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-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Schulz
[mailto:bob@givemeliberty.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007
3:34 PM
To: info@israelemb.org
Subject: Conference Speaker
Mr. Sallai Meridor
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.
Israeli Embassy
3514 International Drive NW
Washington, DC 20008
Dear Ambassador Meridor:
The We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education is
sponsoring a conference at the Alexandria Hilton Thursday -
Saturday, March 29-31, 2007. We are devoting Thursday
morning to a discussion of the question, "Is the foreign
policy of the United States repugnant to the General Welfare
Clause of the Constitution?" (Art. I, Section 8, Clause 1).
We would very much like to have a representative of the
Israeli Government participate in the discussion.
Our thinking on the subject of
America's
Foreign Policy vs. America's Constitution runs as follows.
1.
America’s
founding document declares, “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life,
Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the
governed.”
2. In addition, America’s Constitution declares that the
purpose of Government is to secure the blessings of Liberty
to all the People and their Posterity.
3. “All men” means “all men,” everywhere, even those
within the borders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran
Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile and other allies of the United
States, past and present.
4. It is hypocritical for any American President or
Congressman to give financial, political and military
support to any Government that denies, rather than
guarantees the natural, human Rights of the people who live
within its borders, including Due Process and equal
protection under the law.
5. Not only is it hypocritical to do so, it can be
unconstitutional at many levels, as we show in the following
paragraphs A-Q.
A: No country other than the
United States
has a Constitution that recognizes that the People living
within its borders have the ultimate power: a Constitution
that is designed to be a set of principles to govern the
government. No other country has a Constitution that is
based on the principles that all People are created equal
and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights and that the role of the Government is to secure
those Rights. None of the people in the
Middle East
or anywhere else enjoy “popular sovereignty,” as Americans
are meant to. In every other nation, some person or entity
other than the people is considered sovereign. No Government
in the Middle East guarantees the People within its
jurisdiction the same Rights, Freedoms and Liberties that
American are guaranteed by its Constitution.
B: People within the borders of countries in the
Middle East are discontented and have been agitating
for their Natural Rights -- the same Liberties, Rights and
Freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by their Constitutions,
state and federal.
C: However, Governments of those countries are oppressing
People within its borders, meeting the People’s repeated
petitions for redress with repeated injuries, thus defining
the character of the Government as tyrannical.
D: For decades, America has intervened in the internal
affairs of those countries in the Middle East, by providing
financial, military, police and security assistance to their
Governments.
E: For decades, tyrannical Governments in the Middle East
have continued to deny the full measure of
Liberty
to the People within their borders, but have been able to
avoid the peace table and stay in power due in large measure
to the financial, military, security and police assistance
from the
United States.
F: The United States is, therefore, a pretender, feigning
to be what it is not, pretending to be virtuous without
really being so.
G: Oppressed People in the Middle East, and their neighbors
have begun to see the
United States
as the friend of their enemy -- tyrannical Governments --
and have, as a consequence, become hostile towards the
United States.
H: In response, the Government of the United States has
launched a “War on Terrorism.”
I: The War on Terrorism is transforming America into a
Police State, with an imperial presidency usurping powers of
the People and Congress, and Congress is acquiescing:
unlawful spying on Americans, National Security Letters,
arrests, torture and execution, rendition, military
tribunals, indefinite detention, denial of human rights, the
denial of the right of habeas corpus, secret prisons,
tainted evidence, secret evidence, classified evidence,
denial of Right to counsel, and giant data bases providing
the government with a profile of every American (financial,
health, travel, product purchase, firearm records and much
more).
J: With the Police State has come a loss of individual
Liberties, Rights and Freedoms in America.
K: The historical facts are clear.
America’s
policy of intervention in the internal affairs of foreign
countries, including denial of the Right to
self-determination and free trade appears to be a root cause
of America’s war on terrorism, its growing police state and
the loss of individual Liberties at home.
L: The United States, through its policy of intervention and
corrupt influence, appears to be creating the very
“terrorists” that are the target of our “war on terrorism.”
M: It is NOT true that all “terrorists hate us for our
freedoms,” as our President has repeatedly stated. Rather,
it appears “terrorists” do not appear to hate us for who we
are, but for what we do.
N: This “war on terrorism” has needlessly escalated
international hostilities and given rise to military
conflicts, financial waste, human destruction and the rise
of “Police States”, not only in America, but in many
nations around world, resulting in substantial levels of
fear, losses of individual Rights, Liberties and Freedoms –
i.e., the erosion of the General Welfare. Defenders of
natural/human rights are now finding it much more difficult
to criticize their governments.
O: It is not in the national interest and general welfare of
the United States Congress to lay and collect countless sums
of taxes in order to intervene in foreign affairs, deploy
armies and otherwise disrupt the world order and the lives
of millions of this planet’s inhabitants in order to secure
objectives that are morally reprehensible and legally
unjustifiable.
P: It is not in our national interest for Congress to be
laying and collecting taxes that are used to support
governments in the
Middle East
and elsewhere that are oppressing People within or outside
of their borders. To do so is to violate Article I, Section
8, Clause 1 (the General Welfare clause) of the Constitution
of the
United States of America.
Q: All this needs to enter the public discourse, given
current events in the Middle East and the recent
publications by Jimmy Carter and Professors Maersheimer and
Walt.
Ambassodor Meridor, we have just completed a study of
"Palestine Peace Not Apartheid." We see Jimmy Carter's book
as more of a statement of facts, to be admitted or denied by
all thinking people, especially by those in Israel, in
Palestine and here in America. Carter and Professors
Mearsheimer and Walt are certainly correct when they argue
that it is wrong and dangerous to stifle speech in America
on the subject. Unless the facts in Carter's report can be
effectively denied, the United States is clearly supporting
(paying for) Israeli oppression and apartheid, engendering
widespread hatred and hostility toward the United States;
United States tax money is being co-mingled with revenues
collected by the Israeli Government and used to deny
Palestinians their natural rights. Arabs everywhere appear
to be holding this against the United States.
We would very much like to have a representative of the
Government of Israel participate in the conference, to say
whether there is any statement in Jimmy Carter's report that
is not accurate.
We are most interested in exploring whether
United States
foreign policy is repugnant to the General Welfare Clause of
the Constitution of the United States of America.
Besides this invitation, I have invited representatives from
the Palestinian National Authority to admit or deny the
facts as presented by Jimmy Carter in his report.
Please let us know if a representative of your Government
will be able to join us on Thursday, March 29th, at
8:30 am. We would like to hear Israeli
thinking on the subject as framed. Please note the
conference auditorium seats 500 and the conference will be
webcast live.
Thank you for your consideration.
Bob Schulz
Chairman
We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, Inc.
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