U.S. Branch of Amnesty Calls on Rice to Drop "Lopsided" Stance

[laststeamtrain]

U.S. Branch of Amnesty Calls on Rice to Drop "Lopsided" Stance
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (IPS) - The U.S. section of Amnesty International sent an "urgent" letter Friday to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calling on her to end what it called Washington's "lopsided response" to the ongoing Israeli air strikes on Gaza that have reportedly killed more than 400 Palestinians, including scores of unarmed civilians.

While the letter also expressed concern about the rocket fire by Palestinian groups that has taken four Israeli lives in urban areas more than 30 kilometres from Gaza during the past week, it called Israel's campaign air campaign "disproportionate" and accused the Jewish state of violating international law.

"Without diminishing the responsibility of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians, the U.S. government must not ignore Israel's disproportionate response and the longstanding policies which have brought the Gaza Strip to the brink of humanitarian disaster," the letter declared.

"…Amnesty International USA is particularly dismayed at the lopsided response by the U.S. government to the recent violence and its lackadaisical efforts to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," it stressed, noting that several recent reports by its London-based parent organization, U.N. aid agencies, Oxfam, CARE and other relief groups have described the situation in Gaza -- even before the latest outbreak of hostilities -- as the worst since Israel's 1967 conquest of the area.

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45285

[malaise]

1. Look Condi and Bush believe in the doctrine of

Supersize it - disproportionate responses and lopsided thinking are integral parts of that philosophy.
After the Bush doctrine in Iraq, neither Bush nor Condi have the moral authority to tell anyone anything. They gave and continue to give Israel the right to slaughter Palestinians. Indeed they are accomplices - their money, their weapons - they are all war criminals.

[thunder rising]

2. It's a slaughter. 400+ deaths in 3 days is a killing field.

[malaise]

3. In his radio address Dumbya said Hamas

seized Gaza in a coup. He must have confused Hamas with the Bush regime from 2000.

[mwb970]

4. Everything Israel does is perfect.

Our policy is not so much lopsided as one-sided.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Good for them! Great organization! But what are the chances she'll listen?

She never has before, just like her "boss." She'll probably just give them her "stink-eye" look... :eyes: