House Dems Call On Obama To Press Israel To End Gaza Siege
At last a little good news in the new year.
54 House democrats are calling on President Obama to pressure Israel to end the deadly blockade of Gaza.
Especially note the names of the 54 who are standing up to AIPAC and will no doubt catch hell from some constituents and, more significantly, donors.
Obviously the 54 represents only a fraction of Democrats who agree that the blockade should be lifted. The difference between the 54 and most Democrats in Congress is that these 54 are brave enough to go public.
They deserve our thanks as does J Street and Americans for Peace Now which pushed the letter.
I doubt that AIPAC will choose to dragoon the usual suspects into signing their own competing AIPAC draft stating that the interminable bashing of the people of Gaza is something they support!
But who knows? In any case, Bravo 54! And boo on the scared liberals who hid when the Minnesota 3, Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Jim Oberstar knocked on their door asking that they do the right thing and sign a letter asking to end human suffering in Gaza.
And boo on the scared liberals who hid when the Minnesota 3, Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Jim Oberstar knocked on their door asking that they do the right thing and sign a letter asking to end human suffering in Gaza.
That would include Chris Van Hollen, apparently.
January 26, 2010 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
And boo to the israel haters who believe that human suffering in Gaza could be ended without
the will of the Lords of Gaza
January 27, 2010 12:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
What a childish and heartless comment.
January 27, 2010 4:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Par for the course, my friend, par for the course.
January 27, 2010 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Gazans are getting more than subsistence. Cars are still being imported through the tunnels. There are plenty of people all over the world who are in much worse shape: Arabs and non-Arabs. The core issue is re-arming Hamas. The secondary issue is the existence of Hamas blocks a peace settlement. Even Abbas of the PA was only asking for a "Shelf Agreement" to be implemented when Hamas was no longer an issue.
Nobody is starving in Gaza. If anybody is hungry it's because Hamas wants it that way. Until Gaza is as hungry as Liberia, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, or Burundi, spend your time and money on these much poorer countries rather than trying to re-arm those who want attack Israel again.
Reports are that the current situation enables the Israelis to distinguish between cars and food on the one hand and weapons on the other; And as soon as they begin bringing in weapons the tunnel gets hit. Media reports, of course, aren't gospel. But that's the information we have.
There are 66 million poor people in the DR Congo, and 12 million in Zimbabwe, there are 1.2 million people in Gaza, who are doing better.
January 27, 2010 7:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, and while we're at it why don't we cut all international aid to Israel, especially the US's. After all there are countries far more deserving of it as you've pointed out.
Typaical Israeli arrogance: you live on handouts while your natives suffer, then talk about how others in the rest of the world are suffering?
January 27, 2010 8:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Economic miracle" = more foreign aid per capita than any people in history.
Sponging is the essence of Zionism.
January 27, 2010 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I told you before - Enough with the BS !
The "American aid" is less than 1-2% the Israeli budget !
January 28, 2010 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
The 2 billion in aid to Israel is a drop in the bucket compared to what some other countries get. S Korea and Japan have each gotten about 15-45 billion a year since the 50s and even more importantly has cost us in American blood and continues to directly risk our blood. How about Europe who cost us as high as 150 billion a year and again has cost us blood and continues to risk it. The 150 billion is over and above the costs of WW2 and the Marshall Plan. There are many others who get far more than what Israel gets.
Much of the aid to Israel is also in the form of loans or loan guarantees which get paid back. The aid is also spent with US firms. We have also never had to lose or risk blood as we have for others. We also get valuable strategic assets from Israel which I will o into more detail if you want.
If you consider the 2 billion that goes to Israel sponging, what do you call the others who recieve far more.
In fact the real question is why do you and others only complain about the aid to Israel when its a drop in the bucket compared to what others get and are silent about them?
January 30, 2010 1:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
"The core issue is re-arming Hamas. The secondary issue is the existence of Hamas blocks a peace settlement."
Thank God for people like you, Espresso. Before I read your comment, I had forgotten that HAMAS was the nuclear-armed Middle Eastern superpower who--with American diplomatic, economic and military support--has been blocking a peaceful settlement to the conflict for decades!
I get it now, it's all Hamas! Many see them as a feeble militia (aided by Israel in its infancy, ironically enough) armed with nothing more than Roman candles. Thankfully, there are people like you, Espresso, for those of us whose memories extend further than a few years.
January 29, 2010 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. This is new, unexpected. Maybe the meltdown has slowed the AIPAC contributions gravy train.
January 27, 2010 9:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you kidding~!
-- with the Supreme Court decision Israel controlling our congresscritters is near damn well legal!
January 27, 2010 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
“Israel’s soldiers have always done more than any other army in the world to avoid civilian casualties on the enemy side..”
IN FACT:
The IDF killed 320 children in Gaza, in January 2009, according to substantiated evidence, on the pretext of ’self-defense’. If proven, that is a war crime.
According to the Goldstone Report, commissioned by the UN, the IDF used Palestinian civilians as human shields. If proven that is a war crime.
