Kesher Talk

Two Down, One to Go: A hearty congratulations goes out to the fine voters of Georgia and Alabama for defeating Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard, but there is still a battle to be fought in the new 46th District in California. One of the more egregious offenders against Israel in the House is California's own Dana Rohrabacher. Having been on the House International Relations committee for nearly 14 years, Rep. Rohrabacher has had plenty of time to express his contempt for Israel. Most recently, Rohrabacher joined McKinney, Hilliard, and others to oppose HR 392 which expressed solidarity with Israel against our common terrorist foes. His Democratic opponent, Gerrie Schipske, makes the point that Rohrabacher frequently takes the "moral equivalency" tack in comparing Palestinian terrorism to Israeli defensive, retaliatory, and deterrent operations.

I got a chance to see this first-hand last year when I covered the House International Relations Committee discussion on extending ILSA (Iran-Libya Sanctions Act). The discussion was whether to extend the act by 5 years or 2 years, and Israeli security was often stated as a principal reason for the lengthier term. I distinctly remember Rohrabacher's statement as standing out. He said:

Let me just say for the record, this Member finds it a bit disturbing that we hear the arguments that we have to support opposed legislation like this because it has some relationship to Israel. The fact is that this is not a debate about Israeli security. This is a debate about American security. I will be supporting this legislation based on American security needs.

Which is fair enough, and he voted to extend by 2 years. But his continuation deserves mention:

The fact is that we have a conflict going on in Israel. And, yes, there are noncombatants who are being targeted, and I don't care if it is an F–16 or a terrorist suicide bomber, I am opposed to that type of targeting of noncombatants. I think it is a tragedy that we had so many people, women and children and people who are teenagers, who are not involved in these things on both sides who end up being killed by fanatics on both sides. That is a tragedy; and I hope and I would wish the United States would be, frankly, a little bit more consistent in its opposition to attacks on noncombatants that are carried on by both sides in that conflict.

There it is in black and, um, yellow. This is by no means the only time Rohrabacher has made these kinds of comments, he just happened to make them while I was present in the room. I am loathe to advise people to vote for an opposing candidate based on a single issue (a topic for another time) but I'm sorry, Rohrabacher has to go. Now that McKinney and Hilliard have been dealt with, the Blogosphere needs a new target, and I propose we aim at Rohrabacher. He will be difficult to defeat in a general election as opposed to a primary, and some will call me a traitor for supporting the Democratic candidate, but it can't hurt to try.

posted by Rami @ 8/22/2002 02:10:17 AM