Source: Wikipedia

Democratic U.S. Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, and James Oberstar sent a letter urging President Obama late last week urging him to use diplomatic pressure to resolve the blockade affecting Gaza. Spearheaded by Ellison and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., the letter acknowledges the difficult position facing Israel and notes that the blockade is strengthening Hamas. Fifty members of Congress, as well as a number of religious groups and denominations, have signed on to Ellison’s letter.

“The unabated suffering of Gazan civilians highlights the urgency of reaching a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts,” the letter urges. “The current blockade has severely impeded the ability of aid agencies to do their work to relieve suffering.”

Among the groups supporting the letter: J Street, The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF), The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), The American Near East Refugee Association (ANERA), The Methodist Church, The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), and Rabbis for Human Rights.

“We also sympathize deeply with the people of southern Israel who have suffered from abhorrent rocket and mortar attacks,” the letter states. “We recognize that the Israeli government has imposed restrictions on Gaza out of a legitimate and keenly felt fear of continued terrorist action by Hamas and other militant groups. This concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip. Truly, fulfilling the needs of civilians in Israel and Gaza are mutually reinforcing goals.”

The full letter:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

Thank you for your ongoing work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for your commitment of $300 million in U.S. aid to rebuild the Gaza Strip. We write to you with great concern about the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

The people of Gaza have suffered enormously since the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt following Hamas’ coup, and particularly following Operation Cast Lead. We also sympathize deeply with the people of southern Israel who have suffered from abhorrent rocket and mortar attacks. We recognize that the Israeli government has imposed restrictions on Gaza out of a legitimate and keenly felt fear of continued terrorist action by Hamas and other militant groups. This concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip. Truly, fulfilling the needs of civilians in Israel and Gaza are mutually reinforcing goals.

The unabated suffering of Gazan civilians highlights the urgency of reaching a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts. The current blockade has severely impeded the ability of aid agencies to do their work to relieve suffering, and we ask that you advocate for immediate improvements for Gaza in the following areas:

* Movement of people, especially students, the ill, aid workers, journalists, and those with family concerns, into and out of Gaza;

* Access to clean water, including water infrastructure materials,

* Access to plentiful and varied food and agricultural materials;

* Access to medicine and health care products and suppliers;

* Access to sanitation supplies, including sanitation infrastructure materials;

* Access to construction materials for repairs and rebuilding;

* Access to fuel;

* Access to spare parts;

* Prompt passage into and out of Gaza for commercial and agricultural goods; and

* Publication and review of the list of items prohibited to the people of Gaza.

Winter is arriving and the needs of the people grow ever more pressing. For example, the ban on building materials is preventing the reconstruction of thousands of innocent families’ damaged homes. There is also a concern that unrepaired sewage treatment plants will overflow and damage surrounding property and water resources.

Despite ad hoc easing of the blockade, there has been no significant improvement in the quantity and scope of goods allowed into Gaza. Both the number of trucks entering Gaza per month and the number of days the crossings have been open have declined since March. This crisis has devastated livelihoods, entrenched a poverty rate of over 70%, increased dependence on erratic international aid, allowed the deterioration of public infrastructure, and led to the marked decline of the accessibility of essential services.

The humanitarian and political consequences of a continued near-blockade would be disastrous. Easing the blockade on Gaza will not only improve the conditions on the ground for Gaza’s civilian population, but will also undermine the tunnel economy which has strengthened Hamas. Under current conditions, our aid remains little more than an unrealized pledge. Most importantly, lifting these restrictions will give civilians in Gaza a tangible sense that diplomacy can be an effective tool for bettering their conditions.

Your Administration’s overarching Middle East peace efforts will benefit Israel, the Palestinians, and the entire region. The people of Gaza, along with all the peoples of the region, must see that the United States is dedicated to addressing the legitimate security needs of the State of Israel and to ensuring that the legitimate needs of the Palestinian population are met.

