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Dear Mr. President,
The lives and safety of our troops in Iraq are in danger. It is vital to restore the credibility of the USA in the Arab world. We suggest that you publicly pressure Ariel Sharon to abandon Israeli settlements. Your nomination of the controversial Daniel Pipes to the Institute of Peace has aroused the criticism of many liberal academics and in particular Arab-Americans. If it is withdrawn it would send a welcome signal.
For over a year you have single mindedly stated to the world the need for "regime change" in Iraq independent of the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Arab leaders, while agreeing that Saddam Hussein was a bad man, stated unequivocally that you should first work toward peace with justice in the Holy Land. Although you decided to work in the reverse order, we are delighted that in June you introduced a "Road Map" for peace in the Holy Land and stated unequivocally the need for a Palestinian state with contiguous territory. We hope and pray that you will pursue this single mindedly. However we are deeply concerned that progress is far too slow.

Although the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority has declared unequivocally that all should abandon terrorism, and indeed terrorism has been reduced, the response of the government of Israel has been inadequate. The IDF has not refrained from provocations as demanded by the road map. One would hope, in such matters that the strongest party would take the first step. Unfortunately the first step was backwards. The ink was hardly dry when IDF started some "extrajudicial killings" in Gaza and the west bank. The main issue is the necessity for Israeli to withdraw from settlements in the west bank - but the Israeli government has declined to act. There are actually more settlements now than before the road map. Withdrawal from a few west bank towns is helpful - but since they remain surrounded by IDF this is grossly inadequate. Even Bethlehem is still under a state of siege with only a few persons allowed to leave or enter.

The United States, and you as President, are presently viewed in the Arab world as incapable of using your authority and unquestioned power to persuade Israel to begin serious withdrawals. Without these withdrawals Arab leaders will be unable to give the support that is needed to restrain anti-American arabs from infiltration into Iraq and fomenting trouble. Worse still you are blamed for domestic actions, which although perhaps small in themselves, are highly provocative. On a recent visit (June 2003) to Kuwait, several influential, pro-American, leaders brought to my attention your nomination of Daniel Pipes for the Institute of Peace. You will by now have been made aware, by the Senate committee, of the controversial nature of Daniel Pipes frequent public utterances. One attributed to him is particularly troubling. While speaking to a Jewish audience, he referred to Moslems in terms that if the reference had been to Jews he would have been ostracized from polite western society.

In these matters perception is crucial. We urge you to demonstrate clearly to the world, and in particular to all arab peoples, that you are not against them. We suggest that the first action, for which I assure you arab leaders are waiting, is to withdraw Daniel Pipes' nomination. This could be in response to the Senate committee. This could be done today. More important, we suggest that you publicly use your influence on Prime Minister Sharon to truly withdraw from settlements as outlined in the road map. If Mr Sharon equivocates we suggest that you take real action - such as withdrawal of funds- rather than meekly call Mr Sharon a "naughty boy".

The matter is urgent. The lives and safety of our troops in Iraq depend upon it.

tel: (617) 332-4823 (home)
tel: (617) 495-3387 (office)
fax: (617) 495-0416
email: wilson@physics.harvard.edu
http://phys4.harvard.edu/~wilson/

December 30^th 2002

Dear Mr President,

In this holiday season we urge that you consider what happened on Christmas day in the Holy Land.
In Tulkarem: Israeli occupation forces (IOF) carried an extrajudicial execution of Jamal Yehi, 28 years old. You should remember that extrajudicial executions are considered war crimes by the 4th Geneva convention on human rights, which Israel freely signed, and are certainly racist for a country which prides itself on having no death penalty even when adjudged guilty in a court.

In Ramallah: IOF carried an extrajudicial execution of Fanal Shilani and Bassam al-Askar in the process also killing bystander Mahdi Obayad aged 19. IOF destroyed five sheds in the Dir Dibwan area.

In East Jerusalem: One house was demolished, IOF also raided several neighborhoods and confiscated property of one non-Governmental organization.

In Beitunia: IOF enforced curfews using gunfire but no injuries reported.

In Qabatiyah: IOF carried an extrajudicial execution of Hamsa abu Roub, 35 years old.

In Gaza: IOF killed two Palestinian guerrilla members near an illegal Jewish settlement.

In Nablus: IOF carried an extrajudicial execution of two Palestinians. Taleb Abu Hawash (32 years old) was shot in both legs and had bled to death. A 16 year old was also killed with close range shooting by Israeli undercover forces. Civilians trying to defy the continuous curfew were met by IOF gunfire which killed an 18 year old and wounded 20 other civilians.

In Bethlehem and Beit Jala : Residents in most areas remained in their homes since they received no instructions as to whether curfew was lifted in their areas for Christmas. One house was demolished by the IOF and the curfew reimposed on Thursday morning.

