- JPAO Letter of Opposition to United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative
Dear <Representative or Senator>,
We write to ask you to oppose the inclusion of the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Perhaps mindful of growing public skepticism about US military support for Israel, advocates of continuing and even deepening the US-Israel military relationship have inserted the “Cooperation Initiative” into the NDAA. This would bolster American-Israeli military and technological integration while shielding it from political oversight and making it harder to undo.
The US “defense” budget is already bloated. It allows our government to pursue reckless, counterproductive, and unconstitutional foreign wars while fostering an even greater appetite for them. The US-Israel initiative is especially dangerous because of Israel’s record of reckless violence. Therefore, the Jewish-Palestinian Alliance of Oregon (JPAO) opposes this initiative and strongly encourages you to oppose it as well.What do we mean by Israel’s reckless violence?
Israel’s post-Oct. 7, 2023 assault on Gaza demonstrated a flagrant disregard for civilian casualties. Thousands of civilian homes and hundreds of institutions including schools and hospitals were destroyed. Noncombatant journalists and health workers were targeted. (Israel’s claims to the contrary are not supported by the evidence.) The International Criminal Court charged Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many esteemed genocide scholars, including Professor Omer Bartov of Brown University, an Israeli-American Holocaust historian, concluded that Israel was committing genocide.
Despite the supposed ceasefire, the killing continues, humanitarian aid is restricted, and access to medical care such as chemotherapy and dialysis is limited. Gaza remains an open-air prison, whose inmates are only with rare exceptions permitted to leave. In the Occupied West Bank, violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinian residents, tolerated or encouraged by members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, ignored or abetted by Israeli Defense Forces, has dramatically increased. IDF soldiers have targeted and killed American journalists and peacekeepers in the West Bank. None of this is new. In 2021, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem declared: “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” Since then Israeli violence against ordinary Palestinians has spiraled out of control.
Moreover, taking advantage of its military superiority, Israel tried to do to Hezbollah what it did to Hamas, assassinating leaders and bombing indiscriminately. Israel encouraged the United States to attack Iran on the basis of faulty intelligence and false claims that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon. Israel’s aggressive military actions are destabilizing the entire Middle East. With an attitude of might makes right, Israel myopically refuses to even imagine the possibility of negotiation, conflict resolution, and peaceful coexistence. Not only would deeper military integration between our country and Israel reinforce this myopia; it would also reinforce our own.
The proposed “Cooperation Initiative” would cement American engagement in morally indefensible and politically destabilizing violence when we need greater skepticism and scrutiny of our overseas military commitments. It would bypass congressional debate over appropriations. And it would bypass the Leahy Laws, which prohibit financial assistance to a foreign security force that commits “gross” violations of human rights.A New Policy, “a nonprofit and non-partisan lobbying and political organization dedicated to forging a new U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine that improves the lives of Americans and people across the Middle East,” strongly opposes the proposed initiative because its true purpose is to avoid scrutiny and transparency. “This approach exposes sensitive U.S. capabilities to counterintelligence risk, normalizes technologies developed in contexts of occupation and civilian harm, … and aims to hide continuing U.S. military support to Israel from Congressional and public transparency.”
We agree, and we urge you to reject this dangerous and disturbing proposal.for the Jewish-Palestinian Alliance of Oregon:
[JPAO Signatures]
- Call on your US Representatives and Senators to END the GAZA GENOCIDE! (May 2026)
Please take a moment to take action – click on this Action Alert to email your US Representative and your US Senators to call on them to keep Gaza in focus, to keep Gaza VISIBLE and to work every day to end the killing and the suffering of the Palestinian people.
TAKE ACTION: CALL ON CONGRESS – END THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA!
For peace and justice, Jewish-Palestinian Alliance of Oregon.
- Call on Senator Ron Wyden to support the new BLOCK THE BOMBS legislation! (Apr 16 2026)
Urgent Action: Call on Wyden to Vote YES on Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to BLOCK BOMBS and BULLDOZERS to ISRAEL!
Since its founding in the weeks following the October 7 attacks, the Jewish-Palestinian Alliance of Oregon has called consistently for one thing above all else: STOP ARMING ISRAEL. Today there is an urgent and concrete opportunity for the U.S. Senate to do exactly that and Oregon’s senators need to hear from us now. With Israel continuing its bloody bombing of Lebanon, massacring hundreds of civilians as it targets apartment blocks in Beirut and undermines the tenuous ceasefire with Iran, this legislation needs our vocal support now.
TAKE ACTION: CALL ON SENATOR RON WYDEN TO SUPPORT THE NEW BLOCK THE BOMBS LEGISLATION!
- Dec 4th 2025: Urgent Action: Call on Congress to Recognize Israel’s Genocide in Gaza and Prevent and Punish the Crime of Genocide!
Dec 4th 2025:
SEND a letter to your Member of Congress here!
Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan has just introduced H.Res.876 “Recognizing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Please contact and urge your representative to cosponsor and actively support this important legislation. Oregon’s representative Maxine Dexter is an original cosponsor! (If you’re in her district, please thank her!)
Rep. Tlaib’s resolution would officially recognize that the Israeli government has committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and calls for the United States to take immediate, concrete action to fulfill its binding legal obligations as a party to the Genocide Convention to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
Read Rep. Tlaib’s full press release HERE
This legislation requires that the United States use all means reasonably available to it to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. This would include halting arms shipments, investigating and prosecuting individuals and corporations implicated in the Gaza genocide, and targeted sanctions directed at the State of Israel and individuals or corporations involved in or facilitating the genocide.
PLEASE use this action alert to contact your representative today! Please SHARE this alert widely, especially to friends and family who live in other congressional districts.
Thank you for being part of the growing community working to end the genocide in Gaza and to bring justice to the Palestinian people!
- Stop Arming Israel: Lawn sign campaign
We are running a lawn sign campaign (see above) to blanket Portland lawns with signs and bumper stickers that read “Stop Arming Israel” and are now available. Please email us today to snag one! jpaopdx@proton.me
Print Quality Image: Click Here
Here are some of the actions we have taken . . .
11/2/24 Oregon Food Bank Volunteer Day
JPAO members joined together to spend a day volunteering at the Oregon Food Bank
1/10/24 Call for Ceasefire
We took out an ad in the Willamette Week calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the blockade on Gaza.
11/23/23 Joint Statement
We Made a Joint Statement of Palestinians and Jews in Portland, Oregon, Calling for Immediate Ceasefire and End to Siege and Blockade of Gaza.
Read the Full Text Here
10/30/23 Ceasefire Now! Press Conference, Portland Jews and Palestinians at Senator Jeff Merkley’s Office
Portland Jews and Palestinians held a press conference downstairs from Senator Jeff Merkley’s downtown Portland offices to deliver a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire, and end to the blockade of Gaza and release of a hostages.