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Seven congresspeople go to Israel on AIPAC’s dime– and one gets defensive about it

Steve Israel's snapshot on arriving in Israel
Steve Israel’s snapshot on arriving in Israel

That Israel aid package of $225 million passed in the Congress Friday night “easily but not unanimously: 395 to 8.” As’ad Abu Khalil:

Only 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans voted against it. The four Democrats were Keith Ellison (MN-05), Zoe Lofgren (CA-19), Jim Moran (VA-08, and Beto O’Rourke (TX-16).

The four Republicans are Justin Amash (MI-03), Walter Jones (NC-03), Tom Massie (KY-04), and Mark Sanford (SC-01).”

Meantime, another seven congresspeople from both sides of the aisle have headed to Israel. From Long Island Congressman Steve Israel:

Great arriving in Israel on bipartisan visit. #israelunderfire

Proud to travel to Israel w/bipartisan congressional group & meet w/leaders of our closest ally.

Tom Brune of Newsday reports that the seven are going at the behest of the American Israel Education Foundation, which is part of the Israel lobby AIPAC.

News 12 Long Island reports:

the congressman said there will be peace when Hamas decides to stop firing rockets over the border in hopes of killing Israelis, and sending terrorists through tunnels to kidnap Israelis. He says the group also needs to “teach their children how to put things together rather than how to blow things up.”…

He believes the bond between Israel and the United States has never been stronger, as both countries continue to battle terrorism.

But (Congressman) Israel is on the defensive. Look at his next tweet after he tweeted the tweet above:


Scott Roth, one of those sending the angry tweets, explained the difference to Israel:

it’s NOT YOU in congress enabling that slaughter.

Billmon was very good too:

Some Bosnian Serb politician, circa 1994: “Why isn’t anyone talking about Rwanda!!” Is that really the best you’ve got?

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Here is another reply to Rep Steve Israel. Originally from As’ad AbuKhalil. The Syrian population is ten times that of the Gaza Strip. By comparision in equivalence, Israel has killed in four weeks 20.000 Syrians (including 3000 children). Happy now?

Well, there is nothing so loving as Steve Israel and his merry band of slaves, making their annual pilgrimage to their motherland. To worship and adore the zionist government. The mere fact that they are so defensive about it, show the criticism is getting to them. There is nothing so disgusting as seeing those who were we vote for, making asses of themselves by falling over each other, and doing an alien nation’s bidding, that basically is NOT good for their own nation.

1 million people were killed in Bosnia. 800,000 were killed in Rwanda. Around 170,000 civilians have died in Syria. But what people care most about is a conflict in which under 2,000 people have died. The comparison of these conflicts with the I-P conflict is absurd on its face, but what else can you expect from these losers? They’ve compared the I-P conflict to the Holocaust, in which tens of millions of people were killed.

Steve Israel’s point is well taken to any honest, intelligent person.

The U.S. enabled the slaughter in Rwanda by doing nothing about it when it happened. It enabled the slaughter in Bosnia by doing nothing about it and by leaving Slobodan Milosevic in power. In fact, in that case, the same people supporting BDS now were militantly OPPOSED to intervening in any form in the Balkans and doubtless would have opposed any US action in Rwanda.

The same people are also militantly OPPOSED to intervening in any form in Syria.

Moreover, the complicity of the Europeans and UN in these slaughters is even deeper, particularly in Bosnia.

So Scott Roth can tweet his ridiculous non-sequitor about enabling, as if Israel were not capable of using weapons without the US support, as if depriving Israel of military support would end the conflict, as if Hamas weren’t enabled by Iran and Qatar, and as if it weren’t enabling to allow despots like Slobodan Milosevic to kill people wasn’t much worse.

Here hophmi:

“Relative to the size of Gaza’s population, the numbers are approaching the dimensions of the war in Syria, the one Israel bandies about to prove the Arabs’ animal nature. Last week, a record-breaking week, 1,700 people were killed in Syria. In Gaza, whose population is less than one-tenth that of Syria’s, about that same number have been killed in three and a half weeks of Israeli intoxication of the senses – not a major difference.”

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.608490

By the way, it isn’t 170,000 dead Syrian CIVILIANS. The breakdown in the death toll over there is pretty murky.