Sunday, April 06 2003 @ 05:15 AM GMT 

By William Hughes

(PalestineChronicle.com) - Before landing a job in politics, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), was in the pest-control business. He made a lot of money and killed a lot of bugs, too. Now, he is the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives.

Newt Gingerich, a former holder of that post, was his hero. DeLay, incredibly, is to the political Right of Newt. He also doesn’t care much for the First Amendment either, especially that separation of Church and State clause.

One of the perks of DeLay’s office is that his press release can end up as an Op Ed piece. Take April Fools Day, April 1, for instance. He obviously didn’t have much work to do on the public’s business that day. Otherwise, it is hard to explain how he could have authored a piece of theological rubbish, entitled, “Defense of Israel is Defense of Democracy: Ties of Faith and Freedom.” Even a rabid Sharonist propagandist, like media mogul, Morton B. Zuckerman, wouldn’t have dared to go that far.

DeLay’s devotional to Sharonland ended up in the Washington Times, on April 2. In his tract, he bragged about how “several hundred Christian pastors and activists” would be gathering in Washington, D.C. that night, only for the purpose of demonstrating their “support of Israel.” He said they wouldn’t be “marching in the streets, blocking traffic and assaulting law-enforcement officers at taxpayers’ expense.”

Well, that was good news! Since 1948, the American people have been paying through their noses supporting Israel. The bill so far is “over $100 billion” and climbing. The idea that cheerleaders for Israel were coming to Washington and not trying to shake the U.S. treasury down to prop up the regime of Ariel Sharon was, indeed, very refreshing.

Then, DeLay’s rant took a Sunday-school-like turn. He sounded like actor Dana Carvey’s “Church Lady” doing his thing on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” TV program. The ex-bug basher wrote that this brigade of DeLayites, which had traveled “long distances to be here in the nation’s capital,” understands that faith binds their hearts with the “nation of Israel,” and that we share “common values” with Sharonland itself. DeLay continued, “At this critical moment in history, Israel is our indispensable ally and brother in democracy, religious freedom and human rights.”

DeLay neglected to explain how Israel, “our indispensable ally,” doesn’t have any of its storm troopers serving in Iraq, supporting the U.S. armed forces. You would think that our great “brother in democracy” would be there fighting by our side. Right? He also failed to mention the arch Sharonist and Neo-con, Richard Perle. He is suspected, along with others, of manipulating the U.S. into the war with Iraq. That conflict may be the opening shot of an imperialist-oriented war, that will only benefit the agenda of the globalist wire pullers and not the American people.

DeLay also brushed aside Israel’s shameful record of expelling Christians. According to Father Emil Salayta, “700,000 Christian Palestinians” were forced out of the Holy Land by the “terror tactics “of the Israelis in 1948, and “tens of thousands more” in the 1967 War. And, that as a result of the ongoing “brutal occupation policies of the Israelis,” the Christian population, which was at “18% of the population in 1948, is now less than 2%.” Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews have moved to Israel. Father Salayta, co-founder of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, had warned, on Dec. 23, 2002, at a talk that he gave at Ellicott City, Maryland, that “Christianity is dying in the Holy Land.” Yet, DeLay insists the Israelis are our “brothers in religious freedom.”

DeLay’s cadre was in town to attend a “Stand for Israel Washington Briefing and Banquet.” I’m sure that no one that spoke that evening brought up the case of Jonathan Pollard, or mentioned the USS Liberty incident. Pollard was the loathsome spy, who stole top U.S. military secrets and sold them to Israel. The Liberty was subjected to an unprovoked attack by the Israelis, on June 8, 1967. It left 34 Americans dead and 171 others injured. Speaking about those kinds of issues would haven’t fit in with the contrived “solidarity with Israel” theme for the affair.

Israel, DeLay pontificated, is also committed to “human rights.” I’m sure the Palestinian people would consider that claim a very sick joke. DeLay cleverly disregarded any reference to Israel’s death squads; its practice of collective punishment and torture of detainees; its rampage at Jenin, and the fact that it stands in flagrant violation of 68 UN Resolutions, including UN Resolution 242, which required it to give back the land that it unlawfully seized from the Palestinians, during the 1967 War.

DeLay boasted how he was going to receive an inaugural “Friend of Israel” award at the banquet. He ended his silly homily by crowing how he was “proud to be counted among those who stand for Israel.” The world, I believe, would be a much better place, if he just did his duty and stood for the Republic, as mandated by his oath of office to uphold the Constitution.

Finally, a question for DeLay: “Did you think at all about Rachel Corrie, age 23, of Olympia, Washington, and how she was deliberately crushed to death, on March 16, 2003, by an Israeli bulldozer, before you decided to go public with your ‘stand for Israel’ pledge?”

William Hughes is the author of “Andrew Jackson vs. New World Order” (Authors Choice Press), which is available online. He can be reached at liamhughes@mindspring.com.

 

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