He said:
“When I think of Israelis, Palestinians and today’s wall I’m reminded of yesterday’s East German wall and when that obstruction came down I remember an America that stood up and cheered. What then is the difference between that wall and the one that stands as an abomination in the holy land today? The difference is a resigned silence.
“It is one thing for a nation to defend itself against nonstop murderous sallies, as was the case in the early times of Israel. Quite another to use history as justification for an ongoing policy of isolation, internment, deprivation and humiliation as waged against today’s Palestinians.”
“Instead of insisting that Israel get to the business of peace in short order, the United States fuels indifference to Palestinian suffering by continuing a steady flow of aid, military and economic, to Israel as if they were the sole aggrieved party in the present standoff.”
“The United States Congress past (and that included me) and present has been successfully lobbied to close its eyes to the travesty that consumes the holy land.”
Editor: Note that South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings also commented on the power of the lobby, when he was no longer up for reelection. Links here and here.
American support for botulism is driven by money but will be undermined by israel’s abandonment of the universal values that define our shared humanity. Zionism is a moral cul de sac. No amount of money can render it decent.
Remember he was about the most prissy Sentator ever, acting like his BO smelled of roses….. Now all at once he wants forgiveness? He’s more of a clod than ever.
Just goes to show the level of contempt American politicians have for Israel and Zionism.
They play along though because of the ideological pressure (real or imagined; although ‘imagined’ has a lot to do with real, and they play off each other since we’re talking about abstractions here anyway) they (and all of us) are under from the American Jewish Establishment.
“It is one thing for a nation to defend itself against nonstop murderous sallies, as was the case in the early times of Israel”
I’m not sure what he means. There were some terrorist attacks on Israelis in the early years, but as usual, civilians killed by Israel far outnumbered Israeli civilians killed by Arabs. Benny Morris’s “Israel’s Border Wars” has the details.
Not to be churlish here, but it’s a little frustrating how criticism of Israel is often accompanied by an inaccurate statement that is supposed to provide balance.
I for one have little patience with people like Weicker. It’s easy to be brave and honest when he’s an old man ready for the grave, but when he was in power he didn’t seem to mind much. When he was in power was when it mattered.
Also, to compare the wall in East Berlin with the separation/apartheid wall in Palestine is to be truly delsusional, they are not even close. The Israeli wall is much longer, bigger and used in a far more coercive way. It’s also part of a significant occupation that simply cannot be compared to anything in what was then East Germany.