By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Kentucky Rep Thomas Massie (R) on Wednesday announced he will not be attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress and told AIPAC directly that they can smear him all they like but he will not take part in their “war rally.”
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) also put out a surprisingly bold statement condemning Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress.
Her full statement reads:
“Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.
“Since 1948, the US has provided more than $141 billion in weapons to the Israeli government to fund the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, including $17.9 billion since October. Netanyahu’s apartheid regime has already slaughtered over 39,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 15,000 children. Yet my colleagues and the Biden Administration continue to approve more funding and send more weapons–even as innocent children like Hind Rajab are targeted with 355 bullets, shot in the head by Israeli snipers, burned to death in their tents with US-made weapons, bombed while playing at school, deliberately starved to death, and Palestinians are bombed in refugee camps and discovered in mass graves, naked and with their hands tied, all live-streamed for the world to see. These are undeniably war crimes under international law.
“Make no mistake: this event is a celebration of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It is a sad day for our democracy when my colleagues will smile for a photo op with a man who is actively committing genocide. It is hypocritical to claim to be concerned about the massive death toll of innocent civilians, and then turn around and welcome the person responsible for these war crimes to our Capitol. Their silence is betrayal, and history will remember them accordingly. Our government must stop supporting and funding this genocide now.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also condemned the decision to host Netanyahu in Congress:
Several dozen reps have said they will not be attending, but most seem to be saying they’re only doing it to protest Netanyahu (whose approval rating is in the dump in Israel).
Unlike these other cowardly reps, Massie has boldly called out the Israel Lobby without any care for the consequences.
It’s been reported widely in the past that whenever Netanyahu does official visits to America he literally brings suitcases full of his soiled laundry for us to clean.
Though he treats us with utter contempt, our Congress historically worships him as a God.
Netanyahu is reportedly planning to tell Congress of a “new way” of “dealing with [the] challenge” of Iran and other countries in the region — a.k.a. order us to fight Israel’s wars.