In short, nine Palestinians were killed on Christmas Day. None of the killings were in direct defense of Israel or Israelis. On the day after Christmas (Thursday), seven Palestinians (including one child) were killed by IOF fire.

These days were not unusual. In the last 2 years 2100 Palestinians have died in the conflict, of which 85% were non combatants and many were children. 600 Israelis died in the conflict. In the West Bank and Gaza 600,000 trees were uprooted by IDF. 400,000 illegal Jewish settlers control now over 50% of the West Bank (10% of pre 1948 Palestine) while 3,300,000 Palestinians are confined to their homes and built-up areas on some 20% of the West Bank and Gaza (4% of pre 1948 Palestine).
These killings and expropriations have been financed in large part from the United States. The US Government supplies approximately $1,000 per year in "aid", mostly in military aid, per Israeli man, woman and child. It is reported that the Israeli government is asking for "loan guarantees" of another $15,000,000 ($4,000 per man woman and child). Given the present state of the Israeli economy and the probability that the Israeli government will continue its military occupation for many years, these loans are unlikely to be repaid and the US will be responsible for the principal. By these gifts and loans Americans make themselves a part of the Israeli government decisions, whether good or bad.
We therefore ask you to make a New Year resolution to strongly resist ANY increase in support to the Israeli government, and indeed to urge a reduction in support, until it follows the moral precepts of the world, and the moral concepts that Israelis themselves claim. In particular to respect the 4^th Geneva convention on human rights. Also until Israel make some active steps to follow the UN security council resolutions (which our government supported) and to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza so that the Palestinians can govern themselves in a state with contiguous borders and unfettered access to its neighbors.
In this we also urge that you note that Arik Sharon said "we are placing no restriction on our operations. Israel is under no pressure. No one is criticizing us or has the right to do so. We are talking here about Israel's right to protect its citizens." (Reuters, IHT 15 November, 2002).You might also note the escalated level of talk about "transfer" of Palestinians out of their homes, which the United States rightly condemned in former Yugoslavia as "ethnic cleansing". This again would, under present circumstances, be supported by American taxpayer's funds.

tel: (617) 332-4823 (home)
wilson@huhepl.harvard.edu
http://phys4.harvard.edu
September 12th 2002

Dear Mr. President:
Today you stated unequivocally in a speech to the UN that UN security council resolutions must be respected and must be enforced. We agree.

We suggest that a start be immediately made on security council resolution 242 which has been on the books for 30 years. The US could initiate the process by immediately withholding all funds from the state of Israel and refusing to reinstate them until Israel agrees to comply with 242 unequivocally and without further delay and prevarication.
This would create the needed atmosphere needed in the UN for the worldwide support for enforcement of the resolutions against Iraq.

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As an Israeli General said: "If there is hope and you kill a terrorist, there is one terrorist less. If there is no hope and you kill a terrorist there are 10 terrorists more".

Both Israelis and Palestinians are only thinking about short term goals. Israeli "collective punishment" clearly increases resentment and feelings for revenge among Palestinians, while diminishing the ability of the Palestinian Authority to take the kind of security actions that are being requested of it. Palestinian terrorism increases the fear of Israelis that the world is against them, and that Palestinians are not human. As an Israeli cabinet minister said last year - they are just lice.

U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni's mission to achieve a cease fire is more important than ever. He is not likely to succeed, however, without a presidential mandate to simultaneously pursue a political process. Hope must be offered to the Palestinian people. Hope that they will be accorded elementary human rights and treated with humanity and justice. Talks must be immediate without preconditions. He might well meet with Mr Arafat in the ruins of his office and with Mr Sharon in the ruins of his seaside hotel.

Please give General Zinni such a mandate. He must include in his discussions, as were included in the Mitchell report, both demands for a cease fire and hope for the future. He should have as an aim the unequivocal acceptance of that report, without reservation, by both sides. The success of his mission would also be enhanced by the renewal of the American offer to place U.N. or U.S. monitors on the ground to help verify the compliance of each side with the terms of the cease fire. Such an approach is not a reward for Palestinian violence, but rather an attempt to defeat terrorism, empower Palestinian moderates, and defend lives - including those of Israeli citizens.

Moreover, American diplomacy at the most senior level may be required to bring about a cease fire and political re-engagement. It should preferably be done, as your esteemed father the former President Bush did in 1991, with the full support and participation of the appropriate U.N agencies to give it the highest chance of success. I know of no other viable option. The tragedy that has befallen Israelis and Palestinians requires that the full weight of the leadership of all countries, and of you as President of our country in particular, be brought to bear in support of a more visible and vigorous diplomatic initiative.

