The bad news is that the 800 pound gorilla, AIPAC, and its satellite organizations are pushing it hard.
The House resolution which will pass on Tuesday basically endorses everything Israel did in the horrific Gaza war while bashing Judge Richard Goldstone for documenting war crimes committed in that war (320 dead Palestinian kids!).
After the vote I'll post the roll call and you will see that some of your favorite "courageous" liberals are none too courageous when it comes to this issue. Some of the very House members who denounce the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war and God knows how many other US military actions (often rightly) go mute when it comes to Israel. In fact, most of them do. In other words, they are courageous when there is no cost for it. (I'm curious about my current hero, Alan Grayson. Does he buckle on this issue?)
Passing this resolution will damage US security by stating to the world that when Bibi asks us to jump, we jump even higher. (Note to Congress: Did you ever consider just saying you don't agree with Goldstone's findings or did AIPAC reject that approach?)
Next week: the names of the Democrats who vote for it, just so you know why John F. Kennedy would not be writing "Profiles in Courage" about Congress in the 21st century.
I douby they will pass it by voice vote because then they can't get "credit" from AIPAC.
I had just left home this morning when I saw a series of police vehicles turning into my road. I have recently moved to Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem where Israel pursues a policy of evicting Palestinians from their homes. I’d been thinking that I was late for work – in fact I was bang on time for a story.
I did a U-turn and followed the police convoy. They were heading towards a Palestinian house that had been the scene of an eviction at the beginning of August. The Ghawi family had been living there for more than 50 years, but an Israeli court ruled that Jews were the rightful owners. So the Palestinians were thrown out onto the street and Jewish settlers moved in.
Finding themselves homeless, the Ghawi family had set up a tent on the pavement opposite their old house. This flimsy structure, containing a few foam mattresses and plastic chairs, was the target of the latest Israeli demolition order.
The police acted with swift, brutal efficiency. Within minutes they had torn down the tent and loaded it, along with its contents, onto the back of a couple of pick-up trucks.
“I will sit on a chair in the street!” shouted Maysoun Al Ghawi, her voice shaking with anger and distress. “With my children, without a tent. Without anything. I will stand opposite my house. I have a right to live here with my children. They stole the house from me by force!”
And this is not an isolated story. The Hanoun family and Al Kurd family have also been dispossessed. And there are other cases in the pipeline. On the pavement, I met Amal Qassem, a neighbour who was watching anxiously. She had been in court the previous day, fighting a legal action by Israeli settlers to grab her home.
“My house is one of 28 houses which are threatened by eviction,” she told me. “I am waiting my turn.”
What Israel knocks down, the Palestinians raise up again. No sooner had the police left, than people from the neighbourhood were helping the Ghawi family build a new makeshift shelter.
The next people to show up were a busload of women from the European parliament. They were in town to learn about Israeli evictions and house demolitions. And they had arrived just in time for a first-hand lesson.
“All the international community should be ashamed of what’s happening here,” said Luisa Morgantini, a former vice president of the European Parliament. “We see every day Palestinians being sent out of their homes, houses being demolished, increasing of settlements. It’s really time to end it.”
The settlers inside the Ghawi house had clearly been working their phones, because the police showed up again. An officer in a patrol car used his loud hailer to inform the rapidly growing crowd of Palestinians, parliamentarians, journalists, Israeli peace activists and UN workers that this was an illegal gathering and must disperse within five minutes.
To add insult to injury, the police gave a parking ticket to the bus carrying the ladies from the European parliament.
The deadline passed and the police waded in. Déjà vu: the Ghawi’s new shelter met the same fate as their tent. Torn down and bundled into the back of a police pick-up.
What we are witnessing in Sheikh Jarrah is part of a systematic effort by Jewish settlers – backed up by the courts, the municipality and the police – to tip the demographic balance in East Jerusalem. They are working slowly and patiently, house by house, family by family, to replace Palestinians by Jews.
This happens in broad daylight. The international community knows full well what is going on. Indeed, this particular incident was witnessed by elected representatives of the people of Europe. Yet the Israeli evictions and demolitions in East Jerusalem continue unchecked.
