{"article":{"id":170443,"heading":"Jane Harman is no friend of Israel","author":"Jim Smith","created":"2006-07-25 20:24:40","modified":"2013-11-11 00:42:31","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:42:31","article":"

Press Statement from James Smith, Peace and Freedom Party Candidate for Congress (CD-36)

For Immediate Release

Contact: Yolanda Miranda - 310-399-2215 or JSmith@igc.org<\/a>

www.VoteSmithforCongress.org

Jane Harman is no friend of Israel

Jane Harman's failure to condemn Israel's military aggression against the Lebanese people is detrimental to the cause of peace in the Middle East, which is in Israel's long range interests.

Jane Harman has fallen off the peace wagon. She had begun questioning some of the Bush regime's military and spying activities at the beginning of this election season. But on July 20 she voted for a House Resolution (H RES 821) that eggs Israel on in its indiscriminate bombings of innocent civilians. At no time did she insist on including a demand in the Resolution for an immediate cease fire, which is the proposal of the U.N. and countries and peoples around the world.

Harman, and 409 other supporters in Congress who voted for this Resolution, are apparently grandstanding for the most irrational supporters of Israel militarism, while ignoring those Israelis who want peace and those who have even refused to serve in the Israeli armed forces because of their country's belligerent policy toward the Palestinians. This is one more reason to vote all 410 Democrats and Republicans out of office in November.

Jane Harman's participation this week in a delegation to Israel under the sponsorship of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, is another example of putting politics over peace. In hand-picking the delegation, Hastert said, it \"...will send a clear message that we stand with our ally Israel...\" seemingly precluding any possibility of the group making an objective assessment. Under these conditions, Harman should have declined the invitation.

Harman apparently doesn't realize that uncritical U.S. support for Israeli militarism is worsening the prospects for stability for Israel and for peace in the Middle East. Israel is a country of six million, surrounded by Arab countries and populations, including 5 million Palestinians, plus Egypt (77 million), Lebanon (nearly 4 million), Syria (18 million), Jordan (nearly 6 million), Iraq (26 million), and Saudi Arabia (26 million). In addition, Iran, to which Israel has made no peace overtures, has a population of 68 million. In its immediate neighborhood, Israel is outnumbered 38-1. It should be apparent to Harman, and others, that Israel's best chance of building a peaceful and productive society is by being a good neighbor. Nearly 50 years of hostility and aggression by Israel has gained it nothing. It is a failed policy.

Israel's actions cannot be equated with those of Hizballah, a non-governmental organization. Israel is vastly more powerful than any organization and has all the duties and responsibilities of a nation-state, as defined by international law. The latest round of hostilities began with the Israeli army's wave of destruction in the Gaza Strip, without regard to the fate of innocent civilians. When Hizballah captured two Israeli soldiers, the proper response from Israel should have been to enter negotiations for their release, not to begin an all-out air attack on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

Israel claims that it is fighting terrorism. But this is only a smokescreen to justify the illegal acts it is performing to achieve its military goals, which may include occupying southern Lebanon. If Israel is claiming it has a mandate to fight terrorism wherever it finds it, we may be witnessing the beginning of a wider war that could involve most of the Arab countries, plus Iran and the United States. This could be the greatest worldwide disaster in the last 50 years.



In contrast to Jane Harman warmongering, James Smith proposes the following:

• The U.S. should actively join international efforts to bring about an immediate cease fire.

• The U.S. should implement the U.S. Arms Export Control Act which forbids military assistance to countries that violate internationally-recognized human rights. The U.S. State Department has indeed found that Israel violates the human rights of Palestinians. In addition, the Act prevents the use of U.S. arms in wars of aggression.

• The U.S. should cease selling or giving arms to all countries of the Middle East, and should act to prevent arms dealers from selling arms in the region.

• The U.S. should withdraw its forces from the Middle East and stop meddling in the region's politics.

• The U.S. should insist that Israel honor UN Resolution 242 which requires Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, and accept a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine) in word and deed.

• The American people should support the Israeli peace movement and the resistance movement in the Israeli military against this shameful bombing of Lebanon and attacks on Gaza and the West Bank.

• Israel’s attacks should not be used as an excuse to prevent U.S. troops from being removed from Iraq immediately.

The 36th Congressional District runs along the Santa Monica Bay, and stretches from Venice to San Pedro. Jim Smith is a community and labor activist, and has lived in Venice most of his life.

