Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Barbara Lee does NOT speak for me.

In an unusual example of unity and bipartisanship, the House voted 398-17 in favor of H. Res 246.  Opposition to the movement to isolate Israel through the tactic of boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) is consistent on both sides of the aisle in Congress.

Text of the resolution follows.

Opposing efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel and the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement targeting Israel.
    Whereas the democratic, Jewish State of Israel is a key ally and strategic partner of the United States;
    Whereas since Israel’s founding in 1948, Congress has repeatedly expressed our Nation’s unwavering commitment to the security of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state;
    Whereas American policy has long sought to bring peace to the Middle East and recognized that both the Israeli and Palestinian people should be able to live in safe and sovereign states, free from fear and violence, with mutual recognition;
    Whereas support for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians has long-standing bipartisan support in Congress;
    Whereas it is the long-standing policy of the United States that a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should come through direct negotiations between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with the support of countries in the region and around the world;
    Whereas it is a hallmark of American democracy for citizens to petition the United States Government in favor of or against United States foreign policy;
    Whereas cooperation between Israel and the United States is of great importance, especially in the context of rising anti-Semitism, authoritarianism and security problems in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa;
    Whereas the Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement) targeting Israel is a campaign that does not favor a two-state solution and that seeks to exclude the State of Israel and the Israeli people from the economic, cultural, and academic life of the rest of the world;
    Whereas the BDS Movement targets not only the Israeli government but also Israeli academic, cultural, and civil society institutions, as well as individual Israeli citizens of all political persuasions, religions, and ethnicities, and in some cases even Jews of other nationalities who support Israel;
    Whereas the BDS Movement does not recognize, and many of its supporters explicitly deny, the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination;
    Whereas a founder of the BDS Movement has denied the right of the Jewish people in their homeland, saying, “We oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”;
    Whereas university-based BDS efforts violate the core goals of the university and global cultural development, which thrive on free and open exchange and debate; and
    Whereas the BDS Movement promotes principles of collective guilt, mass punishment, and group isolation, which are destructive of prospects for progress towards peace and a two-state solution: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) opposes the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement) targeting Israel, including efforts to target United States companies that are engaged in commercial activities that are legal under United States law, and all efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel;
(2) affirms that the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement undermines the possibility for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by demanding concessions of one party alone and encouraging the Palestinians to reject negotiations in favor of international pressure;
(3) urges Israelis and Palestinians to return to direct negotiations as the only way to achieve an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;
(4) supports the full implementation of the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 (Public Law 113–296; 128 Stat. 4075) and new efforts to enhance government-wide, coordinated United States-Israel scientific and technological cooperation in civilian areas, such as with respect to energy, water, agriculture, alternative fuel technology, civilian space technology, and security, in order to counter the effects of actions to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel; and
(5) reaffirms its strong support for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states—a democratic Jewish State of Israel, and a viable, democratic Palestinian state—living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition.
Yet Barbara Lee, representing California's 13th district voted against this mild bill, which reaffirms the US's commitment to a peaceful negotiated solution to the hostilities in the Middle East.  Jared Huffman from Marin, California's 2nd Congressional district, did not register a vote.

For future reference, these are the Congressional representatives who do not support a "negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states—a democratic Jewish State of Israel, and a viable, democratic Palestinian state—living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition."

Nays (17)

Republicans (1) 
Thomas Massie (KY-04)


Democrats (16) 
Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
André Carson (IN-07)
Debbie Dingell (MI-12)
Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04)
Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03)
Pramila Jayapal (WA-07)
Barbara Lee (CA-13)
Betty McCollum (MN-04)
Gwen Moore (WI-04)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14)
Ilhan Omar (MN-05)
Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
Mark Pocan (WI-02)
Bobby L. Rush (IL-01)
Rashida Tlaib (MI-13)
Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12)


Not Voting (18)

Republicans (7) 
Ralph Abraham (LA-05)
Kelly Armstrong (ND-AL)
Greg Gianforte (MT-AL)
Louie Gohmert (TX-01)
Sam Graves (MO-06)
Martha Roby (AL-02)
Chris Stewart (UT-02)

Democrats (10)
Karen Bass (CA-37)
Danny K. Davis (IL-07)
Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15)
Jared Huffman (CA-02)
Hank Johnson (GA-04)
Seth Moulton (MA-06)
Nancy Pelosi (CA-12)
Cedric L. Richmond (LA-02)
Tim Ryan (OH-13)
Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24)

Independents (1) 
Justin Amash (MI-03)

Just in case you still held out a glimmer of hope that J Street was pro-Israel, they have endorsed the majority of the  Democratic Representatives who voted against this resolution.

5 comments:

  1. Endorsed by J Street:
    Blumenauer (OR)
    Carson (IN)
    Dingell (MI)
    García (IL)
    Grijalva (AZ)
    Jayapal (WA)
    Lee (CA)
    Pocan (WI)
    Moore (WI)
    McCollum (MN)
    Pingree (ME)
    Rush (GA)
    Watson-Coleman (NJ)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a surprise to also find most of “The Squad” (short for radical leftist BDS goon squad) as far as I’m concerned) on the list of nays.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As a post script to my first comment I just wanted to thank this posting for reminding me yet again why I should never vote for barbara Lee.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sir Winston Churchill said this in year 1922 CE:

    “The Arabs would have sat in the dark
    forever had not the Zionist engineers
    harnessed the Jordan River for electrification.

    Now they swarm into Palestine in seeking the light.”

    SOURCE: A Peace to End All Peace

    CHRONOLOGY:
    Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
    from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.

    QUESTION: If the Arabs are native to Palestine,
    then why did Winston Churchill say:
    "Now they swarm INTO Palestine in seeking the light.”
    The word "INTO" implies that most of them
    were NOT in Palestine before the Zionists.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Winston Churchill said this in 1937 CE:

    “[Winston] Churchill did not accept that the Jews
    were a foreign race [to the Holy Land]. He said it was
    the Arabs who had been the outsiders, the conquerors.”

    SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
    (chapter 10, page 115) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007

    CHRONOLOGY:
    Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
    from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.

    HISTORY NOTE:

    According to the Wikipedia internet encyclopedia,
    these lands were conquered by the Rashidun Caliphs,
    from year 632 to year 661 of the Common Era
    (from west to East): Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon,
    Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Eastern Turkey, and Iran.

    Therefore, Winston Churchill was correct when
    he said that the Muslims were the outsiders
    and conquerors, with respect to the land of Israel.

    ReplyDelete