” . . . it is a good thing that we will now finally be able to have an honest debate about the dreadful situation created by American complicity in enabling Israel’s continued oppression of Palestinians.”
That’s it? You, now hoping for “a debate” ?
A century on and counting plus a thousand more words from you @ why Bibi’s re-election is a good thing – so you can wish for (not even call for, just wish for) . . . a debate.
You got all the Democratic Pres. Candidates lined up to debate Israel / Palestine? Sure you do. Not.
Let’s all close our eyes really tight and wish for . . . a debate.
You write like we all live on Planet Patty Cake.
Well, the Israelis don’t.
As usual, comments here elevate the conversation and set a high bar for responding but permit me to make a couple of suggestions directed toward an activist response:
A recent New Yorker item reported that the Israeli government, not just Israeli activists, have insisted that every president since Bush #1 sign a letter of loyalty to Israel – and each had done so. Has anybody filed a FOIA to get copies of these letters?
Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has recently stated that she had to sign an Israel loyalty “oath” in order to raise campaign funds. I have been asking my congressman, Elijah Cummings if he has ever signed an Israel loyalty statement. He’s ducking the question. Is there a way through this website to magnify that inquiry to include virtually all members of Congress?
Bernie should just draw the map, and then announce the names of the organizations in Israel and Palestine that agree with his map – that agree with the forced population transfer that must accompany any two State solution.
Alternatively Bernie and everybody else should endorse representation elections, which is what the UN was asked to do in 1947.
The only equitable solution is a merged government. The only real issue is how to enforce this upon intransigent Zionist Israel.
Not a good look for the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives to pressure a freshman Democrat to apologize for a truthful statement.
Not a good look for the leadership team of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to join as one voice in criticizing a freshman Democrat – instead of first bringing this issue to all of the members.
The lifeblood of Zionism in the US political arena is to banish any thought of discussion or debate.
Pelosi and the rest of the leadership went along with this Zionist strategy. The leadership knows Zionusts will never be satusfied. No apology will ever be enough. An effort will be made to remove all Israeli critics from the elected ranks of the Congress.
Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hyer and the rest of the leadership have sacrificed their integrity as real leadership. They will sacrifice even members of their own party to keep a semblance of power in their own hands. Shameful.
David Hurst, in 1972, pointed out that Zionism “cannot challenge the Arab claim to Jerusalem by the only criterion which would count in modern law – centuries of continuous residence and ownership of the land; so they have to erect another one in its place, the intensity of the sentimental attachment, the strength of the mystic bond which binds them to it.” – David Hirst, Manchester Guardian Weekly, April 27, 1972, quoted in THE ZIONIST CONNECTION, Alfred Lilienthal, 1978, p. 753
Unless and until there is a muscular Boycott movement in the US, with weekend picketing , visits to retailers, house meetings, signs at hundreds of intersections – talk of a USA BDS movement is just that, talk. Politicians are indifferent and hostile to BDS because they see no downside. Right now, nationwide, there isn’t a political upside for supporting Palestine. BDS could and should be that engine. Can anyone name a single national organization that is doing regular, daily Face to Face organizing, putting pickets in front of stores?
Senator Van Hollen,
Two years ago, Kim Jensen met Dareen Tatour, then under house arrest in Tel Aviv.
Ms. Jensen, like myself. is a constituent of yours. She has written about the abuse which the State of Israel has subjected Ms.Tatour to for the past two years.
Prior to confinement by the police in her home, Ms.Tatour had been (1) arrested (2) interrogated and (3) tried. But not sentenced.
Not sentenced for two years. Instead of giving her a sentence, the Israeli authorities have kept Dareen Tatour under house arrest – for the past two years. And counting.
Ms.Tatour is a poet.
The crime of which Ms. Tatour was accused in 2016: incitement.
The evidence against her:
A video poem
Two posts on facebook
My question to you, Senator Van Hollen:
Will you ask the Israeli government, what’s up with two years of house arrest for reciting a poem in a video and posting on Facebook?
Thanks for the excellent exposition / talking points:
Permit me to add an item to the list:
Israel’s multiple murders and injuries of unarmed civilians last weekend amounts to a breach of the so-called “Leahy amendments” to our human rights statutes, which require withholding US aid to foreign military units who are shown to have committed grave human rights violations.
Here are excerpts from the US Code:
“No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” See 28 USC 2378d
“Of the amounts made available to the Department of Defense, none may be used for any training, equipment, or other assistance for a unit of a foreign security force if the Secretary of Defense has credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” See 10 USC 2249e
Thanks to the “Leahy amendments,” to US human rights laws, both the Department of State and Department of Defense are to discontinue military assistance to units of foreign security forces that have engaged in “a gross violation” of human rights.
The Leahy language is clear about what is required of both the state department and the defense department regarding the cutting off of military assistance:
“No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” See 28 USC 2378d
“Of the amounts made available to the Department of Defense, none may be used for any training, equipment, or other assistance for a unit of a foreign security force if the Secretary of Defense has credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” See 10 USC 2249e
To implement this law, U.S. embassies, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and the appropriate regional bureau of the U.S. Department of State vet potential recipients of security assistance. Under the Leahy amendments, the US has reportedly cut off military assistance from security and military units in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Saint Lucia.
Every United States Senator and member of Congress should be asked to comment publicly on recent events in Gaza and also inquire of the State Department and the Defense Department if their vetting procedures have cleared or implicated Israeli military unit in the deaths and wounding of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza in the last few days.
One State? Two States? An election by residents and refugees is the only just course:
Neither the Zionist invaders and refugees from Europe, not the British nor the League of Nations nor the UN nor the US has ever agreed to representation elections, which Palestinians formally requested as early as 1919 and which the UN Charter required.
We are at the same place we were a century ago with the same presumptuous empire builders perpetually dancing away from the same issue – whether the indigenous population will be accorded political representation throughout Palestine.