In a 344-36 vote, the US House of Representatives voted to publicly condemn the United Nations Fact Finding Mission’s report on the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, otherwise known as the Goldstone Report, and called on President Obama to block it from further consideration in the United Nations.
The report chided both Hamas and the Israeli government for attacks on civilians during the war, but was condemned by many in Congress as being unfair to Israel and the bill labels it “biased and unworthy of further consideration.”
Congressmen in opposition cautioned that the resolution damaged America’s credibility and could seriously harm the US role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
South African Judge Richard Goldstone, the author of the report, has challenged the Obama Administration to point out any specific flaws with it. So far, officials have not made any specific accusations of factual errors in the report, but continue to blanketly declared it “unfair.”
Shame, shame, shame. Cowards. Little puppets on the lobby's string.
This is heinous. Every single individual in the house that voted to condemn this report should be immediately thrown out of congress. I guess congress thinks it's ok to burn the flesh of children.
The Israeli occupation of gaza has now lasted longer than the SOVIET occupation of eastern europe.
Enough said.
Why so weak on unfairness? They should go all the way and have the President put the "self-hating Jew" on the presidentional-discretional terrorist list. A stay at Gitmo would teach him.
HAHA!!!! you assume they are not already!!!
What Ho Heber – got your Hackls up I see! By the way – have you actually read Mr Goldstone's report – or indeed the Torah? Could be a good plan. Or is it perhaps that your God is a particularly jealous God today?
'jealousy – that doth mock the very flesh it feeds upon'
'To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter'
Besides Goldstone & the Torah – try Shakespeare & Francois Sagan too – all four may introduce you to the concept of humanity – tricky I know – but it could work, with the application of a smidgen of intellect & humility!
<arms akimbo>I never would have thought that the Interwebs do, indeed, need sarcasm tags.</arms akimbo>
Nothing so crude Hackl – more irony – but then it is a somewhat subtler concept to grasp and one that Webster's seems constantly to omit…which may explain why the synapses haven't connected – sigh
Do feel free to unakimbo – could affect the circulation
if this is directed at me the
goldstone report yes!
as far as torah is concerned i guess 20 years of yeshiva learning torah rasshi/unkales niviam kasuvim amaryim mishnah and gemorah count
shakespeare no
francois no
sagan pale blue dot, the demon haunted world all of his audio lectures and the entire cosmos.
as far as jealousy im not sure what you mean
and i think i had my introduction to humanity on the westbank.
and in case this was directed to the other post i just had a rootcanal and am messed up on codines so srry
Paul – response to Hackl was certainly not directed at you old chum – when responded your comment had not been posted – and besides – the clue is in the address!
Sorry to hear about the root canal therapy – not a lot of fun and despite the coedine does tend to super-sensitize both body & soul! Shalom.
Cheers – RJ
AIPAC back in business I see – nothing new there then – other than the ratcheting up still further of global contempt & ridicule for the USA and continued incredulity that US domestic and foreign policy should so continue to be dictated by Israel! Ah well – with Hillary on the rampage making friends and influencing people across Asia & the Middle East so spectacularly in the last couple of weeks maybe all will be forgiven….
To paraphrase Strewel Pieter: 'The US tells such dreadful lies – it makes one gasp and stretch one's eyes'
It's also the breathtaking stupidity and conviction that anyone could possibly take them seriously that continues to amaze……..apart from the hair trigger self-righteous aggression of course which we all have to be wary of. But there is hope – debt will get them in the end!
Pip Pip
Why not note that Berman, Ros Litnen and many other 'US leaders' in the House are all eligible for Israeli citizenship? Why leave out these facts?
why not mention every congresspersons eligibility for citizenship in every country?
they are in fact facts
The United States of America, occupied Israeli territory.
Rep. Grayson–who has fooled many into thinking he is a cut above the horde–voted yea, just another Israel-first Democrat.
yeah, sad. He also is a cosponsor for increased Iran sanctions. Poor fellow obviously can't shed his tribalism.
Several American foreign experts project the end of the American Empire to occur in 2035 or some 25 years from now.
