Black Caucus Abandons King Legacy and Black Opinion, Votes For War on Gaza

by BAR executive editor
Glen Ford

"The Congressional Black Caucus is out of the anti-war
business."

Only two members of the Congressional Black Caucus mustered
the courage to oppose a House
Resolution in support of Israel's savage assault on Gaza, last week. An
additional seven CBC members sought cover by voting "present." The remaining 30
Black lawmakers (the delegates from Washington, DC and the Virgin Islands
cannot vote on the House floor) gave their assent to a statement that could
have been written by the Israeli government - and probably was.

The Resolution, similar to one passed by the Senate on a
voice vote, is a blanket
condemnation of Hamas, the political party that won Palestinian Authority elections
three years ago, and which Israeli leaders vow to "destroy" before leaving
Gaza. The destruction of a mass political party requires massive civilian
deaths. Destroying Hamas in Gaza is like stamping out Democrats in The Bronx -
with 1.4 million people, about the same size as the Palestinian enclave. The
document blames Hamas for "the breaking of the ‘calm' and for subsequent
civilian casualties in Gaza." In other words, Israel is absolved for all the
men, women and children it has burned, eviscerated, blasted into dust, sliced
in pieces or melted like wax.

In addition to the usual nonsense about the U.S.
maintaining an "unwavering commitment to the...State of Israel as a Jewish and
democratic state (as if a settler state based on race-ethnicity can be democratic)
with secure borders (Israel is the only state in the world that refuses to say
where its borders are), the Resolution invokes the United Nations and its
Charter (Israel is the unchallenged world champion violator of UN Resolutions,
dating from shortly after its declaration of independence, in 1948).

"Israel was racist South
Africa's closest ally, godfather to its nuclear bomb project."

Could it be that Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters and
Milwaukee's Gwen Moore are the only Black Caucus members who remember that
Israel was racist South Africa's closest ally, the apartheid regime's hi-tech
weapons quartermaster and godfather to its nuclear bomb project? Do the seven
members that voted "present" - Donna Edwards (MD), Keith Ellison (MN), Hank Johnson
(GA), Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI), Barbara Lee (CA), Donald Payne (NJ), Diane
Watson (CA) - believe that by refusing to take a position on Israeli crimes
against humanity in Gaza, they somehow salvage the Caucus's claim to be the
"conscience of the Congress?"

Where has John Conyers' conscience disappeared to? In July
of 2006, when the House passed an equally noxious Resolution in support of
Israel's systematic destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure,
killing over 1,000 people and displacing one million, Conyers and fellow
Detroiter Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick were the solitary CBC members to vote
"Nay." (Oakland's Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters voted "present.") Then came
the Democratic victory in the midterm congressional elections and Conyers'
chance to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee - at Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's pleasure. Conyers picked a fight with Jimmy Carter over the former
president's book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Conyers
objected to Carter's use of the term "apartheid" in the book's title,
saying it "does not serve the cause of peace, and the use of it against the
Jewish people in particular, who have been victims of the worst kind of
discrimination, discrimination resulting in death, is offensive and
wrong." Translation: Not just Israel, but Jews are off limits to
criticism.

It appears the old John Conyers has left the scene without
those of us who used to know him having had a chance to say goodbye. The
Israeli lobby has that kind of effect on erstwhile progressives and anti-war
folks. The Zionist ideology, and especially the chilling effect of Zionist
power, is probably the second-greatest impediment to creation of a sustained
American peace movement - the first obstacle being the ideology of American
Manifest Destiny, which is in practice quite compatible with Zionism.

"The Congressional Black Caucus is terrified of offending
Israel's innumerable political hit men."

However, African Americans are least susceptible to the
Manifest Destiny/Zionist Mythology combo. Both ideologies wreak of racism, and
most Black people know it. The Congressional Black Caucus knows it, too, but
they are terrified of offending Israel's innumerable political hit men.

Zionist power helped knock off two CBC members who refused
to tow Tel Aviv's line, in 2002. Georgia's Cynthia McKinney and Alabama's Earl
Hilliard found themselves heavily outspent and ultimately unseated by otherwise
puny challengers in Democratic primary contests. AIPAC bragged of its ability
to shut down independent-minded Black politicians who fail to understand that
U.S. foreign policy is shaped by whatever is deemed good for Israel. Bullying
works, especially against the meek. Except for Maxine Waters and Gwen Moore,
the Congressional Black Caucus is out of the anti-war business.

That also goes for the Congressional
Progressive Caucus which, with 71 members, claims to be the "single largest
partisan caucus" in the U.S. House, but whose members voted overwhelmingly in
support of Israeli barbarity. About two-thirds of the voting members of the
Black Caucus also belong to the Progressive Caucus - meaning, they are members
of two defunct organizations, and doubly useless to the cause of peace.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted
at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

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