-----------------------------------

James Smith for Congress

Retire Jane Harman



<\/p>\n","contact":"jsmith@igc.org","link":"www.VoteSmithforCongress.org","address":"Venice","phone":"310-399-2215","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Jane Harman's failure to condemn Israel's military aggression against the Lebanese people is detrimental to the cause of peace in the Middle East, which is in Israel's long range interests.","numcomment":9,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2006\/07\/170443.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":170472,"heading":"LOoks like someone else lost","article":"Looks like the loser is the troll who is crying.","author":"Node","parent_id":170443,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-07-25 23:47:31","modified":"2006-07-25 23:47:31","fileurl":""},{"id":170491,"heading":"More Israeli terror","article":" The death toll from Israel\u2019s attack on Lebanon is approaching four hundred \u2013 almost all civilians. More than one thousand have been wounded and an estimated 900,000 have been displaced from their homes. This weekend, ground troops seized the Lebanese town of Marun al-Ras. Israeli officials believe they have approval from the United States to keep attacking Lebanon for at least another week. We go to Lebanon to speak with independent journalist\r\n\r\nThe death toll from Israel\u2019s attack on Lebanon is approaching four hundred \u2013 almost all civilians. More than one thousand have been wounded and an estimated 900,000 have been displaced from their homes. Reports indicate Israel is widening its assault. This weekend, ground troops seized the Lebanese town of Marun al-Ras. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes knocked down telecommunications towers handling cell phone, television and radio broadcasts. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports Israeli officials believe they have approval from the United States to keep attacking Lebanon for at least another week. However Britain has broken ranks with Washington. In an interview with CNN, British Foreign Minister Kim Howells criticized Israel\u2019s military tactics and urged the US to understand the price being paid by ordinary Lebanese civilians.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile Sunday the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland toured Beirut and condemned Israel\u2019s actions as violations of humanitarian law. On Sunday, Democracy Now spoke to independent journalist Dahr Jamail. He arrived in Beirut this weekend after spending the last week interviewing refugees on the Syria-Lebanon border.\r\n\r\n* Dahr Jamail-Independent journalist who spent the last week on the Syria-Lebanon border and recently arrived in Beirut\r\n\r\nLISTEN ONLINE:\r\nhttp:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/article.pl?sid=06\/07\/24\/1439239","author":"Bobby Twofingers","parent_id":170443,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-07-26 01:19:37","modified":"2013-11-11 00:42:31","fileurl":""},{"id":170681,"heading":"Westside","article":"She's got to keep good relations with the Westside Democrat establishment, which has a lot of Jewish people in it. Also, her district has a lot of war technology companies, and she is a Blue Dog Democrat. She's not a peace, progressive, or leftist Democrat by any stretch. That's why Winograd did so well against her.","author":"eastsider","parent_id":170443,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-07-27 05:52:31","modified":"2006-07-27 05:52:31","fileurl":""},{"id":170686,"heading":"How quaint.......","article":".........this notion that one must 'condemn' someone or something in order to be counted a 'friend'......ergo, I hereby condemn all the posters on here who support Hesbollah....whose raison d'etre is the killing of Jews and the destruction of Israel.....and in so doing I demontrate my friendship for those in question","author":"Lord Locksley","parent_id":170443,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-07-27 08:11:09","modified":"2006-07-27 08:11:09","fileurl":""},{"id":170793,"heading":"Nothing Good Can Come from This War","article":"Nothing Good Can Come from This War\r\nIs Beirut Burning?\r\n\r\nBy URI AVNERY\r\n\r\nTel Aviv.\r\n\r\n"IT SEEMS that Nasrallah survived," Israeli newspapers announced, after 23 tons of bombs were dropped on a site in Beirut, where the Hizbullah leader was supposedly hiding in a bunker.\r\n\r\nAn interesting formulation. A few hours after the bombing, Nazrallah had given an interview to Aljazeera television. Not only did he look alive, but even composed and confident. He spoke about the bombardment - proof that the interview was recorded on the same day.\r\n\r\nSo what does "it seems that" mean? Very simple: Nasrallah pretends to be alive, but you can't believe an Arab. Everyone knows that Arabs always lie. That's in their very nature, as Ehud Barak once pronounced.