Date:

January 8, 2009

From:

Martin Raffel, Senior Vice President

Hadar Susskind, Washington Director

Amos Kamil, Director, UJC/JCPA Israel Advocacy Initiative

Re:

Congressional Resolution Supporting Israel's Right to Self Defense

Action: Email AND call to Urge Your Members of Congress to Vote Yes TODAY, January 8th, on the Resolution in Support of Israel's Right to Self Defense

Click Here to take action

Background:

In 2005 Israel made the difficult decision to withdraw both its citizens and its troops from the Gaza strip and to hand full control of that territory over to the Palestinians. Since the Israeli government completed the withdrawal of its troops and citizens from the Gaza strip in August of 2005, over 6,300 rockets were fired from Gaza at the homes, schools, and synagogues of Israel's southern communities. These rockets were not fired at army bases. They were not fired at airstrips. They were not fired at industrial targets. They were indiscriminately launched at population centers with the sole goal of killing as many innocent civilians as possible.

We acknowledge with sorrow the suffering of innocents in both Israel and Gaza, but suffering on both sides does not equate to equal responsibility on both sides. Hamas, from the beginning and to this day targets innocent civilians. They continue to cynically use the women and children of Gaza as human shields, a violation of both international law and their own responsibility to their citizens.

Intensive diplomatic activity for a cease-fire is taking place, but it must be remembered that this conflict was caused by Hamas.  It can be brought to a close only when Hamas is no longer targeting nearly one million citizens of Israel with daily barrages of rockets and other acts of terror.

Click here to view the text of the resolution

Action Needed:

A resolution in support of Israel will be brought to the floor of both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as early as this afternoon. Please e mail AND call to Urge Your Members of Congress to Vote Yes on the Resolution in Support of Israel's Right to Self Defense.

Click Here to take action