Given that Israel for the most part decides US policy in the ME what shape and form will the "blowbacks" be once the Empire has ended? Come to think of it what will follow the Japanese Government demands that the US gets its military out of Japan? or Germany's demands to get US nuclear missiles out?
As the sage once put it, "nuttin lasts for ever" and the probability that israel (along with the US) will pay heavely for their actions and policies in killing, Asians, Arabs and Muslims for the past half a century.
The American empire can't fall fast enough for me. Israel will be in deep S*** without America to look after it and bankroll it too. By then though the Palestinians will be the large majority and an Apartheid state will probably be what Israel degenerates into. Perhaps the Arab world may be much stronger in the future too.
Israel, AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby owns our Congress. We are the second state of Israel, no longer the United States of America. When our politicians bow down before AIPAC so that they can become senators and presidents, we have lost all hope. When one country can influence and overthrow our foreign policy to support its heinous crimes against humanity, the end is near.
Look at the bright side AIPAC is probably pissed that its bill didn't get over 400 votes and considers 36 nays this a loss. AIPAC also has a lot of work to do, morphing the faces of 36 congresscritters into Hitler Bin Laden.
Well it is obvious most of you folks are totally unaware of the facts like how many rockets Hamas and others have lobbed into Israel, how many tunnels from Egypt have been discovered, how many times Israeli civilians have been targeted, the fact both Hamas and Hezbollah have publicly stated they will not stop until the state of Israel is no more, how many settlements have been turned over to the Palestinians.
Let's not forget which side has started every war, the fact that PLO, Hamas, etc use books in school that teach hatred towards Israel, documented evidence of Hamas using children and women as shields and using hospitals, schools, etc to fire rockets.
Or how about the billions of dollars given to the PLO, including a good bit from Israel that has never been used for infrastructure building? Wonder where it went.
No, the real cowards are the 36 who voted against the condemnation of the report.
And the real patsys are people like you folks who want to confuse PR with facts.
Warning. We have appear to have an unhinged Ziocane Addict in our midst, whining about the facts.
Be careful not to get to close and set your Hasbara blasters to stun.
Please put down the megaphone and step away from the tribalism, sir.
"Let's not forget which side has started every war"
Really?
1948 – It wasn't Palestinians who went over to Warsaw and Berlin to setup a country there and rule over the inhabitants
1956 – Did we all imagine that Israel, UK and France attacked Egypt and were warned to stop by the US and USSR?
1967 – Who was it that launched a surprise attack on Egypt and went on to occupy Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, and Golan?
1982 – I believe it was Israeli troops in Beirut rather than Lebanese troops in Tel Aviv
2006 – Same as 1982 except the war didn't go as planned
You can lie all you want but not everyone is dumb enough to believe you
You are a bad human being with no morals
And even the 1973 war was started by the Egyptians and Syrians to get back the territory the Israelis stole from them in 1967.
Where to start?
"how many rockets Hamas and others have lobbed into Israel, how many tunnels from Egypt have been discovered, how many times Israeli civilians have been targeted"
Because Hamas fired primitive home-made rockets into Israel, then it's ok for one of the world's most power armies to pound a defenseless population with all manner of high tech bombs and chemical warfare agents? What kind of logic is that? What kind of a person actually think that it's ok to kill defenseless people including children because Israeli citizens are scared that they might be hurt in the 1 in a billion chance a rocket will land next to them? Then again, why is it that Israel is just defending it self, but Hamas is terrorizing Israelis. Last time I checked it was Israel blockading Palestinians as opposed to the other way around.
What is obvious is that you came here thinking people reading this site really AREN'T aware of the facts on the ground in Palestine and might actually fall for your baloney.
Even if everything you said WAS true, and it is absolutely UNTRUE, America has no dog in this fight.
In response to "Amazed"
A. 6,500 Palestinians were murdered by Israel since 2000.
B. The tunnels are the Gazans' only lifeline. Three years of siege on your ass would drive YOU to dig tunnels with your fingernails. Do you even know the biblical story of Metzada? At least Gazans are creative enough to alleviate their own suffering.