\r\n\r\nThe killing of the man is a national aim, almost the main aim of the war. This is, perhaps, the first war in history waged by a state in order to kill one person. Until now, only the Mafia thought along those lines. Even the British in World War II did not proclaim that their aim was to kill Hitler. On the contrary, they wanted to catch him alive, in order to put him on trial. Probably that's what the Americans wanted, too, in their war against Saddam Hussein.\r\n\r\nBut our ministers have officially decided that that is the aim. There is not much novelty in that: successive Israeli governments have adopted a policy of killing the leaders of opposing groups. Our army has killed, among others, Hizbullah leader Abbas Mussawi, PLO no. 2 Abu Jihad, as well as Sheik Ahmad Yassin and other Hamas leaders. Almost all Palestinians, and not only they, are convinced that Yassir Arafat was also murdered.\r\n\r\nAnd the results? The place of Mussawi was filled by Nasrallah, who is far more able. Sheik Yassin was succeeded by far more radical leaders. Instead of Arafat we got Hamas.\r\n\r\nAs in other political matters, a primitive military mindset governs this reasoning too.\r\n\r\nA person returning here after a long absence and seeing our TV screens might get the impression that a military junta is governing Israel, in the (former) South American manner.\r\n\r\nOn all TV channels, every evening, one sees a parade of military brass in uniform. They explain not only the day's military actions, but also comment on political matters and lay down the political and propaganda line.\r\nDuring all the other hours of broadcasting time, a dozen or so have-been generals repeat again and again the message of the army commanders. (Some of them don't look particularly intelligent - not to say downright stupid. It is frightening to think that these people were once in a position to decide who would live and who would die.)\r\n\r\nTrue, we are a democracy. The army is completely subject to the civilian establishment. According to the law, the cabinet is the "supreme commander" of the army (which in Israel includes the navy and air force). But in practice, today it is the top brass who decide all political and military matters. When Dan Halutz tells the ministers that the military command has decided on this or that operation, no minister dares to express opposition. Certainly not the hapless Labor Party ministers.\r\n\r\nEhud Olmert presents himself as the heir to Churchill ("blood, sweat and tears"). That's quite pathetic enough. Then Amir Peretz puffs up his chest and shoots threats in all directions, and that's even more pathetic, if that's possible. He resembles nothing so much as a fly standing on the ear of an ox and proclaiming: "we are ploughing!"\r\n\r\nThe Chief-of-Staff announced last week with satisfaction: "The army enjoys the full backing of the government!" That is also an interesting formulation. It implies that the army decides what to do, and the government provides "backing". And that's how it is, of course.\r\n\r\nNow it is not a secret anymore: this war has been planned for a long time. The military correspondents proudly reported this week that the army has been exercising for this war in all its details for several years. Only a month ago, there was a large war game to rehearse the entrance of land forces into South Lebanon - at a time when both the politicians and the generals were declaring that "we shall never again get into the Lebanon quagmire. We shall never again introduce land forces there." Now we are in the quagmire, and large land forces are operating in the area.\r\n\r\nThe other side, too, has been preparing this war for years. Not only did they build caches of thousands of missiles, but they have also prepared an elaborate system of Vietnam-style bunkers, tunnels and caves. Our soldiers are now encountering this system and paying a high price. As always, our army has treated "the Arabs" with disdain and discounted their military capabilities.\r\n\r\nThat is one of the problems of the military mentality. Talleyrand was not wrong when he said that "war is much too serious a thing to be left to military men." The mentality of the generals, resulting from their education and profession, is by nature force-oriented, simplistic, one-dimensional, not to say primitive. It is based on the belief that all problems can be solved by force, and if that does not work - then by more force.\r\n\r\nThat is well illustrated by the planning and execution of the current war. This was based on the assumption that if we cause terrible suffering to the population, they will rise up and demand the removal of Hizbullah. A minimal understanding of mass psychology would suggest the opposite. The killing of hundreds of Lebanese civilians, belonging to all the ethno-religious communities, the turning of the lives of the others into hell, and the destruction of the life-supporting infrastructure of Lebanese society will arouse a groundswell of fury and hatred - against Israel, and not against the heroes, as they see them, who sacrifice their lives in their defense.\r\n\r\nThe result will be a strengthening of Hizbullah, not only today, but for years to come. Perhaps that will be the main outcome of the war, more important than all the military achievements, if any. And not only in Lebanon, but throughout the Arab and Muslim world.