The Laughable Senator Leahy

[See Update below]

Reported:

U.S. Senator seeks to cut aid to elite IDF units operating in West Bank and Gaza

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy is promoting a bill to suspend U.S. assistance to three elite Israel Defense Forces units, alleging they are involved in human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Leahy, a Democrat and senior member of the U.S. Senate, wants assistance withheld from the Israel Navy's Shayetet 13 unit, the undercover Duvdevan unit and the Israel Air Force's Shaldag unit...Leahy began promoting the legislation in recent months after he was approached by voters in his home state of Vermont.

...Leahy, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee's sub-committee on foreign operations, was the principle sponsor of a 1997 bill prohibiting the United States from providing military assistance or funding to foreign military units suspected of human rights abuses or war crimes...Leahy wants the new clause to become a part of the U.S. foreign assistance legislation for 2012, placing restrictions on military assistance to Israel, particularly to those three units...

Remind me, please, where are US Navy SEALs and other commando and recon units of the US Army operating, and how?

And those losses of civilians 'militants' by American missiles?

Some people I know think those actions "war crimes" and immoral.  Where does the Senator think he is going with this?

Maybe he should be engaged in oversight activity in his committee, like this one:

PA Pays Monthly Salaries to Terrorists -

Essential Facts

New PA law enacts payment of monthly salaries to terrorists in Israeli prisons...According to the PA definition, more than 5,500 Palestinian prisoners serving time for terror-related offenses are recipients. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 14, 2011] Palestinian car thieves in Israeli prisons will not receive a salary, but every terrorist in prison including murderers are on the PA payroll...

...Hamas and Fatah terrorist prisoners receive monthly salaries...Total amount that the PA pays in salaries to prisoners monthly: 17,678,247 Shekel ($5,207,000) a month, based on May 2011.

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UPDATE

Leahy: Legislation does not target Israeli military

August 16, 2011

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The office of Sen. Patrick Leahy denied an Israeli newspaper report that the Vermont Democrat is trying to cut off U.S. funds to several Israeli military units.

A spokesman for the senator told Politico that the Haaretz report “contains significant inaccuracies."

Haaretz reported Monday that Leahy was lobbying for the U.S. to discontinue assistance to three elite IDF units in response to alleged human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza.

A Leahy spokesman disputed Haaretz's characterization of the senator's efforts.

“He has not proposed legislation to withhold U.S. aid to units of the Israel Defense Forces," David Carle, a Leahy spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to Politico.

Rather, Carle wrote, the Leahy Amendment "applies to U.S. aid to foreign security forces around the globe and is intended to be applied consistently across the spectrum of U.S. military aid abroad." He said that the State Department.

^

So, you can't trust Haaretz's reporting?

Tell me something else new.

US Senator Sees Light at End of Tunnel, Sort Of

I don't know what Jewish community (aka "settlement") he visited but his epiphany at Rafah is nice to read:

Corker Visits Israel, West Bank Settlements And Gaza

Senator Bob Corker returned on Monday from a weekend trip to Israel...Senator Corker also made a brief trip into Gaza, and while there, saw the tunnels at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt where supplies and goods are being trafficked.

Senator Corker said, “In my meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, I expressed my strong support for the long term relationship and many mutual interests shared between the United States and Israel and my hope that peace discussions between him, George Mitchell and Palestinian leaders are productive. We know that the issues are complex, particularly the domestic political currents Prime Minister Netanyahu must navigate in reaching a conclusion that Israelis and the international community can accept and simultaneously appropriately dealing with Israel’s security needs.

...Since Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, seized control from the Palestinian Authority in Gaza two years ago, Israel has limited cross border traffic into Gaza to humanitarian assistance and some other essential goods. Hamas has subsequently permitted the construction of hundreds of new smuggling tunnels for the trafficking of materials from Egypt into Gaza.

After being in Gaza on a visit coordinated by the United Nations, where several of the meetings focused on the smuggling activity, Senator Corker drove unannounced to the city of Rafah to see the tunnels firsthand.

“The unrestricted flow of goods across the Egyptian border, which common sense says must include weapons and other illicit activity, is stunning,” Senator Corker said. “One of the many problems this leads to is that Hamas takes a tariff from all the goods that are smuggled across the border through hundreds of these tunnels, which enriches this terrorist organization financially in the short term. There has to be a better way of managing the need for humanitarian assistance and, at the same time, assessing sanctions.”