C. Israel violated the 2008 ceasefire.
D. Israel is NOT interested in a peaceful resolution to anything in the Middle East.
E. Here's what Israel's own leaders had to say about the war of 1967:
Moshe Dayan, who was the Israeli Defense Minister in 1967 was interviewed in 1997 by the New York Times. In the interview, Dayan explained that, "greed for the land" led Israel to provoke the Syrian army to shoot back, thus providing a pretext for an Israeli invasion and occupation of the Golan Heights.
In a 1982 speech to the Israeli National Defense College, Menachem Begin (the PM at the time) stated that, "The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser [Egyptian president] was about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him."
"Well it is obvious most of you folks are totally unaware of the facts like how many rockets Hamas and others have lobbed into Israel,"
– technically all rockets are fired from within Israel making them insurgents.
"how many times Israeli civilians have been targeted,"
because these are homemade weapons with out the ability to be targeted i will say none!
how many of israeli precision weapons killed civilians?
your conflating of hamas, and Hezbollah show you have no handle on anything going on in the region, hamas was created by israel so they would not need to deal with fatah.
hizbollah on the other hand is a liberation army formed during a 20 year occupation
hizbollah has always target israeli military personnel and only target civilians as a "belligerent reprisals" LOOK IT UP
"PLO, Hamas, etc use books in school that teach hatred towards Israel,"
the example you think you are referring to is in fact that that in the occupied territories children are taught that Palestine is from the Jordan to the Mediterranean.
GUESS WHAT! in israeli schools children are taught that israel is from the jordan to the Mediterranean
"Or how about the billions of dollars given to the PLO, including a good bit from Israel that has never been used for infrastructure building? Wonder where it went."
israel withholds all tax revenue most of the money that has been given are either bribes or supporting the force that led the coup detet against hamas
"No, the real cowards are the 36 who voted against the condemnation of the report. "
no the real cowards are those who dont even bother reading the report yet like to think they know whats going on
Shame on you how shamelessly you asking the question who started the war? With some bully friend can I strom into your home and take it over? and when you cry and start starving beat the heck out of you and throw you in the largest open air concentration camp that ever built – steal your right of existence.
This is their land and their right to live with respect and dignity by raising the walls, bombing the innocent lives and having your bully friends to cover your butt. This cannot go on forever, and your frinds realizing how far then went and how deep you got them into this mess and being abused.
A human live is a human live and is a human live. To be protected and privilidged over all others it does not have to be jewish.
I called my Congresswitch, Shelly Moore Capito (R, WV) this morning to give her well deserved Hell for voting YES for War Criminals. Her spokesperson seemed unaware of what the issue was and then she became befuddled with my arguments, I can only assume poly-syllabled words confused her. Perhaps if my VA check was late, they could have helped me further. Our Congress is useless, and I guess they hire their equally brainless relatives for tax-funded staff.
Alan Grayson showed his true colors by voting for the resolution. Grayson emerged last month as a darling of the progressives – but now he has trashed hopes. Bravo for Kucinich, Price, Watt, Woolsey, Grijalva, Paul and others.
Sir, is it not strange that 344 members of the US House of Representatives condemned the Goldstone Report, however none of these members of parliament could tell us or better Mr. Richard Goldstone where the factual errors are. This simply appies to me that they have not read the report. I am asking myself what kind of democracy rules the USA.
The kind of "democracy" that rules the USA owes its allegiance to Tel Aviv.
'Democracy' – true Democracy as practiced in Athens during the Golden Age of Pericles – has NEVER existed in the United States. We have always been a 'Republic' in which we elect representatives who are suppose to represent the interests of the people. The reality is that the 'Republic' is long 'dead'. We are left with a government which is totally corrupted by special interests, AIPAC and the Israeli lobby. We have in our Congress 535 crooks and thieves, TRAITORS to America, idiots and morons, even some perverts, ALL who are corrupted and NONE who represent the people of the United States. They ALL represent the interests of Israel.
The fact that the Best Congress Israel Can Buy bestirred itself to ejaculate its disapproval of the Goldstone Report should come as no surprise to anyone. I'm surprised it took so long.
