Take Action: U.S. to Give Huge Increase in Weapons to Israel

It’s bad enough that in this year’s budget request, President Obamaproposed “some difficult cuts that, frankly, I wouldn’t normally make if they weren’t absolutely necessary,” while increasing military aid to Israel to $3.1 billion.

To make matters worse, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense approved earlier this month an additional $949 million in weapons, meaning that we as taxpayers may be giving Israel a whopping $4 billion in military aid this year—roughly 25 percent more than last year.

Make no mistake about it: more guns for Israel means less butter for us, bringing us that much closer to painful across-the-board budget cuts that will negatively impact tens, if not hundreds, of millions of Americans next year.

More guns for Israel also make us more complicit in and responsible for Israel’s nearly 45-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and for Israel’s human rights abuses against and apartheid policies toward Palestinians.

Knowledge is not power, but it’s the first step toward achieving it. We must take our knowledge of how U.S. aid to Israel is wrong and continue to turn it into effective actions to change U.S. policy toward Israel and the Palestinian people to support human rights, international law, and equality.

Here’s how you can get involved in doing just that:

Write a letter to President Obama and your Members of Congress opposing military aid to Israel.

Join us for a conference call this Thursday, May 31, at 9pm Eastern to learn more about U.S. military aid to Israel, and to hear from inspiring activists across the country about the creative things they are doing—from ad campaigns, to campaigns in city councils, political parties, religious institutions, and more—to educate and organize people for change.

Help us strategize to strengthen our movement to put the “S” in BDS(boycott, divestment, and sanctions) by working to sanction Israel and end military aid to it. Join the call by dialing 209-647-1600 and entering 489902 for the participant code. No RSVP needed.

Sign up to receive a packet with materials to educate and organize people in your community to end U.S. aid to Israel. When you sign up, you’ll be joining organizers inmore than 1,000 cities doing this crucial work. We’ll send you postcards, fact sheets, fliers, stickers, posters, and more to enable you to educate and organize people in your city.

Join with other activists or organizations in your community to run a high-profile ad campaign to raise awareness about the moral and financial costs of giving Israel weapons and/or learn more about how we can help you organize a campaign to get your city council to pass a resolutionto end aid to Israel and redirect the money to unmet community needs.

Thanks for taking action to help end U.S. aid to Israel.

Yours,

Josh Ruebner
National Advocacy Director

P.S.: Another way you can increase the effectiveness of this campaign is by “offsetting” the $21.59 in weapons that the average taxpayer is giving to Israel in the 2012 budget. Thank you for your generous donation to help us grow and strengthen this campaign.