Democrats are cowards in the face of Israel's brutality

Have you thought for a moment that they were briefed better, had information not available to the public, and made a decision that you might not agree with but happens to be correct?

It happens. If it was an overwhelming vote. I would not say that they were all wrong AUTOMATICALLY.

"Not a single one of the 230 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against the resolution"

PALESTINIAN GIRL: HAMAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WAR

The Hamas terrorist group reaps what it sows.

As Ward Churchill says, the chickens have come home to roost.

I have trouble following the arguments of both sides.
How does either side enjoy killing more than working towards a future? The worst part is that people on this site who arent even from the area can spew such hate.
The claims to the land in all actuality are equal. When the future is more important than the past, we can live.

Democrats and Republicans are two factions of the same party.

Republicans: We'll Rule you like despots.

Democrats: Please don't hurt us!

Don't vote. It only encourages them.

Damn that can of worms!

palestinians are being massecred and isreal is sponserd and supported by bush and america and its sad that people tend to look away
isreal must be stoped one way or another
they have just opened a can of worms and if they continue the ocupation of gaza a palistinian territory
there will be NO PEACE AND IT WILL NOT END SO WELL FOR ISREAL THEY MUST BE STOPED!!!
ONE WAY OR ANOTHER THE ARAB PEOPLE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS OR WILL NOT LOOSE THE WAR ISREAL LEADERS ARE SO NIEAVE IF THEY THINK THEY WILL WIN
THEY WILL NOT AND THEY ARE ONLY CREATING MORE HATRED AGAINST THEM ALL OVER THE WORLD AND THEY WILL LOOSE THE WAR ITS A BET AND I AM NOT AN A ARAB IM A Pourterican
BUT I MUST SIDE IS THE PALISTINAINS WITH THIS
I AM DISGUSTED BY ISREAL KILLING ALL THOSE INCOCENT PEOPLE AND THEY MUST BE STOPPED
THEY WILL LOOSE AND I HOPE THE WORST FOR THEM
http://english.aljazeera.net/
PASS THIS SITE TO EVERYONE
IT WILL SHOW BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY AND OPEN EYES ON WHAT THE AMERICAN/ISREAL MEDIA IS HIDEING

Ha, half of this thread is just the person who posted it preaching to themselves. With that said though I don't fully disagree. Whats with this nations politicians and their complete unquestioned obedience to just rubbing stamping their approval on everything that Israel does? In 2006 during the Israel/Hezbollah war our so called leaders did the same thing and now the history books show that Israel went overkill on that conflict, lost global support due to their war crimes, and still lost the overall war. Hezbollah went from being a militant group to now being almost 50% of the Lebanese government. And still, even after that Washington can't kiss Israel's ass quick enough.

"If you don't stand for principle, you stand for nothing." Wait...wait...don't tell me...where and when did I hear nearly the same argument.....Oh yes, now I remember...Bush used this argument among others when justifying the war. What a perfect example of the dangers of moral justifications.

Cereal, we agree on this. All politicians are cowards. That is how they become politicians. They are pigs all supping at the public trough provided by the sweat of our brows!

What, do yall really think that Republicans and Democrats are different? Go laugh at yourself if you do. They're all the same. Just because they have different views on abortion and taxes, the public is brainwashed into thinking that these are two totally different organizations. Open your eyes. America will always be ruled by Republicans and Democrats, because they're the only two parties that sold their soul for financial support and censored media coverage.

What week kneed cowards. How dare they not support radical Muslim terrorists.

The headline itself is full of bias - "Israel's brutality"? How about some honesty here. Hamas is every bit as brutal as the Israel gov.

Both sides are wrong.

The coverage here @ current is biased in favor of Hamas and against the Israel gov.

It's so unfortunate that the U.S. gov’t continues to be such warmongers, looking only to benefit from such atrocities. Americans need to wake up to the inexcusable truth of our foreign policies.

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

I wholeheartedly agree. Lets see what happens after O is sworn in and the rest of them are seated. Their actions will speak louder than words.

Both sides are murdering, though again, it is far from proportionate. You are part of the problem in fanning the hate.

Yes, at least there are a minority of voices in Congress who are speaking out. Unfortunately, those picked for positions such as Secretary of State support these actions. I failed to mention that in my original post and actually should have. Thanks for the article.

From article, page 3:

Opposing Peace Negotiations

It should come as no surprise that when negotiations are ruled out, war results. But instead of encouraging negotiations between Hamas and Israel, the Democratic Party has actively discouraged it.

Even President-elect Obama, who has expressed willingness to meet with leaders of Iran and other hard-line regimes, spoke out in early 2008 against any negotiations with the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, which received the majority of seats in the most recent Palestinian parliamentary elections. Indeed, the Democrats -- led by Vice President-elect Joe Biden -- have criticized the Bush administration for allowing the Palestinian Authority to go ahead with free elections in the first place.

