Little Green Footballs has busted Reuters for cropping out an “activist’s” knife from a photo taken on board the Mavi Marmara. The original photo, published by Turkey’s Hurriyet (and, to their credit, by AP) clearly shows one of a group of “activists” standing over a wounded Israeli soldier (in the lower right corner of the [...]
Democrat Congresswoman from Las Vegas Slams Obama’s Israel Approach
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Shelley Berkley, a six-term Democrat congresswoman from Las Vegas (five of those terms as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee), was in Israel last week as part of a mammoth, 29-member Democratic congressional delegation brought to the country by the American Israel Education Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
As reported by the Jerusalem Post, she came out strong recently in support of Israel and in opposition to Obama’s ongoing policy of “getting tough” with Israel, putting the onus for peace on Israel, and other stupid policies.
This is not the first time she spoke out in support of Israel. A couple of months ago, she said:
“My concern is that we are applying pressure to the wrong party in this dispute… I don’t think it was particularly productive to publicly dress down our most reliable ally. I think it puts both countries, who are in fact very close friends, strategic partners and allies, in a bit of a bind. And I think the Palestinians and the Arabs are using this to create a division that might not necessarily be there: using Obama’s words against the Israelis and the US, and making it more difficult in some ways to move forward.”
And now, she had the following to say:
“I am quite disappointed in Abu Mazen, I always have been… I think he has it within his power to bring a peaceful resolution to this issue, to create a state for the Palestinian people, to move forward to a brighter future for Palestinian children.. and yet, year after year we seem to be stuck in the same situation, and I think he has done very little over the years in preparing his own people for peace.”
Referencing this week’s Fatah conference as an example, she asked:
“Are we still hurling accusations against the Israelis that they are somehow responsible for the death of Yasser Arafat? Isn’t that somewhat counterproductive to moving forward toward peace?”
The only thing I can argue with about her recent statements regarding all of this is the one where she said:
I don’t see this administration being stubborn in a way, or arrogant in a way, that would prevent it from taking a different tack if necessary.
In that respect, I think she’s being a bit too hopeful…