This letter is written from the perspective of an MSW community organizer and investigative journalist, running a think tank and international news agency in Jerusalem for the past thirty three years.
Our focus: Reform of UNRWA, which advocates the “right of return by force of arms”.
Since no one can get rid of UNRWA, we work with he US Congress, the Canadian Parliament, the British Parliament, The Bundestag and the Swedish Parliament- the largest UNRWA funders.
In that context, our agency works closely with each individual consul in Jerusalem.
In that context, we initiated the Knesset Lobby for UNRWA Reform.
If you want to influence members of a legislative body, the worst tactic is to circulate a petition.
Feedback from all parliamentarians:
Petitions are viewed by elected officials as contrived.
Petitions to politicians discarded.
The tactical success of the other side is that they encourage individually written correspondence to elected officials.
Please understand. Fifty individually written letters influence policy makers more than 5,000 signatures on a well written petition.
A petition with thousands of signatures makes you feel good.
Fifty well placed letters makers influence those who are the decision makers.
Learn from the success of our adversaries.
Stop petitions. Recruit effective letter writers to send a message by e-mail and registered post correspondence, “return receiver requested” , followed up with a flow of calls to the elected official in question.
With warmest regards,
David Bedein
Director
Israel Resource News Agency at The Center for Near East Policy Research