DEM. CONGRESSMEN URGE ISRAEL TO END GAZA BLOCKADE

Lawmakers press U.S. on Gaza shutdown (JTA)
Eleven Democratic Congress members led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich urged the United States to press Israel to end the Gaza Strip blockade.

"I urge you to exert your influence to lift the Israeli blockade of Gaza, to allow humanitarian aid workers to resume their functions in the territory, and to support a political solution to this conflict because Palestinians in Gaza cannot live on emergency aid forever and Israelis in southern Israel deserve to live without fear," said the letter sent last week to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Israel sealed Gaza in a bid to stop rocket attacks on the country's south.

Kucinich (D-Ohio) just dropped a long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Another signatory is Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

CONGRESS DENOUNCES AHMADINEJAD; A.P. SEES JEWISH CONSPIRACY

Associated Press Hits Bottom, Digs (LGF)
Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty, in an article about the Congressional vote to tighten sanctions on Iran, dispenses some casual “Jews control America” antisemitism: Congress Denounces Iran’s Ahmadinejad.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his army a terrorist group.

The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers’ long-standing nervousness about Tehran’s intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel—a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

Holocaust survivor Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) lead the charge. The 2 nays were 08 presidential candidates Democrat Dennis Kucinich and Republican Ron Paul.

KUCINICH TOURS SOUTH LEBANON

FRESH OFF HIS MEETING WITH SYRIA'S ASSAD, TINFOIL-HATTED DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL CANDIDATE DENNIS KUCINICH TOURED SOUTHERN LEBANON AND CALLED FOR A "MORE EVEN-HANDED" U.S. APPROACH TO THE PEACE PROCESS. WINK. WINK.

Kucinich tours south Lebanon (JTA)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) toured areas of south Lebanon marked by Israeli cluster bombs that fell in last year's war.

Kucinich, a long-shot candidate for his party's presidential nomination, said the situation in the region was "dire." "There has to be a commitment to cleaning up these cluster bombs," he said.

The candidate, who met with Lebanese and Syrian leaders during his trip this week, also called for a more "even-handed" U.S. approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"America must lead the way in this regard, by taking an even-handed approach in the Middle East which includes establishment of two states, together with the protection of the social, economic and political rights of Palestinians simultaneous with mandatory, firm long-term structural security assurances for Israel," he said.

KUCINICH MEETS WITH ASSAD

Dennis Kucinich & Syrian President Agree to Stand For Peace (Gateway Pundit)

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Syrian President Assad want peace!

Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, meets with Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich in Damascus on Sunday Sept. 2, 2007. Assad discussed with Kucinich developments in the Middle East and the Syrian American relations, Syria's official news Agency SANA reported. ( AP Photo Sana)

The two leaders agreed to stand for peace.
PR Newswire:

In a meeting today with Dennis Kucinich, US Democratic Presidential candidate, Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Syria would be willing to participate in a multinational conference and peacekeeping force to help Iraq to manage its transition from occupied country to sovereign nation.

Assad made these assurances and other observations in a two-hour meeting with Kucinich, who traveled to Syria to discuss a peace initiative which has arisen out of his anti-war work in the House of Representatives. President Assad agreed with Kucinich that various US demands for the privatization of Iraq's oil and partition of Iraq would mean a continuation of war.

"We must stand for strength through peace, for a sovereign and unified Iraq. President Assad is willing for Syria to play a significant role in assisting in the stabilization of Iraq," said Kucinich. "President Assad knows that an international peace keeping and security force must be organized and ready to deploy in order to facilitate the end of the occupation. He understands that the US cannot leave a vacuum in Iraq, but that at the present time the US occupation is fueling the insurgency. He is recommending a parallel political process involving an Iraqi national conference, the disarming of militias, and the building up of an Iraqi army which would eventually takeover from international peace keepers."

You have to hand it to Kucinich. Where the other democratic candidates just talk about propping up evil regimes- He goes out and makes it happen!

KUCINICH AND PAUL VOTE AGAINST IRAN SANCTIONS

Houses Urges Charges Against Ahmadinejad (JTA)
The U.S. House of Representatives urged the UN Security Council to charge Iran's president under genocide conventions. The non-binding resolution, initiated by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), passed Wednesday by 411-2. It cites an Oct. 27 speech in which Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" in its call to charge him under the 1948 convention for the prevention of genocide.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) attempted to have read into the record alternate translations of Ahmadinejad's remarks that suggest the Iranian leader was calling Israel to come to an end through democratic means, and not through violence.

