Despite the preoccupation with the economy, Munayyer believed there are “still many people [in Congress] who realize the acute and desperate situation of the people on the Gaza Strip.”
He stated, “There are calls on the Hill right now to get the administration to do everything their power to provide humanitarian assistance for the people in Gaza. If the situation in Gaza now goes back to the way it was before the war so that the borders are closed and that only one seventh of the amount of humanitarian supplies that are needed to meet basic needs are allowed to get in, we are not going to see any progress.”
Ruebner explained that a “Dear Colleague” letter [posted at end of article] was circulated last week by Representative John Olver from Massachusetts and called for “immediate U.S. humanitarian aid to go to Gaza” and was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Also, Ruebner recalled the fact that Representative Dennis Kucinich had written a letter to former secretary of state Rice calling for “a U.S. investigation into Israel’s potential violations of the Arms Export Control Act.” He explained, “That letter should have triggered an investigation by the State Department.
“We as civil society need to ensure that the State Department does a complete, accurate, and meaningful investigation. Any violations of the Arms Export Control Act which come out of this investigation, Israel has to be held accountable for,” said Ruebner. “The law needs to be applied and if Israel’s found to be in violation of this law, which I have no doubt will happen if an investigation is fair and accurate, then Israel needs to be sanctioned and military aid needs to be cut off as the law requires.”
Lerner took issue with the idea of halting U.S. support for illegal Israeli actions and explained, “Trying to get the U.S. to cut off support to Israel is not going to happen. There needs to be a change in consciousness.”
“You can’t get the U.S. to stop arming Israel when most people think that Israel’s story is the right story and that Palestinians have no legitimate story whatsoever.” He suggested that people understand “you’ve got two people, both of them have post traumatic stress disorder, and they both keeping acting irrationally.”
If the people want to see the U.S. change, Rabbi Lerner suggested, “Educate the people of the United States on the actual history of the Israeli and Palestinian people.”
Lerner explained that he really thinks the U.S. should convene an international conference where all Arab and European parties that have had a role in the conflict between Israeli and Palestinians meet to come up with an agreement for peace and justice in the region.
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