ZGram - 11/21/2001 - "The Craven 89"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Wed, 21 Nov 2001 19:36:43 -0800


Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

November 21, 2001

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Virginia Abernethy of Nashville is doing what citizens in a democracy ought
to do:  She asks for an accounting of those elected civil servants who are
more concerned with pleasing Israel than with looking out for American
interests.

  In this Open Letter to President Bush, sie asks which ones of the
Senators asked "not to hamper Israel."  A worthy question - because it also
tells the voters who the eleven are who still remember that they have a
spine.

  [START]

  Subject: the craven 89

  Eight-nine senators sent an AIPAC-directed letter to Pres. Bush asking
him to get out of Israel's way in Palestine.

==========

Open Letter to President George W. Bush,

Dear President Bush,

  Please release the names of the 89 U.S. Senators who signed a letter
asking you to not "hamper Israel" (NYT,Nov. 17, 2001, p.1)in its military
actions against the Palestinian people. Senators are elected
representatives of their States. When their actions are likely to be
controversial or contrary to constituents' security and economic interests,
they must be exposed.

  These 89 Senators have chosen sides in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict
even though Americans as a people do not bear a grudge against
Palestinians. Many who know the history of Zionism and Israel see the
Palestinians' struggle as legitimate. Some see it as akin to America's own
fight for liberty in 1775. We doubt that the Palestinians' weapons of
choice would be thrown rocks or self-annihilation with hidden bombs if they
had other means of pressing claims to their homelands.

  Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem advance even, or
especially, as world attention focuses on the "peace process." The
Palestinians "pay" for negotiations by agreeing to forgo violence, only to
see further confiscation of their lands occur under cover of the
negotiations. Half of the 200,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank came
after initiation of the 1993 Oslo Peace Agreement (Washington Post, Sept.
16, 2001). The West Bank is now like a Swiss cheese: Israeli settlements
linked by militarized Israeli-controlled roads and checkpoints that
Palestinians can traverse only after delay and humiliation.

  If few Americans have strong views about the Mid-East struggle, it is
because they are not well informed. The big media see to it that Israel's
atrocities are covered lightly if at all. Most Americans do not know that
Palestinians in the West Bank sometimes go days at a time without running
water because Israelis shut off the taps. Or that Palestinian water
consumption (including agricultural uses) is 60-90 liters per capita per
day compared to 280 liters per capita per day for Israelis on the West Bank
(New York Times, p. wk9, Sept. 2, 2001). That Israelis have filled in
Palestinian wells, have uprooted their groves of ancient olive trees, and
have bulldozed down houses and barns, crushing farm animals and all else
before them.

  Americans recognize, nevertheless, that they have both an ethical and a
security interest in arriving at a just peace in the Mid-East, and they are
surprisingly united in assessing why they came under attack at the World
Trade Center on September 11. A poll released in early October by Reuters
Israel but not reported in America shows that 46% of Americans want to
"rethink" the United States' relationships with Israel -- ending military
and economic aid, and ending U.S. support for that state.  According to the
poll, 58% of Americans saw U.S. ties to Israel as "a major" cause of the
attacks on New York and Washington, and "Forty-six percent said the United
States should consider changing its Middle East policies to reduce the
violent backlash against it."

  In the United States, Americans who doubt the media spin about the World
Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on 9-11 may believe that they are alone.
They are not.

  Many think it is common sense to credit what terrorist who attacked us
say about their own motives. The terrorists say that the United States'
reflexive support for Israel is one of three major causes of the attacks.
Why not believe those who voluntarily tell you why they commit a crime? Who
would know better than the terrorists themselves why they perpetrate
atrocities?

  But the big media tell us they know better. The big media have a dog in
this fight and tell the American people that we are hated for our
democracy, our liberty, our success!

  Not satisfied with assaulting our common sense and sense of justice in
the Israeli/Palestinian struggle, the big media are now preparing the
public for wider U.S. military involvement. For example, "The Beltway Boys"
(FOX News channel, November 17) speculated on the military agenda after
mop-up operations in Afghanistan; one trickster jovially asked, "What
next?" and was answered, "Iraq."

  American boys and girls should not be used to fight Israel's dream war.
Israel has long desired that the United States would annihilate its
enemies, especially Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon. And the second tier,
Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

  The 89 Senators who press President Bush and Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell to favor Israel in the Mid-East conflict will not rest. The U.S.
military is next to be enlisted in the service of Israeli goals. The
approximately $3 billion annually in economic assistance and $4 billion in
military support from American taxpayers to Israel is apparently not
sufficient!

  The letter in which Senators urged President Bush "not to restrain Israel
from retaliating fully against Palestinian violence and to express his
solidarity publicly with Israel soon... stemmed from a meeting two weeks
ago between leaders of the American Jewish community and key senators....
Particularly active in providing advice on the letter was the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC], the principle lobbying group for
Israel" (NYT, Nov. 17)

  President Bush, please release the names of the craven 89 Senators who
put the interests of Israel ahead of the interests, integrity, and security
of the American people. We need to know.

  Sincerely

  Virginia Abernethy

  Nashville, TN 37205

=====

Thought for the Day:

"We must build a new world, a far better world - one in which the eternal
dignity of man is respected."

(Harry S. Truman)