Oppose Obama's linkage of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to Iran policy

Thank you

Dear member of Congress

I am writing to thank you very much for signing the letter authored by Senators Dodd, Specter, Thune, and Isakson that was sent to President Obama on May 19th from the Senate/ authored by Representatives Steny Hoyer and Eric Cantor that was sent to President Obama on May 28th from the House, reaffirming the key peace principles for progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a constituent, I wanted to express my immense gratitude for your consistent support of the American-Israel relationship.

In addition, I was wondering what your position is on Mr. Obama's Cairo Speech of June 4th. I believe that Mr. Obama's position in this speech completely disregards several principles expressed in that letter. Most importantly, by stating U.S. policy toward the settlements, it seemed to ignore the overarching principle that the U.S. restrain itself from imposing policy in the region, and instead permit the P.A. and Israel to negotiate between themselves. Additionally, it contradicted the principle that Israel's security should not be compromised.Obama virtually gave Iran, a country whose leader has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map, permission to continue its nuclear program by neglecting to condemn it for its refusal to cooperate with the IAEA and threatening harsh American sanctions as a consequence.


This position seems consistent with prior statements made by adminstration officials, who've indicated that there is a connection between progress on Israeli-American peace and dealing with the threat of a nuclear Iran.



Israel's security is its absolute priority, and if Iran's nuclear development continues unchecked, Israel will obviously not be able to focus on making progress in negotiations with the Palestinians. On the other hand, we know from experience that Israel's negotiations with the Palestinians will have absolutely zero influence on Iran's nuclear program.


As a constituent, I want to relay to you how concerned I am about this linkage, which simultaneously imperils Israel's existence and jeopardizes any hope for peace and stability in the Middle East. As recently as June 8th, there were reports not only that Iran has increased its nuclear output by 30% since February, but also that the IAEA detected man-made uranium in Syria, ie. now Syria has secretly initiated a nuclear program as well!


This is an extremely important issue, and I would appreciate if you could, as soon as possible, sponsor legislature stating explicitly that the impending existential threat to both Israel and the world of a nuclear Iran is a policy issue that takes priority over and is unrelated to the policy issue of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Thank you very much.
Respectfully,

[Your name]