Vice President Biden Sir,
The big deal is that Israel does not have the right to blockade Gaza and prevent the necessary items for rebuilding the damage done to the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military raid of December 2008. And another big deal is that the United States Government should not be supporting Israel's "right to defend itself" when it de facto declares war on Gaza by blockading it since long before that raid, And it does not have the right to defend itself by building walls and settlements in the Occupied Territories and East Jerusalem in contradition to UN resolutions that it must abandon those territories in the name of International Law. When the US government is supplying military aid to Israel that enables them to snub their noses at any real "Peace Process" that respects the human rights of Palestinians, then the only thing left to world citizens is to non-violently attempt to relieve the human suffering in Gaza by breaking that blockade or at least calling attention to the harms it has brought to 1.5 million civilians.
Sure Mr. Biden, there are some radicals who use violent tactics to protest that blockade -- which is strangling the economy of Gaza. They are attempting to defend themselves and have been doing so throughout the "Peace Process" They have gotten more violent out of frustration that Israel clearly has no intentions of treating Palestinians as real human beings with rights and dignity equal to their own.
General Petraeus with whom I presume you are in contact has stated that a just settlement of this issue is critical to reducing terrorism and finding peace in the Middle East. I should think that would be enough to explain how big a deal this is. Has Israel stopped the settlements in the West Bank? NO. Has it stopped using US military aid to carry out its continued occupation of the territories? NO. Did Israel know what was on board the ships? YES. No weapons of war, or missiles, only aid to rebuild. If you think Israel wasn't clear about the content of those ships you are more than naive!
Israel has even thumbed its nose at you Mr. Vice President and at your President when it comes to these issues. Now it has broken International Law of the Freedom of the Seas and committed Piracy on a boat the was operating on the highest of international principles of human rights. That is the big deal Sir.
And Sir, I am ashamed that my country is under the thumb of AIPAC which advocates for this land grabbing by Israel and influences our Congress and you too Mr. Biden. My own recently elected Senator, Mark Udall received over $161,000 for his last campaign from AIPAC. That is 52 times what I had in total to try to provide Colorado with a different voice on this and many other issues from what your corporate party has done. Big Deal Mr. Biden that foreign influenced money trumps rational evaluation of the problems we face.
