Kulongoski: Support for AIPAC is an Article of Faith for Politicians

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Written by Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski

Published: 25 April 2008 25 April 2008

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[This remarkable speech shows AIPAC garnering the most fervent support by the polticial mainstream in Oregon.  In it, Kulongoski not only considers Ariel Sharon a "great leader" but he states, accurately, that "Even in these partisan times, support for AIPAC is an article of faith for both political parties."  An article of faith means that political support for AIPAC is unquestioning and not subject to critical, rational, or moral challenge.  I can think of many principles that should be an article of faith for both political parties: support for the Constitution, belief in equality and freedom, support for human rights, acknowledgment of the value of international law and important documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Geneva Convention.  But support for a right wing lobby which supports the oppressive and Apartheid policies of a foreign government?  An articles of faith? Simply incredible.]

The Jewish review had this to say about the previous years meeting:

"Among several political luminaries in attendance were Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski; Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradley; Oregon Treasurer Hardy Meyers; Oregon Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland; Oregon Speaker of the House Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village; Oregon Senate President Pro-Temp ore Margaret Carter, DPortland;
Oregon Republican Party Chairman Kevin Mannix, representatives from the offices of both Oregon US Senators and several other state elected officials." - Jewish Review, March 15, 2005

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Remarks by Governor Ted Kulongoski      

April 30, 2006

AIPAC Oregon Community Dinner 2006
 
Thank you Brian for your generous introduction, and for co-chairing – along with Craig Berne – tonight’s dinner.  I also want to welcome and thank Deputy Consul General Omer Caspi for joining us this evening.  And special thanks to the members and friends of AIPAC for giving me this chance to say a few words about what Israel means to Oregon and America, and what AIPAC means to Israel.
 
As most of you know, I was raised by nuns – which means from a very early age I was taught to believe in miracles.  Of course, everything the nuns told me to believe came with an implied, “or else.”  Still, I can’t say they were wrong – because sometimes I view my own life as a miracle.
 
I bring up the subject of miracles because of something David Ben-Gurion said:  “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.”  The restoration of a Jewish homeland after 2,000 years of exile proves his point.
 
But even the wisdom of Ben-Gurion is no match for the wisdom of the Talmud – which says this:  “When there is a possibility of danger – do not depend on a miracle.”  That is exactly where Israel finds itself today – living in a neighborhood that grows more dangerous by the day, with a Hamas-led government in the West Bank and Gaza – and an Iranian government that denies the Holocaust and threatens Israel with annihilation.
 
So this is no time to depend on miracles.  Instead, Israel and the United States must continue to depend on each other.  Israel is a strategic partner and America’s our only stable, reliable, and democratic ally in the middle east.  Israel is also a major trading partner for America.  Oregon has a growing role in the U.S.-Israel trade relationship.  Like Israel – innovation and high technology now power our economy.  And as I recently told Consul General David Akov, I hope to lead a trade mission to Israel next year.
 
But America’s ties with Israel are more than strategic and economic.  They are rooted in common values of religious freedom, open dissent, an independent judiciary, and an unbending belief in the historical, cultural and moral case for Zionism.  A belief I fully share.
 
But just as we need Israel – Israel needs us.  And the people of Israel have no better friend than the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.  That is why I am proud to be here this evening – to lend my support to the work of AIPAC.  And I am not alone.  Even in these partisan times, support for AIPAC is an article of faith for both political parties.  This is as it should be – because the survival of Israel is not a Democratic principle or a Republican principle.  It is an American principle.  But principles that are ignored can easily be forgotten.  That is why Israel needs the strong and effective voice of AIPAC in the halls of Congress, state capitals – and in the public square.
 
Abba Eban once pointed out that “nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all the other alternatives.”
           
Even after 58 years, many nations have not run out of alternatives to the wisdom of peace and friendship with Israel.  Some day – perhaps they will.  In the meantime, AIPAC’s mission of the strengthening the economic, political, military and diplomatic ties between America and Israel must continue, which means that our mission to strengthen AIPAC must continue too.     
 
I would like to close with this thought:  Jews around the world just finished celebrating their deliverance from slavery.  But even the chosen people need to choose great leaders – like Ariel Sharon.
 
Ariel Sharon was a brave leader of a brave country. On behalf of the people of Oregon, I thank him for taking brave steps for peace – and I know you join me in praying for his recovery.

