[Peace-discuss] US Senate Supports Israel's Gaza Incursion

[C. G. Estabrook]

Perhaps.  But note the following, from a piece by Stephen Zunes, dated 6 January 
2009 <http://www.alternet.org/audits/117475?page=1>:


"In apparent anticipation of the large numbers of Palestinian deaths that would 
result from such military operations in the Gaza Strip, the House passed a 
resolution in March, 2008, during an outbreak of fighting, that claimed, 'Those 
responsible for launching rocket attacks against Israel routinely embed their 
production facilities and launch sites amongst the Palestinian civilian 
population, utilizing them as human shields.' The resolution goes on to 
specifically condemn 'the use of innocent Palestinian civilians as human shields 
by those who carry out rocket and other attacks' and yet again makes note of 
Palestinians who 'continue to be utilized as human shields by terrorist 
organizations.'

"But according to Joe Stork of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, 
while Hamas failed to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians in the 
densely populated Gaza Strip, the watchdog group had found no instances of Hamas 
actually using human shields in the legally defined sense of deliberately using 
civilians as a means of deterring counterattacks. Despite my contacting the 
offices of more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress who supported the 
resolution -- all of whom are members of the so-called Progressive Caucus -- 
none of them could provide any examples of Hamas actually using human shields. 
It appears that the Democrats' goal in pushing through this resolution was to 
convince their constituents that it was the Palestinians, not the Israelis who 
were attacking them, who were responsible for civilian casualties and who would 
likewise be responsible for the far greater number of civilian casualties that 
would inevitably result from the Israeli bombardment and invasion which was to 
commence later that year.

"The resolution also gave unqualified support for the Israeli government's 
attacks against the Gaza Strip, even as Amnesty International condemned Israel's 
'reckless disregard for civilian life' in its bombing and shelling of civilian 
population centers. The AI report also noted how the attacks by Palestinians 
against civilian-populated areas in Israel, which the report also roundly 
condemned, 'does not make it legitimate for the Israeli authorities to launch 
reckless air and artillery strikes which wreak such death and destruction among 
Palestinian civilians.'

"Not a single one of the 230 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted 
against the resolution. (There were four abstentions, and 12 did not vote.) This 
sent a clear signal that there would be no opposition in Congress -- which 
provides over $4 billion annually in unconditional military and economic aid to 
the Israeli government -- for an even larger military assault against the 
Palestinian population of the enclave..."


[In fact, the vote in favor of that resolution  was 404-1, the one being Rep. 
Ron Paul; Kucinich did not vote, along with 7 Republicans and 12 Democrats.  It 
will be interesting to see if the present round of US/Israeli barbarism changes 
many votes.  --CGE]


Robert Naiman wrote:
> US Senate Supports Israel's Gaza Incursion
> http://uk.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUKN08534236
> 
> Next: consideration by the House, where there is likely to be more friction.
>