Sample letter to your Congressperson

This was sent to me from one of the Americans who visited Lebanon last year. You would have to change some stuff around. She also gave directions to sending it to your representatives. Go through the link on the equalmarraige.org website. (Geez, I hope no one get's offended by that.) "it's not hard - you just type in your address and it does it all for you, emails it to the right people."

[Dear Senator, etc]

Please act to halt Israel's wholesale war against Lebanon. Israel isdestroying Lebanon as well as the precarious economic viability it hasstruggled to build since the end of the previous war in 1989.

The actions of Israel since Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israelisoldiers in Gaza on July 12 have been excessive, punitive, and ingross violation of international law. Despite the biased Westernmedia's minimizing of civilian casualties, direct reports from Lebanonreveal the truth that the Israeli attacks are wholesale, not targetedas we have been led to believe. All of the Lebanese people—whetherChristian, Muslim, or Druze, whether Northern, Southern, orBeiruti—now fear for their life and well-being.

Israel's actions are especially brutal in the light of Lebanon'sprogress toward reconstruction and economic rebirth in recent years.As a visitor to the country in May and June of 2005, I witnessed thebeauty of this rebirth in the wake of the terrible civil war andexperienced the warm hospitality of the Lebanese people. This nationand this people are not expendable. Yet in less than one week, Israelhas all but undone the achievements of sixteen years.

Sad to say, Israel's exaggerated response to a kidnapping will only dothat country damage among neighbors whose hostility is already—andnow, one begins to suspect, justifiably—great. This is especiallytragic in the case of Lebanon, which boasts of eighteen religiousconfessions, including several Christian denominations which havehistorically been well disposed toward the West and its allies.Lebanon, as a moderate country among the Arab nations, ought to havebeen wooed by Israel and the U.S. Instead, it has been made the pawnof Arab and Western nations alike.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration's own hawkish ideology and pervasive disrespect for the Arab world have encouraged Israel's excesses. It is certain that without assurance of American support Israel would not have initiated this sweeping attack upon Lebanon. It is therefore our responsibility as Americans to see that limits are imposed upon Israeli aggression against the Lebanese.

I ask you to call for an immediate ceasefire and for U.N. sanctions upon Israel for its acts against Lebanon.