Meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, prior to Netanyahu's meeting U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the incoming House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R-VA), pledged that he would support Israel against the president of the United States.
His office said, "Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington...He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other."
In effect, Cantor told Netanyahu, "I'm with you, not my president. I accept that the United States of America can not defend itself without the aid and support of Israel." Israel über alles.
In choosing to support a nation that has spied on the U.S.,has attacked a U.S. warship, the USS Liberty (read article), killing 34 servicemen and injuring more than 100 others (it remains "the only maritime incident in U.S. history where [U.S.] military forces were killed that was never investigated by the [U.S.] Congress."), has engaged in (and not denied) the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, has encouraged Christian militias slaughter Palestinians seeking refuge in Lebanon, sold arms to enemies of the U.S., has refused to implement U.N Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, continues to occupy portions of four of its neighbors seized by force, maintains millions of Palestinians in ghettos, has sold U.S. military secrets to China, and is daily guilty of human rights violations, Cantor supports his religion, not his nation.
Backing a nation that does not implement UNSC resolutions which have been approved by the United States of America, makes it clear to nations like Iran that if you have nuclear weapons, as Israel does, you need can ignore the U.N., and if you chose, ignore the U.S.A. as well. Backing a nuclear state that has taken land by force from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, and maintains people that they call "sand niggers" in poverty, makes the spread of nuclear weapons inevitable as nations now threatened seek a balance of power; mutual assured destruction (MAD) in case of war.
While people like Cantor see the current situation (Israel has nukes, but no Arab state does) as desirable, it is clear that Arab countries see that the possession of nuclear weapons allows states to act with injustice, and the choice is get nuclear weapons or suffer. That is the road to disaster, as a nuclear weapon on a raft can clear both customs and Wall Street in less than a second. Cantor's actions in backing injustice by states possessing nuclear weapons puts every American at risk of economic disaster, and every person in or near the nation's capital at risk of radiation poisoning or worse. The justification of nuclear weapons will lead to proliferation and a single nuclear explosion in the U.S.A. will make every advantage that Cantor offers his beloved Israel worthless. 99.9% protection is not enough in a nuclear attack. As scientist Ralph Lapp once said, it is like catching all but one of the rocks aimed at a glass window. Relying on nuclear weapons, or promoting the use or threat of use, of any weapon from which we require 100% protection, is pure madness.
Cantor has said that Israel can ignore basic human rights (the right of Palestinians removed by ethnic cleansing to return to the land that is their patrimony), ignore UNSC resolution 242, and Israel can maintain a people in slavery, an apartheid state. When you grant those "rights" to a nuclear nation, and threaten to bomb or invade a nation that has never threatened or attacked you, actions you would not take if those could assure your paying the price you would extract, the lesson is clear: get nuclear weapons. The reason we are sure that Iran is getting nuclear weapons is that we, ourselves, would do exactly that were we in the same situation.
Cantor proposes that a nuclear Armageddon is to be preferred over equal justice for Palestinians living both in and around Israel. In other words that we put this nation at risk to defend Israel's right to prejudice and a state religion; an anathema to our own constitution, and nowhere allowed in our nation's laws. It is certainly a crime to use taxpayer funds to promote a state religion outside of our borders, and for one of our representatives to propose that his favored state, his religion, his ancestors be supported in their violation of human rights, ethnic cleansing, and the use of nuclear weapons as a threat, an action that puts every U.S. citizen at risk, without respect to their own views of justice or religion, is an outrage.
Cantor does not stand up for the roughly 50% of Israeli citizens who see the settlements as an obstacle to peace, or those who are ashamed of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Cantor sees peace as the result of murder, rape, and theft, while many Israelis look for peace through justice for all. Cantor turns his back on the efforts of Pope John Paul II to lift the yoke of Israel off the necks of the Palestinians, the message of Martin Luther King's life, and the teaching of Rabbi Hillel, “What is hateful to thyself do not do to another. That is the whole Law, the rest is Commentary.”
From the Washington Post (Read Story)
By Dana Milbank
Eric Cantor seems to be settling in well as secretary of state. Technically, his position is expected to be majority leader of the House next year, but he is already operating his own foreign policy. He held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, according to the congressman's office, "stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the administration" in U.S.-Israel relations. As the administration seeks ways to revive peace talks in the region, it must be reassuring to all sides that Cantor will serve as a vital check on peacemaking efforts.
From Politico (Read full Politico story)
11 Nov 2010
Laura Rosen
"Last night, Netanyahu met in New York for over an hour with incoming House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who is set to become the highest ranking Jewish member of Congress in history. The meeting took place at New York’s Regency Hotel, and included no other American lawmakers besides Cantor. Also attending on the Israeli side were Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, and Netanyahu’s National Security Advisor Uzi Arad.
"Israeli sources characterized a one-on-one meeting between an Israeli prime minister and a lone American lawmaker as unusual, if not unheard of. Cantor's office did not think that Cantor and the Prime Minister had held a one-on-one meeting before.
"Eric has a longstanding friendship with Prime Minister Netanyahu and appreciated the opportunity to catch up last evening," Cantor's office said in a readout of the meeting it provided. Their discussion "covered a range of topics that included Iran, the United Nations, and the recent U.S. election which saw the Republicans win the majority in the House."
"On Iran, "Eric made clear that he believes that it is time for the administration to fully and aggressively implement the Iran Sanctions Act passed by Congress earlier this year," it said. "Unless the Administration continues to ratchet up the pressure on the Iranian regime, the progress made by the sanctions already implemented will unravel," he opined.
Cantor also "reiterated his belief that compromise between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties." He urged the Obama administration to "make it absolutely clear that the U.S. will veto any effort by the Palestinians" to seek recognition of their state by going to the United Nations."
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