Juan Vargas, a Democratic
congressman from California, tweeted on 4 March what many of his colleagues
have tried to deny in recent weeks: “Questioning support for the US-Israel
relationship is unacceptable.”
Vargas is on the foreign
affairs committee in the US House of Representatives with Ilhan Omar, but
unlike the congresswoman from Minnesota he has telegraphed that he will allow
no piece of information or evidence to lead him to question the relationship.
In Vargas’ view, if Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes coalition deals with Kahanist racists
– as
he recently did – there is no space to question the US-Israel
relationship.
Such unquestioning support
comes as no surprise from Vargas. Late last year the congressman went so far as
to voice
support for the “67 borders” of Israel.
But he wasn’t referring to the
June 1967 boundaries – before Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip,
Syria’s Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Rather, he was referring to
the first century.
“With a twinkle in his
eye,” recounted the San
Diego Jewish World last November, the publication summarized Vargas as
saying “he has absolutely no objection if Israel is made to return to its 67
borders. Just so long as the people demanding it are talking about the year 67,
not the year 1967.”
“If you want to go back to 67,
that will probably take in Lebanon, parts of Syria, Jordan and some portions of
Egypt.” Vargas added, “I don’t think Israel wants to do that, and its neighbors
wouldn’t either.”
But as characterized by
the San Diego Jewish World, Vargas would have “absolutely no objection” to
Israel claiming these territories.
This is a dangerous signal to
send a country that for years has taken Palestinian land and occupied the
territory of neighboring states, specifically those named by Vargas.
Vargas’ jocularity at the
thought of conquering whole countries and dispossessing their people is wildly
inappropriate from a member of the foreign affairs committee.
But given the trepidation
around voicing criticism of Israel on Capitol Hill, it is hardly surprising
that there has been no public rebuke from colleagues and apparently no media
commentary beyond the article itself.
Vargas is clearly convinced he
can get away with such statements. He made a similar comment in
June 2017 to the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), trumpeted by
noted Islamophobe Daniel Pipes, when
he stated that “when people say that we should ‘go back to the 67 lines,’ I’m
OK with that – the lines may be twice as long, but the neighbors may not.”
Vargas added that it’s a “pet peeve when people talk about ’67.”
EMET notably joined with
racist organizations in a letter touted recently
by President Donald Trump calling for Rep. Omar to be removed from the foreign
affairs committee.
“Lies”
According to the San
Diego Jewish World, Vargas, like many of his colleagues, is supporting measures
to curb Americans’ freedom of speech and conscience in order to shield Israel
from any consequences for its conquests.
Vargas is a co-sponsor of
legislation that, in his words, “basically says if you are going to boycott,
sanction or divest from Israel then you should have no business with the United
States. We shouldn’t deal with you.”
“You are boycotting, divesting
and sanctioning an ally who is not at fault in any way there, and we shouldn’t
have any business with you,” he added.
Vargas also denounced efforts
to “delegitimize Israel.”
“All these lies cannot undo
that, and BDS cannot do that.”
But what is this absence of
“fault” and what are these “lies”? Does Vargas deny that Israel is an occupying
power? Does he deny that some 1.5 million Palestinian
citizens of Israel are subjected to dozens of
discriminatory laws?
In the context of Israel’s
ongoing election campaign, Netanyahu himself proudly
declared on Sunday that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.”
Referring to the so-called
Nation-State Law Israel passed
last year encouraging Jewish settlement and stripping the Arabic
language of official status, Netanyahu added: “Israel is the nation-state of
the Jewish People – and them alone.”
Does Vargas deny the Nakba, when some 750,000
Palestinians were dispossessed – ethnically cleansed – in 1948, or the
dispossession of hundreds of thousands more again in 1967?
The reason Vargas appears so
intent on crushing the BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – movement is precisely
because it seeks to address all
these realities that Vargas apparently dismisses as lies, and restore to
Palestinians their full rights.
Sadly, Vargas is not alone
among lawmakers in thinking that if you stand up for equal rights for
Palestinians through the BDS movement then it is appropriate to deny your
free speech rights and refuse to do business with you.
Senator Charles Schumer of New
York, a Democrat, expresses his anti-Palestinian views here:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the
newly elected Democratic representative from New York, who has been cautious
regarding Palestinian rights since facing criticism of her initial honesty
about Israeli occupation forces massacring Palestinians,
did push back on Vargas’ claim that questioning the relationship is
unacceptable.
“I’m curious if Rep. Vargas
will further explain his stance here that it’s unacceptable to even question US
foreign policy,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Plenty of Democratic members have
asserted that discussion and debate on this issue is fair and merited.”
Sadly, many members of
Congress, including Democrats like Vargas, are intent on stopping that debate
from happening, so that unquestioning American support for Israel’s oppression
of Palestinians and theft of their land can go on forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment