[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Illinois residents! Tell Durbin what you think about his AIPAC appearance!

[Morton K. Brussel]

An old story, but we have to let him know what we think. --mkb

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Martha Reese <telldurbin at gmail.com>
> Date: February 14, 2006 4:46:48 PM CST
> To: patforbes at hotmail.com
> Subject: Illinois residents! Tell Durbin what you think about his  
> AIPAC appearance!
>
> Illinois residents!
>
> Tell Senator Richard Durbin what you think about his remarks at the
> Jan. 29, 2006 Chicago AIPAC conference!
>
> Send an e-mail:
> http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
>
> Call the Washington office: (202) 224-2152
> Foreign Policy Legislative Assistant: Shannon Smith
>
> Call the Chicago office: (312) 353-4952
>
> * * *
>
> Dear Senator Durbin,
>
> We are deeply disturbed by your attendance at the AIPAC Regional
> Conference, "The US and Israel: From Generation to Generation," held
> Sunday, January 29 in Rosemont, Illinois. We deplore your support for
> AIPAC, a lobbying organization representing a foreign country--an
> organization currently embroiled in a spying scandal related to the
> illegal passing of classified US intelligence. AIPAC's one-sided
> pro-Israel agenda and your comments to the AIPAC audience reflect a
> deeply problematic anti-Palestinian, anti-justice, anti-peace bias.
>
> Some of your troubling remarks at the January 29 AIPAC conference  
> include:
>
> --thanking AIPAC for supporting you in your first senatorial campaign
> against Paul Findlay, the "outspoken supporter of the PLO."  [Do you,
> like AIPAC, oppose the election of representatives to the U.S.
> Congress who demonstrate support of Palestinian political and human
> rights?]
>
> --describing the start of the 1967 war as the "launching of an
> offensive" from Egypt, Jordan and Syria. [This misleading
> simplification is part of Israel's mythology of victimization, but not
> historically accurate.]
>
> --saying that Israel brings us together, "bound together in
> democracy."  [Israel's deeply flawed
> democracy is based on ethnic discrimination and second-class status
> for its non-Jewish citizens and total exclusion from the political
> process for millions of Palestinian refugees and stateless residents
> of the occupied territories.]
>
> --speaking of the "staggering blows" that have been delivered to the
> "hope for peace," including the "loss of Sharon" and the Palestinian
> elections. [Sharon's land-grab and unilateral imposition of borders on
> a truncated Palestinian "state" offers little hope for peace. Nor
> doesthe Israeli or U.S. failure to accept either the outcome of the
> Palestinians' democratic election or responsibility for the U.S and
> Israel's roles in the failure of PLO "moderates."]
>
> --stating that "the U.S. does not deal with terrorists" and that Hamas
> "must accept Israel" and "renounce violence."  [Why is accountability
> required from only one side?]
>
> Senator Durbin, please join us, your constituents, in demanding that
> Israel, too:
> --Renounce violence.
> --Fulfill its commitments under the Roadmap, including an immediate
> and total cessation of  settlement activity.
> --Accept and recognize a Palestinian state.

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