House of Representatives SHAMES itself UPDATED

House Shames Itself on Goldstone Report

Do you even know what the Goldstone Report is?    Ring any bells?   Have you heard the Corporate Media even mention it in the last few days?   Maybe?   Barely?   Sorta?  

Gotta love how this story is already down the Memory Hole, after barely any mention in the press WHATSOEVER.

Our beloved House of Representatives passed a resolution by a nearly 10-1 margin denouncing The Goldstone Report, which was issued by the United Nations and basically charged the state of Israel with WAR CRIMES in its brutal and inhuman attack on the Gaza Strip last year.

Shame on the House of Representatives, and on the Democratic leadership of the House, for pushing through a resolution once again blindly taking the side of Israeli aggression.

I’m referring to the vote on Tuesday, by a lopsided 344-to-36 margin*, to condemn the Goldstone report on Gaza.

That report, by South African jurist Richard Goldstone for the UN, showed that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes in the lead-up to and during Israel’s invasion of Gaza almost a year ago. (To read the executive summary, click here)

It noted that Israel deliberately attacked civilian targets, and did not take sufficient action to minimize civilian loss of life. For instance, it found that Israel even refused to allow the evacuation of the injured by ambulance.

The report also condemned Hamas for its rocket attacks into Israel, which the report said were designed to create terror.

Even as the U.N. was about to consider the report, the House measure called it “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.” And it urged the Obama Administration to “strongly and unequivocally oppose” any discussion of it at the UN.

This reflexive attitude that Israel can do no wrong is morally bankrupt and exceedingly unhelpful in resolving, in a just manner, the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

If you were paying any attention whatsoever, it is quite clear that Israel did, in fact, commit war crimes, and in no way can what they did be construed as “defending themselves.”

Yet our House of Representatives blindly sides with this tiny, belligerent, racist war-criminal state.  

Why?  

I’ve been trying to figure out for a while now why the United States blindly supports the most fascist and peace-threatening regime in the Western World, the state of Israel.   What does the United States get out of the deal?   It sure as hell isn’t about “Democracy”.   The United States doesn’t give a rats ass about Democracy in any other country, no in any way shape or form.   Just look at our support of the totalitarian, boiling-people-alive country of Uzbekistan for one despicable instance.

It might be about sharing intelligence and resources for covert activities and blackops, but the U.S. does that with other countries as well, such as Turkey, without such a blatant in-your-face disregard for human rights.    

Dennis Kucinich, who seems to be about the only actual HUMAN BEING left in the House, put it quite well:

“Today we journey from Operation Cast Lead to Operation Cast Doubt,” he said on the House floor on Tuesday. “Almost as serious as committing war crimes is covering up war crimes, pretending that war crimes were never committed and did not exist.

“Because behind every such deception is the nullification of humanity, the destruction of human dignity, the annihilation of the human spirit, the triumph of Orwellian thinking, the eternal prison of the dark heart of the totalitarian.

“The resolution before us today, which would reject all attempts of the Goldstone Report to fix responsibility of all parties to war crimes, including both Hamas and Israel, may as well be called the ‘Down is Up, Night is Day, Wrong is Right: resolution.’ . . .

“How can we ever expect there to be peace in the Middle East if we tacitly approve of violations of international law and international human rights, if we look the other way, or if we close our eyes to the heartbreak of people on both sides by white-washing a legitimate investigation?

“How can we protect the people of Israel from existential threats if we hold no concern for the protection of the Palestinians, for their physical security, their right to land, their right to their own homes, their right to water, their right to sustenance, their right to freedom of movement, their right to human security of jobs, education and health care?

“We will have peace only when the plight of both Palestinians and Israelis is brought before this House and given equal consideration in recognition of that principle that all people on this planet have a right to survive and thrive, and it is our responsibility, our duty to see that no individual, no group, no people are barred from this humble human claim.”

(Why does being a truthful human being make you a “left wing liberal”?)

And if anyone has any doubts as to the ferocity of the criminal intent of Israel’s actions, here’s my favorite bit that nobody in America saw:

That’s what our House of Representatives supports.    Openly supports.  

UPDATE:

How interesting.  I just learned that giving foreign aid to Israel is actually, now, illegal for the United States to give.

Yet we give it anyway.

Check this out:

Fortunately, Americans don’t need Barack Obama to “speculate” on what former President Jimmy Carter already confirmed on May 25, 2008: Israel possesses an arsenal of at least 150 nuclear weapons. Why does Obama trot out the discredited policy of “strategic ambiguity” – in which Israeli and U.S. officials officially refuse to confirm or deny the existence Israeli nuclear weapons – at this early moment? For one reason alone: to break the law. The 1976 Symington Amendment prohibits most U.S. foreign aid to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside international safeguards. Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). If U.S. presidents complied with the Symington Amendment, they would not deliver yearly aid packages to Israel totaling billions of dollars. Presidents make-believe that Israeli nuclear weapons don’t exist so Congress can legally continue shoveling the lion’s share of the U.S. foreign aid budget to Israel. But this thin pretense is now over. Since Carter’s revelation, press outlets such as Reuters chat openly about how Israel’s nukes mean that it does not qualify for U.S. aid. But like Harry Markopolos incessantly nagging the SEC about Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, fourth-estate and nuclear-activist calls for compliance continue to be rebuffed by government agencies. Denying Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about Israeli nukes has always been an integral tactic in preserving this hoary old ruse.

Then there’s this:

Why does AIPAC spy on Americans?

Because, well, it turns out they do.

Then there’s this:

James Bamford, author and renowned expert on the NSA, has a lot of surprising information for us regarding our dear Homeland’s spying upon us — the job is being outsourced to foreign countries, including two with strong Israeli ties.

Which actually leads us directly to this:

Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.?

The ability to blackmail gives one a lot of power.