Booker Calls for Congressional Action in Wake of Hamas Attacks Against Israel | U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey
www.booker.senate.govWASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is calling on Congress to immediately pass additional security assistance to Israel, confirm key diplomatic and military appointments, and boost resources for programs that support the security of nonprofits that may be at increased risk here at home in the wake of violence in Israel.
“The harrowing images coming out of Israel and the rising toll of confirmed deaths and number of civilians being held hostage by Hamas -- including American citizens -- are devastating,” said Senator Booker. “We must do all we can to support the people of Israel who are facing unimaginable pain, innocent Palestinian civilians who are also victims of violence, and American families who have lost or are missing loved ones.
Booker continued, “In the wake of Hamas’ unprecedented and ongoing attacks and acts of terror, it is critical that Congress act quickly to pass additional security funding for our ally Israel, including Iron Dome replenishment.
“Additionally, the Senate must swiftly confirm nominees to key diplomatic roles in the region that have been stalled, including ambassador roles in Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, and Kuwait; the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism; and USAID’s Assistant Administrator for the Middle East. The unreasonable obstruction in the Senate holding up more than 300 US military nominees, including top officers who would command US forces in the Middle East, must end. At a time when hostilities abroad are escalating, America can ill-afford to have our military readiness and capability compromised in any way.
“We also cannot ignore the rise in antisemitism or threats to American religious communities, and we must take extra precaution here at home to ensure their safety and security. That is why Congress should increase funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides important resources to safeguard nonprofits that are at an increased risk of violence, including houses of worship and religious-affiliated groups across the country.”
While I do absolutely agree, the commenters here not marshalling every effort and yes, even compromising on issues, to get the lesser of two evils elected I can’t help but see as a poorly thought out excuse. Have your disagreement over policy AFTER you prevent the catastrophe.
The US had Turbo racist Hitler Satan running a platform of oppression to supplement and fund oligarch dictator fascism for the foreseeable never ending infinite term regime and some didn’t vote for the literal only option to stop that happening because of some infantile dream that dissenting 3rd candidate voices will matter to either side that has and always will govern. I find the moral grandstanding utterly absurd in the context of a 2 outcome race, yet here we are.
They do have faux-democracy, they do have the illusion of representation, they are at the mercy of lobbyists and corporate corruption and bribery, but only one of the two political choices has ever taken those discussions and attempted improvements. Only one side was ever trying to regulate and debate these things, but go and see where naive optimism gets you. You’re all planning where to put your beach towels in front of a tsunami.
The thing is, the DNC is not trying to stop any of that. It’s all theater, the opposition they put on display is theatrical. Nobody seriously believed a third party would win, the goal is to encourage more people to abandon an electotalist approach to political activism and adopt a more millitant, organizational approach, which has a far better track record at actually influencing policy in a major way.
I hope I see an America that does gain enough awareness to mobilize and dismantle the systemic oppression you’re talking about. I, personally, would have voted in the party that doesn’t disappear journalists and critics, burns books and refutes facts, I would have rather taken up arms against a politician I could convince of right and wrong than a unified front devoted to evil, but that’s my heady optimism getting in the way.
A friend of mine said of the Bush administration that it “had to happen” to show Americans how bad it gets when you let these snakes get power, and no one would vote Republican again after they witnessed the shitshow in action. I think they were optimistic too.
I think the biggest divide between our POVs is that the DNC definitely does all of the things you accuse them of not doing. We cannot simply talk to the DNC and convince them to do the right thing, they aren’t incompetent but well-meaning, but a different wing of the same brutally oppressive Empire.
If I am correct in my analysis there, we must do what we can to adapt our strategy and find solutions that work.
I can see where you’re coming from, I’ll try to summarise with metaphor and will likely sound asinine but here goes:
If I’m a hitchhiker and I see a suspicious car pull over and offer me a ride, even in the wrong direction, I’m going to take it over the driver that stops, gets out with a chainsaw and runs towards me screaming “go back to your own country”, where you’re focusing on how this first option is a very bad option. I’m not in disagreement that it’s a bad option. It is most definitely a broken, non-functional option. It is however not the lunatic with a chainsaw, which I take as an incredible positive argument for it.
I don’t need a metaphor to understand your point, I’ve heard the argument before. My point is that if we view the historical response to labor organization, both drivers are chainsaw wielding murderers, just one of them puts on a more polite face. The task is the same regardless, it is not any easier if the murderer is more polite about the slaughter if the slaughter is the same.
I understand your point, sorry for a belaboured metaphor, it just helps me think.
Here’s my counterpoint: If both options are the same outcome then what is there? Wait for violent, government-toppling civil war before anything changes? If it is institutionalized oppression, both-sides etc, then I can only assume you don’t see the current administration as any different to the previous one, or any future DNC? If you think Biden was equivalent to Trump in terms of ‘just a nice face on a chainsaw wielding madman’, then you have no change in political stance now that Trump is in power and reshaping the constitution to allow indefinite rule? Both sides bad means it hasn’t become worse since the party change, as it was always going to be this bad no matter who won?
Follow the logic, I think it sounds grossly myopic.
My solution is labor organization and eventually revolution, I’m a Communist. The Working Class should form its own party and build it up, like PSL, rather than rely on bourgeois parties that serve the same interests.
Trump and Biden/Harris both serve the same ruling class. Nothing really happens without the genuine approval of that class, opposition from the DNC towards the GOP is theatrical in nature and not material. The conditions change with time, but the conditions don’t change as much with parties as they do as broader trends.
The Democrats absolutely do those things, just look at Gaza.
So not the Democrats
I don’t know how many times I can restate that the “both sides bad” argument does not make sense to anti-Trump sentiment. Yes the Democrats are shitty, yes they do bad things, but in a choice between that and exactly that but 10x worse I literally cannot wrap my head around this smug superiority of not-ascribing to either side trolling. You do know that undermining Democrats is getting Republicans more power and enacting more of the things you’re against?
Ok. What I said is still true though.