Chuck Schumer: Mainstream Democrat

[Jefferson23]

Saturday, Jun 12, 2010 07:13 ET

(updated below)

Chuck Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, spoke to an event of Orthodox Jewish leaders on Wednesday and made comments that can only be described as bigoted and disgusting. Kudos to Zaid Jilani who, despite working for the Democratic Party-serving Center for American Progress, wrote about Schumer's remarks on CAP's ThinkProgress blog and explained the reasons they were filled with falsehoods, or -- as he put it -- "as offensive as they are wrong."


Schumer told his audience that the "Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Jewish state, in a two-state solution" and added that "they don’t believe in the Torah, in David." As a result,"you have to force them to say Israel is here to stay." It's the Israeli blockade which accomplishes that, he argued. And Schumer is due some credit for being honest enough (unlike most devoted Israel defenders) to admit that a prime purpose of the blockade has nothing to do with keeping arms away from Hamas, but rather, is to economically strangle the people in Gaza -- meaning not Hamas, but the 1.5 million human beings (men, women and children) who live there:


And to me, since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that's not the way to go, makes sense.


So as long as Israel stops just short of starving them all to death, then what Israel is doing is justified -- just like John Yoo explained that American torture is perfectly legal and permissible just as long as it stops short of causing major organ failure or death (or, as Juan Cole put it, "anything short of 'starving to death', i.e. mass extermination in the camps, is all right as long as it convinces the enemy?"). I think the most repugnant part of Schumer's comments is when he spoke about Gazans as though they were dogs needing to be trained to behave properly: the blockade is justified because it shows the Palestinians living there that "when there's some moderation and cooperation, they can have an economic advancement." Is that -- punish the people of Gaza for the acts of Terrorists -- not the very definition of "collective punishment," which happens to be a war crime under the Geneva Conventions? The crowd -- as the video of Schumer's speech reflects (below) -- erupted in wild cheers at his comments.



remainder in full: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/12/schumer/index.html

[marmar]

1. New York deserves better than Chuck Schumer.

nt

[Me.]

7. Yes We Do

I was so mad a month ago when he bashed Obama on Israel I called his office and asked if he was a US Senator or a member of the Knesset

[Name removed]

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[IndianaGreen]

4. and AIPAC flunky

I hope Harry Reid wins reelection just to keep the crook Schumer from becoming Majority Leader.

[Jefferson23]

5. Gaza’s Stunted Growth Problem

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Marwa Farag, a research fellow with the Dubai Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, flagged the following item:

A recent report published in the Lancet medical journal showed that “the trend for stunting among Palestinian children is increasing, and that there is a concern about the long-term effects.” The report shows that there are pockets in northern Gaza where the level of stunted growth among children reaches thirty percent. Stunting, which is caused by chronic malnutrition and affecting cognitive development and physical health, poses a serious threat to normal childhood development and may cause severe health problems for children in the future. The report’s conclusions that the main reasons for the ailing Palestinian health system are the occupation, the recent conflict in Gaza, and inter-Palestinian fighting stress the need for an honest assessment of the health situation within the context of broader Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Thus, the Israeli government’s dismissal of the report as “propaganda in the guise of a medical report” is disheartening. Measuring stunted growth among children represents objective health data collection. Regardless of partisan persuasions, the percentage of Palestinian children who now suffer from stunted growth remains ten percent. Dismissing the report as one-sided does not change the medical facts on the ground, which clearly indicate that the Palestinian population in Gaza is facing a dangerous and worsening health situation, one that certainly has implications on any future prospects for peace.

Link: http://www.thelancet.com/series/health-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7924199.stm


http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/gazas-stunted-growth-problem/

[Me.]

6. I Wish I Was Allowed To Recommend This

It is important to know who this man is in light of his shameful ideology.

[Tripmann]

8. Absolute filth

And unforgivable from a democrat while obama has mitchell trying to broker some sort of an agreement.

It is notable however, that such a high ranking democrat has basically admitted to israels collective punishment of the women and children of gaza. Just a shame he supports it in the same breath almost.

[Jefferson23]

9. Peter King's "America Stands with Israel Act" ( Weekly Standard)

Rep. Mark Kirk will cosponsor Pete King's "America Stands With Israel Act." The Illinois Republican Senate candidate says in a statement:

As a democracy, Israel has a right to defend her borders from Hamas terrorists and their Iranian sponsors. Without Israel’s quarantine of Hamas terrorist weapons, Gaza would become a missile farm and those missiles would be used. We should not allow a heavily armed "Hamasistan" to rise.

The bill (download it here) reaffirms American support for Israel and ends "United States participation in and membership on the United Nations Human Rights Council."
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/kirk-supports-america-stands-israel-act



Schumer will stand with King, is my guess.

They wonder why the U.S. has no credibility on the issue, a fair and honest broker..yea,right.