Thursday, December 16, 2010
[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]
This one is just too good (h/t: Lenny Ben-David).
The United States House of Representatives unanimously on Thursday approved a resolution opposing unilateral declaration of [a] Palestinian state.
The resolution introduced by Rep. Howard Berman, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, slams Palestinian efforts to push the international community to recognize a state in such a manner as "true and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties."
The resolution calls on the U.S. administration to "deny recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian state and veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognize a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties."
Makes sense, right? It wouldn't exactly promote peace if an Arab state were suddenly declared within some arbitrary borders (the 1949 armistice lines are exactly that). There would be no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, no land swaps for the large settlement blocs, no agreements to guarantee Jews access to holy places, no security arrangements to prevent 'Palestine' from inviting Iranian troops for 'protection', and more. And it would violate numerous UN resolutions, the Road Map, and the Oslo agreements.
The fact that it was unanimously adopted by the House shows how noncontroversial it is.
Why, only someone who really wanted to hurt Israel would oppose it. Even the most pro-Arab House members didn't. But guess what?
The pro-Israel lobby [sic!] J Street issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing Berman's resolution, saying "it addresses only one issue standing in the way of peace."
In the statement, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said that the resolution continued "a pattern in which overly one-sided resolutions are introduced and moved to the floor of the House without an adequate opportunity for debate, discussion and modification by the Members."
Let's see: J Street takes money from people associated with Saudi Arabia, the Arab-American institute, Iranian interests, anti-Israel billionaire George Soros, a mysterious woman associated with the guy who beat the Hong Kong horse-racing track, and the Turkish producer of anti-Israel propaganda films. Its co-founder called the creation of Israel 'an act that was wrong'. J Street also facilitated meetings between members of Congress and Judge Richard Goldstone, author of the notorious Goldstone report that accused Israel of deliberately murdering civilians in the Gaza war. And of course they've opposed other pro-Israel resolutions in Congress.
Time to end the charade.
No doubt Ben-Ami et al. regret that that antisemite Cynthia McKinney (or is she only friends with a great many antisemites, and no philosemites) isn't still in Congress so that resolution wouldn't have been adopted unanimously.
(Was it some respectable news organization that reported "the pro-Israel lobby J Street issued a statement..."? Is that now the official handle J Street claims for itself, "the pro-Israel lobby J Street"? Truth in advertising it certainly ain't.)
Would have been nice if the other 425 Representatives bothered to show up and vote on this. I heard only 10 people showed up to support it. Makes you wonder what work these people are doing to collect their paychecks.