CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– FOREIGN POLICY
Updated Dec. 29, 2008 – 3:07 p.m.
White House, Hill Leaders Say Hamas Must Stop Rocket Attacks
By Jonathan Broder, CQ Staff
Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle rallied to Israel’s cause Monday as it pressed forward with large-scale air attacks against Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli offensive began on Dec. 27 after gunmen of the ruling Hamas party fired hundreds of rockets into Israel following the Dec. 19 end of a six-month truce.
“I strongly support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza, which have killed and injured Israeli citizens, and to restore security to its residents,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., in a statement Monday. “Hamas’ failure to stop these attacks only exacerbates the humanitarian situation for the residents of Gaza and undermines efforts to attain peace and security in the region.”
His view was echoed by leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza over the past week,” Howard L. Berman , D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “No government in the world would sit by and allow its citizens to be subjected to this kind of indiscriminate bombardment. The loss of innocent life is a terrible tragedy, and the blame for that tragedy lies with Hamas.”
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking Republican on the House committee, also expressed support for the Israeli offensive.
“The most recent onslaught of rockets against Israel from Hamas represents a serious escalation in their war against Israel,” she said in statement Monday. She said the Israeli response “has been carefully calibrated to halt the rocket fire, aimed at surgically eliminating Hamas militants and the teams that are operating the rockets, while at the same time making every effort to limit civilian casualties in the face of Hamas’ callous use of innocent Palestinians as human shields.”
But a dissenting view came from Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich , D-Ohio, who called on the United Nations to launch an independent inquiry into the Gaza situation.
“Israel is leveling Gaza to strike at Hamas, just as they pulverized south Lebanon to strike at Hezbollah,” Kucinich said. “Yet in both cases civilian populations were attacked, countless innocents killed or injured, infrastructure targeted and destroyed, and civil law enforcement negated. All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable. It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel’s actions.”
The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli air strikes has reached 300 so far, and Israeli officials said they were expecting a lengthy campaign to destroy Hamas’ military capacity. Israel has called up 6,500 reservists for a possible ground assault on the Gaza Strip.
So far, Hamas rockets have killed two Israelis and wounded scores of others.
White House Response
The White House on Monday also took Israel’s side in the fighting, demanding that Hamas halt its rocket fire into Israel and agree to a last ceasefire.
“In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. “That is the objective to which all parties need to be working. That is what the United States is working towards.”
Johndroe said President Bush was briefed by his national security team on the latest developments in the Middle East.
President-elect Barack Obama , vacationing in Hawaii, has not commented directly on the new outbreak of violence. His senior adviser, David Axelrod, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Obama “recognizes the special relationship between United States and Israel” and “wants to be a constructive force in helping to bring about the peace and security that both the Israelis and the Palestinians want and deserve.”
Axelrod acknowledged that “obviously, this situation has become even more complicated in the last couple of days and weeks.”
Obama, he said, spoke with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the weekend and is receiving briefings on the events unfolding in the Middle East. “He’s monitoring the situation closely. But the Bush administration has to speak for America now,” Axelrod said.
At a briefing in Crawford, Texas, Monday, Johndroe said the United States was working through Egypt and other countries in the Middle East to try to convince Hamas to halt its rocket fire into Israel and to accept a “sustainable and durable ceasefire.” He said President Bush had spoken to Jordanian King Abdullah on Monday and to Saudi King Abdullah on Dec. 27.
But he said that for now, the Bush administration was not making any efforts to restrain Israeli military action, other than to avoid civilian casualties.
“At this point, the United States understands that Israel needs to take action to defend itself,” Johndroe said.
He said Hamas has an opportunity to join the Middle East peace process by recognizing Israel, rejecting violence and agreeing to abide by previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“Hamas has a choice to make,” Johndroe said. “Right now, it has chosen to be a terrorist organization that fires rockets into Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the goal of the Israeli operation was to alter the situation on the ground and restore Israel’s deterrent capacity against Hamas.
“We are trying to change realities on the ground,” she told CBS’s “Early Show.” “Hamas needs to understand that the equation is going to be changed. And then, I hope, we can stop and live in quiet in this region and give some peace to our citizens.”
The perception of Israel’s deterrent power suffered after its August 2006 war against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Despite 34 days of heavy air attacks, Hizbollah survived the Israeli onslaught and emerged as the victor of that conflict among many in the Arab world.
First posted Dec. 29, 2008 11:08 a.m.
Comments
Why not find out WHAT prompted the attack before fingers start pointing to just one side? Would that make sense??
What prompted the attacks were Israeli assinations of Hamas leaders and a show of force prior to israeli elections. Murdering 325+ people in response to exactly ONE Israeli casualty is not defense, it is a massacre. Collective Punishment is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Kudos to UN Sec. Gen & Dennis K., Shame on H. Reid
Israel was shoe-horned into Palestine by the West at the close of WW2 over guilt and remorse over the Holocaust. Jews had been coming there since the 1880s already, some escaping pogroms in Russia and Ukraine. Europe and the U.S. had always been anti-Semitic going back centuries. Israel has since been imposing its own version of a final solution of its Palestian "problem" with the full-throated, red-faced belliicose military support of the the U.S. The U.S. must hope its puppets in Egypt, Jordan and the greater Arab world can paper over the present slaughter. The Palestians themselves have nothing to lose. The Israelis are going to kill them one way or another. Shalom?
Why did Israel chose massive retaliation to deal with the end of the ceasefire instead of political and diplomatic means? Have they learned nothing from the 2006 war on Lebanon? These attacks will make peace less likely. They are not thinking strategically nor humanely. Israel seems to want to be permanently at war with its neighbors.
Israel has been treating the people of Gaza as sub-human for quite some time. To the point of reports of some Gaza citizens eating grass due to the humanitarian blockade placed by Israel. Why should they inflict equal damage when their targets are not considered human. I think it is about time for a referendum on who and how the US should support in the Middle East. I can't believe that outside of DC there is that much support for Israel. Washington isn't going to bite the hand that feeds them.
The U.S. media only reports one side of this conflict. Israel has landlocked the Palistinians and cut them off from supplies, services and employment. You might launch a rocket or two if that kind of military power was used against you. There are TWO sides to this story. Israel is not blameless.
Kucinich is the only one with any balls. I'm sorry his presidential campaign didn't fly.
The world has spent the last 50 years condemning Israel for defending itself. If they had their way Israel would not exist. Anti Israel attacks are nothing more than antisemitism in disguise. Israel must defend itself by any means necessary. As long as rocket attacks continue and Arab children are brought up on anti Israel propaganda things will not change. Israel gave up Gaza and all that Israel had built up such as greenhouses and farms and synagogues were destroyed. When the Arabs recognize Israel and agree to live in peace there will be a settlement of the situation with A Palestinian State on a large part of the West Bank and Gaza and Israel with an undivided capital in Jerusalem. Until then there will be Israel prevailing with the help of prayer and G-d.
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: