57 Congress Reps Taken to Israel
Who Do They Really Represent?
By Paul Larudee | Dissident Voice | December 14, 2015
In August, 2015, 57 brand new members of the U.S. House of Representatives bowed their heads and promised to obey their Israeli overlords. They allowed themselves to be taken to Israel, plied with good food and propaganda. They then returned home to do Israel’s bidding in the Congressional seats that Israel helped them win. Sixty were invited, but only three decided not to go, for unknown reasons.
But isn’t there a more innocent explanation? Perhaps they just wanted to learn more about the issue and would equally have accepted an invitation to visit Palestine and see it from a Palestinian point of view. Nothing wrong with giving equal opportunity to both sides.
The Free Palestine Movement tested this theory and found it wanting. We sent a personalized invitation to exactly the same members of Congress to come to Palestine at our expense. Not a single one accepted. Although we sent a followup to those who did not respond the first time, the vast majority never responded at all. A few said that they could not make time in their schedule, not even when we suggested that they could wait as long as their next term. Only one, Brad Ashford of Nebraska, said that he was working with some of his constituents to visit Palestine. (We have been able to find no evidence of such an initiative.)
Israel, through its US Lobby, has of course been doing this for more than half a century. There are hardly any members of Congress that have not accepted an invitation at least one time during their career, often more. Can you name any other country with such a devoted following in the U.S. Congress?
The reason, of course, is that the Israel Lobby has a reputation of making or breaking congressional careers, and that members of Congress are x-rayed to assure that they possess no detectable spine before they take office. There is more pushback from some Israeli newspapers than from the US Congress.
And why not? There has never been any price to pay for obeying Israel. In fact, candidates compete to do favors for Israel and to get donations managed by Israel’s Lobby, with little or no consideration of how much they are robbing their constituents.
But this time it’s different. We may not be able to persuade members of Congress to look at both sides of the Israel question, nor to ask why US taxpayer money is supporting an Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians, nor why our roads are not paved nor our bridges repaired nor our children educated. But we can show the depravity of our elected officials. We can demonstrate their hypocrisy and their bias and dishonest treatment of US foreign policy, which results in war, death and destruction for all but the tiny number of super-wealthy profiteers whose hands are covered in blood.
That’s why the Free Palestine Movement is running the ad below on the sides of buses in San Francisco. It is why we are making the same ad available at cost as a 3″ x 9″ sticker to anyone who wants to use it. It’s why we’re ready to share the cost of a display ad on buses or anywhere else with any group that wants to run the ad anywhere in the US, for as long as our funds last.
It is only a start, but we can at least begin to hold our elected officials accountable. We can make them begin to pay a price for selling out both the American and the Palestinian people to Israel.
Paul Larudee is one of the founders of the Free Gaza and Free Palestine Movements and an organizer in the International Solidarity Movement.
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From the Archives
Patrice Lumumba – “A Man of the People”
“Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity.”
World is Africa | March 29, 2015
Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the independent nation of the Congo, was born July 2, 1925 in Onalua in Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. With just a primary education, Lumumba emerged to become one of Africa’s most vocal critics of colonialism. Early in life, he developed interests in grassroots union activities and joined the Postal Union. As secretary-general of the union, Lumumba began publishing essays critical of Belgian colonial rule, and advocating independence and a unified centralized Congo. His writings appealed beyond ethnic and regional loyalties to a national constituency.
In 1955, Lumumba became regional leader of the Circle of Stanleyville and joined the Belgian Liberal Party. In 1956, he was arrested and charged with embezzling union funds and sentenced to two years imprisonment. Released after twelve months, Lumumba became sales director of a brewery in Leopoldville. To solidify his political base, in 1957 Lumumba helped found a broad-based organization that appealed beyond ethnic and regional loyalties—Movement National Congolais (MNC). The following year, he represented the MNC at the Pan-African conference in Accra, Ghana.
His relentless attacks on Belgian rule soon fractured the MNC, resulting in leadership split in July 1959. Undaunted, Lumumba insisted on complete dismantling of Belgian rule. In October 1959, he was arrested for allegedly inciting anti-colonial riots and sentenced to six months. Shortly thereafter, the Belgian government summoned a conference in Brussels to discuss the future of the Congo. Confronted by MNC threat of boycott, the government released Lumumba. At Brussels, Lumumba boldly condemned Belgian rule and advocated immediate independence. Convinced of the imminence of Congolese freedom, Belgium set aside June 30, 1960 as Independence Day.
The Movement National Congolais won the majority in the general election held in May, 1960, and Lumumba became Prime Minister of the Congo, with his political rival Joseph Kasavubu as President. Lumumba’s scathing denunciation of colonialism ruffled feathers not only in Belgium but also in the United States and Great Britain. Unfortunately, his tenure was brief and marred in crises. It began with the army revolt and secession in Katanga and Southern Kasai. … continue
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is it a rite of passage that new US representatives have to make a pilgrimage to Israel to show their appreciation for god’s help in getting elected and to communicate their fealty and idolatry to Israel? Is this iconic theocracy a new distortion of american secularism? Why can’t they demonstrate their loyalty to the people who elected them by instead going to work and make laws without fear, favour or affection? M\\
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Great post. Putting their money and priorities where their principles are. We should all emulate ’em. Viva Filistina!
(My Congresstitute is Mark Takai, Hawaii. I’ve begged him in person [he’s my daughter’s high-school classmate] and innumerable correspondences to wake up, sniff, and smell the stink of the criminal ideology Zionism engulfing Palestine (google, e.g., skunk water). No matter; he went. He also attended the psychotic Netanyahu’s joint-Congress extravaganza last (March?) despite my urgent pleas to boycott it. He has since contracted pancreatic cancer at his age of 48 or so…just desserts? I don’t wish him death, but neither do I wish him well. Any successor, sadly, would be same ‘ol same ‘ol, because the tipping point has not been reached. May Mr. Larudee and the FPM create some real momentum toward that end.)
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I’ve heard of Australian politicians routinely visiting Israel(it seems to come with being elected). All expenses paid I imagine. Isn’t it strange that Israel has an overpowering interest in other countries politicians?
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Cheers Brian, Isn’t it astounding that the US votes billions in subsidies for Israel and then Israel takes some of that money back to the USA to finance the careers and election of obsequious wannabe politicians who then vote more money for Israel? Who am I to complain about the USA, our main Canadian political parties and their election campaigns are all underwritten by pro-Israel media and the political leaders simply touch their forelocks, reflect momentarily on the european holocaust and then out-do each other graciously acknowledge gratitude and loyalty to Israel on the hustings. What did Israel do which was so compelling for Canadian politicians? Sooner or later, they become comfortable transacting favours but they will not look a gift horse in the mouth. It astounds me that when doing favours they claim to be justifiably acting in the wartime interests of Canadian Jews. I guess if the scam works, you do it till it doesn’t work anymore. When do all Canadians including Jews get their parliament back from Israel? M\\
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Michael. I agree. Politics in the West are now totally corrupted by money, and the only one’s who can change the system for the better, are the recipients of the money………………!!!
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no need to return.
you already have the required yarmalukes on your bowed heads
now get to your hands and knees’
oh
you are already
well, donkeys
the stable is that way
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