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APN tells Congress to be pro-Israel and reject AIPAC-backed anti-peace resolutions

Today, APN's Director of Policy and Government Relations Lara Friedman sent the following message to every congressional office.


Dear Colleague,

Tomorrow AIPAC supporters will be on the Hill lobbying Congress to support resolutions - H. Res. 268 and S. Res. 185 - taking the Palestinians to task for seeking international recognition and for trying to achieve national reconciliation.   

APN urges members of Congress to refuse to cosponsor these resolutions and to vote "no" when they are brought to a vote.  

We urge you to look past the AIPAC talking points and recognize that these resolutions make the achievement of peace and security for Israel more difficult.  For the sake of both Israel and the U.S., Congress today should be looking for ways to break the Middle East deadlock and achieve peace and security for Israel, not grandstanding at the expense of the real interests of both Israel and the United States.  


ReconciliationPeace for Israel requires Palestinian national unity.  Congress should be welcoming and encouraging unity efforts, not seeking to undermine them.  

The Gaza-West Bank split is a very real hurdle to peace. Rather than responding to the Palestinians' national reconciliation effort with threats and new conditions, Congress should welcome the potential emergence of a Palestinian government representing all Palestinians, with security and governance capacity in both the West Bank and Gaza - something that is vital to the achievement of any peace agreement.  Hamas is a terrorist organization, but asserting that fact is not a policy.  Five years of U.S., Israeli, and international active efforts to sideline Hamas have failed, and it is time to embrace another way forward.  For years the U.S. has made the mistake of opposing Palestinian reconciliation rather than encouraging it. It would be reckless and irresponsible for Congress, by passing these resolutions, to compound this mistake.  U.S. relations with any Palestinian government - including about assistance - should be based solely on the positions and actions of the government.

RecognitionOne of the biggest dangers facing Israel today is the absence of U.S. leadership and a credible U.S.-led peace effort; it is not the Palestinians' non-violent diplomatic campaign for international recognition.  Rather than blasting the Palestinians and demanding that they desist from their diplomatic efforts, Congress should be pressing President Obama to re-accredit U.S. peace efforts and launch a diplomatic process that can break the impasse and quickly deliver results.   
    
Doing so is the only thing that will give the Palestinians a real reason to suspend this campaign - something the Palestinian leadership has made clear it would welcome.  Absent this, the Palestinian people will continue to ask why the Arab Spring, with its promise of freedom and democracy, doesn't apply to them.  Recent demonstrations offer ample evidence that many are no longer willing to sit quietly and wait.  Likewise, Palestinian leaders have given up waiting for U.S.-led peace efforts to deliver Palestinian dignity and self-determination. After two decades of disappointments, they apparently have concluded that unless and until the U.S. is ready to get serious, they must pursue their own course, irrespective of what the White House, or Congress, thinks.  

Congress does Israel no favors by rallying behind knee-jerk, "play-by-our-rules-or-we're-taking-our-ball-and-going-home" initiatives like these resolutions.  With the Middle East in flux and the stakes high, there is growing sympathy in the international community for the Palestinians' efforts to break out of the current peace process paradigm, with even our closest allies increasingly ready to pursue their own independent foreign policies in this arena.  Absent a renewed and reinvigorated process, readiness to engage a unified Palestinian government and support for recognition of Palestine will only keep gaining momentum.  Heavy-handed resolutions from Congress cannot stop this trend, but will only exacerbate the growing U.S. and Israeli isolation on this issue, and further undermine the chances of achieving peace and security for Israel.  

We therefore urge you to refuse to co-sponsor these resolutions, and to vote "no" when they are brought to a vote.

Sincerely,

Lara Friedman
Director of Policy and Government Relations
Americans for Peace Now