By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Increasingly, Congressman Bob Filner (D-San Diego) is showing his disdain for Israel and, along with it, the American Jewish communty which holds it dear.
Having in the last several years refused to sign a resolution condemning the Goldstone Report, which former South African Judge Richard Goldstone himself later renounced, and having joined critics of Israel’s response to the last Gaza Flotilla, Filner now is joining with six other members of Congress to call on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to protect the safety of American passangers aboard The Audacity of Hope, a U.S. flag ship joining the current flotilla effort.
Signed with six other members of Congress, the letter to Clinton, states: ““We request that you do everything in your power to work with the Israeli government to ensure the safety of the U.S. citizens on board. We wholeheartedly support Israel’s right, and indeed its duty, to protect its citizens from security threats. The measures it uses to do so, as in the case of any other nation, must conform to international humanitarian and human rights law. We are encouraged that The Audacity of Hope organizers have stated that their cargo ‘is open to international inspection’ and that they ‘are fully committed to nonviolence and the tenets of international law.’”
This language, of course, is window dressing. Instead of calling on Americans not to violate international law by attempting to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, the letter from Filner and friends, including the anti-Israel U.S. Rep. and onetime presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, is putting the onus on Israel to avoid violence when its naval ships encounter the Flotilla. The last time there was a Gaza Flotilla aimed at delegitimizing Israel, members of the IDF who attempted to board a Turkish ship were attacked with knives and iron bars, resulting in a melee that resulted in nine flotilla crew members being killed.
We would have preferred that Congressman Filner had called on the United States Secretary of State to do everything in her power to persuade the Americans attempting to provoke violence with Israel that the United States will cooperate in their prosecution to the full measure of the law. Notwithstanding that he is a member of the Jewish community, Filner increasingly is becoming identified with anti-Israel forces in Congress.
It will be interesting to see how many members of the Jewish community will be willing to support him again for public office, whether Filner runs for reelection to Congress or goes ahead with his announced plan to run for mayor of San Diego.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com