Sunday, September 18, 2011

Congress Sees Middle East Through AIPAC-Colored Glasses



A VERY GOOD PIECE

Medea Benjamin and Allison McCracken, September 17, 2011

"During August recess this year, 81 members of Congress went on a junket to Israel funded by the Israel lobby group AIPAC (well, funded by the American Israel Education Fund, but they are really one and the same) to " learn first-hand about one of our closest friends and allies." While the representatives insist they got a balanced view, their itinerary belies that claim: 95% of their time was spent hearing the Israeli government point of view, with only one token meeting with Palestinian reps.....

...we got a glimpse of what happens when Congress views the Middle East through AIPAC-colored glasses. Here are a few of examples of their tunnel vision:

* Asking the wrong questions....

* Listening to the wrong people....

* Polluting the atmosphere with racist comments: Not once was the plight of the Palestinians under occupation even mentioned. Instead, Democrats and Republicans across the board made sweeping statements that were embarrassingly racist. "Sending aid to the PA reinforces bad behavior," said Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. "The Palestinians refuse to negotiate and they glorify violence," she added. Cong. Carnahan wanted to know why there are no "honest actors" among the Palestinians. Elliot Abrams added, "The Palestinians have been cursed by a failure of leadership for 100 years." There was no mention, of course, that some of the best Palestinian leaders can be found in Israeli jails.....
....It obviously didn’t fit into the AIPAC junket agenda to introduce any of the committee members to peace activists in the West Bank who organize nonviolent protests against the occupation on a weekly basis.

* Ignoring history/denying reality....

* Targeting the victims: As if pointing the finger at the Palestinians for all the Middle East’s woes wasn’t enough, to its delight the committee found a new target to defund and shut down: UNRWA, the United Nations Refugee Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. UNRWA assists about 5 million Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East, including those who were displaced during the creation of the state of Israel and their descendants. UNRWA provides these refugees with basic services such as education and healthcare....

* Shutting off the lights....

* Tying aid with plenty of strings....


* Eviscerating the UN.....

* Sheer stupidity:
One thing the representatives just couldn’t understand is that if we are giving the Palestinians so much money, how come they don’t like us? "Anti-Americanism among the Palestinians is only second to anti-Israel invective," said witness Jonathan Schanzer, to the nods of the representatives. Rohrbacher seemed incredulous that we’ve given the Palestinians all this money, and it hasn’t even bought us goodwill. Duh! Of course the Palestinians don’t like us — we are supplying billions of dollars of weapons to their oppressors!......"

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