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What Lois Learned in Lobbying School I am blessed by our shared relationship with Catholic Peace Fellowship members. Their dedication, faith, and conviction to peace and justice has strengthened our weekly vigil to end the ongoing Israeli Occupation and to urge the US government to become a fair broker in the region. Our country has been the most dominant international player, and our foreign policy supports Israel with almost $3 billion dollars each year. Again our government demonstrated its position during the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza through its overwhelming support for Israel in both House Resolution 34 and Senate Resolution 10 which did not call for immediate ceasefire and placed all of the blame on Palestinians without considering Israel’s blockade of Gaza in the past years. I had registered to lobby Congress with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, weeks before the Gaza incursion. Sunday, February 1 was a “training” day, and Monday, February 2 was spent on Capital Hill. Over 200 of us from all over the country lobbied. There were four of us from Philly and a fifth who came from a small mid-state college. We were very well prepared with a kickoff talk by Phyllis Bennis, from the Institute for Policy Studies, and very clear information prepared by the organization team. We carried the well-thought-out talking points and a cheat sheet to guide our conversation with the various Congressional and Senatorial aides. You don’t get to see the representative or senators unless you are somebody important. However, the aides are intelligent and speak with one another, and 200 plus lobbyists in one day should start a buzz on the Hill. Chaka Fattah was not in Congress that day, and we will see him or his foreign affairs aide when he comes to Philly. The Allyson Schwartz constituent dropped out, but her foreign affairs aide agreed to meet with us even though we were not constituents. I was the only one to show up for that appointment. While I was waiting to see her staffer, John Sherry, I picked up a copy of Commentary, a very conservative intellectual Jewish publication, and my eyes focused on one sentence in an article about Israel and the Palestinians: “Palestinians lived better in Israel then they would in any Arab country.” The bombardment of Gaza was still happening, and I lost it, or maybe I found it. Talking points be damned! When John Sherry sat down in the chair and asked me why I was visiting, I held up the Commentary and repeated my Aunt Minnie story, which the magazine reminded me of. Aunt Minnie liked to show how generous and kind she was to her domestic help. My paraphrase tells much. “I had a black girl to clean my house and I always treated her very well. I let her have her own cot in the basement, and I fed her all the fat from the chicken because that’s what they like.” I put aside what I learned in lobbying 101 and told John Sherry what I had seen in Israel/Palestine and what I have learned through extensive reading, and why as a Jew I valued international law, which had been written to protect Jews after the Holocaust. John took copious notes. At the end of the session I thanked him and asked for feedback. “I liked listening to you,” he said, “but other aides might not.” We both laughed and he walked me to Rep. Joe Sestak’s office in the next Congressional building schlepping my suitcase for me. I wanted to thank Rep. Sestak for signing on to Rep. Olver’s “Colleagues Letter,” asking for immediate humanitarian aide to Gaza that had been sent to every member of the House. (Allyson Schwartz had not signed the letter.) The meetings with Senator Specter’s aides went more by the book. Specter’s aide was an amicable redhead and listened very well to talking points. He was polite, and each one of us talked in turn as we had been instructed. He mentioned a letter Specter wrote the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, which you might want to look up online. Cy said it was a fairer letter about Israel and Gaza than he expected from Arlen Specter. Senator Casey had been one of the co-sponsors of Senate Resolution 10 and his aide, Jofi Joseph cut us no slack. We said our piece. He encountered each point and after twenty minutes we were dismissed. Casey had co-sponsored the Senate Resolution 10, which supports Israel’s ongoing blockade and the withholding humanitarian aide. During our debriefing, I knew our time had been well spent. But when each one of our 200 plus group goes home and gets his friends and family and neighbors to call and write to Congress and let them know what he is thinking, it will be even more meaningful! Robert Casey needs to get letters and phone calls from as many of us as possible. Since most of us are Democrats we can still keep Specter on his toes. After we meet with Fattah, Cy will report on our conference in a future e-letter. Please take the time to write or call in
support of the work that we started the first weekend in February! ►
John Sherry, legislative aide to Representative Allyson
Schwartz ►
Jofi I. Joseph, foreign policy
legislative asst to Robert Casey ►
Will H. Wagner, legislative correspondence Arlen Specter Lois Swartz |