\r\n\r\nFaced with the horrors that are shown on all television and many computer screens, world opinion is also changing. What was seen at the beginning as a justified response to the capture of the two soldiers now looks like the barbaric actions of a brutal war-machine. The elephant in a china shop.\r\n\r\nThousands of e-mail distribution lists have circulated a horrible series of photos of mutilated babies and children. At the end, there is a macabre photo: jolly Israeli children writing "greetings" on the artillery shells that are about to be fired. Then there appears a message: "Thanks to the children of Israel for this nice gift. Thanks to the world that does nothing. Signed: the children of Lebanon and Palestine."\r\n\r\nThe woman who heads the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has already defined these acts as war crimes - something that may in future mean trouble for Israeli army officers.\r\n\r\nIn general, when army officers are determining the policy of a nation, serious moral problems arise.\r\n\r\nIn war, a commander is obliged to take hard decisions. He sends soldiers into battle, knowing that many will not return and others will be maimed for life. He hardens his heart. As General Amos Yaron told his officers after the Sabra and Shatila massacre: "Our senses have been blunted!"\r\n\r\nYears of the occupation regime in the Palestinian territories have caused a terrible callousness as far as human lives are concerned. The killing of ten to twenty Palestinians every day, including women and children, as happens now in Gaza, does not agitate anyone. It doesn't even make the headlines. Gradually, even routine expressions like "We regretwe had no intentionthe most moral army in the world" and all the other trite phrases are not heard anymore.\r\n\r\nNow this numbness is revealing itself in Lebanon. Air Force officers, calm and comfortable, sit in front of the cameras and speak about "bundles of targets", as if they were talking about a technical problem, and not about living human beings. They speak about driving hundreds of thousands of human beings from their homes as an imposing military achievement, and do not hide their satisfaction in face of human beings whose whole life has been destroyed. The word that is most popular with the generals at this time is "pulverize" - we pulverize, they are being pulverized, neighborhoods are pulverized, buildings are pulverized, people are pulverized.\r\n\r\nEven the launching of rockets at our towns and villages does not justify this ignoring of moral considerations in fighting the war. There were other ways of responding to the Hizbullah provocation, without turning Lebanon into rubble. The moral numbness will be transformed into grievous political damage, both immediate and long term. Only a fool or worse ignores moral values - in the end, they always take revenge.\r\n\r\nIT IS almost banal to say that it is easier to start a war than to finish it. One knows how it starts, it is impossible to know how it will end.\r\n\r\nWars take place in the realm of uncertainty. Unforeseen things happen. Even the greatest captains in history could not control the wars they started. War has its own laws.\r\n\r\nWe started a war of days. It turned into a war of weeks. Now they are speaking of a war of months. Our army started a "surgical" action of the Air Force, afterwards it sent small units into Lebanon, now whole brigades are fighting there, and reservists are being called up in large numbers for a wholesale 1982-style invasion. Some people already foresee that the war may roll towards a confrontation with Syria.\r\n\r\nAll this time, the United States has been using all its might in order to prevent the cessation of hostilities. All signs indicate that it is pushing Israel towards a war with Syria - a country that has ballistic missiles with chemical and biological warheads.\r\n\r\nOnly one thing is already certain on the 11th day of the war: Nothing good will come of it. Whatever happens - Hizbullah will emerge strengthened. If there had been hopes in the past that Lebanon would slowly become a normal country, where Hizbullah would be deprived of a pretext for maintaining a military force of its own, we have now provided the organization with the perfect justification: Israel is destroying Lebanon, only Hizbullah is fighting to defend the country.\r\n\r\nAs for deterrence: a war in which our huge military machine cannot overcome a small guerilla organization in 11 days of total war certainly has not rehabilitated its deterrent power. In this respect, it is not important how long this war will last and what will be its results - the fact that a few thousand fighters have withstood the Israeli army for 11 days and more, has already been imprinted in the consciousness of hundred of millions of Arabs and Muslims.\r\n\r\nFrom this war nothing good will come - not for Israel, not for Lebanon and not for Palestine. The "New Middle East" that will be its result will be a worse place to live in.\r\n","author":"By URI AVNERY","parent_id":170443,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-07-27 20:34:18","modified":"2006-07-27 20:34:18","fileurl":""}]}