Israel's influence, some say control, of the U.S. Congress was never more evident than this week when both sides of the house overwhelmingly moved to block Palestinian statehood.
The House of Representatives late Thursday, in a stunning count of 407 votes to 6, passed a resolution calling on the Obama administration to take the lead internationally in opposing Palestinian efforts to unilaterally declare statehood in September.
The Congress says instead there should be a return to direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, discussions that have been going on for several decades.
The vote by the House of Representatives follows a unanimous vote last week by the U.S. Senate which also sought to crush hopes for Palestinian statehood. That bill was intrdouced to the senate by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME).
As with the Senate, the House of Representatives also warned of repercussions, including the blocking of aid, if the Palestinian Authority continues its quest for statehood without involving Israel. Even if the PA was to comply, which is unlikely, a rider to the resolution also requires the Palestinian Authority to unwind its recent reconciliation with Hamas. Failure to comply will also mean an end to U.S. aid.
Incredibly Thursday's resolution had 357 co-sponsors, or more than 80% of the House, with it passing with the support of 98.3% of the House.
"By threatening to sidestep the principles of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is beginning to dismantle the framework of future peace process agreements," Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), who introduced the bill together with Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), said Thursday.
Hoyer said "a unilateral declaration will only encourage both sides to dig in and put a lasting negotiation of peace further at risk."
The U.S. Congress resolutions come in the face of the declaration of statehood by South Sudan on Friday. Both Israel and the United States are expected to announce their recognition of South Sudan's newly-won statehood.
While both countries support the recognition of South Sudan as an independent, sovereign state, they remain resolute in their attempts to block an international campaign by the Palestinian Authority for a resolution to gain statehood unilaterally, to be tabled at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Sources at the Israeli Foreign Ministry say that contrary to a Palestinian state, South Sudan has declared its independence following negotiations and agreement.
Israel has long been accused by Sudan of meddling in its affairs and fomenting divisions between the north and the south. It has also accussed the Jewish state of supporting the south miitarilyy. Sudan has also lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations Security Council against Israel saying it was behind the assassination of two Sudanese nationals near Port Sudan's airport in April this year.
Israel has declined to comment on the incident, the second such attack in two years for which it has been blamed.
"The definitive proof that Israel was behind this attack is that the rockets used by the American-made Apache helicopters are only owned by Israel in the region," a Sudan Foreign Ministry statement said at the time.
The President of of the new South Sudan state, Salva Kiir, has said he will enter into diplomatic relations with Israel which will include the opening of an Israeli embassy in the capital, Juba.
Meantime the U.S. and Israel are actively trying to persuade other UN states to oppose the declaration of a Palestinian state in September.
In May this year the Wayne Madsen Report said it had learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides, "working with State Department officials like Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, Susan Rice, [US Mission to UN Economic Counselor Courtney] Nemroff, and others, have been coming up with “hit lists” of small and poor nations to be bullied into voting against or abstaining on the Palestine Uniting for Peace resolution. Israeli officials have recently visited small south Pacific nations like Tonga to convince them to vote no on Uniting for Peace for Palestine.”
Indeed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been visiting smaller nations in Europe this week to do just that. Targeting Romania and Bulgaria, the Israeli PM has already snared Romain'a's support, and is expected to win over Bulgaria. Israel needs roughly a third of nations of the UN's 193 states (now including South Sudan) to oppose the move for Palestinian statehood, or abstain from voting on it. Without a two-thirds majority supporting the move, the U.S. can freely block it through its security council veto. While this will prevent Palestine becoming a member of the United Nations, it will not however stop countries around the world recognizing it as a free, independent, and sovereign state.
"We reaffirmed our country's position that a negotiated solution between the parties, with no unilateral solution, is the only way to ensure real and solid grounds for a lasting peace," Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc said at a press conference on Wednesday, at which Boc said his country would oppose moves for Palestinian statehood. Standing at his side was a beaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Each member of the U.S. Senate, and almost all (406) members of the U.S. House of Representatives, would have been proud.
http://www.israelnews.net/story/808448/ht/Stunning-support-for-Israel-by-US-Congress
