March 11, 2008 - Tomorrow morning Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice will testify in front of the House
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and
Related Programs regarding the International
Affairs Budget for FY2009.
The President's FY2009 budget request includes
$2.55 billion in military aid to Israel, a
proposed 9% increase over actual spending
in 2007. This is the proposed first installment of a
ten-year Memorandum of Understanding to
increase military aid to Israel by 25%,
totaling $30 billion by FY2018.
Now President Bush's budget request depends on
the approval of the Senate and House Committees
on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
These subcommittees of the respective Appropriations
Committees have jurisdiction over all foreign aid issues,
including military aid to Israel.
As a result, CNI Foundation's Chairman Ambassador
Robert Keeley and President Eugene Bird submitted
a strongly worded letter to Congresswoman Nita Lowey
(D-NY), Chairwoman of the House Subcommittee,
demanding that fair and balanced hearings be held to
discuss the issue of military aid to Israel.
In the letter they stated:
While we understand that Secretary of State Rice will be testifying,
there are many politicians, academics and concerned citizens who
believe that Israel's use of military power supplied by the United
States against the Palestinians is making a very difficult situation
even worse.
Israel's security is not enhanced, but rather diminished by
its polices in the West Bank and Gaza. The situation in Gaza,
for example, is tantamount to the imprisonment of over one million
humans by the Israeli Defense Forces. The response of Israel to
the current crisis was an aerial and ground assault that killed
more than 110 Palestinians over five days, for the loss of two
Israeli soldiers. The situation in the West Bank is not much better,
as the Israelis continue to make life insufferable with their expanding
settlements, checkpoints, barriers and walls.
The world is watching and holding the U.S. responsible for this
unwarranted and inhumane treatment of indigenous people on
their own land.
In addition, the Council for the National Interest
joined the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
to deliver today a letter signed by more than 300
U.S.-based organizations to the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and
Related Programs calling upon the subcommittee to
cut off military aid to Israel for its repeated violations of
the U.S. Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts.
The letter, which was signed by 25 national organizations
and local organizations from 40 states, the District of
Columbia, and U.S. citizens living abroad, was delivered
to the Appropriations Subcommittee one day prior to its hearing.
What can you do to help? According to the US
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, each House
Subcommittee member has already received
more than 2,500 letters urging him or her to end military aid to Israel.
Please take the time to aid the US Campaign in their efforts
by joining thousands of others in sending a letter today.
To do so, please click here.
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