Wolf D. Fuhrig

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An Unproductive Commitment

On July 20, House Resolution 921 passed by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 410 to 8, “condemning the recent attacks against the State of Israel, holding terrorists and their state-sponsors accountable for such attacks, supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.” Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader explained: “At a difficult time for the State of Israel, this resolution reaffirms our unwavering support and commitment to Israel and condemns the attacks by Hezbollah.” And Democrat Dick Durbin, the Senate Minority Whip, chimed in: “We will stand with the government and people of Israel as they defend themselves.”

Former President Carter was one of the few Democrats who vigorously dissented: “What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza.” Carter added: “I think I represent the vast majority of Democrats in this country. I think there is a substantial portion of American people that completely agree with me.” In a recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll on U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Democrats supported neutrality over alignment, 54 to 39 percent, while Republicans favored alignment with Israel 64 to 29 percent.

A majority of Republican and Democratic Congressmen apparently do not consider it in the national interest to condemn Israel’s often brutal 39-year occupation of Palestinian lands, even though it is the sole cause of the often brutal Palestinian resistance. Most Democrats and even some Republicans freely criticize the President’s faulty policies in Iraq and Afghanistan but rarely knock his failure to bring peace to Palestine. Neither the Senate nor the House has had a serious debate in years about the crucial importance of peace in the Holy Land for the reduction of anti-Israeli and anti-American attitudes worldwide.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats appear willing to propose measures that would compel Israelis and Palestinians to make peace. Instead, they only show courage when they vote to waste millions of tax payers’ dollars on the most sophisticated weapons for Israel’s armed forces.

Regrettably, neither the Olmert government in Jerusalem nor the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) can tell Americans when and how they want to end the agony of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The longer Israel’s rulers continue the oppression of the Palestinians, the more the militant--and often terrorist--resistance is bound to persist.

Would the Congressional Democrats maintain their unproductive support of Israel if they gained control of Congress? Or would they ask Israel’s leaders and Israel’s lobby in Washington to do what is best in America’s and Israel’s national interest, namely to end the occupation and make a peace of equals with their Palestinian and other Arab neighbors?

What do the 410 House members who implicitly condone the bombing of Lebanon really mean when they promise “unwavering support and commitment to Israel”? Is it merely a vote of thanks for the hundreds of thousands of dollars they received from AIPAC? Or does it express their willingness to do what is best for our Israeli friends as well as for America’s relations with the Arabs?

While Congressional Democrats seem unable to offer an alternative to President Bush’s moribund “road map to peace,” independent Democrats and Republicans have taken the initiative and organized what they call “The Campaign for American Leadership in the Middle East (CALME).” Among the Democratic members are former secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher, former senators George Mitchell, Sam Nunn, Chuck Robb, and Warren Rudman, and former Congressman Lee Hamilton.

“ It is only right,” they assert, “that the United States use all the resources at its disposal to help Israelis and Palestinians overcome the differences and fears that divide them in order to reach a settlement that will provide true security for Israel, help the Palestinians to achieve their own democratic state and lead to peace and prosperity for all the peoples of the region.”