Issue:

Lightning Out of Lebanon, is a fascinating, but unsettling account of continuing infiltration in the U.S. by terrorists fueled by equal hatred of Israel and the U.S.  According to co-authors Barbara Newman and Tom Diaz, Hezbollah is even more dangerous than Al-Quaeda.  They are 14 known sleeper cells in major cities in the United States.  Hezbollah has a large militia (estimates of 25000), and are well funded by Iran.

Hezbollah, which has re-emerged onto the front pages of American newspapers because of its huge importance in Lebanon, has consistently called for the destruction of the state of Israel.  Hezbollah was responsible for the truck-bomb attack that killed 241 U.S. marines, for Israeli and American Embassy bombings in places as disparate as Buenos Aires, London, and Beirut, for the Maxim Restaurant bombing in Tel Aviv, and for the murder of soldiers in Saudi Arabia. Leaders of Hezbollah have worked with top members of al-Qaeda and Hamas. 

As such, it is an outrage that President Bush is opening up windows of opportunity for Hezbollah to become part of the mainstream process.  Please read and forward the following letter from VIPAC to President Bush.

Contact Information:
president@whitehouse.gov
vice.president@whitehouse.gov
White House phone: 202-456-1111 Fax: 202-456-2461
Senate and House switchboard:  202-224-3121
Click on "Govt. Email Addresses" at www.vipac.org for other officials.

Use a subject line such as:
No negotiating with Terror
Hezbollah = terror
Don’t talk to terrorists
Don’t legitimize hate
Killers are killers, period.
etc…

Sample Letter:

Dear Mr. President:

I was quite distressed upon reading a report from the Associated Press stating that you “left open the possibility that the militant Shiite Muslin group Hezbollah could be part of the political mainstream in Lebanon despite its terrorist past.”

This is an organization that has killed hundreds of Americans and has supported terrorism in South America and other distant parts of the world. It supports a paramilitary army that reportedly has thousands of Iranian supplied missiles aimed at the civilian population of northern Israel.

Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO – yes even Abbas’s and Arafat’s cohorts – are murderers and terrorists. We cannot grant those who are members and supporters of these terror groups political rights. These organizations are founded upon the principle that brute force and terror can be used to dominate and conquer. They are determined to stop free choice and the basic foundations of a democratic society. Democracy cannot grow in an environment that tolerates and supports murder and terror.

The failure of the Arab leader Abbas to disband the Arab terror groups: Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO dooms the so-called democratic process in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Tolerating these terror groups is no different than allowing the Taliban to remain in Afghanistan or Al Queida in America.

Our policy should embody the principles that organizations that support terror cannot by definition participate in a democratic society. In the words of Senator Charles Schumer: “Hezbollah has the blood of Americans on its hands and it is awfully difficult to forgive them so quickly, especially when they have not denounced terrorism.”

So too the terrorists within Israel and its territories! I urge your continued support of Israel in its war against Arab terror.

Respectfully yours,

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