It's hard to believe that a generation ago, the Congressional Black Caucus was known as "the conscience of the congress, a political and moral high ground long deserted by the current CBC, which has utterly collapsed under Israel-lobby pressure for the second time in three years.
All but two Black lawmakers voted either "Yes" or "Present" on a Resolution that absolved Israel for its crimes against humanity in Gaza - placing all blame on Hamas. In 2006, only two Black Caucus members opposed a Resolution supporting Israel's savage destruction if Lebanon's infrastructure and the killing of 1,000 people. Hypocritically turning their backs both on Black public opinion and on the work of Dr. King, whose name they invoke at every public opportunity, the CBC has put itself "out of the anti-war business," and well outside the mainstream of Black opinion on the Israel-Palestine question.
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).
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