Excellent Gun Violence Prevention Meeting with NJ Attorney General!
Dear friend,
I'm pleased to report that CFPA's Ceasefire NJ Project spearheaded an excellent meeting with NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin (along with five of his senior staff) last Monday, October 7. We successfully scheduled the meeting, put together a strong delegation of gun violence prevention leaders from across the state, and planned and led the meeting.
We discussed supporting General Platkin's outstanding work challenging Supreme Court rulings that weaken New Jersey's strong gun safety laws. He agreed to work closely with us to implement those laws, as well as help us press for passing an urgently needed Secure Storage of Guns bill. He also agreed to meet regularly with us, so we can maximize our collaboration! I'm proud of our strong leadership on this, and excited about this major step forward!
In addition to sharing this good news, I'm writing now to urgently ask for your support in the final stage of our Peace Voter 2024 Campaign. We are arranging to publish our Peace Voter Signature Ad comparing the candidates in NJ District 7, expected to be the closest congressional race in NJ, in New Jersey's largest paper.
I am thrilled that we have an offer to run our ad in their digital and hard copy editions which will reach over 100,000 voters before Election Day! But we are $500 short of raising the funds to publish those!
Please click here or below and scroll down to contribute NOW! The suggested donation is just $25 per name. We need to confirm our order in the near future, so they can start running serveral weeks before Election Day!
P.S. CFPA is collaborating with Vote Forward to mail letters to registered low frequency progressive voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania! There is still time to send those by the late October deadline. If you didn't previously sign up, click preceding link to sign up for this proven, high impact campaign NOW!
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
Sen. Bernie Sanders has just filed Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) in the US Senate on September 25 that would block the sale of offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel. The JRD is the only mechanism available to Congress to prevent an arms sale from advancing. Click to view a detailed fact sheet about JRDs.
In August, the Biden Administration approved arms sales to Israel totaling more than $20 billion. The sales include several systems that are directly tied to tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza. The export of these weapons would clearly violate the criteria laid out in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).
In a press statement, Sen. Sanders said, “On October 7, 2023, Hamas waged a terrorist attack against Israel, killing 1,200 innocent people and taking over 240 hostages. Israel, of course, had the right to defend itself against Hamas.
Israel did not, however, have the right to wage an all-out war against the Palestinian people, which is what Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government has done. The result: More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 95,000 injured – 60 percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Further, as a result of Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid into Gaza, many thousands of children there face malnutrition and even starvation.”
As we reach the first full year of this war, I'm writing to urge you to take immediate action by clicking here or on the button below to email your Senators and Representative. It takes less than a minute--though you can take longer to modify the wording if you choose.
The carnage in Gaza has been carried out with U.S.-provided military equipment. Providing more offensive weapons to continue this disastrous war would violate U.S. and international law. The sales would reward Netanyahu’s extremist government, even as it continues to cause massive destruction in Gaza; undermine the prospects of a ceasefire deal that would secure the release of the hostages; and advance its effort to illegally annex the West Bank.
Reliable human rights monitors have rigorously documented numerous incidents involving U.S. offensive weapons leading to horrifying civilian death and harm. The Administration’s own report concluded that these weapons “have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its international humanitarian law obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm."
Blocking these sales would be in harmony with the international community and some of our closest allies. The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all acted in recent months to stop or restrict offensive arms deliveries due to the high risk they could be used in violation of international law. The United Nations bodies and numerous humanitarian organizations have also called for an end to the arms shipments fueling the conflict.
P.S. Click here to view my sermon on The Things That Make for Peace on Sunday, September 15 at Christ Congregation in Princeton in observance of my denomination's Just Peace Sunday.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
CFPA had a busy organizing summer in 2024, with four major events from June to August. We also continued having advocacy meetings with Congresspersons and/or their staffers, as well as e-alerts to help you quickly email or call your elected representatives in support of those. Click our Recent Events page and scroll down to see summaries, photos, and videos of those to review CFPA's high impact peacemaking during the summer.
But the summer was again a very "dry" time for CFPA's fundraising. We had to spend almost $25,000 more than income received in July and August. So funding for continuing our Peace Voter 2024 Campaign to impact the critical November Election, and for other organizing for the remainder of the year, is substantially reduced.
I'm excited to share that to help ramp up our finances to meet the challenges this fall--including our Peace Voter Campaign, several generous CFPA donors have pledged a Matching Challenge of $12,500! So your donation NOW will be DOUBLED up to that amount! If YOU help us meet that Challenge, we will have fully recovered financially!
I'm writing now to ask that you click here or below to DOUBLE your contribution to CFPA. Donating now as generously as you can gives us the financial resources to sustain our high impact peacemaking into the fall and for the rest of the year.
