And Our Pick for President Is...

October 27th, 2008

….Just kidding. As a non-profit organization we can’t express any opinion about the candidates. But now that we have your attention, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of its eligible supporters to vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 4.

We also wanted to take this opportunity to remind you about the important policy work that we’ve done this year; to let you in on some of our future plans to change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine support human rights, international law, and equality; and to ask for your generous tax-deductible support to continue this work.

Since August 2007, when the United States and Israel signed an agreement to increase arms transfers to $30 billion over the next decade, we’ve:

* Organized an open letter to Congress, signed by nearly 400 organizations, calling on the United States to cut off military aid to Israel, rather than increase it. Individual supporters sent more than 250,000 similar letters to Members of Congress.

* Created a report card for the 110th Congress, analyzing the voting records of Representatives and of Senators. The report card is considered such an authoritative record on the positions of Members of Congress on Palestine/Israel that CongressionalReportCards.Org uses it as one of only three groups for its foreign policy rankings.

* Sent more than 300 organizing packets with fact sheets, petitions, and postcards to volunteer organizers who are working in their communities to educate people about U.S. policy and organize them to take action to change it.

* Attended the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver and the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul, successfully getting our messages in front of the public, the media, convention delegates, and Members of Congress.

* Sent dozens of bird-dogging packets to volunteers across the country to make sure that the issue of cutting off military aid to Israel would be front and center at town hall meetings, debates, and campaign events.

We’re proud of these accomplishments and we deserve your generous tax-deductible support for them. But we’re not content to rest on these accomplishments, which is why, in the coming months, we are planning to:

* Publish an open letter to the new Administration and Congress calling for a new approach to U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine;

* Have a large, visible presence in Washington, DC during the Presidential inauguration;

* Release our first-ever policy paper examining in detail U.S. arms transfers to Israel during the Bush Administration and their effect on Palestinian civilians; and

* Organize a Grassroots Advocacy Training and Lobby Day with our friends at Interfaith Peace-Builders in Washington, DC on February 1-2. Stay tuned for details and registration information.

But we can only do these things with your generous support. So please make your tax-deductible donation today!