Last night I said that Brooklyn congresswoman Yvette Clarke’s climbdown from supporting the brave Gaza "collective punishment" letter has gone unreported in the U.S. press. I’d done a google news search, but I was wrong. The Forward’s Nathan Guttman got the story:
The Jewish leaders’ intervention produced an open letter to Clarke’s Jewish constituents in which she expressed her regret for supporting the congressional letters. “Unfortunately, these letters are uneven in their application of pressure and do not sufficiently present a balanced approach/path to peace,” Clarke wrote, adding that the letters have “a provocative and reactionary impact.”…
Clarke’s retraction of her support for the Gaza letters echoes similar pressure put on lawmakers in the run-up to J Street’s first national conference, in October 2009. Then, too, some members of Congress from strongly Jewish districts came under constituent pressure to withdraw from a list of sponsors for the event.
Look at the picture at the Forward of Clarke surrounded by Jewish constituents. Ooga booga; I’d sign anything.
