The Best Congress AIPAC Can Buy

September 4th, 2009 by admin

Cantor’s travelmates evidently agreed with his rosy view of all things Israeli.  Steve Scalise marveled at “all the things that the people of Israel have been through,” while Louie Gohmert pressed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for a commitment to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, apparently oblivious to the fact that the status of a Muslim or a Christian in a Jewish state would be somewhat precarious.  Leonard Lance called for working together against Iran while Mike Coffman noted that the Obama Administration failed to comprehend “the magnitude of this threat of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.”  Perhaps Coffman and Lance should read some of the intelligence that the US government produces at great expense which reveals that Iran has no nuclear weapons program.

Congressman Pete Olson reported that he had known in “his head” how important the relationship with Israel was and, after three days, knew it also in his heart.  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who has been to Israel seven times and is the author of numerous pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian resolutions in the House, called Israel “our US ally against the violent extremists” and twittered to her constituents a gushing account of her “amazing dinner with soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces.  Courageous young men…”

Hoyer, who has been to Israel a dozen times, led the cheerleading for the Democrats.  The House Majority leader contradicted his own party’s president in finding that the settlements were not a “big issue” hindering a peace agreement, noting that they should be a “subject of negotiations.”  The real problem for Hoyer was completely predictably the Palestinians, specifically the “unwillingness of Abbas to sit down now.”  Hoyer also declared Jerusalem to be a “unified city” under Israeli control and reiterated Congressman’s Gohmert’s demand that the Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish State, neither of which is US policy.  Shelly Berkley, who has never met an Israeli she didn’t like, put it more bluntly, “The goals of this trip are to express Congress’s solidarity with the State of Israel and to find out what Israel’s needs are.”  Representative Kendrick Meek welcomed his opportunity to visit Israel to help him “make better decisions as a member of congress.” 

President George Washington counseled explicitly against getting involved in the quarrels of foreign nations.  What would he think of Hoyer and Cantor and the drones that followed them to Israel on a “fact finding” trip paid for by the Israel Lobby?  Words like “disloyalty” come to mind immediately, but the AIPAC trips targeting congress are signs of a deeper problem.  Many congressmen undoubtedly display knee-jerk support for Israel either because it is career enhancing or because they are afraid not to.  Those who truly believe that Israel’s interests are of paramount importance and that the United States ought to go to war on its behalf should perhaps find another line of work.  If they retain even a shred of decency and love of country, it is time for Cantor, Hoyer and others like them to go away.  They should leave quietly but do so quickly.  The well-being of the United States and its citizens demands it.

Update: It turns out that the original article quoted above was first published at antiwar.org.

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