Reminder: RSVP before 10am for Public Hearing on the Hill
mandatory to enter.*
* *
**The Middle East Before and After Annapolis: Facts on the Ground**
**_Date_: Friday, December 14, 2007**
**_Time_: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM**
**_Place_**: U.S. Capitol Building, Room HC - 8**
** **
*Last week, Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) was successful in his attempts
to hold the unusually prejudicial hearing entitled "After Annapolis:
Next Steps in the Middle East Peace Process," which featured two
prominent pro-Israel "witnesses." Rep. Lantos has been a strong advocate
of Israel in the House of Representatives and a long-time ally of AIPAC,
as well as sponsor of the war in Iraq. This biased hearing featured only
two witnesses: Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy and David Wurmser, a well-know neo-conservative and Vice
President Cheney's former adviser on the Middle East. *
*Despite hundreds of phone calls and emails to his office requesting
that he add witnesses that represent a more objective and non-partisan
policy, Congressman Lantos went ahead with this transparent display of
pro-Israel bias on the Hill. *
*As a result, the Council for the National Interest is holding a
counter-hearing in the Capitol Building this Friday afternoon.
Ambassador Robert Keeley and four other members of the fall political
pilgrimage tour of the Middle East will be holding a public forum to
give first-hand reports on the "facts and high-level attitudes on the
ground" and their implications for the Annapolis initiative. _We hope
you can join us and demonstrate to Rep. Lantos and the rest of the Hill
that the public demands fair and unbiased hearings on the Hill._*
*The delegation recently completed a five-nation trip to the Middle East
visiting Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in exercise of
"citizen" diplomacy. Along with peace activists and non-governmental
organizations, the delegation had in-depth meetings with more than 50
high-ranking officials including** presidents, prime ministers, foreign
ministers, Knesset members, UN officials, leaders of Hamas and
Hezbollah, and others**. *
**For further information, contact Shannon O'Hara, 202 863-2951 x301**