I know I’m optimistic, and out of touch with reality, and clutch at straws… but these two items suggest that the Birnam Woods are marching on Dunsinane, to echo the famous prophecy the witches gave to Macbeth. First, a letter signed by 54 congressmen urging Obama to press Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza. This wouldn’t have happened a couple years back and of course it may be too late anyway, but: A lot of good people on this list. Brian Baird, Keith Ellison, Earl Blumenauer, Lynn Woolsey, Jim McDermott, Donna Edwards, Maurice Hinchey. (My antiwar wannabe-progressive congressman, big John Hall, is nowhere to be found, of course.)
The pols are being offered political cover by J Street and Americans for Peace Now, which have pushed the letter. Natasha of Haaretz says that they are "leftist" organizations. Who knew? The American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee is pulling an oar, too. Ta’ayush (living together) American style. I wonder if the NYT will touch this news.
Meantime, inside the castle walls, further evidence of Israel’s desperation and tyranny: its refusal of a Belgian minister’s request to enter Gaza. This is a slap to the EU, which is part of the famous Quartet.
The Foreign Ministry on Monday announced that it had refused Belgian minister Charles Michel’s request for a visa to enter the Gaza Strip.
Deputy Foreign Ministry Danny Ayalon told Michel that Israel could not accede to the demand because such a move would be seen as a gesture to the Hamas.
Ayalon added that any aid Belgium planned to grant the Islamist movement would fall into the hands of militants, rather than being distributed among Gaza’s needy.
Michel said in response to the rejection that European officials must be able to visit the territory to take part in the aid projects underway there.
"This situation is unacceptable," he told RTL TV.
Israel’s new hardline actions against the Palestinians are making it easier for dissent to gather momentum.
I’d like to see a lot of letters congratulating the brave 54 and even more letters asking why the rest of Congress wasn’t on this list.
“the Birnam Woods are marching on Dunsinane”
There goes the neighborhood!
Ditto potsherd and Mooser.
Also, re: ” Ayalon added that any aid Belgium planned to grant the Islamist movement would fall into the hands of militants, rather than being distributed among Gaza’s needy.”
LOL. Any foreign aid/reparations sent to Israel, e.g., Germany (directly), and indirectly
(by so many Western “white”nations), falls into the hands of the Israeli regime, rather
than being distributed among those living in Israel who actually are Shoah survivors.
(See Finklestein’s work, for starters).
I was amazed when I first learned of how shabbily actual Holocaust survivors are treated in Israel. You’d think that would be high on the their political establishment’s list of things to do. That it is not says something about what the Israeli state has become.
This would be another advantage of establishing an alternative Jewish state (I’m calling it Judah.) Judah could attract Holocaust survivor immigrants by offering better benefits and compete with Israel for reparations money.
Sorry, potsherd, but Judah (Medinat Yehudah) is already taken by Jewish extremists in the OT who think the state of Israel is run by a bunch of anti-Semitic left-wing apostates. How about the State of Zebulun (a seafaring coastal tribe – with good, solid Canaanite roots)?
You can use this tool on the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation site to find out if your member of Congress signed on to the Gaza letter and then “cheer or jeer” them: link to salsa.democracyinaction.org
Or just read the letter-petition if you know your representatives’ names:
link to adc.org
Only a handful of states are represented by the signers. Mine did not sign–they
are all in the hands of AIPAC I’ve learned very clearly–they never respond on the I-P situation by email or letter except by boilerplate hasbara, which always totally ignores specifics I’ve given them.
On the refusal to allow the Belgian minister in: that was Charles Michel, minister for development cooperation.
He commented that he confirms the point of view the European Community that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and that he would have used the visit to Gaza to state the EC position.
He added that a way should be found to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
It pissed me off.
His dad Louis Michel was minister of foreign affairs during the Iraq war and was accused of being too idealistic and contrarian.
Afterwards Belgian foreign policies became more compliant. Concerning I/P they’ve always been compliant.
Pingback: (Goodbye to Congress) Brian Baird says US should break Gaza blockade by ‘our version of the Berlin airlift’!