The Chris Moeller Archives

McKinney by sea

Cynthia McKinney clearly does not plan to keep a low profile during the next four years. The 2008 Green Party candidate for President was the sole American on board a relief boat en route to Gaza that fellow activists say was damaged Tuesday by an Israeli navy vessel. McKinney's boat was transporting 3.5 tons of medical supplies from Cyprus to the people of Gaza, and was struck (rammed)-- and possibly shot at-- while in international waters.

Israel has had a blockade on Gaza for almost two years, denying food, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies, and their iron-fisted, apartheid government has been keeping journalists out of Gaza since the bombing began. Why? They've constructed the world's largest open-air prison, reminiscent of the Warsaw ghetto of the 1930s, where inhabitants have no rights, can't leave, and have no due process.

In risking her own life, Congresswoman McKinney was attempting to bring much-needed humanitarian assistance, and just as importantly, the world's attention (New York Times, where the hell are you?) to this human rights massacre being committed by the Israeli government through its blockade of human necessities and its shock and awe-like policy of disproportionate, blind retaliation upon the "collective" and the innocents. Nearly one million Palestinians depend on international relief for adequate food and medicine.

And where are President-Elect Obama and Secretary of State-Elect Clinton as Gaza burns? Still fiddling, secure in bed with Washington's Israeli lobby. "We can only have one president at a time," said an administration spokesperson this week. But the bombing assault by Israel may still be in process three weeks from now. Then what?

posted by CM @ 5:26 PM