Palestine Tet – 29 – In tandem with President Biden and Madame Warmonger (Hillary Clinton) members of Colorado’s Congressional Delegation refuse to support an immediate ceasefire

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Before the end of the month, after 60 days without water, food, fuel, electricity or medicine, it’s likely that 100,000 Palestinians will have expired. Israelis have dropped over 15,000 deadly missiles on a crowded Gaza strip, striking babies, children, women, fathers, mothers… elderly, the infirm, diabetics, and people needing critical medicines and surgeries. As conditions of survival disappear under the F-16s and Israeli tanks, Palestinians will be dying by the minute. Hear that, Bomber Biden? –R

Ralph Nader

It’s not that the Biden Administration isn’t concerned that Palestinians are being killed like fish in a barrel in Gaza virtually none of whom have anything to do with Hamas guerillas, no, it’s not that. In fact many a member of the Administration might shed a tear, feel somewhat uneasy as the terms for Israel being increasingly mentioned “apartheid”, “occupation”, “genocide” take hold.

It’s simply that Washington will do whatever it needs to keep its key regional proxy afloat.  Even if the consequences means “Nakba 2” for Palestine., so be it. Strategic interests come first; human rights fall way behind, if all.

Rob Prince (for Front Range Jewish Voice for Peace)

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Over the years, other than a few big contributors to Congressional campaigns, those of us working for Middle East peace, for an end to the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian territories in Colorado have rarely been able to meet with members of Congress themselves either in person or on Zoom. Those among us with deeper pockets have more of an opportunity. The illusion of those “chosen” who have Congress people’s cell numbers, or who meet with them over dinner once a month, is that the $ buys them influence.

Might work occasionally but for most part it’s a bunch of b.s.

First these contributors are often shy about pushing certain controversial issues – like the current need to support ceasefire legislation – face to face with their congressional counterparts for fear of losing that magic word, “access”. Secondly the books on key foreign policy issues are mostly  cooked on such policies more often than not at “a higher level”.

For the run of the mill hoypoloi of which I am a proud member, it’s rare-to-never that one gets to meet with the members of Congress themselves. One is lucky to even get to meet with an local office head; more often than not it’s the lowest person on the Congressional office totem pole, who assiduously takes notes and promises to pass those on to his/her/their esteemed employer.

Still, I have to admit that it is not the waste of time my cynical above remarks suggest. Well placed pressure from below includes these meetings, phone calls, emails and letters to let members of Congress. It helps them judge just how much they can get away with before pulling back away from enthusiastically supporting the more egregious legislation (which is most of it).

While sometime they actually are sympathetic, most of the time, the best a member of Congress – faithful party-line member – can do is try their hardest to act as if they are listening sympathetically, hide behind a bevy of aides whose main job is to use the English language to obscure their employer’s position which more often than not they either don’t know at all (as is often the case with Middle East issues) or with which they are barely familiar.

That has what made this most recent round of visits to Colorado members of Congress unique. Representing Front Range Jewish Voice for Peace, I’ve been participating in meeting with Colorado members of Congress either in person or on Zoom, the meetings set up by the Colorado Palestine Club Lobbying Group. Two weeks ago it was U.S. Representative Jason Crow, yesterday with Yadira Caraveo. Later today a zoom with U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, tomorrow with U.S. Representative Joe Neguse, the day after with Diana DeGette.

A pattern has emerged from the first two meetings that goes something like this: show sympathy for the humanitarian plight of Palestinians in Gaza while refusing any support for supporting a ceasefire. That of course translates into supporting Israel’s open ended campaign of ethnic cleansing, genocidal violence against the 2.2 million Palestinian people of Gaza.

Jason Crow’s response to opposing a ceasefire goes along standard Democratic Party lines: Hamas cannot be trusted to honor a ceasefire but somehow the Netanyahu government engaged in crimes against humanity in Gaza, is! Yadira Caraveo’s response, which boils down to the same thing in the end – no support for ceasefire – was not so Hamas-hating, itself unusual! She did go on about how she had to look into the matter more deeply.

After trying to sidestep the issue on a Zoom, Senator Hickenlooper admitted that he is under considerable pressure from the “other side” (the no-to-ceasefire side?), that he had lost friends, gotten threats, the pressure) and felt that taking the next step of publicly supporting a ceasefire made him uneasy. To his credit, he was more truthful than his colleagues have been in his reluctance to sign on to what is obviously the first step to turning Israel’s war against Gaza around: implementing an immediate ceasefire.

I wonder what pretexts Diana DeGette and Joe Neguse will come up with to avoid supporting a ceasefire? Will they borrow Crows, Caraveo or Hickenlooper’s excuses or come up with their own original alibi for why Israel has “a legitimate right” to destroy virtually all the hospitals in Gaza with medical staff and patients in them? Stay tuned; I’ll let you know their version of this particular legislative tap dance!

The fact remains: No Colorado member of Congress, despite what is snowballing public pressure to do so, has come out in support of a ceasefire. They are closely following the position laid out by Madame Warmonger, Hillary Clinton and even more stridently by President Biden, himself of opposing a ceasefire at all costs. All this is another way to say that in so doing, the Biden Administration and Colorado legislators continue to put no restraints, no pressure to reign in Israel’s campaign of unrelenting mass murder, ethnic cleansing of Gaza Palestinians.

The consequence of refusing to support a ceasefire, despite all the supporting evidence that the members of Congress from Colorado have provided, is tantamount to the Biden Administration’s giving Israel “the green light” to continue along its murderous path in Gaza (and the rest of Palestine). While Crow, Caraveo and Hickenlooper refuse to take this step, regardless of their particular pretext, Israel’s plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza continue unabated. There is the growing danger of the war spilling over, becoming regional.

In the end, Israel’s war on Palestine is not about “eliminating” Hamas – a most impossible task by the way, nor the fact that Congress is being pressured by AIPAC, the ADL and like organizations, something else is going on. Washington believes that Israel is still an important strategic asset in its efforts to politically dominate the Middle East, to control oil flows and the profit thereof.

That is to say, Washington – be it dominated by a Democratic or Republican Administration – still sees Israel as an essential proxy for its overall policy of controlling the region’s oil and gas flows and the profits that result thereof. Although there are some in the Biden Administration who wonder aloud if Israel’s strategic importance and value as a regional proxy is all its cracked up to be – their voices are still either muffled or silenced.

It’s not that the Biden Administration isn’t concerned that Palestinians are being killed like fish in a barrel in Gaza virtually none of whom have anything to do with Hamas guerillas, no, it’s not that. In fact many a member of the Administration might shed a tear, feel somewhat uneasy as the terms for Israel being increasingly mentioned “apartheid”, “occupation”, “genocide” take hold.

It’s simply that Washington will do whatever it needs to keep its key regional proxy afloat.  Even if the consequences means “Nakba 2” for Palestine., so be it. Strategic interests come first; human rights fall way behind, if all.

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LA Times joins the call for a ceasefire