The IDF also, according to the report, used phosphorus as a chemical weapon against the civilian population. If proven, that is a war crime.
The Israeli state has attempted to discredit the UN Goldstone report, but has been unsuccessful. It will be debated this month.
January 27, 2010 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I bet you Espresso would like to say to you:
"The IDF killed 320 children in Gaza, in January 2009:" Millions of children are dying of starvation in Africa, what's a few hundred kids in Gaza?
"The IDF used Palestinian civilians as human shields:" The Palestinians were in the way, the IDF soldiers tried their best to shoot/bomb around them.
"The IDF...used phosphorus as a chemical weapon against the civilian population:" FACT: Phosphorus is the second most abundant mineral in the body and 85% of it is found in the bones. The most moral army in the world was actually ensuring the starving people of Gaza were getting their recommended daily intake of this essential mineral.
January 27, 2010 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
The world will know more definitive facts when the Goldstone report is debated at the UN, this month.
What we do know in the meanwhile is that Israel is desperately casting around for fabricated evidence that the 320 children were were genuinely considered a threat to the heavily-armed Israeli army tanks ...
That the phosphorus was used legally as a smoke screen and not as a chemical weapon and
That the soldiers only grabbed Palestinian civilians for their own safety ...
January 27, 2010 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Americans killed until now - Thousands of kids in Iraq and Afghanistan using B52 and dropping each time 8 ton of explosives and bombs and you are talking about 320 kids (Most of them were terrorists - If you didn't know in the Arab\jihadaist world 14 year old boys ++ are good fighters and suicide bombers)
What a CHUTZPA!!
January 28, 2010 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, the Goldstone report is being debated and guess what?
"No determination can be made on the implementation of the resolution by the parties concerned," Ban said in the letter that accompanied the documents given to him by the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority about their investigations".
Perhaps you should watch this: http://www.israelactivism.com/video/
Dershowitz absolutely shreds the report into a biased mockery of "justice". You see, lies have short legs in that they do not run very far. This is the start of the showdown in which a mockery of the report, on which the Anti-Israel, Anti-Jew arena base their views, will be made.
Laurence
February 7, 2010 3:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
this is great news. The question is when will they mention what Netanyahu has declared in the West Bank and the expansion of an illegal university in the Palestinian occupied territories.
How many times do we need to hear that it is our lop sided policies in regard to thie conflict that has so many people pissed off with the U.S.
When will our Reps start talking about the "core motivations' of those willing to blow themselves up to take Americans out? When will our Reps have former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit Micheal Scherer, former Cia analyst Ray Mcgovern, Professor Juan Cole and Flynt Leverett on a panel to discuss these "core motivations"
When will the U.S. stand up to Israel and say enough?
C Span's Washington Journal recently had Micheal Scherer on to discuss the hatred felt towards the U.S. and Ray Mcgovern has written some insightful articles about their "core motivations"
How long will our Reps keep ignoring this.
Please contact your Reps and ask them to put together such a panel. And also to invite Judge Goldstone to the hill to discuss the findings in the Goldstone report
January 27, 2010 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Credibility
Some siege. The privations and hardships of Gaza are so oppressive the population is growing and food is plentiful. Don't believe me, look at pictures of fully stocked markets during the 2006 war.
This is pure anti Israel propaganda by a dishonest source. Barry Rubin says MJ Rosenberg has lied and mischaracterized what he has said.
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/01/lie-told-about-my-position-on-us-iran.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Rubinreports+%28RubinReports%29
Perhaps MJ will publish photos of starving Gazans or prove Rubin wrong. He can't do either.
The beautiful thing about being a leftist is you get to operate from the fiction that your "higher" purpose absolves one from accuracy and truth.
January 27, 2010 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you ever been been mistaken for a human being?
January 27, 2010 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fida Qishta, a young journalist from Gaza who left her family 7 months ago saying she would be back in two months and has not been able to return. This was her theme. This is not a humanitarian issue, she told us. It is not about material things, it is about freedom.
"We don’t need food and we don’t want money. My family ate the same food for a year. Lentils." She shrugged. "It wasn’t bad. We need to be free… to come and go. We need to feel human… Sometimes we are kept three weeks at a crossing. People want to feel free. They don’t want food. We can stay eating one meal a day…"
The beautiful thing about being a leftist is that you get to understand that allowing food in is a tiny, miniscule, part of lifting the seige. It's not all about food. Only a rightist would be that simple (or special, as in needs).
January 27, 2010 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the link to my quote, btw: http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/the-architecture-of-apartheid-fosters-the-architecture-of-a-movement.html
January 27, 2010 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will Obama recommend that spending for Israel be frozen in his speech tonight?
Oh my, that would be grabbing what truly is the third rail of American politics.
One wonders: which country supplied the Israelis with the Willie Peter used to exterminate the Gaza school children? I saw the stuff explode amidst the jungle in Vietnam. It burns good, I tell you.
January 27, 2010 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Next time choose more "ugly" picture !
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
You look like pedophile maybe choose another one!
January 28, 2010 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink