Rep. Barbara Lee speaks out on Gaza Crisis.

[Tom Joad]

As Israeli sanctions create a massive government-made (and US sponsored) humanitarian disaster, one member of Congress has chosen to speak out.

...the United States must be careful of its international reputation, which will be further harmed if it appears to be complicit in the withholding of essential humanitarian aid---in the broadest sense of the term--to the 1.48 million Gazans who are caught in the middle of the conflict. The laws of war, conflict, humanitarianism, international human rights and diplomacy demand that innocent human beings cannot and must not be used as pawns to advance political goals." Barbara Lee in Letter to Condi Rice, January 10, 2008

To read Lee's letter in its entirety, please go here

Barbara Lee of California has again had the courage to speak out, this time to insist that humanitarian aid be delivered to the people of Gaza. Will more congresspeople follow her lead to avert catastrophe?

Please commend Barbara Lee for breaking the silence, it comes at a terribly important time. We are glad to report that our friends at Progressive Democrats of America are also organizing for Justice in Gaza. You may use their website to send a message to your congressional representatives to end the US-supported siege of Gaza. Please take action by going here.

More info about the Letter to Rice from Barbara Lee and actions you can take and information about the blockade and its results can be found here

[papau]

1. Do you have a count of the number of governments sending gas to those firing rockets at them?

[Tom Joad]

2. Do you not think the people of Gaza should be allowed to live?

I understand there are those who do not, there is a debate.
I take the radical side i guess, and say, Yes, the people of Gaza should be allowed to live.

[Vegasaurus]

4. No nation at war has to "help the other side"

Tell Egypt to open the gates (except I have read that they don't want to deal with the mayhem either).

It isn't Israel's responsibility to take care of the Gazans when their own government refuses.

[Tom Joad]

5. "Their own government"?

Many of their elected leaders are in Israeli prisons.
Gaza is under occupation, and as such, the occupying power, in this case Israel, must provide for the needs of its residents.

International law and all that.

[Vegasaurus]

6. I know you say that

Gaza is still under occupation, Tom,but there are no troops on the ground. Remember, they left nearly two years ago, and all rocket fire was supposed to have ceased and the Gazans were supposed to have a thriving economy by now, what with the millions in international aid and infrastructure left and all.

And aren't you one of the ones who trots out the "democratically elected government" of Hamas? So, is it a government, or isn't it? I will need to remember this for the next time you bring this up, since we just need to be clear here.

[Tom Joad]

7. in your own world the occupation has ended...

not by the standards of international law. Gaza remains surrounded and under siege. And israeli troops regularly walk into Gaza, or send their deadly bombs into Gaza. I think the reason for that has little to do with the rockets going to Israel. After all, Hamas has said they could arrange for a cease-fire if Israel were willing, if Israel were to end the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel wants a cease-fire in exchange for nothing. In exchange for unconditional surrender of Palestinian rights. That is not likely to happen.

[Vegasaurus]

9. Tom, be realistic

We have already discussed the Hamas "hudna" and its "temporary" 10 year, maybe, kind of, sort of, truce.

Israelis didn't come back into gaza, or respond to the daily rocket fire, for months after they left. And yet the rockets still came.

So, who is going to control a truce? Hamas can't seem to control the armed wing of its own party, much less the rest of the terrorist groups.

[azurnoir]

11. Israel did not leave the Gaza's airspace

or coastal waters

[subsuelo]

3. Do you have a count of the number of innocent civilians terrorized

as a result of these measures

[DeSwiss]

8. PDA letter - DONE!

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster and when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." - Nietzsche

[oberliner]

10. Barbara Lee respects and admires Tom Lantos

Here are her comments about Tom Lantos:

“I’ve worked for years under his leadership on the Foreign Affairs committee and have grown to respect and admire him, especially while working closely on crafting our global HIV/AIDS policy.

“Chairman Latnos is a friend, a great human being and an extraordinary advocate for human rights.”

http://lee.house.gov/index.cfm?ItemID=1172&ContentID=1177&ParentID=0&SectionID=4&SectionTree=4&SearchKey=lantos§ionTypeID=4

I admire the work that both of them have done in the name of human rights.

I also hope that more people will heed Barbara Lee's call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[Tom Joad]

12. What has her statement about Tom Lantos to do with her statement re Gaza?!

Tom Lantos is Tom Lantos, Gaza is Gaza.
the statement has to do with his support of issues regarding fighting AIDS abroad, and i too may agree with some of his positions.
I think also that she has disagreed with Mr. Lantos, who was a prime supporter of Bush's attack on Iraq, which you are free to support as well, but i think it has been a disaster of epic proportions, and is a large part of the legacy of Tom Lantos.

You can admire the war, the siege of Gaza, apologize for Israel's brutal policies of occupation, oberliner, but i will not.

[Tom Joad]

13. Barbara Lee is opposing the Arms sale to Saudi Arabia, Lantos is supporting it

[oberliner]

16. It is good to see that she can respect and admire someone with whom she sometimes disagrees

Would that we could all follow her lead in that regard.

[Tom Joad]

18. Lantos also sponsored an event about a film

made by a young man who went to Darfur. It's called "Darfur Diaries".

The film maker is Adam Shapiro. yeah, that Adam Shapiro.

anyway, i wish Lantos well. I think he will have no trouble traveling to his doctor for his appointments. That's nice. No wall will block his route, no checkpoints to wait at.

He will have no trouble paying for it, because the US provides for his health care in full. that's nice.

If the US government had not spent a half-trillion on the war Lantos and Cheney and Hillary championed, maybe that would be the same for all of us.

[LeftishBrit]

24. I am glad that she is prepared to highlight the atrocities in Darfur.

This needs to be brought to more people's notice.

As for Lantos, I just really hope that he will be all right.

[Tom Joad]

26. I have repeatedly called for Lantos immediate resignation so that he can

spend more time with his loved ones. I seem to be one of the few that really care.

[LeftishBrit]

27. Surely that should be up to him, his family and his doctor?

He is retiring in November in any case.

I doubt that the reason you want him to go sooner is really for the sake of his family. I think you just dislike him politically. Well, we all dislike lots of people politically. But ultimately I think we're all on the same side against cancer.

[Tom Joad]

14. Another link to the Lee's letter, with a way to thank her for her courage

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/1849/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=22447

Jewish Voice for Peace.

[oberliner]

15. I wonder how she would feel about her letter being posted on that "Stop AIPAC" website

As someone who has attended AIPAC events herself, she might not be too thrilled about being associated with that site.

[Tom Joad]

17. She has attended aipac events. Perhaps though

she may not be too entralled with aipac's embrace of Dan Pipes and anti-Semite and religious extremist John Hagee (he or one of his reps is at many of the aipac major events). Maybe that is why she has not gone lately.
But you can ask her about that.

again, you never do lay out what is wrong with opposing an agenda of supporting war and occupation in the Middle East, as aipac has done.

there is something wrong with opposing the agenda of a political lobby?

[oberliner]

19. AIPAC's official position is in support of the two-state solution

There are, as you've often pointed out, many loony right-wingers associated with AIPAC. There are also Democrats, liberals, and progressives.

Your claim that AIPAC presents an agenda of supporting war and occupation in the Middle East is false.

[Tom Joad]

20. they seem to tolerate the liberals speaking to them because they

are in office. the Hagee's and Cheney's and Pipes are the one's who get the biggest applause.
they would never invite anyone like Gideon Levy or Michael Lerner or anyone of that sort.

this two-state solution that they support does not seem to include much of the West Bank.
they want a swiss-cheese solution for the West Bank. It's not going to work and i think they are hurting Israel, hurting the Palestinians, and the planet by clinging to their extremist agenda.

In the meantime, they are working overtime to convince politicians to ignore the NIE and support sanctions and escalation with Iran. Your kinda political outfit perhaps, not mine.

[oberliner]

21. Barbara Lee is a co-sponsor of a bill calling for sanctions against Iran

The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2007, sponsored by Barney Frank.

Barbara Lee is one of among 44 co-sponsors (including Tom Lantos)

[Tom Joad]

22. yeah, she does really stupid things sometimes.

so it goes.
at least she opposed the Kyl-Lieberman "we want war with iran" act, supported by aipac and their bozos.

[LeftishBrit]

23. Good for her!

A good letter, pointing out a real humanitarian crisis and a genuine disagreement with a policy, without at the same time jumping into hyperbole about how Israel is the most evil country ever, etc.

I wish you (and we) had more like her.

I do wonder how keen she'd be on having her letter posted on a website which also contains an article entitled 'AIPAC Crimes'. Especially as you don't have to do a lot of googling to find sites which smear her as overly influenced by AIPAC, and a 'person of interest' to Israel, etc.

[Tom Joad]

25. I wonder how keen she'd be about having news about her letter posted here

with all the garbage praising the likes of Dan Pipes et. al in this forum. I will have to apologize to her.