Cong. Dingell Refuses to Say He’s Against Hezbollah
RJC Calls for Dingell’s Reprimand
August 1, 2006, Washington, D.C...The RJC expressed outrage and dismay at remarks made by Congressman John Dingell (D-MI-15) during a television interview Sunday night on Detroit television station WDIV.
Rep. Dingell refused to choose between Israel and Hezbollah, instead insisting that “I don’t take sides for or against Hezbollah or for or against Israel” in the current conflict. According to his remarks, the U.S. should negotiate with “both sides” to stop the violence.
RJC Executive Director Matthew Brooks said, “It is outrageous that a member of the United States House of Representatives would refuse to denounce Hezbollah, an organization on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups that is responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist group except al-Qaeda. To be neutral between Israel and Hezbollah is like saying there is no distinction between the U.S. and al-Qaeda in the war on terrorism. As Rep. Dingell apparently believes that Israel should negotiate with Hezbollah, does he also believe that the U.S. should negotiate with Osama Bin Laden?”
Hezbollah’s history of terrorism includes the kidnapping, torture, and murder of U.S. Marine Col. William R. Higgins in 1988 and of CIA Beirut station chief William Buckley in 1984. Hezbollah is responsible for some 30 kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon, as well as the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people (including 17 Americans) and the October 1983 truck bombing at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. servicemen. In 1985, during their hijacking of TWA Flight 847, Hezbollah terrorists beat and shot U.S. Navy Seabee Diver Robert Stethem and dumped his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac. Brooks said, “When a senior Democratic member of the House can show such a lack of understanding of the enemy this country faces, it says much about the Democratic Party’s weakness when it comes to our foreign policy and national defense.”
The RJC calls on the Democrat leadership, and particularly Rep. Dingell’s Democrat colleagues in the Michigan delegations in the House and Senate, to reprimand Rep. Dingell for his remarks. “It is unconscionable that Rep. Dingell refused to take sides between democracy and terrorism. The choice is that simple, the choice is that clear,” Brooks concluded.


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