| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2003 8:06 am Post subject: Pro-Zionist Congressman Blames Jewish Leaders for War |
| Pro-Zionist Congressman Blames Leaders of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq]
Moran: War, Politics and Inevitability
House member criticizes Jewish leaders and says Democrats won't
jeopardize
their re-election efforts.
By David Harrison
thecountyline@hotmail.com
March 5, 2003
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=18374&cat=104
U.S. Rep. James Moran (D-8) said there is nothing anyone can
do at this point to prevent a war with Iraq.
War with Iraq is a "foregone conclusion" and will likely come at the
next new
moon, March 13 or March 21, U.S. Rep. James Moran (D-8) told about 120
people
assembled at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Reston Monday night.
Democratic
opposition in Congress would be futile at this point, he said, and may
cost
the Democrats their seats, a risk Moran said he was unwilling to take.
That did not sit well with his overwhelmingly anti-war audience.
"We look to you to make it not happen," Reston resident Adrian Farrel
told
Moran. "We look to you to go to the wider community and to find ways to
make
it not happen. So what are you going to do?"
Moran replied that his 13 years in Congress had given him a certain
measure
of credibility but added, "I need to use that in a measured way so I
don't
lose it."
He said it was not wise for Democrats to introduce an anti-war
resolution
because it might embarrass them in the 2004 election.
"If we're going to get fewer than 150 votes, I don't want one on the
floor,"
he said.
Several listeners said they were disappointed to hear that.
"I'm really depressed," said Farhanahz Abdul Haseeb of Herndon. "In
between
all the 'blah blah blah' he did, the most important thing he said is he
won't
say anything on the floor because he will lose his seat."
"I think some of us wish he would push the members of Congress a little
more
perhaps," said Paul Murphy of Reston.
AT TIMES impassioned, at times resigned, Moran blasted the Bush
administration for its rush to war but saved some of his harshest
criticism
for Jewish leaders in the United States.
"If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this
war
with Iraq we would not be doing this," he said. "The leaders of the
Jewish
community are influential enough that they could change the direction of
where this is going and I think they should."
Many of those Jewish leaders were swayed after talking with former
Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a vocal proponent of war with Iraq,
Moran
said. He nevertheless called himself "a Zionist because I believe in the
right of Israel to exist in its boundaries." But Israel should exist
only in
its pre-1967 boundaries, he added, which means the Israeli government
should
dismantle settlements in formerly Palestinian areas. "If we provide $12
billion [in annual aid to Israel] we need to say, 'Stop the expansion of
the
settlements and comply with the two U.N. Security Council resolutions.'"
He blamed the Bush administration for using the war to divert attention
from
the weak economy.
"The American president saw that the American public was losing interest
in
the war on terrorism and was starting to focus on the economy," he said.
"I
want an administration and a Congress that is going to be responsive to
the
concerns that you are articulating tonight."
The war, he said, would come at a huge cost. American forces would have
to
occupy Iraq for years causing resentment against the United States
throughout
the Arab world.
MORAN SEEMED emboldened by his anti-war audience, promising at one point
to
be more outspoken. "I need to be more blunt and more bold and that's why
I'm
here saying what I'm saying," he said to applause. He also vowed to use
Congress' "power of the purse" to limit war funding.
When the Rev. Jim Papile, the senior pastor at St. Anne's, said he was
concerned about "scapegoating our Muslim brothers and sisters" in the
name of
homeland security, Moran related an anecdote in which several Republican
congressmen told Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge they did not
like
seeing Arab-Americans near the Capitol building. Moran said, the
Congress
members pressed Ridge for tougher measures to keep Arab-Americans away
from
the Capitol.
"The Muslim community in this country is very concerned about this
scapegoating," Papile said after the talk. "And I think [Moran] needed
to
know that. He said he agreed with me. But he said it was inopportune for
him
to talk against the war. When it becomes inopportune for him to talk
about
equality for all Americans then we'll be in real trouble. That could be
the
real tragedy in this country."
SEVERAL PEOPLE got up during the question-and-answer session and asked
Moran
how they could help prevent a war.
"Use the tools of democracy," he answered urging them to write letters
to the
editor, call the radio shows and send letters to their senators and to
the
White House. But he cautioned against taking part in the protest
movements
that have sent millions of people into the streets worldwide.
"The protest marches so far have been relatively ineffective in the
United
States," he said. "The speakers chosen have not been credible."
When asked who these speakers were, he said: "The worldwide socialist
movements, the Al Sharptons of the world, the Cynthia McKinneys."
For the protests to be successful, he said, they have to become a
middle-class suburban effort. Only when middle America started opposing
the
Vietnam War did it finally come to an end, he noted.
"People like you need to take control of the movement," he said.
But war is inevitable, he said, and the best the anti-war movement can
hope
for is to be recognized by history for their doomed efforts.
"I think it's going to be a frustrating process," he said. "But at least
in
the end we'll be able to say, 'I told you so,' and the history books
will
record that the nation was divided." | |  | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
