Israel Matzav

Congressman: 'If Canada were Hamas our blockade would be stronger'

The story here isn't so much what was said as who said it. A member of the US House of Representatives said that if Canada were Hamas, the US would impose a much stronger blockade than Israel has imposed on Gaza. It's likely that the statement is true. But who said it? Barney Frank (D-Mass), the uber-liberal Congressman who represents the district in which I grew up in the People's Republic of Massachusetts.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) noted that “I do think the Israelis have a legitimate concern about being unfairly blamed and double standards.” He added that Israel “gave up Gaza voluntarily. I was one of those who for a long time was arguing they should. What happened was, Gaza was then occupied by a group of people who think Israel shouldn’t exist and who are in fact on our terrorist list for good reason. Now, what you then have is a blockade. And the argument is, well, there were no weapons in this shipment. But a blockade that allows some things in and not others has to maintain control over the ports of entry, so you can know what is in or not. Given that, I think it was irresponsible of the pro-Hamas people who organized this set of ships to go in there to do that, and obviously understood the potential for violence.”

Still, he added, “That does not mean that everything the Israelis did in this situation was right. When military people are in a situation where they have to use force, as they had to do here, not everything will be done well. Not everything will be done correctly. I dhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifo agree it would be in Israel’s interest to have an independent inquiry, appointed by Israelis... But the basic concept – I do believe – put it this way, if Hamas were in Canada, America would have a tougher blockade than Israel has.”

Unsurprisingly in an election year, there are many other Representatives and Senators who have spoken out on the situation. Read the whole thing.

Unfortunately, the White House, which first said that there would be 'no distance' between the United States and Israel over the flotilla, has taken its eye off the ball. In the last two days, it has made calls for the inquiry into the incident - which the White House had agreed would be solely Israeli - to include 'international representatives.'

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:40 AM