TWO MORE STRIKES AGAINST ISRAEL’S FOREIGN MINISTER
Avigdor Lieberman is truly making a name for himself. He is probably the most hated Israeli politician since kahane. In just one day, he has aroused both local and international figures with his shenanigans….
The first instance comes from the Turkish Prime Minister who claims that Lieberman threatened to nuke Gaza . Now, that’s a pretty serious charge…
Relations between Turkey and Israel froze last week when the Turkish Government refused to take off the air a television drama that depicts Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian children.
Now, this new revelation about Lieberman…. makes one wonder what else the Turks have been keeping quiet about.
Tibi lashed out at Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s party over its sponsorship of a bill that would outlaw state funding for the commemoration of Israel’s establishment as a catastrophe or “Nakba” for Palestinians.
Much of what goes on in Israel is ignored by the International Press or completely overlooked by those governments that support Israel blindly. The above two incidents will get coverage most likely, but the day to day atrocities carried out by the Israelis against the Palestinians will continue to be ignored.
In the meantime, can we hope that the third strike against Lieberman will ’strike him out’?
Published Date: 24 October 2009 By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem ISRAEL'S right-wing government is worried by the emergence of a new Jewish lobbying group in Washington that opposes its expansion of West Bank settlements and wants to see an equitable peace compromise with the Palestinians rather than Israeli annexation of occupied territory.
The dovish group, J Street, will be holding a three-day gathering of about 1,200 activists it describes as being both "pro-Israel" and "pro-peace" beginning tomorrow in the American capital. The meeting marks a challenge to the dominance of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful lobbying group that supports the policies of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and which critics say wields too much influence over congress and US Middle East policy.
The Netanyahu government's wariness about J Street came to the fore this week when the Israeli ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, declined an invitation to attend the conference.
An embassy statement said there were "concerns over certain policies of the organization that may impair the interests of Israel".
However, the Obama administration is supportive of the gathering and the president's national security adviser, Jim Jones, will be keynote speaker.
The conference comes during a critical period in US-Israeli relations, with Israel relying on US acquiescence to continue its expansion of illegal West Bank settlements and on US support for its efforts to contain the fallout of a damning United Nations inquiry alleging its soldiers committed "war crimes" during last winter's Gaza war.
Officials in Jerusalem are declining to comment on the J Street gathering. But Zalman Shoval, a former senior adviser to Mr Netanyahu, said the J Street conference "undermines the activities of AIPAC which have been very beneficial to Israel and the United States".
Mr Shoval, a former ambassador in Washington, added: "J Street vociferously opposes the position of the elected government of Israel."
J Street calls for a leading US role in trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It stipulates that a peace deal should be based on a two-state solution along the borders that prevailed before the June, 1967 war with minor adjustments.
"Israel will no longer exist as a Jewish, democratic state if there is no two-state solution with the Palestinians," said J Street spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick. The reason: Palestinians, who have a higher birth rate than Jews, will become a majority if Israel retains control of the West Bank."
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – NATO-led forces in Afghanistan said on Saturday they would investigate the killing of four Afghans, reported by police to include a child and two women, by foreign troops in southern Kandahar city.
"We are deeply sorry for the loss of any life, especially civilians," spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks was quoted as saying in a NATO statement.
A Kandahar police official said a U.S. military convoy opened fire on a civilian vehicle, killing a child, two women and a man. A spokesman for NATO was unable to confirm the age and gender of the casualties.
The convoy involved appeared to belong to U.S. Special Forces, police official Shah Agha told Reuters.
The NATO statement said one of its convoys had shot at a civilian vehicle after it failed to stop when signaled to do so, killing four aboard and possibly wounding two others. It would not disclose the nationality of the troops involved.
"ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops tried repeatedly to signal the fast-approaching vehicle with passive measures, but fearing for their safety fired on the vehicle," the statement from the alliance said.
The incident comes while preparations are under way for Afghanistan's presidential election run-off, which the Taliban vowed earlier to disrupt and urged Afghans to boycott.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, the new U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, issued a directive in July stressing the importance of avoiding civilian casualties, which have undermined support for the war against the Taliban.
(Reporting by Ismael Sameem and Golnar Motevalli; Writing by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Michael Roddy) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091024/ts_nm/us_afghanistan_violence