No Middle East Peace Without Tough Love

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Written by Henry Siegman, Al-Hayat Henry Siegman, Al-Hayat

Published: 24 April 2008 24 April 2008

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We now have word that Tony Blair, envoy of the Middle East Quartet  (the UN, the EU, Russia and the United States), and German Chancellor Angela Merkel intend to organize yet another peace conference, this time in Berlin in June. It is hard to believe that after the long string of failed peace initiatives, stretching back at least to the Madrid conference of 1991, statesmen and stateswomen are recycling these failures without seemingly having a clue as to why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is even more hopeless today than before these peace exercises first got underway.{josquote}But no government that is serious about a two-state solution to the conflict would have pursued without let-up the theft and fragmentation of Palestinian lands that even a child understands makes Palestinian statehood impossible.{/josquote}

The scandal of the international community's impotence in resolving one of history's longest bloodlettings is that it knows what the problem is but does not have the courage to speak the truth, much less deal with it. The next peace conference in Germany (or in Moscow, where the Russians want to hold it) will suffer from the same gutlessness that has marked all previous efforts. It will deal with everything except the problem primarily responsible for this conflict's multi-generational impasse.

Read more: No Middle East Peace Without Tough Love

Israelis Claim Secret Settlement Deal Agreement With U.S.

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Written by Glenn Kessler, Washington Post Staff Writer Glenn Kessler, Washington Post Staff Writer

Published: 24 April 2008 24 April 2008

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[Well, the U.S. IS a partner, a partner for Aparthied and colonization, but not a "partner for peace."] 

Israelis Claim Secret Settlment Deal Agreement With U.S.

Americans Insist No Deal Made on Settlement Growth

A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president's efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.

Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush's letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank. In an interview this week, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza.

U.S. officials say no such agreement exists, and in recent months Rice has publicly criticized even settlement expansion on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which Israel does not officially count as settlements. But as peace negotiations have stepped up in recent months, so has the pace of settlement construction, infuriating Palestinian officials, and Washington has taken no punitive action against Israel for its settlement efforts.

Israeli officials say they have clear guidance from Bush administration officials to continue building settlements, as long as it meets carefully negotiated criteria, even though those understandings appear to contradict U.S. policy.

Read more: Israelis Claim Secret Settlement Deal Agreement With U.S.

Fuel shortage forces UN to halt food handouts in Gaza

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Written by Rory McCarthy in Gaza City Rory McCarthy in Gaza City

Published: 24 April 2008 24 April 2008

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· Up to 800,000 to lose aid due to blockade
· Israel cut supplies after killings at border crossings

 

The UN is to halt food handouts for up to 800,000 Palestinians from today because of a severe fuel shortage in Gaza brought on by an Israeli economic blockade.

John Ging, the director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, said there had been a "totally inadequate" supply of fuel from Israel to Gaza for 10 months until it was finally halted two weeks ago. "The devastating humanitarian impact is entirely predictable," he said.

A shortage of diesel and petrol means UN food assistance to 650,000 Palestinian refugees will stop today, and aid from the World Food Programme for another 127,000 Palestinians due in the coming days will also be halted. "The collective punishment of the population of Gaza, which has been instituted for months now, has failed," said Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East. Last year, after Hamas seized full control of Gaza, Israel imposed an economic blockade, preventing exports and allowing in only limited supplies of food, fuel and aid. It halted supplies of fuel for transport two weeks ago after militants attacked a fuel crossing and killed two Israeli workers. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were injured in an attack on Saturday at a crossing used to deliver food and aid. The attacks have been condemned by the UN.

Hours before Gaza's sole power plant was to shut down, Israel pumped in 1m litres of industrial diesel, enough to last around three days. Gaza's streets have largely been emptied of cars. On Tuesday, its central pharmacy ran out of fuel to refrigerate vaccines during power cuts. The main laundry at Shifa hospital, which washes sheets and uniforms for six hospitals and all government clinics, has less than a day's fuel.

Around three-quarters of the 4,000 agricultural wells in Gaza depend on fuel-powered pumps. Fuel shortages have already drastically increased food prices. A kilogram of tomatoes has risen from one shekel to six shekels in Gaza City.

"We remain committed to not allowing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert. "But you cannot talk about the difficulties in delivering fuel to the Gaza Strip without stating and restating the fact that terrorists under the auspices of Hamas have deliberately targeted the fuel supply depot. It's almost as if their agenda is nihilistic."