2nd District Iowa Democrats Vote to Cut Military Aid to Israel

Caption: Maria Houser Conzemius

As a delegate to the Second District Democratic Convention in Fairfield, I spoke in protest of a plank added to the platform added to the Israel/Palestine Conflict: "We support reducing or ceasing U.S. aid to Israel." I assume that means military aid to Israel. I was too upset to write every word down. Other delegates spoke in protest. One mentioned the difficulty that Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-2nd Dist., IA) would have in supporting such a plank in the platform if it were to be sustained at the state convention. Another commented on the Palestinians' constant killing.

Between 1941-45, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husayni, collaborated with the Axis Powers of Germany and Italy during WWII. He escaped to Berlin to urge Arabs to join German and Italian troops to fight the Allies, including the U.S. and Great Britain. Hitler sympathized with al-Husayni's desire for a new Arab state, but did nothing to make that a reality. Instead he used Muslim troops for his own agenda. Yet al-Husayni, an avowed anti-Semite, continued to work for Hitler until 1945.

I said that on May 14, 1948 Jews, including survivors of the Holocaust, most of whom were not accepted for asylum in other countries, declared the independence of their own state of Israel. The next day, May 15, 1948, five Arab armies attacked Israel. Israel, with help from American Jewish GIs who sent them airplane parts with which to build an Israeli Air Force, beat them back.

Seven hundred thousand Palestinians became refugees. Arab nations refused to accept these Palestinians. Instead, Palestinians were settled into refugee camps. Only Jordan’s King Abdullah agreed to confer citizenship on the 200,000 Palestinians living in Jordan and the Jordan-controlled West Bank and East Jerusalem. How did Palestinians express their gratitude for the Jordanian monarch's hospitality? They tried to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy with the help of the Syrians. The Palestinians lost and were expelled from Jordan. Once again, they were refugees.

The Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to have their own state. Israel's sine qua non for peace with the Palestinians is for them to accept Israel's right to exist. Hamas, founded in December 1987, published its charter the following year. Hamas called for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic society in historic Palestine. Hamas insists on the Palestinians' "right of return" to land that is now Israel.

While I don't like Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel's government, I understand why Netanyahu is cynical about the Palestinians' desire to negotiate for peace when they have violated every peace treaty they have ever made.

The Palestinians' current rush toward the Israeli border guarded by Israeli soldiers is performance art of victimhood through death. Hamas pays the injured who are shot between $200-$5o0, depending on the extent of their injuries. Hamas pays the relatives of those who are killed $3,000. Hamas and the Palestinians are willing to die to convince the world they are victims. Were they allowed in Israel, they would most certainly kill Israelis. They've certainly done so many times before.

Those who don't know the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are naive. If the Palestinians wanted peace and economic prosperity instead of death and the elimination of Israel, they could have had it by now.

I left the convention more in disgust than anger. I would have felt worse except that a young Nate Boulton field director from Queens thanked me for my speech as I was nearly out of the door.

"Thank you for your speech," he said. "I thought finally, a voice of sanity."

"No, thank you," I responded, first shaking his hand and then giving him a big hug. He hugged me back and gave me his card. As I looked into his handsome, sincere young face, I felt infinitely better than I would have if I hadn't had his validation. If he were born in 1927 in Berlin, he would have worn a Gold Star on his way to the Nazi death camps.