Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent
about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King. Jr.

Then it begins like this:

Dear President Obama,

With your historic inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, we share our sincerest congratulations and
hope that you will uphold your commitment to change.

It continues on discussing the one-sided support in the Middle East and highlights these four major points:

• End the longstanding blockade and allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.
• Demand that Israel adhere to international law.
• Call for a lasting and enforceable ceasefire respected by all parties.
• Reevaluate the $3 billion of annual U.S. aid to Israel .

Click here to view the full advertisement in PDF format.

Good job to all those who were part of this project.

Recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States’ strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process

We all know this bill had nothing to do with defending Israel against attacks from Gaza.  We all know this is not supporting any peace-process but helping the State of Israel continue to use American taxes to kill the people of Gaza.  The following men and women of Congress were the only ‘nay’ voters to the above bill.

• Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio (D) – http://kucinich.house.gov/
• Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Wisconson (D) – http://www.house.gov/gwenmoore/
• Congressman Ron Paul of Texas (R) – http://www.house.gov/paul/
• Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California (D) – http://www.house.gov/waters/
• Congressman Rick Rahall of West Virginia (D) – http://www.rahall.house.gov/

Please contact them and thank them for their ‘nay’ vote.

Here is the full listing of the voting results of the bill.

Thank you to all those Israelis against this war!

• First of all, the global public opinion of Israel will drop due to the humanitarian crisis it has caused upon Gaza.
• Hamas will be looked upon less as a terrorist organization and more as freedom fighters by the public worldwide, although governments will still recognize them as a terrorist organization.
• The entire Muslim world will be angry at the Israeli government and it’s current leadership and this will make more enemies for Israel.
• The current Israeli administration (Kadima party) will be back in office without Ehud Olmert after their election (coming up in Feb. 2009) due to their initation of the Gazan war in order to please the powerful Israeli class who have before the Gazan war started to accuse the Olmert and the Kadima party of being “soft” with Hamas.

So who are the winners and the losers?  The winners are clearly the Kadima party of Israel and Hamas.  The losers are the people of Palestine and Israel who just want to live their peaceful lives without their governments/leaders fighting each other over land/money/politics/pride/religion/etc.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.

Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.

Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. The strike not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children, along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack under international law. This was a war crime.

Other of Israel’s bombardment with protected status under international law have included a mosque, a prison, police stations, and a university, in addition to residential buildings.

Moreover, Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the most minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is bombing and killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been wounded, and cannot receive medical attention. Hospitals running on generators have little or no fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or medical supplies to treat the injured. These people, too, are the victims of Israeli policies targeted not at Hamas or legitimate military targets, but directly designed to punish the civilian population.

Lie #2) Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a response to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket attacks.

Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the beginning, it announced a “special security zone” within the Gaza Strip and announced that Palestinians who enter this zone will be fired upon. In other words, Israel announced its intention that Israeli soldiers would shoot at farmers and other individuals attempting to reach their own land in direct violation of not only the cease-fire but international law.

Despite shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians getting injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it went into effect on June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce on November 4 by launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five and injured several others.

Israel’s violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct response by militants to the Israeli attacks.

Israel’s actions, including its violation of the cease-fire, predictably resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its own population.

Lie #3) Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.

There has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact is, as previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is densely populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as the assassination of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were also murdered. It is victims like his dead children that Israel defines as “human shields” in its propaganda. There is no legitimacy for this interpretation under international law. In circumstances such as these, Hamas is not using human shields, Israel is committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable international law.

Lie #4) Arab nations have not condemned Israel’s actions because they understand Israel’s justification for its assault.

The populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel’s actions and at their own governments for not condemning Israel’s assault and acting to end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab governments do not represent their respective Arab populations. The populations of the Arab nations have staged mass protests in opposition to not only Israel’s actions but also the inaction of their own governments and what they view as either complacency or complicity in Israel’s crimes.

Moreover, the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the aid of the Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel’s actions, but because they are submissive to the will of the US, which fully supports Israel. Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the border to allow Palestinians wounded in the attacks to get medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals, is heavily dependent upon US aid, and is being widely criticized within the population of the Arab countries for what is viewed as an absolute betrayal of the Gaza Palestinians.

Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a traitor to his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the people of Gaza. Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas’ past perceived betrayals in conniving with Israel and the US to sideline the democratically elected Hamas government, culminating in a counter-coup by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah (the military wing of Abbas’ Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While his apparent goal was to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at Abbas that it is unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.

Lie #5) Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.

Israel claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents of Gaza warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the people of Gaza have nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the Gaza Strip. It is by Israeli design that they cannot escape across the border. It is by Israeli design that they have no food, water, or fuel by which to survive. It is by Israeli design that hospitals in Gaza have no electricity and few medical supplies with which to treat the injured and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast areas of Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and other sites with protected status under international law. No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.

Source

“All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law,” Kucinich said in a statement. “Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable.”

Source

Dear Congressman Dennis Kucinich,

Thank you very much for having some muscle and speaking the truth. As an American, I am proud that we have elected officials in our government that still support justice and truth for all of mankind. If you run for President in the future, you have my vote!

Thank you again!

Sincerely,
Amir M. Sahib