If Israel only offers Palestinians despair, such as sealing the west bank into disconnected "Bantustans" with no connection to the outside world, the consequences for Israel are likely to be terrible to contemplate.

Andrée Desirée Wilson
Photographer

Richard Wilson
Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics
Harvard University
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Richard and Andrée Desirée Wilson
15 Bracebridge Road
Newton Centre,
02459-1728 The Honorable George W. Bush,
President,  United States of America
The White House
Washington DC

Dear Mr President,

    Enough is enough. Or perhaps we should say much too much. The Government of Israel has targeted (assassinated) Palestinian leaders, who are suspected but not charged and convicted, of planning bombing attacks against Israel. This is curious for a country which prides itself on having no death penalty. Moreover, if this were accepted by civilized people, Mr Sharon would be a target for his plans in Lebanon and Mr Begin for his planning of the bomb in the King David Hotel. Now Israel has violated specific agreements made in the Oslo accords and entered Beit Jala, a community from which in 1983 it took land and olive trees to make the settlement of Gilo. It has occupied church property and a church and taken 40 disabled children hostage, knowing full well that even Moslem extremists will not return fire onto such a place.

    You have given a green light to Israel to perpetrate these crimes. If these crimes were committed in Bosnia or Kosovo, the US would have bombed Belgrade. Now is the time to give a red light to Israel and keep it there till Israel makes a major change such as an unequivocal public endorsement of the Mitchell report, withdrawal of Israeli troops from area A , an unequivocal free movement of Palestinians (subject only to Palestinian law) within the West Bank and Gaza (all territories inside the green line marking the west bank) including to and from any and all foreign territories by air, sea or land.

    The red light should include a ban on any and all shipment of military equipment to Israel, including bullets, radars, and tanks. It should include a cancellation of all US financial or other aid in any shape or form. Any resumption of financial or material aid should be specifically renegotiated with specific public and congressional discussion. Nothing less will suffice. Of course similar, simultaneous, bans should be put on military and financial aid to the Palestinian Authority.

    Mr President: the world is looking to the USA and to you. Do you condone, by your words and continuation of blind military and financial support, these crimes against humanity? Please look to the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom and respond to their heartfelt cries that were presented to you (through the Embassy in Tel Aviv) this week.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Wilson and Andrée Desirée Wilson
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Richard and Andrée Desirée Wilson
15 Bracebridge Road
Newton Centre,
02459-1728

tel: (617) 332-4823 (home)
tel: (617) 495-3387 (office)
fax: (617) 495-0416
email: wilson@physics.harvard.edu
http://phys4.harvard.edu/~wilson/
14^th August 2001

The Honorable George W. Bush,
President United state of America
The White House
Washington DC

Dear Mr President,

We are sure that you are bombarded by letters from Israeli citizens, particularly if they are also US citizens and have dual allegiance. One of them, unfortunately from a colleague, asks you to give Israel a "green light" to kill suspected (but not arrested, not charged, and not brought to court) organizers of terrorism. The terrorists themselves being suicide bombers, are already dead.

It seems you have three choices. To intervene strongly, to disengage, or to be a "broker" between the parties. Former President Clinton tried the latter route. But few people in the world believed the adjective "honest" applied to the noun broker, and they became even fewer after Clinton's burst of temper against Mr Arafat after Mr Arafat turned down an agreement that, so far as I can tell, asked him to give up some basic human rights for ever. To try again would be difficult. Massive intervention - such as in Yugoslavia - is expensive and hard. You may wish to try disengagement but it should go beyond mere talk. We suggest the following graded set of actions in disengaging from the geographical region.

You could issue an executive order stopping all military equipment from jets to rifles and bullets, including all spare parts being sent by any and all US agencies to either the Palestinian Authority or to Israel until the killing stops. The action would have to be as strong as the embargo against Iran. It would be up to Mr Sharon to decide, as he seems to want to do, when the Palestinian Authority has done enough and up to Mr Arafat to decide when Israel has done enough. If that does not bring the parties back to the peace table, you could issue another executive order stopping ALL payments by the US government or US corporations or citizens to the Palestinian Authority or Israel and proceed, in turn, to a series of further actions. Stop all air line flights by US airlines to Palestinian or Israeli airports. Prohibit all landings by Palestinian or Israeli airlines in US airports and airspace. Prohibit all travel by US citizens to Palestine or Israel. Make those with dual citizenship (Palestinian and American, Israel and American) choose their allegiance and abandon one or the other. Enforce a trade embargo on Palestine and Israel comparable to the embargo on the warring parties in Yugoslavia a few years ago.

We suspect that you would not have to go far down the list before both parties endorsed the Mitchell report unequivocally and sat down to talk again.

Yours sincerely,
Richard Wilson and Andree Desiree Wilson