Below are ways you can maximize your donation and have it DOUBLED for our crucial Fall organizing:
If you prefer to postal mail a check, use address below my name and put "Matching Challenge" in the notation section. For tax deduction, make payable to Peace Action Education Fund, or PAEF.
P.S. I'm also excited to announce that Jeffrey Laurenti was unanimously elected to be the new CFPA Board Chair as of September 1. Outgoing Chair Irene Etkin Goldman, who we honored last December for 20 years as Board Chair, remains on the Board as Chair Emerita. Click preceding link to learn more!
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Congress will soon consider whether to adopt a vital policy to guard against artificial intelligence (AI) from ever playing a role in the decision to use U.S. nuclear weapons. But hold-outs in the Senate are standing in the way of the United States adopting this common-sense principle.
Tell your Senators to support the amendment introduced by Sen. Ed Markey to keep a human “in the loop” on nuclear weapon decisions. Tell your US Representative to support the principle in negotiations with the Senate.
The Senate amendment to the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act would set in law the policy that a human must be kept in the loop “for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the President to initiate and terminate nuclear weapons employment.”
The House of Representatives has approved the same language in its defense authorization bill. If the Senate matches the House language, the human “in the loop” policy will likely become law. And if the Senate doesn’t adopt the same language, House negotiators must stand firm and push to include the rule in the final negotiated version of the law.
It is urgent that you act now to email your Senators and US Representative to support this critical law! Click below to email your Senators and US Representative, it only takes one minute!
On September 26,1983, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces was on duty when the early-warning satellite system he was monitoring detected what appeared to be five approaching U.S. nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was supposed to let the highest level of Soviet nuclear command know, who almost certainly would have launched an all out nuclear war.
But he reasoned that it was highly unlikely that the US would launch such a small number of weapons, so refrained from sending it up. It turned out that the mistaken warning was a result of sun reflecting off the high-altitude clouds, so he was correct. This is a great example of why human participation in nuclear weapon decision-making is so critical. If AI was being used, it would almost certainly have led to global nuclear holocaust.
The enormous ethical and legal consequences of nuclear weapons employment must always rest on the shoulders of human beings. Earlier this summer, UN Secretary-General Guterres said “Until these weapons are eliminated, all countries must agree that any decision on nuclear use is made by humans, not machines or algorithms.”
P.S. We can only meet daunting challenges like that above if we have the resources to sustain and intensify CFPA's organizing. At the end of sending your emails, you will have the opportunity to contribute to CFPA’s nuclear disarmament work. If you prefer, you can postal mail a check to the address under my name. I urge you to be as generous as possible.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
Please see CFPA's Action Alert sent on April 1, 2024.
Dear Friend,
I'm writing to urge you to contact your Representative and Senators to advocate for strong U.S. leadership to reduce the nuclear war danger by becoming a co-sponsor of a resolution recently introduced in the US House (H. Res. 1079) and Senate (S. Res. 593). Click here or below to quickly email your Congresspersons to urge their support for this critically important resolution. It only takes two minutes!
UN Secretary-General Guterres recently issued a stark warning: "The nuclear shadow that loomed over humanity last century has returned with a vengeance. The nuclear risk is higher than at any point since the depths of the Cold War."
Putin's war on Ukraine and his nuclear saber rattling have significantly increased the risk of nuclear war. A March 9 New York Times story revealed that in October 2022--almost exactly 60 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war--the chance of Putin using his nuclear weapons was estimated by top US officials to be "50% or higher."
The last remaining treaty capping the massive Russian and U.S. nuclear stockpiles is due to expire in less than two years. Meanwhile, as China is rapidly building up its smaller but still deadly nuclear arsenal, some members of Congress are pushing to increase the U.S. nuclear arsenal to counter two "near-peer" nuclear adversaries.
This resolution calls on the Biden administration to urgently pursue nuclear arms control and risk reduction dialogue with the Russian Federation to ensure the conflict in Ukraine does not escalate to nuclear use, and avoid an unrestrained nuclear arms race. Click here to see more details.
Please click here or below to quickly email your US Representative and Senators NOW and remind them that a world without effective nuclear reduction diplomacy is a more dangerous world; and urge them to act. To increase your impact, also call your Representative and US Senators via the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121! The offices don't crosscheck constituents who both email and call.
P.S. Just a reminder that CFPA's 2024 Membership Renewal Gathering will be this Sunday afternoon, April 7, starting with a free lunch at 2 PM for those who have contributed their 2024 annual membership; and the Program featuring Amb. Daniel Kurtzer at 3 PM in Princeton. Click here for details, and RSVP to this email--especially for the lunch.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace Action &
Peace Action Education Fund
7 Vandeventer Ave.
Princeton, NJ 08542
The Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) is a grassroots citizens' organization bringing together people of all ages, backgrounds, professions and political persuasions around three goals: global abolition of nuclear weapons, a peace economy and a halt to weapons trafficking at home and abroad.
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