Nita Lowey must’ve needed some cover when she put a hold on an $86 million appropriation approved by Congress at the behest of the Bush Administration. The funds were meant to bolster Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. But after Abbas threw sand in Bush and Israel’s face (the hardliners’ view, not mine) by banding together with Fatah to create a unity government, Lowey decided she had to put a stop to the $86 million lest it look like Congress approved of the Mecca shenanigans.
Lowey got some flack for what she did and must’ve been feeling a little lonely. So she got some of her other AIPAC Congressional flunkies to join her in placing the hold. Now she’s in the august company of pro-Israel ideologues like Ileana Ros Lehtinen, Tom Lantos, Gary Ackerman, and Mike Pence. It’s really shameful. They’ll swear on a stack of Bibles they didn’t coordinate anything with AIPAC. And even if this is so, they didn’t need to. As one of my journalist informants for an earlier post I wrote on Lowey’s hold wrote–Lowey knows so well what AIPAC would want her to do she doesn’t even have to ask. She does it as a favor to them because she knows they’ll approve. That’s how well the pro-Israel lobby has them housetrained.
I know the bitternness in my voice and my rhetoric might be confused for someone far more hostile to Israel than I actually am. But this type of shallow, jingoistic pandering has got to stop. It’s grandstanding in the guise of policymaking. It makes Congress look like fools (except in the eyes of AIPAC). By the way, you don’t think it’s any coincidence that Lowey is among the top five House members in donations from pro-Israel PACs, do you?
