{"id":1261138,"date":"2023-10-11T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=447270"},"modified":"2023-10-11T16:43:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T16:43:00","slug":"tlaib-and-bush-called-to-end-violence-in-israel-and-gaza-then-fellow-democrats-attacked-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/10\/11\/tlaib-and-bush-called-to-end-violence-in-israel-and-gaza-then-fellow-democrats-attacked-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tlaib and\u00a0Bush Called to End Violence in Israel and Gaza. Then Fellow Democrats Attacked."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The only Palestinian American<\/span> member of Congress is under attack from her Democratic colleagues after she issued a statement that condemned a \u201cheartbreaking cycle of violence\u201d in Israel and Palestine and called for an end to the Israeli occupation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., released the statement<\/a> on Sunday, the day after Hamas bulldozed through the barbed-wire fence that separates Gaza from Israeli territory and massacred civilians, including attendees at a music festival. Israel responded by bombing Gazan villages and a refugee camp, and on Monday ordered a complete siege<\/a> of the Gaza Strip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day,\u201d Tlaib said in her statement, going on to say that the end of Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestine would create a just future for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer,\u201d she said. \u201cWe cannot ignore the humanity in each other. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tlaib\u2019s comments drew swift attacks from not only Republicans but also her fellow Democrats, including Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.,. On Sunday, Gottheimer let loose on Tlaib and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who in a statement<\/a> on Saturday said she mourned the Israeli and Palestinian lives lost, calling for a ceasefire as well as an end to Israeli military occupation and apartheid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt sickens me that while Israelis clean the blood of their family members shot in their homes,\u201d Gottheimer told<\/a> Jewish Insider, \u201cthey believe Congress should strip U.S. funding to our democratic ally and allow innocent civilians to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n In recent decades, as the Israeli government increasingly<\/a> and sometimes openly<\/a> sided<\/a> with Republicans in Washington, the Democratic establishment\u2019s relationship with the Jewish state became strained. But the carnage of recent days in Israel, with Palestinian militants launching large-scale coordinated attacks on civilians, has shown that the party\u2019s deference to the pro-Israel lobby is still intact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn this issue, there always tend to be special rules,\u201d said Matt Duss, executive vice-president at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think all people should condemn the Hamas attacks, and we have called for that. At the same time, it\u2019s kind of offensive that some Democrats are using this moment, with further massive loss of lives at stake, to attack other Democrats for their own political advantage,\u201d Duss said. \u201cIt is notable how some elements of a party that prides itself on racial justice and equality and standing up for the less powerful can\u2019t seem to tolerate any expressions of sympathy for civilians when those civilians are Palestinians.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n For some progressive Democrats, the party leadership\u2019s response to the attacks against Tlaib, Bush, and others reflects the reinvigoration among top Democrats of a blind fealty to Israel that ignores the existence of Palestinians and the systematic destruction of the occupied Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is Democratic leadership\u2019s job to protect their members,\u201d said a Democratic staffer who asked for anonymity to speak freely. The staffer said the members under attack merely staked out their stances and the centrist and pro-Israel Democrats should do the same, but avoid going after their colleagues: \u201cThe question is, to leadership: Are they going to put up with this? With members going out of their way, not to state their position, or not to state their support for Israel and condemnation of Hamas, but to slam members of their own party?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The attacks are coming from Democrats who retain close ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the flagship of the Israel lobby groups<\/a>. Gottheimer is one of the top recipients in Congress of money from the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, members of the leadership remaining silent on the political broadsides are also close to AIPAC. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a staunch AIPAC ally<\/a>, has taken nearly half a million dollars from the group since last year; he also led an AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel<\/a> for incoming House Democrats. (Gottheimer and Jeffries did not respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Progressive activists on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict said Tlaib and Bush stood out as two of the only members of Congress to call for an end to the violence and mourn both Israeli and Palestinian lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \u201cThere have been almost no members of Congress who have so much as even acknowledged the fact that, in addition to the horrific killing of Israeli civilians, there have been Palestinian civilians who have been killed by the Israeli military and by Israeli settlers,\u201d said Beth Miller, political director of the progressive anti-occupation group Jewish Voice for Peace Action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat they said should not have been remotely controversial,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd the fact that people like Josh Gottheimer \u2014 who has spent his career moving us further and further away from any possible future where both Palestinians and Israelis can be free and safe \u2014 that he would dare attack them for mourning both Palestinian and Israeli lives shows how far and wildly off base he is and how much he is beating the drums of war right now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n