[News] The Black Congressional Caucus and Israel

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/ford01142009.html

January 14, 2009


The Black Congressional Caucus and Israel


Sullying Dr. King's Legacy

By GLEN FORD

Only two members of the Congressional Black Caucus mustered the 
courage to oppose a House Resolution in support of Israel's savage 
assault on Gaza, last week. An additional seven CBC members sought 
cover by voting "present." The remaining 30 Black lawmakers (the 
delegates from Washington, DC and the Virgin Islands cannot vote on 
the House floor) gave their assent to a statement that could have 
been written by the Israeli government - and probably was.

The Resolution, similar to one passed by the Senate on a voice vote, 
is a blanket condemnation of Hamas, the political party that won 
Palestinian Authority elections three years ago, and which Israeli 
leaders vow to "destroy" before leaving Gaza. The destruction of a 
mass political party requires massive civilian deaths. Destroying 
Hamas in Gaza is like stamping out Democrats in The Bronx - with 1.4 
million people, about the same size as the Palestinian enclave. The 
document blames Hamas for "the breaking of the 'calm' and for 
subsequent civilian casualties in Gaza." In other words, Israel is 
absolved for all the men, women and children it has burned, 
eviscerated, blasted into dust, sliced in pieces or melted like wax.

In addition to the usual nonsense about the U.S. maintaining an 
"unwavering commitment to the...State of Israel as a Jewish and 
democratic state (as if a settler state based on race-ethnicity can 
be democratic) with secure borders (Israel is the only state in the 
world that refuses to say where its borders are), the Resolution 
invokes the United Nations and its Charter (Israel is the 
unchallenged world champion violator of UN Resolutions, dating from 
shortly after its declaration of independence, in 1948).

Could it be that Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters and 
Milwaukee's Gwen Moore are the only Black Caucus members who remember 
that Israel was racist South Africa's closest ally, the apartheid 
regime's hi-tech weapons quartermaster and godfather to its nuclear 
bomb project? Do the seven members that voted "present" - Donna 
Edwards (MD), Keith Ellison (MN), Hank Johnson (GA), Carolyn 
Kilpatrick (MI), Barbara Lee (CA), Donald Payne (NJ), Diane Watson 
(CA) - believe that by refusing to take a position on Israeli crimes 
against humanity in Gaza, they somehow salvage the Caucus's claim to 
be the "conscience of the Congress?"

Where has John Conyers' conscience disappeared to? In July of 2006, 
when the House passed an equally noxious Resolution in support of 
Israel's systematic destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure, killing 
over 1,000 people and displacing one million, Conyers and fellow 
Detroiter Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick were the solitary CBC members to 
vote "Nay." (Oakland's Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters voted 
"present.") Then came the Democratic victory in the midterm 
congressional elections and Conyers' chance to become chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee - at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pleasure. Conyers 
picked a fight with Jimmy Carter over the former president's book, 
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Conyers objected to Carter's use of 
the term "apartheid" in the book's title, saying it "does not serve 
the cause of peace, and the use of it against the Jewish people in 
particular, who have been victims of the worst kind of 
discrimination, discrimination resulting in death, is offensive and 
wrong." Translation: Not just Israel, but Jews are off limits to criticism.

It appears the old John Conyers has left the scene without those of 
us who used to know him having had a chance to say goodbye. The 
Israeli lobby has that kind of effect on erstwhile progressives and 
anti-war folks. The Zionist ideology, and especially the chilling 
effect of Zionist power, is probably the second-greatest impediment 
to creation of a sustained American peace movement - the first 
obstacle being the ideology of American Manifest Destiny, which is in 
practice quite compatible with Zionism.

However, African Americans are least susceptible to the Manifest 
Destiny/Zionist Mythology combo. Both ideologies wreak of racism, and 
most Black people know it. The Congressional Black Caucus knows it, 
too, but they are terrified of offending Israel's innumerable 
political hit men.

Zionist power helped knock off two CBC members who refused to tow Tel 
Aviv's line, in 2002. Georgia's Cynthia McKinney and Alabama's Earl 
Hilliard found themselves heavily outspent and ultimately unseated by 
otherwise puny challengers in Democratic primary contests. AIPAC 
bragged of its ability to shut down independent-minded Black 
politicians who fail to understand that U.S. foreign policy is shaped 
by whatever is deemed good for Israel. Bullying works, especially 
against the meek. Except for Maxine Waters and Gwen Moore, the 
Congressional Black Caucus is out of the anti-war business.

That also goes for the Congressional Progressive Caucus which, with 
71 members, claims to be the "single largest partisan caucus" in the 
U.S. House, but whose members voted overwhelmingly in support of 
Israeli barbarity. About two-thirds of the voting members of the 
Black Caucus also belong to the Progressive Caucus - meaning, they 
are members of two defunct organizations, and doubly useless to the 
cause of peace.

Glen Ford is editor of Black Agenda Report, where this article 
appears. He  can be contacted at 
<mailto:Glen.Ford at BlackAgendaReport.com>Glen.Ford at BlackAgendaReport.com




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