House and Senate pass unanimous resolutions calling for the release of Gilad Shalit. Both passed by unanimous consent. One wonders when the last resolution was passed that even mentioned the name of an American soldier let alone concern for his or her well being.
(Weiss: Note that Amy Teibel of AP has a story on a proposed prisoner swap that refers to Shalit several times not by name, but as a "captured soldier." That would seem appropriate; none of the Palestinian prisoners are named.)
Well, while israel’s agents were voting on the captured israeli, it took their attention away from messing up more important things. We need to find other very important things to suit their professional qualifications, such as legislation on supermarket price tag colour schemes and such, for these quislings to occupy their time with till the next election, and we can get a few humans elected (and perhaps few more of these congressional deadweights will kick the bucket, as well).
This is how screwed up our beloved country has become. Our entire Congress lines up to call for the release of an Israeli soldier. Meanwhile, does anyone realize that the Taliban still has an American soldier in captivity in Afghanistan?? How many of the American elite know the name Gilad Shalit . . . But can they name the American soldier fighting for this country who has been in captivity for just over a year? Can you?
link to istockanalyst.com
Or ANY of the names of the 213 Palestinians currently held by Israel without charge or trial, or the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners..?
link to btselem.org
Another day at the office for The Israel Lobby.
Wonder if our solons and paladins in congress can ever get around to working up some indignation re the coverup of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty?
Amy Teibel at AP should start referring to East Jerusalem according to it’s designation according to the UN and international community. It’s not Israeli-controlled, it’s Israeli-occupied, after a military invasion. Kinda like what Saddam did to Kuwait in 1991, kinda exactly like – not to mention more recent “controllings” in Afghanistan and Iraq..
Don’t hold your breath Sumud. This Amy did a very inaccurate story for AP on a Palestinian journalist, who was beaten up by Israeli security when crossing the border from Jordan to the West Bank. He was in the company of employees from the Dutch embassy and had just returned from the US where he received a prize for outstanding journalism. She even misquoted a doctor who examined the beaten journo up. It is very clear where her loyalties lie.
How about someone important publicly asking Mike Oren, with an eye toward embarassing that robo-likudist, if the Israeli Knessett has any plans to introduce a resolution calling upon the Talibanists in Afghanistan to release PFC Bowe Bergdahl?
Anyone willing and able to bell that cat?
Asking the Knesset to call for the release of Bowe Bergdahl and other US soldiers being held captive is not a bad idea at all.
Little Shih, you are brilliant!
It’s like if someone were to argue that since Obama didn’t win in Texas he can’t be the elected president of the United States and it would be right for the UN (or some other entity) to support the Republican rule of Texas and to destabilize the Democratic rule in the rest of the country.
Isn’t it?
Damn! I posted that comment in the wrong post!
It was mean to go here: link to mondoweiss.net
(Is there any way to edit comments?)
1000 to 1 is about the value of Jewish life to Palestinian life. We seen these numbers with operation cast lead. It seems like a fair trade and eventually we can stop hearing about the Gilad Shalit crusade.
“Benjamin Netanyahu, announced he has accepted a German mediator’s proposal to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants in Gaza for four years. “
It’s the amazing and unchallenged hypocrisy here which really rankles here.
PM Bibi is willing to exchange a 1000 Palestinian prisoners for one IDF POW?
Apart from the implicit chauvanism you point out, exactly how full of BS must be the charges, if any, leveled at those Palestinians if 1000 of them – presumably dangerous and full of hate for The Jewish State – can be cavalierly exchanged for one bozo IDF soldier unlucky enough to have been captured?
Can you imagine the pained and venonous and vituperative outrage if any other country ransomed a captive in exchange for any number of Palestinians? We’d hear impassioned talk about capitulating to terror. But whne Bibi is willing to do it, silence – dead silence on any capitulating to terror talk.
