Congress voted Pyongyang style, 344-36, to denounce the Goldstone report–without contesting one statement of fact in the findings. My sources tell me that the total of 36 No’s and 22 voting Present is actually a giant improvement over, say, the Lebanon votes that typically were in the 400 range, Yes-wise.
Haaretz says that the ADL is calling on Richard Goldstone as a Jew to renounce his report:
Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman of ADL called on Goldstone to repudiate his report: "I have had great respect for you over the years. Your work at the head of the South Africa Reconciliation Commission and in helping to find a just solution to the Bosnian conflict deserves the highest commendation.
"Moreover, I know you to be a proud Jew who serves on the Board of Trustees of Hebrew University and who has a daughter living in Israel."
"With this background, I wondered in the first place how you could take on the chairmanship of the investigation of the war in Gaza…
Here’s a list of the Nays and Presents:
| Baird Baldwin Blumenauer Boustany Capps Carson (IN) Clarke Clay Davis (KY) Dingell Doggett Edwards (MD) |
Ellison Filner Grijalva Hinchey Johnson, E. B. Kilpatrick (MI) Kucinich Lee (CA) Lynch McCollum McDermott McGovern |
Miller, George Moran (VA) Olver Pastor (AZ) Paul Price (NC) Rahall Snyder Stark Waters Watt Woolsey |
"Present:
| Becerra Cooper Dahlkemper DeFazio Delahunt Duncan Eshoo Farr |
Heinrich Hirono Honda Johnson (GA) Jones Kaptur Loebsack Lofgren, Zoe |
Luján Obey Speier Tierney Welch Wu |
“ADL is calling on Richard Goldstone as a Jew…”
Pope Foxman has spoken! Ex-Cathedra! What will they do next, excommunicate Goldstone? Break him on the rack, or just show him the instruments of torture and give him an opportunity to recant?
And of course, when anti-Semites suggest that Jews have a debilitatring tribal loyalty which makes them unreliable, the ADL will kvetch like crazy.
But that today’s ADL, validating old anti-Semitic canards for a new generation!
Goldstone was put to the ultimate test; he came through, a real man. My congress was in turn put to the test; they failed. Pretty simple, though not pretty at all. What the hell can we do about it? I contacted my congressional reps; they never even bothered to respond to me. I don’t have tons of money, made by ripping of illegal
aliens, or legal ones, e.g., native Americans on the reservation, or rural Americans with no choice between McDonald’s and the US Army, or by selling Americans Wall Street vehicles designed to fleece them…what can I do?
Mooser, I’m not sure what to make of your concept of a validated canard. A canard by defnition has to be false. So your idea seems to contain an internal contradiction, and logicians tell us that internal contradiction leads to intellectual paralysis.
“and who has a daughter living in Israel.”
‘Cute daughter you’ve got there, Goldstone. Be a pity if anything happened to her in Israel.’
Yeah there is kind of a threatening subtext to the attack on Goldstone, isn’t there?
OT, but I am surprised Phil hasn’t mentioned the article on Gaza in the latest New Yorker. I’ve been very critical of the New Yorker for avoiding this issue, and wasn’t sure what to expect, but the article is very good. It presents both sides, which is what a journalist should do, but it pulls no punches regarding what Israel has done, both in the war and with its blockade. So it’s actually considerably better than the Bill Moyers interview (which didn’t mention the blockade).
I had some tiny quibbles and maybe others will have more serious complaints, but if the MSM covered the I/P conflict with this level of honesty on a regular basis, I’d have no complaints about them.
link
Has Fat Abe renounced his support for Marc David Rich?
Only two of his chins America First, the rest are holding out…LOL
It’s true that forcing a roll-call vote on this does represent a minor victory.
What I want to see is some organization that will now channel contributions to these legislators, particularly those who voted NO. A REAL alternative to AIPAC, as opposed to AIPAC Jr-street.
