ASUC OKs Support of U.S.-Israel Relationship

With a room full of both supporters and dissenters, the ASUC Senate passed a resolution last night supporting a “positive diplomatic relationship” between the United States and Israel.

The bill, authored by SQUELCH! Sen. Gabe Weiner and Student Action Sen. Scott Silver, states that the United States and Israel hold “shared ideals” and asserts that the relationship between the two nations has pushed Israel toward peace efforts.

“The United States and Israel share common core values—both nations want peace. That’s the reason the U.S.-Israel relationship is so strong,” Weiner said.

The bill asks that the resolution be forwarded by ASUC President Van Nguyen to Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and President Bush relaying the ASUC’s position.

Weiner said the impetus for the bill came from theories of why the U.S. supports Israel such as those presented by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, who spoke on campus last week, that point to the power of domestic lobbying groups in U.S. relations with Israel.

He also noted what he called a current political climate making it expedient to affirm the relationship between the two countries.

Many members of the Senate and the campus community raised concerns about the bill because of ambiguities in its original form and because it did not specifically mention the Palestinian conflict.

“(The resolution) does not recognize what the United States-Israel relationship is,” said Yaman Salahi, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine. “It is over $3 billion of aid and much if not all of it is used to purchase military arms.”

CalSERVE Senator Roxanne Winston said leaving out a mention of the Palestinian conflict ignored a large part of the political context of the bill.

Other dissenters said a more suitable stand for the ASUC to take would be to call for Israel to cease its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

“We must be a good friend to Israel and tell it it’s time to stop the occupation for the benefit of Israel,” said Matthew Taylor, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine.

The bill was amended during the meeting to include a line saying the ASUC does not necessarily support all actions of the Israeli government.

John Moghtader, one of the co-founders of the student group Tikvah: Students for Israel, said the bill is not about policies but only about the relationship between the two countries.

“This is an affirmation of a relationship based on shared values and mutual desire for peace,” he said.

Weiner said the affirmation of the relationship between Israel and the U.S. does not affect the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“It is a significant problem that just because Israel is embroiled in a conflict, everything we do has to be involved in that conflict,” he said. “The values the bill refers to are just the idea of Jewish statehood and Israel as a democratic free state.”

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