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The House foreign aid package allocating some $26.38 billion for Israel, including $9.1 billion for humanitarian needs, passed on Saturday, April 20. The bill passed by a 366-58 margin, with 37 progressive Democratic members and 21 hard-right Republican members of the House voting against the legislation. Now it heads to the Senate for a vote and could be signed into law by President Joe Biden as early as next week.

The following article was submitted for the upcoming June/July 2024 issue of the Washington Report, but we decided to send it to our readers immediately, as it encourages President Joe Biden to focus on peace—by acknowledging a Palestinian state—rather than sending more offensive weapons to Israel. The link to the article also includes contact information for your members of Congress.
Do It, Mr. President
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"Time is of the essence," says Dr. John Duke Anthony. "Do it, Mr. President. Recognize a State of Palestine. Note that, of necessity, it would be co-equal to and exist alongside Israel. Reverse your United Nations Security Council veto, Mr. President.

"Be a peacemaker, the likes of which this era has not seen. Do it to bring this conflict to an end. Do it and help improve regional security that will otherwise remain beyond reach. Grant the Palestinians their due and the attacks against Israel will cease."

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From Our May Issue:

Looking for Love in the Middle East? Read the Room
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"Our family roamed deserts, mountains and beaches as we made ourselves at home all over the Middle East in the 1960s and ’70s," writes Delinda C. Hanley. "Throughout my life, American students, tourists and workers all fell in love with the region—its people, land, history and food.

"Americans were also loved. Many of our friends were missionaries, doctors, professors, artists, diplomats and businesspeople who were having the times of their lives as they worked alongside Arabs building close ties between our countries. In those days there was a Kennedy street in every country in the Middle East.

"Our lavish financial support for Israel, our military bases in the region, and our own attacks on Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen (pushed by foreign policy hawks, neocons and knee-jerk supporters of Israel) have destroyed our reputation. If we had continued to use American know-how, expertise and diplomacy to build up the Middle East instead of bombing it to smithereens or supporting Israel’s ongoing genocide, we would still be loved."

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Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978
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"In Our Palestine Question, Geoffrey Levin, assistant professor of Middle Eastern and Jewish studies at Emory University, recovers the voices of those Jews who first called for an honest reckoning of the plight of the indigenous population of Palestine," says Allan C. Brownfeld in his book review.

“Whether Israelis want to admit it or not, the Palestinian question has always been their country’s most central, if not definitional dilemma….The circle of American Jews critiquing Israeli policies has grown larger and larger...Palestinian rights advocacy has become a realm of Jewish politics in and of itself…It will define the transnational relationship between Jews even more as time goes by.”

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