The frenetic drive among members of Congress to demonstrate pro-Israel sentiment with more bombast and zeal than the next Representative has led to an absurd situation: Two letters and a resolution are now circulating in the House that not only fall well to the right of mainstream Israeli and Jewish American opinion and American policy - but advocate action which would lessen Israel's security and ultimately endanger the democratic Jewish state.
Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Anthony Weiner have called on colleagues to sign a letter protesting the State Department's recent status upgrade of the office representing the Palestinian government in the US. A mostly symbolic move, it was taken (without objection from the Israeli Government) to further a negotiated two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In lambasting the upgrade, Ros-Lehtinen's and Weiner's letter urges the administration to "kick the PLO out of the US once and for all" - and as such, demands not only that the US obstruct the Palestinians' path to self-determination, but that it unwind nearly two decades of diplomacy. Given that a two-state solution is the clearly stated goal of both the United States and Israel, it furthermore raises serious doubts about whether the signers of this letter support American and Israeli policy. Moreover, the members' efforts put her squarely at odds with those of the US and Israeli government as they push to restart direct negotiations with the very entity Ros-Lehtinen and Weiner aim to delegitimize.
But this isn't just a question of policy. Simply put: Demographic trends between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River mean that working against a two-state agreement means working against Israel's future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people.
A letter authored by Rep. Scott Garrett could speed up that destructive timeline considerably, however. Backed by the Zionist Organization of America -an organization categorically opposed to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza- Garrett's letter criticizes an imaginary version of President Obama's handling of the Iranian nuclear program. The Congressman asserts that, "your Administration has been pursuing a fruitless course of diplomacy for over 18 months, despite the long history of other unsuccessful outreach to the regime... Clearly, the 'engagement' by your administration has failed."
The most disingenuous aspect of this letter, however, is not its effort to suggest that the President doesn't plan to impose the sanctions Obama has already made clear he intends to further strengthen- rather it is Garrett's gross attempt at rewriting the administration's history of successful diplomacy . The Obama administration has achieved what the extreme right wing deemed impossible and apparently still hopes to deny: the toughest UN Security Council Sanctions on Iran ever. Without this success, Iran would not be at odds with its traditional trading partners, and would thus be easily able to circumvent unilateral US sanctions.
Moreover, it's shocking that any Member of Congress would declare themselves "troubled" by Obama's commitment to seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis. No true friend of Israel would prefer a military confrontation with Iran that - if President Ahmadinejad's threats are to be taken seriously - could trigger horrific attacks on Israelis by Iranian rockets and the forces of its Hezbollah and Hamas proxies.
And yet, as misinformed as Garrett's letter is, the resolution introduced by Rep. Louie Gohmert outdoes it in promoting a nominally "pro-Israel" agenda that would actually imperil our ally. Correctly recognizing Israel's sovereign right to use military force to defend itself from imminent threats-including a nuclear-armed Iran- Gohmert takes it upon himself to second this authorization, and then go further in actually calling for military action.
Beyond goading a democracy to launch a war that could result in thousands of casualties, Gohmert wantonly takes a swipe at the notion of an eventual Palestinian state: His resolution references "the Land of Israel," a term that in the modern context is only used to refer "Greater Israel" (the sovereign state, plus much, if not all, occupied territory). All references to the "Land of Israel" in Congressional resolutions in the past 20 years have contained careful qualifiers to make clear that Congress doesn't support the construction of a "Greater Israel" at the expense of a Palestinian state. Gohmert's resolution contains no such qualifiers, sending a message that backers of his resolution quite possibly don't support a two-state resolution.
The political miscalculation embodied by this trio of vehicles would be laughable, if the policies they promote weren't so dangerous to Israeli security, not to mention to the deeply rooted American interests in the region. Members of Congress should work on a bipartisan basis to further Israel's long-term security interests, not use the serious threats faced by our ally to burnish their hawkish credentials.
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Not so much the other comments.
Are we right in assuming that there is a Jewish influence going on here?
Can we say that we think they are spies and warmongers ?
Can we say that the US should stop funding this country that is agitating Iran "just for the fun" of it?
Can we say that they are trying to drag us into another confrontat
Can we say that they are arrogant and argumentat
Can we point out that they are shooting up Palestinia
Can we say that they are trying to solve their problem by exterminat
Europe is saying all of this AND IT'S IN THE PAPERS FOR ALL TO READ !!
America is very weak on this issue because of the huge influence of AIPAC etc. and it's not right since it has NO BEARING on reality.
Believe me the HP is not pro Jewish or pro Israel
As for your comments, you should do a little research and that will tell you that your comments are way out of line and Israel does far more for peace than the other sides
The IDF's occupation has destroyed any credibilit
The more they push the more people move away from Israel.
Wait until the U.S. wakes up to what is going on across the country financial and how Americas taxpayers are being ripped off.
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