Washington – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does “not have a plan for peace,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. also calling for a U.S. “call for action” to Israel.
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“I am concerned that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not have a plan for peace, and doesn’t have a vision for peace,” Gillibrand said Saturday at a town hall meeting in the Bronx in New York City, in remarks first reported by Mondoweiss, an anti-Zionist news site.
Her remarks were significant for their sharpness in tone and for the robust applause she received. A decade ago, it would have been unimaginable for a New York senator to publicly rebuke an Israeli leader. Wounds opened when Netanyahu openly sided with Republicans in 2015 to counter the Iran nuclear deal have yet to heal.
Gillibrand described a meeting she had last year when she led a delegation of senators to Israel.
“In our meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, the question we asked is, what is your vision for peace, and he didn’t have one,” she said.
“He just said my only hope is that I protect my people from rockets,” Gillibrand said. “If you don’t have a vision, if you don’t have a plan, then it is never going to happen. And so we do need to require more of our world leaders, and I think a call to action to Israel’s government to have a plan for peace is really incumbent on all of us.”
Gillibrand was responding to a questioner — whom Mondoweiss identified as belonging to Jewish Voice for Peace — who challenged her support for a bill which targets the Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement. The American Civil Liberties Union has said the bill impinges on speech freedoms.
The bill extends existing bans on cooperating with boycotts sponsored by countries to those sponsored by international organizations. It also encompasses boycotts of settlement goods. Defenders of the bill say it is narrowly defined to target only businesses that proactively provide assistance to boycotts organized by international organizations.
“The way I read the bill is not the way you read the bill,” Gillibrand said to the questioner. “I saw the bill as an extension of foreign policy to not allow companies to side with foreign entities that were doing boycotts.”
Gillibrand said she was ready to meet with the ACLU to discuss the bill, however. “I am open to looking at [the bill] again because I do not want to undermine people’s free speech rights on any level,” he said.
Why does Bibi have to have a plan for peace? The Arabs lost every single war of aggression against Israel. Let them propose a peace plan that Israel is willing to accept. Winners of wars get to determine what what peace looks like; the losers have to take what the winners give them.
Senator, if the savages surrounding Israel truly wanted peace there would be peace the next day without a ‘plan for peace’. Conversely, if the savages don’t want peace, and they don’t, there wont be any peace even with a ‘plan for peace’.
For a senator of New York, your’e pretty ignorant, I must say !!!
Its very simple senator sillyband when the arabs stop trying to kill jews and accept the fact that there will be no right to return and they wont be getting any part of Jerusalem then there will be a path to peace
So why dont you go back to just voting against all of the Presidents nominees like a good little liberal and shut up
I truly hope there will be a strong movement to uproot this Israeli hating foul mouthed senator at next election. She has shown time and again, and especially with the life-and-death Iran vote, that 1) she doesn’t give a da
# about her jewish pro-Israel constituency as much as she does about furthering her career with the left wing Democratic party, and 2) she has no love for Israel. Nor, as her F-word ranting of a few weeks ago shows, does she have a stitch of class or respect for her position. This white trash must go!
I am very happy that she’s being open and honest.we as New Yorkers could sometimes forget A simple fact
אמר ר’ שמעון בן יוחאי הלכה היא בידוע שעשו שונא ליעקב
Some people are foolish and thinking yeah they all our friends The fact is whoever got close to those people that are so selfish and it’s not even a joke.
Think about it she is a senator in the York and she needs to be smarter not to say something like this when she has a huge population of Jews. But when there is hate there’s no filter.
You can’t make a peace plan if there is no other side.
But to the greate’tr point yonasonw, the democratic party is no longer the party of the frum jews. Yes it helped us alot in the past. But that’s history.
Add the anti Israel stance of the younger democrats to the list.. (the older like chucky are still OK)
We also have the new arising issue of LGBT rigths which will infringe on yidden when a chasana hall refuses to cater to a frum gay couple and gets sued. Yes there are gays that still eat kosher and observe judiasm. I am not here to judge there actions, but one if them sue ateres avrham for not catering to their needs, you can thanks the dems. Jewish schools will be required to teach about LGBT’s as well. And don’t forget new transgender bathroom rules for every public restroom that will for sure make it to then courts one day.
All this tells me we need to vote conservative.
Why should Israel make peace? Because now they can dictate the terms? Why should an Israeli try to make peace? There is no obvious reason.
A peace deal will come. It will come at a time Israel desperately must sign it.
Darn shame.