Today a band of willful men passed a bill (H.R. 867) calling on the U.S. Government to stick its head in the sand; to speak, hear, and see no evil; and to refuse to discuss charges of war crimes during Israel’s vicious and equally willful attack on the people of Gaza in December 2008. In a move that would make John C. Calhoun proud, this band adopted the final defense of the morally bankrupt and instead attacked free speech. Knowing well that their position cannot stand in the light of day, they demanded that the charges being brought against themIsrael in the closest arena the world has to a court of law simply “not be discussed.”
For a long sad generation, slavery was an issue that “could not be discussed” in Congress, thus allowing the pressures to build to the point that only a horrifying domestic war could resolve the issue. And today it is the barbaric collective punishment of the people of Gaza that “cannot be discussed.” Just as history today blames Calhoun for paving the road to the U.S. Civil War, so may history one day blame this petty group of American supporters of the Israeli right wing for paving the road to the destruction of Israel.
The right to buy and sell and oppress and murder slaves by Southern plantation owners could “not be discussed;” the right to oppress and bomb and murder Palestinians by the Israeli Army and the extremist politicians who control the Israeli government “cannot be discussed.” Of course not. What else can these so-called American “friends” of Israel do? When one is complicit in the rape of Fallujah and the endless rain of Predators on innocent Central Asian villagers, how can one protest the same behavior from those who perfected such tactics?
There just doing what their Israeli lobby masters tell them to do.
America, home of the best politicians money can buy. A look at the names of who voted for it will tell us just who is owned by the Israelis. Something to remember come next election day.
the one thing i dont understand is why every one thinks israel is the superior partner( as far as influence)
the first thing is the united states since ww1(and even before) has been in a permanent state of wars and occupation.
you see the united states was created and expanded quite similarly to israel lets go threw them
a) an unsuspecting native population at first accepts the European immigrants,assuming they would at least partially integrate them selves in to the current social order.
b)after a series of totality lopsided wars the native peoples were rounded up in to the least valuable least defensible lands.
c) wars waged purely for expansion, targeting mainly civilian population centers.
d)attacks countries and wages wars on the sole assumption that not doing so would alter the balance of power slightly away from them.
e) relying on an ostensible secular government all the while depending on a fierce religious minority to support and chear its aggression.
f)a Manichean view of the world where all enemies framed as existential threats.
g)always demands that while they are waging a war against an existential threat they are still morally superior because they make "attempts" to limit civilian casualty.
h)demand that they have both the right, and the obligation to maintain nuclear weapons in order to maintain "peace"
now can tell me which of these only applies to the united states or israel?
so all im saying is if you were a world super power with a tiny proxie that does every thing you do you would demand the international community to sanction all of these action. which transitively gives aproval to all things the greater power is doing.
now i don't deny hat Israel has unparalleled counterintelligence operation targeting the usg and the people.
but that just show how weak they are. if they did rule this country things would be very different.
The people of the Gaza Strip have no place to escape to. Not that I'm defending the US wars.
I was shocked and happily surprised that Ed Pastor of Arizona (Phoenix metro), who represents the district I grew-up in, and where my parents still live, voted "no" I was disappointed that Jeff Flake also of Arizona/ Mesa, who's representing himself as an old school conservative, voted "yes."
I called both their offices to register my thoughts. Pastor's office was very happy for my support — I bet the AIPAC goon squad have already started opening their coffers to get him out of office.
the people who live in Baghdad neigbor hoods surrounded by concrete walls that need id card and retinal scans seems fairly similar, air stikes and all
The American congressman are the political prostitutes, they sell themselves to a higher beder.Here in Israel we know that,and as Sharon said we control the American congress.
you got that right Israel is are ally what war they help use in?
no they are not ! the united states of america have no alliance with Israel and it is not a NATO member. its just easy to convince ignorant otherwise.
the only possible alliance the united states has is a secret agreement with the executive branch
which for 2 self declared democracies is embarrassing
Israel going to mess up America like they did in Europe that is way no body likes them
Another fine display of brilliance by our wise Congress. It's not like there's any issues in America that need to be addressed. Let's just keep passing the pro-Israel resolution of the week. After all every action a Congressman takes is based on the answer to the question "How does this affect Israel?" Traitors all.