U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, Democrat from Vancouver, Washington is a heroic maverick who visited the Palestinian Gaza Strip and is brutally honest when he tells what he saw immediately after the Gaza-Israeli War.
Danny Westneat in his article in the February 25 Seattle Times explains how Rep. Brian Baird's trip touched off foreign policy furor when he was one of the first officials in almost four years to visit the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
As the Gaza-Israeli War raged, strategically timed during the dying days of the George W. Bush administration, it was interesting to note how silent George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice were, refusing to utter a word. Then President Elect Obama only said that if rockets were threatening his two daughters, he would do something.
Voices from the United Nations loudly objected to a UN ambulance being demolished. Human rights organizations throughout the world held marches, insisting that Israel with war planes bombing civilian centers was clearly disproportionate to the rocket response to the blockading of borders and the continued building of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
An 80-year-old Jewish woman appeared on a local television Seattle news program and quietly, but forcefully stated, "I am an 80-year-old Jewish woman and I have never seen anything like this," she shook her head sadly.
Westneat's article explained one U.S. representative's reaction to the devastation he saw as follows:
"What Israel did to Gaza was a Sherman's march type of destruction," Baird told me, essentially repeating what he said there. "There were whole neighborhoods leveled, 360 degrees everywhere you looked. Those were civilian areas, purposefully, utterly destroyed.
"Schools, hospitals, stores -- all rubble. These weren't accidental hits, they were deliberately targeted. I saw an ambulance crushed by an Israeli tank. How do you justify crushing an ambulance?"
Seattle Times reporter Danny Westneat asked Rep. Baird bluntly if he was accusing Israel of war crimes. Baird didn't reply yes or no, but responded with the following comment:
"What I am saying is you can't claim you are surgically hitting Hamas targets and then justify the absolute devastation in some of those neighborhoods. It was far worse than I had imagined. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself.
"For telling his response to his first hand observation, a Jerusalem Post letter to the editors letter snapped, "What audacity, what chutzpa, what falsehoods.'
"Another letter writer blasted that Baird was a terrorist appeaser."
However, some U.S. websites hailed Rep. Baird for his courage and for speaking hard truths.
I have never heard anyone say they wanted to see either a Palestinian or an Israeli killed or suffer. What I have heard is disappointment that the killing continues and peace has eluded the Middle East Israelis and Palestinians.
In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer February 27, Aron Heller's article on U.S. Envoy George Mitchell and Israel's incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dated from Jerusalem revealed:
"Israel's next leader sat face to face Thursday with a man whose vision of the Israeli-Palestine relations is radically different from his own: the Obama administration's new Mideast envoy.
"Prime Minister Designate Benjamin Netanyahu thinks negotiations on Palestinian statehood are pointless. But Envoy George Mitchell wants Israel to resume negotiations to establish a Palestinian state.
"This is Mitchell's second Mideast visit since President Barack Obama took office last month. Hillary Clinton will make her first trip to the region next week as the new secretary of state.
"The attention follows Obama's promise to make Mideast peace a priority.
"'Thursday's meeting was positive and productive,' Netanyahu said, 'and the two still have a lot to talk about.'
"Mitchell made no comment. He promised a vigorous push for Israeli Palestinian peace on his first visit."
Aron Heller's article focuses on the real issues:
"Mitchell wants to press ahead with peace talks that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu avoids any talk of Palestinian statehood and says peace efforts should focus on building up the Palestinian economy.
"Mitchell has urged a freeze of Jewish West Bank settlements, while Netanyahu says existing West Bank settlements must be allowed to expand."
If the U.S. continues funding to rebuild Gaza and support Israel, wouldn't it make common sense to insist Israel remove Jewish settlements on Palestinian land?
And the Hamas Palestinians must acknowledge and accept Israel's right to exist. Of course Hamas rockets into Israel must end and Israeli bomb attacks must end. Both Israel and Palestine must agree to do everything in their power to make each other's living conditions peaceful and prosperous.
If no peace agreement can be reached the U.S. should stop funding this long run bloody saga.
The recession demands that the U.S. taxpayer must stop being burdened borrowing billions from China to help fund the lack of a sensible resolution to this conflict.
The UN can take over where the U.S. leaves off.
An 80-year-old Jewish woman appeared on a local television Seattle news program and quietly, but forcefully stated, "I am an 80-year-old Jewish woman and I have never seen anything like this," she shook her head sadly.
Westneat's article explained one U.S. representative's reaction to the devastation he saw as follows:
"What Israel did to Gaza was a Sherman's march type of destruction," Baird told me, essentially repeating what he said there. "There were whole neighborhoods leveled, 360 degrees everywhere you looked. Those were civilian areas, purposefully, utterly destroyed.
"Schools, hospitals, stores -- all rubble. These weren't accidental hits, they were deliberately targeted. I saw an ambulance crushed by an Israeli tank. How do you justify crushing an ambulance?"
Seattle Times reporter Danny Westneat asked Rep. Baird bluntly if he was accusing Israel of war crimes. Baird didn't reply yes or no, but responded with the following comment:
"What I am saying is you can't claim you are surgically hitting Hamas targets and then justify the absolute devastation in some of those neighborhoods. It was far worse than I had imagined. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself.
"For telling his response to his first hand observation, a Jerusalem Post letter to the editors letter snapped, "What audacity, what chutzpa, what falsehoods.'
"Another letter writer blasted that Baird was a terrorist appeaser."
However, some U.S. websites hailed Rep. Baird for his courage and for speaking hard truths.
I have never heard anyone say they wanted to see either a Palestinian or an Israeli killed or suffer. What I have heard is disappointment that the killing continues and peace has eluded the Middle East Israelis and Palestinians.
In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer February 27, Aron Heller's article on U.S. Envoy George Mitchell and Israel's incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dated from Jerusalem revealed:
"Israel's next leader sat face to face Thursday with a man whose vision of the Israeli-Palestine relations is radically different from his own: the Obama administration's new Mideast envoy.
"Prime Minister Designate Benjamin Netanyahu thinks negotiations on Palestinian statehood are pointless. But Envoy George Mitchell wants Israel to resume negotiations to establish a Palestinian state.
"This is Mitchell's second Mideast visit since President Barack Obama took office last month. Hillary Clinton will make her first trip to the region next week as the new secretary of state.
"The attention follows Obama's promise to make Mideast peace a priority.
"'Thursday's meeting was positive and productive,' Netanyahu said, 'and the two still have a lot to talk about.'
"Mitchell made no comment. He promised a vigorous push for Israeli Palestinian peace on his first visit."
Aron Heller's article focuses on the real issues:
"Mitchell wants to press ahead with peace talks that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu avoids any talk of Palestinian statehood and says peace efforts should focus on building up the Palestinian economy.
"Mitchell has urged a freeze of Jewish West Bank settlements, while Netanyahu says existing West Bank settlements must be allowed to expand."
If the U.S. continues funding to rebuild Gaza and support Israel, wouldn't it make common sense to insist Israel remove Jewish settlements on Palestinian land?
And the Hamas Palestinians must acknowledge and accept Israel's right to exist. Of course Hamas rockets into Israel must end and Israeli bomb attacks must end. Both Israel and Palestine must agree to do everything in their power to make each other's living conditions peaceful and prosperous.
If no peace agreement can be reached the U.S. should stop funding this long run bloody saga.
The recession demands that the U.S. taxpayer must stop being burdened borrowing billions from China to help fund the lack of a sensible resolution to this conflict.
The UN can take over where the U.S. leaves off.
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