Once again, Rep Baird’s Act Blue page. link to actblue.com
The man deserves our support.
Justice Goldstone’s daughter had an interview published in Haaretz yesterday. She said that had her father not taken on the U.N. Report, it would have been much more critical of Israel than if he had not. Sorry I don’t have the link.
link to haaretz.com
“The Jews did indeed invented democracy in its modern form,” – David P. Goldman, an ‘Israel First’ Zionist Jew columinst whose articles are published in Front Page magazine of Dr. David Horowitz’s ‘Center for the Study of Popular Culture’. He is associate editor of Jewish website ‘First Things’, owned by Jody Bottum. He also writes under the pseudonymously (Spengler) for the Asian Times Online.
The best democracy money can buy
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com
Potsherd gave a link to Amy Goodman interviewing Jeff Halper on H.Res 867. Halper states that he just visited Congress and talked to members about the divide and conquer policy of Israel – pitting Congress against the Executive Branch. He states Netanyahu is busy working the Congressional phones.
In so many ways I place the responsibility for 9-11 at the feet of Congress. They have spat in the face of the Palestinian people for so many years and bowed down to Israel.
It is that simple.
Halper talks about Congress and the American people not understanding how much the rest of the world puts its faith in human rights as the road to fighting oppression.
And this represents another failure to lay at the feet of Obama. If he can’t control his own party in Congress, what business does he have being President? How many of those scumbags owe their seats to the Obama landslide? How many of them are going to be tossed out in the Obama backlash? Good riddance to them.
Except, when Halper spoke of the Congress working against the Executive Branch, he wasn’t referring to HR867 as Obama/Clinton team had already dissed the report so Congressional Dems could say they were supporting the administration in its attempt to get talks started….
That’s right, Cheryl, the Dems in Congress were working against Obama’s settlement freeze long before Goldstone issued his report.
I wonder what happened to Abercrombie
Congress does bear much responsibility for 9/11, but how they direct our ME policy isn’t even the half of it.
Well, Cheryl, if memory serves me correctly, I don’t believe Al-Qaeda had expressed much interest in the Palestinians prior to 9-11. It only seemed to me that it was afterwards that it seemed to jump–belatedly–on Palestinian issues.
Congress’s actions or inactions elsewhere certainly contributed to 9-11, but on the I-P issue, only indirectly imho.
Phils right, at least its better than the 400-1 votes we saw only 2 years ago…
I guess I’m just a glass if half full guy…
“Your work at the head of the South Africa Reconciliation Commission and in helping to find a just solution to the Bosnian conflict deserves the highest commendation.”
Translation: “Your muckracking against those nasty racist goy Afrikaners and those dirty racist Serbs was heartwarming.”
“With this background, I wondered in the first place how you could take on the chairmanship of the investigation of the war in Gaza…”
Translation: “Fool! Your job was to use “human rights” as a club against gentiles, and make us look good! You mean you actually BELIEVE in UNIVERSAL
“Your work at the head of the South Africa Reconciliation Commission and in helping to find a just solution to the Bosnian conflict deserves the highest commendation.”
Translation: “Your muckracking against those nasty racist goy Afrikaners and those dirty racist Serbs warmed my heart.”
“With this background, I wondered in the first place how you could take on the chairmanship of the investigation of the war in Gaza…”
Translation: “Fool! Your job was to use “human rights” as a club against gentiles, and make us look good! I can’t believe I liked you…I trusted you! I never imagined that you actually BELIEVED in UNIVERSAL human rights. How could you do this us?
RE: “Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman of ADL called on Goldstone to repudiate his report”
MY COMMENT: Abe Foxman and the ADL only “have ‘ayes’ for Israel”. They are perfectly willing to ‘throw Jews to the lions’ if they (or their major donors) think it will benefit the “Jewish, apartheid state of Israel”.
That is a bizarre vote.
My man, John Olver, voted no.
You know what’s not bizarre? You fled like a coward from the discussions on the other threads.
A wierd interpretation. You’ve used that term repeatedly now, “fled”.
Why use that term.
Your comments to me have been malevolently personal and condemnatory without inquiry.
If you desire to dialog, why don’t you try a less abusive approach? If you desire to use me as some rhetorical straw dog, I’ll abstain.
You’ll abstain either way. It’s not just my posts you don’t reply to.
Its true. I choose what to respond to.
Those posts that are abusive to me, I ignore in particular.
If you asked a “serious” question in the context of a tirade, that is a formula for my non-response.
Why not agree to disagree? At least the points can be seen clearly, rather than this static.
Was glad to see that Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren from northern california voted present. Beats a yes for sure. I’ll be sure to send them both a note. Am checking the rest of the bay area reps. time to hold them all accountable.
How did our Bay Area reps do?
I know the Bay Area has its fair share of nutjobs but there is a large justice for Palestine movement here as well.
Would be interesting to see how we did.
Feeling good about having voted for Kucinich in the last two presidential primaries right now.
Dennis was great when given his two minutes before the vote; he spelled out exactly why a NO vote was in the USA’s best interests, and the World’s too. I feel good for having voted for Ron Paul in the last presidentialprimary. My own local rep ignored my request he vote NO.
Holocaust denial is nothing compared to Gaza Massacre denial, because everyone was a witness to Gaza. The Gaza Massacre is not a long ago historical event that people are aware of because of education. Congress, on the other hand, was an accomplice to the Gaza Massacre, making it criminal. The UN should have only one response to the vote today, and that is to indict the leaders of the House on war crimes charges.
Not until it is taught American leaders were brought before a world court and found guilty of crimes against humanity will the people of the Middle East live in peace. They will have a long time to wait.
It’s a nice thought (and I’m being serious — it is a nice thought. I suspect the United States is now beyond reform of its own volition and you can see that in every issue that comes before Congress, and how it is treated) but I’m pretty sure there are plenty of sacrificial lambs that can be put in the way — the least of which being Israel herself, when it comes down to “realpolitik.”
Americans, on the whole, do not realize how monstrous we look to the rest of the world. What happened in Gaza is blood on our hands too. We built the bombs and planes, our tax dollars made the assault possible, our media and government commiserate to shield crimes against humanity (committed by us as well as our allies) and many of those illegal homes built on the broken backs of the Palestinians are the summer homes of some of our privileged dual citizens.
You know actually, after what happened to Gaza, I actually have seriously considered leaving the United States. Just leaving and never looking back. I’m not convinced there’s anything worth saving here, anymore. There certainly isn’t anything worth fighting for, now. I look at the American flag and I see a 13-year-old Afghani boy being tortured by American “contractors” while US soldiers look on.
Don’t leave Chaos.
There is to much work to be done here.
Actually, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said almost exactly that on the House floor….that if Israel could be called up by the U.N what’s to stop them from doing the same to the U.S….
Proud to be from the State of Washington where we got two no votes (Baird, of course, and McDermott). Baird represents the district where Rachel Corrie’s parents live. They have been working very hard with him.
But I hope people saw the NYTimes article from Sunday, citing a
Wall Street Journal/NBC poll wherein 50% of Americans support the creation of a new party. I did happen to mention that when I spoke with McDermott’s office yesterday.
link to nytimes.com
Foxman trying to be Goldstone’s tribal monitor, like Richard Witty tries with Phil?
Ugh…I knew it would be this bad. Time to email and bitch at my congressman even though he is straight shot to the right. I’m sure he has more important constituents to listen to than me – constituents that probably funnel him money.
Although in retrospect it isn’t as bad as Gaza; so to get ~10% voting present/no is an improvement. Keep at it guys, eh? (ie: donations + email writing)
Seriously though…Obama is the total fail at this point. Either his speech in Cairo was all hot air (which is what I skeptical of), or he really wants to make changes but doesn’t have the political power to do so (because of groups like AIPAC using all their pressure day in and day out to muzzle the truth). I’m not sure which one to believe, but I’m sure that this shitty economy isn’t helping anything because he can’t focus on foreign policy.
