Contact the White House

Dear Friends of Saint George Taybeh,

Many of you know that I am still in Boston but as you have heard the news from Palestine is tragically bad.  As of this writing, Israeli Air Force attacks on the occupied Gaza Strip have killed an estimated 640 Palestinians and injured 2850. These Israeli attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, which has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities of life.  Although all of the Israeli leaders falsely claim on international media that they have left Gaza since 2005, you must understand that Gaza has been a complete prison and under the total control of Israel since 1967.

I am sure you know that Israel carried out these attacks with F16 fighter jets and missiles provided by the United States taxpayers. From 2001-2006, the United States transferred to Israel more than $200 million worth of spare parts to fly its fleet of F16's. In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and "bunker buster" missiles. (source:  AAI)

Israel’s lethal attack on Gaza could not have happened without the active military and political support of the United States. Therefore, I urge you to take action to protest this brutal attack and demand an immediate cease-fire to help save innocent lives.  I am not a Hamas supporter and I do not condone the rockets that fall upon Israel but in 1987 when my son Canaan was born, Israel was supporting Hamas to organize so they could break the unity of Palestinians supporting the late Yasser Arafat.  

While firing rockets at civilians is a crime so, too, is the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which is a grave violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions. Israel is trying to have a military solution to a problem that needs negotiation and a political solution.

Contact the White House to protest the attack and demand an immediate cease-fire. Call 202-456-1111 or send an email to comments@whitehouse.gov <mailto:comments@whitehouse.gov>

Please contact your Representative and Senators in Congress at 202-224-3121.

On this holy day of Epiphany and the holy Christmas Eve on Julian calendar, I ask you to please pray for peace in the Holy Land and thank you for your personal prayers to keep our undying hope for a better future,

In helping keep our Christian presence in the sacred Holy Land we try to reinforce that God is Light and has appeared to illumine "those who sat in darkness," and "in the region of the shadow of death" (Mt 4:16), and to save the fallen race of mankind by grace.


More than ever, may the Light of Christ shine within our soul since we appear, year after year, to becoming more and more barbaric as Floyd Frantz wrote me from Romania.

in Christ, maria