america and israel - joined at the

House vote about Israel ignores attempts for peace

July 7, 2004

Again the United States has shown that it is not really interested in addressing the causes of terrorism, nor the rule of law, by the overwhelming vote in the U.S. House recently to endorse the most egregious of Israel’s positions regarding settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

Our elected representatives have agreed that taking over another country’s lands is good policy, similar to our behavior in Iraq. This time it is the United States agreeing with Israel that separating people from their land, their livelihoods, even their life is acceptable if they are militarily superior and state that they are afraid.

The U.N. Security Council stated that Israel should withdraw from those lands in return for certain guarantees from Palestinian groups that they would not attack Israeli citizens. Palestinians and Israelis worked together to create the “Geneva Initiative” that both could support and that addressed peace between them.

Our representatives, including Darlene Hooley, voted to ignore these attempts at peace, even our own “road map for peace.”

May we not reap the results of our “beating plowshares into swords.”

We must withdraw our funding of Israel.

— Jan Soyster, Salem Oregon