Obama does need to step up if he is to earn the peace prize that he already got.
Do you suppose the Nobel committee kept the receipt?
Obama’s the President. You don’t have a bigger pulpit than that. Any muzzle he’s wearing, he put it on himself.
Phillip /All Check out the Code Pinkers challenging Rep Berman about H resolution 867
Colonel Wright does a bang up job
link to youtube.com
I love Code Pink!
I led a J Street team (may I still use that name in this forum?) in a meeting with Vic Snyder’s staff. They were great. I’m glad to see he came through on this vote.
I’m disappointed that my Congresswoman, Jan Schakowski, who has succeeded in projecting the image of a progressive, did not oppose this shameful bill.
Schakowsky not only didn’t oppose it, she signed on as a cosponsor.
Schakowsky deserves the crown as the Queen of PEP. She’s always followed the AIPAC line.
How cute of congress to announce the beginning of WW3.
No, I think they’re saving that for the upcoming bill in which they wholeheartedly endorse Israel’s “pre-emptive strike” on Iran’s nonexistent nuclear weapons. Or am I reading ahead in the script too much?
Chaos,
If Bush Jr. wouldn’t let Israel pre-empt Iran, I doubt the current white house will… the thing is the ‘lobby’ is setting up so that WE HAVE NO CHOICE but to come to their ‘aid’ – poor little defenceless nuke-wielding country that Israel is :-)
Come next year, Israel has two choices: make peace with the Palestinians, or make war with the region.
I think I know pretty much what choice the Israelis will be making.
The next provocation by the Israelis ie an attack on Iran, Lebanon, Syria – or a mass military operation against the Palestinians, could very well ignite the big war that everyone in the region has been preparing for for a few years.
I met a christian-maronite architect lady in Beirut last night who told me: “Jerusalem is Arab land, the holy land is Arab land and if I have to kill for it using my bare hands then I damn will do just that!”
I said, but you’re Lebanese, what does Jerusalem have to do with you?
She said, I’m a christian and I have some pretender European Jew telling me I can’t visit Bethlahem? I should just kill them with my bare hands for what they’re doing to us christians in the holy lands!
So you see, chaos, it isn’t just a moslem-jew thing – we forget that Arab christians (who are the first and the ORIGINAL christians) are also raging at what Israel is doing and they too are preparing to Liberate the holy land from the poison grip of European zionist settlers.
The myopia of this congressional decision can only be a bad thing for American Jews.
The more Americans see how “some pigs are more equal than others” – this skewed and unjust favoritism towards the Jews can only bring more hatred and a deeper Judaphobia to our land of equality and freedom.
People can see how the Israelis with the help of American Jews and our tax dollars, are blatantly killing children so that they can steal their land.
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John Conyers clarified his stance on 867:
PERSONAL EXPLANATION — (House of Representatives – November[[ 03, 2009)
[Page: H12247]
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, on November 3, 2009, I was unable to cast votes due to personal reasons. I was not present for rollcall votes 835 through 840. Had I been present, I would have cast a “yea” vote for final passage of H.R. 3949. I would have cast a “yea” vote for final passage of H. Res. 398. I would have cast a “yea” vote for final passage of H. Res. 866. I would have cast a “nay” vote for the final passage of H. Res. 867. I would have cast a “yea” vote for final passage of H.R. 3157. Also, I would have cast a “yea” vote for H. Res. 736.
Conyers didn’t want to go on record as actually opposing 867, since he would’ve been AIPACized in the next election.
So, the bottom line is our Congress are amoral whores; nothing works–time for more BDS to circumvent them:
link to democracynow.org
Please make certain your Congress[wo]man knows EXACTLY how you feel about his/her vote:
link to opencongress.org