{news} Correcting Van Nunes's lies about Green Partform "SupportingHezbollah"

[Jean de Smet]

Amy also mentioned Hamas, I believe.  Are we supporting them?  Who are we
supporting?

 

I do agree with Amy's basic point:  we need to be clear that we are not
supporting state-sponsored terrorism or any other kind, but we do support
the peace-finding groups on both sides.  I don't think the National Greens
are clear about that.  We supported a boycott of Israel, with no mention of
not supporting the other armed factions.  We do not sanction violence.

 

Jean

 

-----Original Message-----
From: ctgp-news-bounces at ml.greens.org
[mailto:ctgp-news-bounces at ml.greens.org] On Behalf Of Green Party-CT
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2007 5:45 PM
To: NG GREENS; ctgp-news at ml.greens.org
Subject: {news} Correcting Van Nunes's lies about Green Partform
"SupportingHezbollah" 

 


Dear Greens,


I must sadly correct a smear by a candidate for National Committee, an Amy
Van Nunes at our state Convention. Ms Van Nunes, who was censured by our
state party for over a year, but who now is reinstated ,said that the Green
Party platform supported  Hezbollah instead of taking a neutral stance in
the Middle East in her speech for her to become a National Committee leader
on April 21, 2007. This speech was recorded for two public access shows that
could be seen by thousands and damage our reputation as both a state and
national party. With the world wide web, these damaging words could be seen
world wide.   


Our state and national Platform does not even mention "Hezbollah",but her
wild and baseless charge is a pattern of personal problems which lead her to
be censured by our state party and sadly her comments and other wild charges
has made me ask that we reconsider our mistake of her being the only
alternative on our National Committee.  With many new Greens at the
convention, most could not see how this ONE person who has been damaging our
state party and driving long standing Greens out, could   be a factor on a
national committee and repeatedly damage our state party. 


I do this with a heavy heart and no sense of revenge,but an honest caring of
our state and national party.


 i will ask that that the national committee not 'seat her" or add her to
the national email list serve until our state party resolves this
destructive decision.


 I will ask our state party to reconsider fully the consequences of placing
so much power in the hands of someone who was just censured after years of
personal problems and seems to have no regrets of her ongoing actions.  


I welcome feedback on a state and national level.Many people have worked
long and hard on our platform and I am sadden that someone has chosen either
not to read it or chosen to exploit and try and hurt the party.

 

Tim McKee

CT

860-643-2282

 

http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#307394


 


2. A Real Road to Peace in the Middle East


The Green Party of the United States recognizes that our greatest
contribution to peace in the Middle East will come through our impact on
U.S. policy in the region.

Our commitments to ecological wisdom, social justice, grass-roots democracy,
and non-violence compel us to oppose U.S. government support for "friendly"
regimes, both in Israel and in the Arab world, whenever those regimes
violate human rights, international law, and existing treaties. Those same
values compel us to support popular movements for peace and
demilitarization, especially those that reach across the lines of conflict
to engage both Palestinians and Israelis of good will.

a. We reaffirm the right of self-determination for both Palestinians and
Israelis, which precludes the self-determination of one at the expense of
the other. We recognize the historical and contemporary cultural diversity
of Israeli-Palestinian society, including the religious heritage of Jews,
Christians, Muslims and others. This is a significant part of the rich
cultural legacy of all these peoples and it must be respected. To ensure
this, we support equality before international law rather than appeals to
religious faith as the fair basis on which claims to the land of
Palestine-Israel are resolved. 

b. We recognize that Jewish insecurity and fear of non-Jews is
understandable in light of Jewish history of horrific oppression in Europe.
However, we oppose as both discriminatory and ultimately self-defeating the
position that Jews would be fundamentally threatened by the implementation
of full rights to Palestinian-Israelis and Palestinian refugees who wish to
return to their homes. As U.S. Greens, we refuse to impose our views on the
people of the region; rather, we would turn the U.S. government towards a
new policy, which itself recognizes the equality, humanity, and civil rights
of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and all others who live in the region, and
which seeks to build confidence in prospects for secular democracy. 

c. We reaffirm the right and feasibility of Palestinian refugees to return
to their homes in Israel. We acknowledge the significant challenges of
equity and restitution this policy would encounter and call on the U.S.
government to make resolution of these challenges a central goal of our
diplomacy in the region. 

d. We reject the U.S.' unbalanced financial and military support of Israel
while Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We call on the U.S. President and
Congress to end all military aid to Israel, shifting much of that aid to
ecologically appropriate local projects for economic and social development
for Palestinians as well as Israelis. Until Israel withdraws from the
Occupied Territories and dismantles the separation wall, we call on our
government to suspend all other foreign aid to Israel as well. 

e. We demand that the U.S. government end its veto of Security Council
resolutions pertaining to Israel. We urge our government to join with the
U.N. to secure the withdrawal of Israel to the 1967 boundaries and to
withhold its grants and loans to Israel until this withdrawal is undertaken.


f. We recognize the limited natural resources in Palestine-Israel and the
necessity of creating an Arab/Israeli commission to negotiate the sharing of
water by both nationalities. 

g. We support a much stronger and supportive U.S. position with respect to
all United Nations, European Union, and Arab League initiatives that seek a
negotiated peace, and we support significantly greater U.S. financial
support for such non-military solutions. We call for an immediate
U.N.-sponsored, multinational peacekeeping and protection force in the
Palestinian territories with the mandate to initiate a conflict-resolution
commission. 

h. We call on the foreign and military affairs committees of the U.S. House
and Senate to conduct full hearings on the status of human rights and war
crimes in Palestine/Israel. 

i. We call on congressional intelligence committees to conduct full and
public hearings on the development and deployment of weapons of mass
destruction, whether by the Israeli military, irregular militias, or Arab
states. It should be U.S. policy to seek the removal and/or destruction of
all such weapons of mass death wherever they are found. 

j. We call for the complete dismantling of the Israeli separation wall in
the occupied West Bank. A Green policy toward Israel and Palestine would
offer such incentives for peace and mutual security that the wall would be
unnecessary, and seen for what it is... an obstacle to peace and a
unilateral escalation of conflict. 

k. We know that significant international opinion is committed to a
two-state solution. Yet, we recognize that the two-state solution may be
increasingly unrealistic in the face of economic and social conditions in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Given this reality, we would consider
support for a U.S. foreign policy that promotes serious reconsideration of
the creation of one secular, democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis
on the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan as the
national home of both peoples, with Jerusalem as its capital. We encourage a
new U.S. diplomatic initiative to begin the long process of negotiation,
laying the groundwork for such a single-state constitution. 

l. We recognize that such a state might take many forms, such as what might
emerge from careful consideration of the Swiss model. The eventual model
that is chosen must be decided by the peoples themselves. We realize the
enormous hostilities that now exist between the two peoples, but history
tells us that these are not insurmountable among peace-seeking people. 

m. As an integral part of peace negotiations and the transition to peaceful
democracy, we call for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation
Commission whose inaugurating action would be mutual acknowledgement by
Israelis and Palestinians that they have the same basic rights, including
the right to exist in the same, secure place. 


3. Foreign Policy - Trade

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