Please help support a ceasefire in Gaza by contacting John Kerry (non-partisan action info).

[EFerrari]

Please support a ceasefire in Gaza by calling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and by urging Senator John Kerry
to use his influence as Chairman to help stop the shooting.

As of this afternoon, Senator Kerry's personal mailbox at his Senate office is full. Here is the Contact info for the Committee:

U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6225
Majority Phone: [phone]

* * *

If you are able to try later or tomorrow, here is Senator Kerry's Senate office contact info:

304 Russell Bldg.
Third Floor
Washington D.C. 20510
[phone]

Please keep kicked and civil. Thank you!

[karynnj]

1. I'm not sure where the line is on foreign policy

and what Kerry or any other Senator can do. I assume he can speak to people behind the scenes, but only a representative of the President can actually negotiate. President elect Obama is in a similarly awkward position, but he will be President in about three weeks. A public statement by him would carry more weight suggesting the direction he intends to go in.

[EFerrari]

2. Kerry is in an influential network. He can work it withut crossing the line.

He may, at this point, be in a better position than Obama is.

[karynnj]

3. I am not one who underestimates the good Senator

and I would be surprised if he, in addition to others, is not speaking to people behind the scenes.

(After writing that post, I went to get a email action alert that was sent by Brit Tzedek, a progressive Jewish group that I learned about at synagogue. I see that there web site has two action alerts - to contact Obama and Bush. (That seem in line with what you are asking in terms of contacting Senator Kerry.) I suppose that the Clintons might also be able to speak out. They will get more media than Kerry.)

http://www.btvshalom.org/

Here is part of their statement on the current situation (there are also action alerts to get Obama and/or Bush to call for a ceasefire.

"Who among us has not watched in alarm and anguish as the crisis has unfolded in Gaza and southern Israel over the past two days? Close to 300 Palestinians have died and hundreds more are wounded -- both Hamas militants and ordinary citizens. More than 120 rockets have been launched into Israel, with one man killed.

Though some Israeli action is an understandable response to continued rocket fire from Hamas, and the idea of contained surgical strikes may be compelling, these airstrikes represent a huge escalation of the conflict -- a crisis that may end in a wider war in which many more Palestinians and Israelis die in the weeks to come.

The now familiar sequence of escalating mutual hostility, invasion, and withdrawal without security arrangements has never worked -- in Lebanon, the West Bank, or in Gaza itself. The United States and the entire world community must intercede to help reestablish a ceasefire, put an end to rocket attacks on Israel, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Brit Tzedek calls on President Bush to initiate an international effort aimed at negotiating an immediate ceasefire. Such a ceasefire must halt all attacks from both sides and allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

Further, we call on President-elect Obama to make clear that he will, as President, urgently assert US leadership to achieve a comprehensive diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts. "

http://ga3.org/btvshalom/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=34933577

[EFerrari]

4. Thanks for the info. I'm also keeping an eye on the refusnik sites.

Most of them have been quiet for months. Let's see if we can wake people up a little.

:hi:

[EFerrari]

5. kick

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. K&R. The path to peace is peace.

[EFerrari]

7. Now, there's an idea!

:kick:

[IndianaGreen]

8. K&R

Stop the bombing!

[EFerrari]

9. Kick

[bananas]

10. kick. nt