An Open letter to a U.S. Congressman

Dear Congressman Dr. Sestak,

I am simply disappointed how our elected officials choose to ignore the obvious and blame the victims of a very calculated sinister plan. I am talking about Israel’s attack on Gaza, which already has killed more than 750 civilians, majority being children and women. What a shame that in the Congress of the USA there is hardly a brave voice today outside Rep. Dennis Kucinich!

Can any intelligent human being ignore the fact that (1) the Israeli savage attack on Gaza was premeditated and planned over the last several months to tie up with Bush’s last days in the White House, (2) before the attack on Gaza, the total number of casualty on the Israeli side because of so-called shelling from rockets of Hamas was only two (of which one was actually a Palestinian living inside the Occupied Territories), (3) there is plenty of proof from people inside Gaza suggesting that the so-called provocation from inside Gaza may have actually come from Israeli agents, trying to discredit the Hamas (a charge which needs verification from independent inquiry), (4) Israel’s invasion is also tied up with its internal politics to seal the fate of outcome of the next election as to who will run the pariah state, (5) Israel is more after destroying the Palestinian infrastructure than real culprits (that is why it shells and bombs schools and hospitals, even the UN convoys and school buses carrying children)?

The silence of the U.S. Congress, let alone its support of the rogue Israeli state, is criminal and disgusting, and makes me wonder if we, the Americans, have lost our moral compass, now seems to be mortgaged at the altar of the Israeli Lobby. The President-elect like so many of our elected representatives in the Capitol Hill, appositely called the Israeli “Amen Center,” has shamelessly chosen to justify Israel’s raison detre for the invasion of Gaza. He, like so many of the Israel-firsters, has swallowed the Israeli version of the problem, i.e., Israel could not afford to remain impotent against daily attack from Hamas rockets. What a selective amnesia!

Dear Congressman, have you ever pondered: what would be your reaction if you and your family members were forced to live in a ghetto with no means to earning a livelihood, and every avenue for mere survival is choked off from reaching you; and worse still, if you are a victim of unlawful eviction and forced to live inhuman life of a dispossessed? I am sure, if your home is occupied by a robber and all your avenues to redress the issue have been denied to you, you will be tempted, like many otherwise rationale and peaceful human beings, to throw rocks at those who had evicted you and possessed your home forcefully. So, while not condoning such behavioral patterns, one can understand why the Palestinians living inside the 21st century-Ghetto — the Gaza Strip — would sometimes be shooting their unsophisticated rockets against the heavily armed and western-backed Israeli usurpers. Bottom line: when someone steals someone else’s home, it is all too natural to expect that the criminal cannot escape from being attacked by the dispossessed victims unless justice is done. This little piece of human psychology is at the root of the Palestinian-Israeli violence, something that our Congress seems to ignore all the time and reward and patronize the criminals.

But what have all those decades of kowtowing with Israel’s apartheid regime done for the image of the USA around the world, and what has the U.S. Congress achieved for making our world safer and more peaceful? In spite of so much power that we possess to shape Israeli policies, it goes without saying that it is the Israeli hawks and their agents inside our Congress that have been shaping our governmental policies. Not surprisingly, we have failed to find a peaceful settlement of the crisis since the rogue state was created illegally, dehumanizing millions of its Palestinian inhabitants. President Bush’s much-touted promise for a Palestinian state has now become a joke of our time! What a shameless liar!

Is there nothing that our Congress can do to stop this national disgrace?

As a Democrat, re-elected to the House, if you assume that the Republican Party was ousted in the November election simply because of Bush’s stupidity in dealing with economic recession, please, think again. It is also due to people’s disgust with how the government has dealt with international affairs: they realized that their economy and livelihood are all intricately linked with what happened in far-away places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a law-maker you are part of the government, and cannot shy away from your own responsibility in enacting and passing laws and resolutions that only make America a despised nation around the globe.

Please, condemn Israel for its violation of human rights in Gaza, and stop its funding and brutality against unarmed civilians within the Occupied Palestine. Who can ignore that such Israeli savagery only breeds hatred and recruits extremists to use violence as the only avenue to vent out their legitimate anger and sense of profound hopelessness! As partners-to-Israeli crimes, America can ill-afford to remain immune from such hatred. Help America to regain its moral compass by passing resolutions that are just and punishing for the monumental crimes of the Israeli state. Let the criminals of the government of Israel know that their honeymoon is over. They can no longer act as savages, and can be tried as war criminals for their crimes against humanity.

Regards,

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Pennsylvania, USA