Will the US Congress pass any resolutions calling on Bibi to refrain from this exchange? Or similarly lopsided exchanges? I suspect not.
Double Standards? What’s that? We don’t got no double-standards.
Are you really serious, or am I missing the irony in your tone?
It’s Hamas that’s demanding that number and unwilling to let Gilad Shalit go for any less. Believe me, we’d be happy if they demanded a one-for-one exchange.
Besides, nothing is being done cavalierly. It has taken four years to reach this point and still, the deal has not been finalized. You should see the debate raging in Israel about whether or not this is too much to pay for one soldier.
“we’d be happy?” Well, at least one of those on the Israeli side of the great divide admits to where she/he stands. What this situation with Shalit reveals, as has similar negotiations for prisoner swaps in the past, is not to much the affection or concern Israelis have for the lives of their men in military service but the total contempt they have for the lives of non-Jews, and Arabs of every nationality in particular. That all but a relative handful are unable or unwilling to even consider for a moment the lives of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held illegally in Israeli prisons–and all those imprisonments are in contravention of the Geneva Conventions–exposes to the world the degree of racism festering at the core of Israeli society.
For those in the US seriously concerned with justice for Palestine and for liberating Washington from the Zionist yolk, this resolution on Shalit should be shoved in the face of every member of Congress running for re-election; it should be raised on talk shows and in letters to the editor. Americans should see the extent to which their ostensible representatives are willing to grovel before the demands of paid and unpaid agents of a foreign country.
They can’t see the egg on their faces.
Yoke?
“You should see the debate raging in Israel…”
Why should anyone give a hoot about any “debate” among the Zionist bandits? They have been quoted a price, and it’s their problem if they don’t want to release these prisoners from among the more than 10,000 they are illegally keeping in jail. As long as the Zionists don’t pony up, too bad for the soldier, who as a criminal against peace* deserved it anyway. He is being let down by his own side.
* by definition: wearing the uniform of the occupying army is enough. Also his statistical chances of being a war criminal are high, too. He wouldn’t have risked his life in refusing to obey the illegal order; moreover it’s been confirmed that he had a double citizenship allowing him to emigrate without any problems to avoid draft. So he is a willing criminal.
one soldier of the state run terrorist machine got nabbed and the crying over this ‘bozo’ is incredible. but if the trade is 1000 for 1, good for Hamas. But they really shouldn’t negotiate with state sponsored terrorists. GWBush would not approve.
BYahoo invariably refers to all Palestinian prisoners as “terrorists.” He is willing to release 1000 “terrorists.”
Of course, when it comes to actually releasing prisoners, they turn out to be jaywalkers with 6 days left on their sentence. But since they were Palestinian jaywalkers, they were terrorists.
The Israeli lobby still controls congress. Period
they sure do. Do the puppets ever see the strings?
Ultimately, we pay for the inaction of Congress, since they are our cowardly representatives and reflect our values as a nation.
Yup but americans still vote the disgusting quislings in, and most people I talk to seem to know the zionists own these guys. And I’m referring to non-political people.
Another unanimous vote:
BERLIN (JTA) — Germany’s Parliament has passed a cross-party motion demanding that Israel end its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
In a joint motion passed Thursday evening, five mainstream parties said the isolation of Gaza was not in Israel’s security interests. The text also decried weapons smuggling into Gaza and rocket attacks against Israel, and said they, too, must be stopped.
Joining in what has been described as a rare show of united criticism of Israel in Germany were the conservative Christian Democratic Union, party of Chancellor Angela Merkel; its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union; the center-right Free Democratic Party, which is in the governing coalition; the opposition Social Democratic Party; and the Green Party.
[Actually, there is one more party in Bundestag, Die Linke, whose deputies joined the Flotilla. To have a consensus extending from Die Linke to Christian Social Party of Bavaria is astonishing. I guess, our Congress shows the way!]
Highly encouraging. Germany’s guilt has kept them harnessed too long to Israeli crimes.