Kucinich and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a long-shot contender for the Republican presidential nomination, were the only votes against.

Kucinich and Paul Vote Against House Resolution to Sanction Ahmadinejad (LGF)
Yesterday the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on the UN Security Council to sanction Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his threats against Israel. And the only two members of the House who voted against the resolution both happen to be presidential candidates: Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.

SEE ALSO: KUCINICH BACKS FUNDING HAMAS ; KUCINICH HIRES ISRAEL-HATER FOR KEY POST ; RON PAUL AND ANTI-SEMITISM ; AN UPDATE ON CONGRESS'S VOTE ON ISRAEL ; ONLY 8 MEMBERS OF HOUSE VOTE NOT TO SUPPORT ISRAEL

KUCINICH BACKS FUNDING HAMAS

Kucinich backs P.A. funding (JTA/Virtual Jerusalem)
The United States should fund the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said. Kucinich, a U.S. congressman from Ohio, blamed U.S. and international policy isolating the Palestinian Authority as long as it is governed by Hamas, a terrorist group, for the factional violence now ravaging the Gaza Strip.

"As a result of the suspension of international aid, the number of Palestinians living in deep poverty, defined as those living on less than 50 cents a day, nearly doubled to more than 1 million people, according to the United Nations Relief Works Agency," he said in a statement this weekend. "The suspension of aid to the Palestinian Authority may have also helped trigger the factional violence. Nearly 80,000 Palestinian security forces have been denied their salaries for nearly a year. Many of them have resorted to violence to demand their salaries. Additionally, the fact that Western donors concerned with the humanitarian crisis have channeled aid to Fatah-led institutions may have increased Fatah-Hamas tensions."

Fatah is the relatively moderate party led by Mahmoud Abbas, the P.A. president. Israel and the United States have backed efforts to bolster troops loyal to Abbas.

KUCINICH HIRES ISRAEL-HATER FOR KEY POST

Kucinich Hires Critic of Israel for Hill Panel (The Politico)
Democratic Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio has hired an avowed critic of Israel to work on his subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee...Kucinich, who is again seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, hired Noura Erakat, a former grass-roots organizer, to work on the domestic policy subcommittee that he chairs.

Before coming to Capitol Hill, Erakat, a Palestinian, served as the national grass-roots organizer and legal advocate for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a group that seeks "to change those U.S. policies that both sustain Israel's 39-year occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and deny equal rights for all." ....

Kucinich, an anti-war liberal, defended Erakat on her merits, saying he chose her from among many applicants. "She has a tremendous background," Kucinich said. "She's brilliant." The congressman's domestic policy subcommittee oversees issues related to energy, labor, education, criminal justice, the economy and national drug policy. ....

Erakat is an outspoken opponent of U.S. foreign policy in Israel. During an appearance last year on the "O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, host Bill O'Reilly asked Erakat if she wanted to "destroy Israel." And she replied: "I want to ensure stability, security and freedom for all people, and that is not going to happen with occupation," but she added that she does "not want to destroy any nation."

Her former group likens the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to apartheid in South Africa. Its members are organizing a rally in Washington in June to "protest the 40th anniversary of Israel's illegal military occupation" of the disputed territories.

In a farewell letter to members of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Erakat pledged to help organize the rally and encouraged members to make the trip. "I hope to see you all in Washington, D.C., in June to tell the world that international law and human rights must prevail in this conflict and that Israeli Apartheid must, and will, end," she wrote.

Erakat has appeared at numerous rallies to protest U.S. policy toward Israel, according to videos posted on YouTube. At last summer's Rally in Support of Lebanon outside the State Department, she yelled, "Stop placing Israel above international law."

The Web site of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation touts former President Carter's most recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," which sparked a controversy over a passage in which Carter seemingly justifies violence by Islamic terrorists. The group also sells black T-shirts that read: "End the Occupation."

You can see anti-Israel activist Noura Erakat in action here , here – holding a sign that says “War is terrorism with a bigger budget”, and here . You can also read more about her here .