John,

We’re nearing a year of U.S.-backed war crimes against Palestinians, and now the Biden administration is enabling a wider regional war.

In the past two weeks, Israel’s attacks have killed over 1,300 people in Lebanon, including 90 children. After displacing 2 million people in Gaza without facing any consequences, Israel’s government has now displaced over 1 million people in Lebanon. The Israeli military is using the same tactics in Lebanon as in Palestine, leveling entire neighborhoods with “bunker buster” bombs, destroying roads and other civilian infrastructure like medical centers, and killing doctors and rescue workers.

My congressional district is home to one of the largest and most vibrant Lebanese communities in the United States. For over a week my team and I have been responding to heartbreaking calls, supporting 148 American families with ties to our district in their desperate attempts to evacuate from Lebanon.

A new mom of a 5-month-old is trying to get her child an emergency passport. A veteran broke down in tears asking, “Do my two purple hearts mean anything to my country?” Already a father of four from Dearborn Michigan was killed by Israeli bombs. Family after family is saying: Please don’t leave us here and please stop bombing us.

We shouldn't have to beg our own government to help its own citizens. The mission of the U.S. State Department is to protect Americans, and they are failing. Our government knew this was coming and had no plan to get Americans out.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans in six states are dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Helene, with more than 200 people dead, entire towns and roads and bridges wiped away, and thousands still stranded without necessities like water or food. As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced it needs $9 billion to adequately support hurricane recovery efforts last week, the Israeli military announced on the same day that it got an $8.7 billion aid package from the U.S. government.

We deserve better from our government. Instead of wasting trillions of our tax dollars on war, our government should fund what communities need here.

We deserve representatives who understand that saving lives at home and abroad is interconnected. We deserve public officials who see all of us as human beings who deserve to live, including Muslim Americans and Arab Americans who’ve experienced a frightening rise in violent hate crimes.

I created the Rooted in Community Leadership PAC to counter the money from fossil fuel CEOs, the weapons industry, and MAGA billionaires who are trying to uphold the unjust status quo by interfering in our elections. We need to support grassroots candidates for public office who care deeply about their constituents and push to invest in our communities at home rather than endless military funding.

Please donate today to my Rooted in Community Leadership PAC to support candidates who stand up for human rights for all. Together, let’s build a multi-racial democracy where our public servants actually represent the people—the majority of whom want to stop funding Israel’s wars.

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Thank you for continuing to work toward a world built on equal rights, human dignity, and freedom from oppression for all people.

In solidarity,

Rashida