UNBLOCK THE PEACE PROCESS---U.S. SUSPEND WARBUCKS TO ISRAEL

As promised last week—a practical solution to impasse in the current Israel / Palestine peace talks.
This was my letter to the NYT [no response yet] after reading, "Settlements Stymie U.S. Envoy's Mideast Effort" NYT Oct 2, 2010, by Ethan Bronner 1. I'll now send it on to Congress, and urge you to send something similar.

Dear Ethan Bronner,

Thanks for your coverage of the peace talks/west bank settlements issue. Don't you think our government is missing a necessary step? To break the logjam towards real peace negotiations it will be necessary for the U.S. to suspend all aid to Israel [biggest recipient in the world, of our foreign aid 2], until all settlement construction, by Israel in Palestine's West Bank, is halted. This can be done while reaffirming our long term support for Israel's right to exist and live in peace with its neighbors. This is the only credible action to back up our words--that we want our Israeli allies to construct a permanent two state solution: both Israel's and Palestine's right to exist.

Yours truly,
Michael McCarthy, Port Huron, MI

Or--A land of milk & honey--with no wall between.

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html?ref=ethan_bronner

See the Congressional Research Service document on U.S. foreign aid to Israel, most of it military, which has averaged $3 billion / yr, and now is stated to reach $4.8 billion/yr for the next decade. Read the opening summary at least, and even the table of contents is revealing. Entries like cluster bombs, and, for free, 20 of the costly controversial F-35 stealth jets, yet to be deployed even in our own arsenal.
2 http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf

Just to be fair, or encourage competition [i.e. profits] in the armaments industry, our government recently announced a $60 billion almost all weapons available sale to Saudi Arabia.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575427692284277852.html?mod=ITP_pageone_2

For an interesting video, latest MPT posting on Sandy Quntano's, and other peace teams' olive harvest support in the West Bank, follow this link:
Israeli High Court ruling not enforced by soldiers




Moses and the Messengers from Canaan, by Giovanni Lanfranco. The question of how Israel should enter Canaan has persisted down through the ages.




PLEASE VOTE ON TUESDAY. COMB THE BALLOT SHEETS FOR TRUTH AND CONSEQUENSES CANDIDATES. DISPELL THE CONSTERNATION OF TEMPESTS IN TEAPOTS. BEAT THE SWORDS OF ALL PARTIES, INTO PLOWSHARES PLANTING NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION & LIFE.



Paphiopedilum praestans - Plant from Surabaya, Indonesia. Artwork by Kathy Brahney