As an American, I must say I've been deeply offended by the editorial cartoons of the last week or so, and the actions that they portray.

Yesterday it portrayed the White House being run over by Sharon. For the amount of money we have given to Israel, those are our tanks and our weapons. If we say jump, Israel's response better be "how high?"

Israel has received tens of billions of dollars in aid from the United States. The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the fiscal year 2002 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. It contains $2.04 billion in military aid and $720 million in economic aid for Israel. That's about 28 dollars per taxpayer -- for this year alone. And they have used your 28 dollars to fund an invasion and killing of civilians.

And people wonder why Arabs have such an anti-American sentiment. Its ironic that a religious state founded by a group that has been persecuted so much would do the same to others. Calling their occupation and invasion of Palestine 'self-defense' is a further insult to our intelligence.

I'm sick and tired of my tax dollars going to fund the military of a religious state that occupies and oppresses others. The United States should have nothing to do with this policy of human dispossession. It is against everything we believe in, including the written tenets of our Constitution. The only real way to end the violence is to stop all military aid to Israel and become a neutral third party. Only then can true lasting peace be achieved.