Sincerely,

Members of Congress

Arizona
Raul Grijalva

California
Lois Capps
Sam Farr
Bob Filner
Barbara Lee
Loretta Sanchez
Pete Stark
Michael Honda
Lynn Woolsey
Jackie Speier
Diane Watson
George Miller

Connecticut
Jim Himes

Indiana
Andre Carson

Iowa
Bruce Braley

Kentucky
John Yarmuth

Maryland
Elijah Cummings
Donna Edwards

Massachusetts
Michael Capuano
William Delahunt
Jim McGovern
John Tierney
John Olver
Stephen Lynch

Michigan
John Conyers
John Dingell
Carolyn Kilpatrick

Minnesota
Keith Ellison
Betty McCollum
James Oberstar

New Jersey
Donald Payne
Rush Holt
Bill Pascrell

New York
Yvette Clarke
Maurice Hinchey
Paul Tonko
Eric Massa

North Carolina
David Price

Ohio
Mary Jo Kilroy
Marcy Kaptur

Oregon
Earl Blumenauer
Peter DeFazio

Pennsylvania
Chaka Fattah
Joe Sestak

Vermont
Peter Welch

Virginia
Jim Moran

Washington
Jim McDermott
Adam Smith
Jay Inslee
Brian Baird

West Virginia
Nick Rahall

Wisconsin
Tammy Baldwin
Gwen Moore

Virginia
Glenn Nye

Photo: house.gov

On Thursday, Rep. Michele Bachmann condemned the Goldstone report, a United Nations-commissioned report on possible war crimes during the Israel-Palestine conflict in the Gaza strip in 2008 and 2009. But it is clear from her press release that she either didn’t read the report or is willfully misleading the public.

The U.S. House voted voted 344 to 36 last week to condemn the Goldstone report because it criticizes Israel’s actions in retaliation to Palestinian attacks. Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum were the only two members of the Minnesota delegation to vote against condemning the report. The rest of the delegation supported the condemnation, except for Bachmann who was not present for the vote.

Bachmann praised the vote to condemn the report and in a press release on Thursday, wrote, “Indeed, while this report condemns Israel’s actions, it ignores the precipitating causes of Israel’s self-defensive behavior, concluding that Israel’s military operations were ‘deliberate and systematic,’ and directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, failing to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism, namely the thousands of rockets launched daily at its citizens.”

In fact, the report (pdf) doesn’t ignore “the thousands of rockets launched daily at its citizens.” It clearly calls those rockets attacks “a war crime,” and speculated further that they “may amount to crimes against humanity.”

The report’s section on the rocket attacks on Israel spans 20 pages which provide detail on lives lost, property damage, the groups responsible and the violation of Israeli rights.

On page 347, the report states, “Since April 2001, Palestinian armed groups have launched more than 8,000 rockets and mortars from Gaza into southern Israel.” It notes the “psychological trauma and the feeling of insecurity that living under rocket fire has caused” and the resulting “erosion of the economic, social and cultural life of these communities” in southern Israel.

The report describes the groups responsible, including “the ‘al Qassam Brigades’” which are the “the armed wing of the Hamas political movement.”

It notes that the rocket attacks by Palestinians are a violation of the rights of Israeli children. “The strikes had an adverse impact on the right to education of children and young adults in the affected communities in southern Israel.”

The report also identifies instances where Palestinian armed forces launched rockets from civilian areas thereby using civilians as shields against Israeli retaliation.

And the Goldstone report concludes,

From the facts available, the Mission finds that the rocket and mortars attacks, launched by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, have caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel and in Israel as a whole. Furthermore, it is the Mission’s view that the mortars and rockets are uncontrolled and uncontrollable, respectively. This indicates the commission of an indiscriminate attack on the civilian population of southern Israel, a war crime, and may amount to crimes against humanity. These attacks have caused loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage to private houses, religious buildings and property and have eroded the economic and cultural life of the affected communities.

A photo from Rep. Ellison's Feb. 2009 trip to Gaza, via Flickr

Rep. Keith Ellison is urging members of Congress not to scrap the Goldstone report (pdf) on war crimes allegedly committed during the conflict culminating in December 2008 and January 2009 between Hamas and Israel. A resolution in Congress, backed by Republicans, would condemn the report, written by UN investigator Richard Goldstone, as unfriendly to Israel. Ellison penned a column in Politico on Tuesday saying the Goldstone report is as fair as can be expected considering the difficult circumstances in the region.

The report states that both sides — Hamas and Israel — should be investigated for war crimes in the conflict when Hamas launched missiles into Israel and Israel implemented a crippling blockade on the people in the Gaza strip.

In defending the report, Ellison recalled the situation he saw when he visited the region last winter.

I visited Sderot in southern Israel and saw the havoc and trauma created by Hamas rocket fire. Israelis there live with fear. I have condemned these attacks as war crimes and will continue to do so.

I also visited Gaza and witnessed the devastation wreaked by the recent war. I toured an American school and medical clinics devastated by Operation Cast Lead. A blockade keeps out items such as paper for textbooks and nutritious food. Gazans live in poverty, and most cannot drink their own water. These are cruel violations against the people of Gaza, 56 percent of whom are children.

Ellison says that Goldstone is a staunch supporter of human rights, and it’s dishonest to claim that Goldstone has a bias against Israel — he’s a self-proclaimed Zionist.

In a letter to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, on which Ellison sits, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee urged the committee to reject the Goldstone report.

“The notoriously anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council commissioned and subsequently adopted this report which, according to the administration, had a mandate that was ‘unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable,’” the letter stated. “This report falsely charges that Israel committed war crimes and purposely targeted civilians.”

But, Goldstone and human rights groups say that’s not what the facts say. Human Rights Watch says that the resolution contains false information. Specifically, members of Congress claim that the report does not mention possible war crimes committed by Hamas. Goldstone points out that his report clearly does.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch urged Congress to support the Goldstone report. “Instead of denouncing the report, the US Congress should urge Israel and Hamas to break the cycle of abuse and impunity, which for too long has fueled hatred and hindered efforts at peace.”

Ellison echoed a similar sentiment. “The Goldstone report does not assign blame. It lays out the facts, as best as Goldstone could ascertain them, and offers recommendations for the future,” wrote Ellison. “Congress should use this report as a resource to understand a critical part of the world and to grasp fully the devastating human costs of the status quo.”

He continued, “Instead, Congress is poised to oppose the Goldstone report without holding a single hearing on a document that few members of Congress, if any, have read.”

The Ohio Democrat took up the issue again in a floor speech this morning in the U.S. House of Representatives, challenging Israel’s contention that the offensive against an entity with no official military is an act of self defense and stating the the Bush administration “knows Israel is using US weapons, paid for by US taxpayers, with disproportionate force creating a collective punishment of Gazans, assuring an escalation of conflict, clear violations of the Arms Export Control Act.”

Read or watch his speech after the jump.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, floor speech on Gaza conflict, Jan. 7, 2009, 1:52

Text of Kucinich floor speech:

“We cannot truly celebrate a New Year, a new Congress and a new administration if all we see is the same old destruction in the Middle East with U.S. weapons being illegally used to kill children.

I oppose Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel.  The rocket attacks, even to try to end the blockade, have no moral justification, are illegal and must stop.

But how can Israel claim self-defense when it bombs Gaza which has no army, no air force, no navy and has been under a constant blockade? How can Israel claim self-defense when its bombs destroy UN schools, killing children?

The children of Palestinians and the children of Israel both deserve life. But the lives of the children of Gaza are cynically discounted as “human shields.” Massacres are being rationalized. Israel’s “moral high ground” in Gaza, a growing pile of small bones in a graveyard.