This opposition to peace talks comes despite polls showing that a majority of Israelis -- including the mayors of the Israelis towns on the receiving end of Hamas rocket attacks -- do support negotiations with Hamas. Unlike the Democratic Party, the Israeli public is much more cognizant of the fact that -- whether it be a short-term cease-fire, a permanent peace agreement or something in between -- ending the violence without such negotiations will be impossible. Indeed, at the very time Obama was rejecting the idea of talks with Hamas, senior members of the Israeli security establishment were urging the Israeli government to engage in such talks, arguing that any agreement made without Hamas would fail.

My feelings on this :

Hamas and every other terrorist group that deems to deliberately attack Israel or any other country with rockets to injure and kill innocent civilians is committing a war crime. However, the disproportionate responses on the part of the Israeli government and the ensuing humanitarian crisis they have brought upon Gaza as well are also violations of international law and are war crimes. Their attack on the entire population of the Gaza Strip, their blatant disregard for international law and democracy by keeping humanitarian aid from reaching those who need it, gagging free press, and doing all in their power to lie about their true aims constitutes crimes that should be punishable as they would be for any other nation's government.

As an American citizen I do not want my tax dollars going to any country that uses American weapons to slaughter innocent people or conduct any sort of unlawul actions against others. As we now see, this assault in Gaza has only fanned the flames of hatred and retribution putting the Israeli population at even more risk of attack. How dare the Israeli govt care so little for their own people that it would put it's geopolitical aspirations before the safety of its own people and the children of Gaza and Israel.

And the US Congress has betrayed the American people as well and the US Constitution. Our Founding Fathers made it explicit that to put the wellbeing of any other country before our own to the detriment of our people is tantamount to treason. They knew what it was to come from empire, and they deplored it. The violence is now out of hand, the hatred is out of hand, and the political interference that has now produced another generation of terrorism that our children will have to live with is totally irresponsible on the part of the US Congress.

The only solution to this is to include the elected govt of the Palestinian territories in negotiations, and to give the people of Gaza water, food, medical attention, free borders, and a chance for self determination as any people would want. I cannot believe that the Israeli government would forget so soon what their own people suffered at the hands of madmen intent on revenge and genocide.

Nothing will come of this as it stands now and it may well be the start of the end if we do not speak up and do something now. Hamas must also be willing to step up and work with others for a lasting peace to also give their people a chance for survival. How many opportunities for peace are we going to allow to pass us by? When will we actually start to heal these wounds? The killing must stop.

Democrats Goad Israel Into War

In June, 38 of 49 Democratic senators -- including Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton of New York -- wrote a letter (PDF) to President Bush that Americans for Peace Now, a moderate Zionist group, warned would build "a defense, in advance, for a large Israeli military offensive in Gaza." The letter also urged the Bush administration to block any U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel, claiming that United Nations opposition to Israeli attacks against crowded urban areas constituted a refusal to "acknowledge Israel's right to self-defense." An almost identical letter in the House, drafted by House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., received the signatures of 150 of the body's 230 Democrats.

Americans for Peace Now noted that such an Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip would likely result in large-scale civilian casualties. In apparent anticipation of the large numbers of Palestinian deaths that would result from such military operations in the Gaza Strip, the House passed a resolution (PDF) in March, during an outbreak of fighting, that claimed, "Those responsible for launching rocket attacks against Israel routinely embed their production facilities and launch sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as human shields." The resolution goes on to specifically condemn "the use of innocent Palestinian civilians as human shields by those who carry out rocket and other attacks" and yet again makes note of Palestinians who "continue to be utilized as human shields by terrorist organizations."

But according to Joe Stork of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, while Hamas failed to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, the watchdog group had found no instances of Hamas actually using human shields in the legally defined sense of deliberately using civilians as a means of deterring counterattacks. Despite my contacting the offices of more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress who supported the resolution -- all of whom are members of the so-called Progressive Caucus -- none of them could provide any examples of Hamas actually using human shields. It appears that the Democrats' goal in pushing through this resolution was to convince their constituents that it was the Palestinians, not the Israelis who were attacking them, who were responsible for civilian casualties and who would likewise be responsible for the far greater number of civilian casualties that would inevitably result from the Israeli bombardment and invasion which was to commence later that year.

The resolution also gave unqualified support for the Israeli government's attacks against the Gaza Strip, even as Amnesty International condemned Israel's "reckless disregard for civilian life" in its bombing and shelling of civilian population centers. The AI report also noted how the attacks by Palestinians against civilian-populated areas in Israel, which the report also roundly condemned, "does not make it legitimate for the Israeli authorities to launch reckless air and artillery strikes which wreak such death and destruction among Palestinian civilians."

Not a single one of the 230 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against the resolution. (There were four abstentions, and 12 did not vote.) This sent a clear signal that there would be no opposition in Congress -- which provides over $4 billion annually in unconditional military and economic aid to the Israeli government -- for an even larger military assault against the Palestinian population of the enclave.