers are happy with the turn of events though. On December 15, Menachem Froman the head rabbi of the Tequa settlement near Bethlehem said Jewish extremists who attack Palestinian mosques and property should be expelled from the country, saying Jewish groups who attack Islamic holy sites have nothing to do with the Jewish religion. He said the perpetrators and their families “should be kicked out of the country to the US from where they came,” and deserve to have stones thrown at them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although peeved at the settler attacks, would not go as far as calling them “terrorists” like some in his cabinet had liked to have done. Additionally, it has not stopped him from approving more and more settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. On December 11, tenders were approved for 296 housing units in Ariel, southwest of Nablus, in addition to 40 housing units in Efrat south of the West Bank. 1,700 dunums of lands are also slated for confiscation in the Bethlehem area for later settlement expansion. Furthermore, on December 11, Israeli plans were announced to confiscate one million dunams of land from the Negev Bedouin. This would entail the destruction of 30 Bedouin villages and the displacement of around 100,000 residents. Israel’s plan aims at militarizing the northern part of the country and preventing any geographic contiguity between the Negev, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai. The 200,000 Bedouin to be effected and the 100,000 dunams will be confined to a fenced in area similar to a military or refugee camp.

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Note:   Alison writes:  “Yes, the Israel lobby has been busy.  But so have we.”  I highlighted Alison’s concluding paragraph.   Peace, Roy

Dear Friend:

The Israel lobby has been extraordinarily busy this year… but so has CNI, and we have some very good news to report.

First, some background.

Benjamin Netanyahu came before Congress demanding they follow his lead in Middle East policies—he received 29 standing ovations. Six weeks later, legislation was introduced that would require the State Department to investigate “the sources of any logistical, technical, or financial support” for the Gaza relief flotilla ships.

The State Department, in lockstep with the Israel lobby, threatened Hamas that it would withdraw some $100 million in aid to Gaza for health care, agriculture, and water infrastructure if they did not back off a demand to make public the expenditures and income of charities operating there—but that’s what the American government requires charities to do here.

Then there is Iran.

Netanyahu says he doesn’t believe economic pressure “will be sufficient to have this [Iran] regime change course without a credible military option that is put before them by the international community led by the United States.”

President Obama, of course, agrees with Netanyahu: “we don’t take any options off the table in terms of how we operate with Iran.”

And the Republicans ratchet up the threats even more: Every GOP candidate save one is beating war drums. Mitt Romney claims that if “crippling sanctions” fail, military action would be on the table because it is “unacceptable” for Iran to become a nuclear power. Newt Gingrich says the U.S. should be “taking out their scientists,” and “breaking up their systems, all of it covertly, all of it deniable.”

Coincidently, those things have happened recently.

Thanks to the Israel lobby, any effective utility of the U.S. in the Middle East is null and void. Failed foreign policies are being pursued faster than ever: a war with Iran would be more costly than Iraq and Afghanistan combined in terms of American lives, tax dollars, and U.S. strategic interests.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s tax-free foundation took 81 Congressmen, their families, and their staffs on a week-long “fact-finding” mission to Israel. Now, a group of 24 Hollywood actors and producers are about to take a similar excursion.

Yes, the Israel lobby has been busy, but so has your Council for the National Interest.

Just a few days ago, CNI made an investment in our future that I’m sure you’ll be excited about. It’s been in the planning stages for awhile, but now the details are just about in place: The Council for the National Interest is moving to new headquarters which will allow us to work more efficiently and effectively—and for less money.

CNI has operated out of its current location for nearly two decades. The office has served its purpose, but the building has seen better days. Modern and less expensive office space will give us the facility we need to expand our agenda.

And there is much more we need to do…

More than ever before, I have been speaking—especially on college campuses—addressing such issues as media bias, Palestinian statehood, and the history of the Israel lobby’s stranglehold on Capitol Hill. My presentations, and those of our Executive Director Phil Giraldi, have reached a wide variety of audiences from the American Muslims for Palestine convention to Congressman Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty—and from “tea party” organizations to the Move Over AIPAC conference. We are reaching more people—new constituencies.

The response is gratifying—and the talks are generating more engagements. We must fulfill those requests.

CNI’s media outreach has been successful too: our views have been broadcast on CNN, Russia Today, Croatian Television, NPR Los Angeles, Antiwar radio—and scores of local radio and TV outlets.

Now it’s time to step up our activities. Just after the new year, after we decide on the right office space, I’ll lay out some of our plans and initiatives with you.

In the meantime, let me share one aspect regarding our move. The sale of our offices will not only pay off the mortgage but will give us the opportunity to invest in new headquarters too. We’re not making much of a profit—it’s almost enough to get us debt free into our new location. We need your help to make the transition as smooth as possible—CNI cannot let the process of moving slow down or stop our hectic pace.

CNI needs the new office up and running quickly, and with the latest communications and technical support systems available. Moving costs and upgrades in computer and other systems will cost about $9,700. We do not want to take on any debt in this transition which is why your help is vital.

Will you consider a year end gift of $100 or $50 or even $25?  

I know that’s a lot to ask, especially at this time a year, but it is a good—and important—investment in CNI’s future. Here’s why…

This past year CNI has done so much thanks to your loyal support.

We actually started off with a significant debt, had to do some repairs and upkeep to this old office, plus we knew our message had to be strengthened, focused, and much more widely understood. We not only handled the problems of the internal support system, but CNI’s voice has been heard in person, broadcast in the media, and our message has appeared in print and on-line consistently—in new and important venues.

We re-built our website and invigorated our intern program that attracts bright and dedicated college students to help with ongoing research.

Now we have the opportunity to do even more and more effectively with the upcoming move. However, CNI needs your vote of confidence in this next step forward.

Your tax-deductible donation of $25, $50, or even $100 or $250 is crucial right now. May I count on your help before December 31st?

This time of year is always difficult for CNI—even if there was no special need. We must rely on our loyal friends to help us with major projects, and now for this move. Frankly, I’m hoping a few generous supporters will be inspired to underwrite our 2012 agenda with a particularly generous gift of $1000 or even $5000. (Remember, tax deductibility of donations for the 2012 IRS returns runs out on December 31st.)

Whatever you can afford, it will be put to good and urgent work. And, if you cannot invest in CNI at this time, please accept my sincere thanks for what you’ve done already to make 2011 a year of significant progress.

Our growth has been steady and our future, with your continued support, is secure. The Israel lobby is powerful and richly endowed, but our task is to tell the truth—and that does not mean matching AIPAC dollar for dollar. We just work harder, and smarter, than they do.

Sincerely,

President

P.S. Remember, CNI’s success is built on grass roots support. Your tax-deductible investment of $100, $200, or $50 is key to our progress.