The FY2009 omnibus appropriations bill hasn't gotten too much attention on this site. Until now. This is because Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is attempting to tie passage of this essential bill to a congressional endorsement of anti-Palestinian bigotry.
The wonderful Americans for Peace Now Legislative Round-Up first alerted us to Sen. Kyl's activities. Kyl, the Senate minority Whip (aka the second most important Republican in the Senate), has proposed several amendments to
the bill aimed at advancing his neoconservative foreign policy agenda
at the risk of killing the entire $410 billion bill. One amendment, prohibiting
money from the bill to go to companies doing business with Iran's
energy sector, has already been voted down, but that hasn't stopped him.
Kyl has submitted several other amendments to be debated on Monday, the
most outrageous is S. Amdt. 629 in Section
7093 of H.R. 1105, that would ensure that: "None of
the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may
be available to resettle Palestinians from Gaza into the United
States."
What do Palestinian refugees have to do with the US omnibus bill? Absolutely nothing. But that isn't stopping Kyl's discriminatory and xenophobic attack. The Arab American Institute put it well:
As the second
ranking Republican in the Senate, it is shocking that Mr. Kyl would
continue to put his bigoted agenda ahead of the business of the
American people and the principles of his own party by making
anti-Palestinian bias a litmus test for the passage of the annual
appropriations bill.
What makes the Kyl amendment even more pathetic is that it appears to be based on a discredited Internet rumor. At the beginning of February the right-wing blogosphere was set off by a rumor that President Obama signed a "Presidential Determination Allowing Palestinians Loyal to Hamas to Resettle In US." The rumor gained traction and even received a rebuttal from the website snopes.com. Clearly Kyl didn't get the memo.
This isn't the first time Kyl has taken up the mantle of the fringe neocon right. Just last month he hosted a screening of the Islamophobic film Fitna along with its director Dutch MP Geert Wilders. This time however the rest of the Senate gets a vote. Let's hope they get back to dealing with issues that actually need to be addressed and repudiate such racism and baseless fear mongering.