The Administration knows Israel is using U.S. weapons, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, with disproportionate force creating a collective punishment of Gazans, assuring an escalation of conflict, clear violations of the Arms Export Control Act.

Israel was given U.S. weapons on condition they would not be used for aggression or escalation.  The outgoing Administration must finally stand for the rule of law, not the rule of force.”

Related: Ellison on Al Jazeera: ‘Not much sympathy’ by U.S. for Palestinians

“As of this writing, Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in occupied Gaza has killed nearly 300, and injured hundreds more – mostly civilians – since Saturday, December 26th. Over a thousand tons of bombs have been dropped on one of the most densely populated places in the world. “Operation Cast Lead”, coming after an 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip that created electricity and water shortages and cut means for producing basics such as daily bread, has exacerbated the humanitarian catastrophe faced by Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.

“Israel carried out these recent attacks with F16 fighter jets and missiles provided by U.S. tax dollars. The state of Minnesota is especially invested in Israel, holding Israeli bonds, while Governor Pawlenty is meeting with Israeli trade representatives to further the Minnesota-Israeli economic partnership. In light of this economic alliance and the moral responsibility that comes along, we demand Governor Pawlenty cut our trade and investment ties with Israel instead of financing this humanitarian crisis.

“As Jews in the Twin Cities, we stand with the world majority in the call to immediately end Israel’s current and devastating aggression in Gaza, for Israel to be held accountable for it’s actions, and for our fellow Minnesotans to join us. As Jews of conscience it is our responsibility to decry these atrocities done in our name.”

Similar rallies have been held around the world since the strikes began, including demonstrations planned today in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Valencia (Spain), among others.

On Dec. 27, the organization’s site published a statement that IJAN decries “the multiple forms of collective punishment currently being inflicted that reflect Israel’s 60-plus year history of ethnic cleansing: lack of access to electricity and potable water, blockades of food and medicine, and these brutal attacks… The media frames this violence as a conflict between warring peoples with equal power. This framing is possible because the media fails to recognize Israel as an apartheid State or as a colonial occupying force with one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world.”

Who knew that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s classic turkey-slaughter TV interview would usher in a golden age of uncomfortable, Thanksgiving-themed television ads featuring conservatives? Two ads that surfaced in the past few days qualify in separate categories for Slaughtered Turkey Awards.

The Slaughtered Turkey Award for Racial Harmony goes to what is either the last TV ad of the presidential campaign or the first Sarah Palin reality-show promo. When last heard from, the Our Country Deserves Better PACwas running a spot that associated now-President-elect Barack Obama with Che Guevara, Palestinians, Hamas and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (saying, “God damn America”). Now the PAC, the brainchild of former California state Rep. Harold Kaloogia, offers “Thank You, Sarah Palin,”a 30-second spot with brief testimonials from a convincingly amateurish crew of grateful Palin admirers, including a man who may be the first dark-skinned person the PAC has presented who isn’t supposed to be evil.

The Slaughtered Turkey Award for Awkward Editing goes to Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who appears to be groping a granddaughter with an exuberant one-handed hug at the end of a TV ad with a family-photo-type setup that should have provided harmless help for Chambliss’ U.S. Senate run-off election today. The false move is so blatant it’s got to be an innocent faux pas — but one that should have found a home on the cutting-room floor after one look.

“Thank you, Sarah Palin” (Our Country Deserves Better PAC)

Saxby Chambliss ad (Chambliss for Senate)

The missing link here is Sarah Palin stumping for Saxby Chambliss over the weekend:

Today James P. Rubin, a journalist who interviewed McCain in 2006 shortly after Hamas’s triumph in Palestinian parliamentary elections, writes in the Washington Post that McCain then advocated a position very like the one he’s now skewering Obama for touting.

Rubin reprints the text of the exchange:

I asked: “Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?”

McCain answered: “They’re the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it’s a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that.”

And here’s the video.

James P. Rubin interviews John McCain on Hamas, 2006 (Sky News/UK) (:40)