AMERICAN POSTMORTEM: Three More Senators Sign on as Co-Sponsors of Israel Anti-Boycott Act

Three more US senators have added their names as co-sponsors of S.720, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, a bill that would make it a felony for Americans to support a boycott of Israel. The latest three senators to add their names are: Steve Daines of Montana, Jeff Flake of Arizona, and Richard C. Shelby of Alabama. All three are Republicans.

According to the ACLU, should the bill be signed into law violators could be punished by hefty fines and up to 20 years in prison.The addition of Daines, Flake, and Shelby brings the total number of co-sponsors to 48. Had Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York not withdrawn as a co-sponsor, the number would now stand at 49. However, as I noted in my most recent post on this issue, Gillibrand withdrew her name after taking heat from her constituents.

You can go here to see the total list of senators who have signed on as co-sponsors. The bill was originally introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) on March 23, 2017.

So far, the House version of the same bill has picked up 249 co-sponsors. That’s 31 more votes than it needs to pass. Unless a miracle happens, the bill is pretty much a done deal in the House. You can go here to see the list of representatives who are willing to trash the First Amendment to the US Constitution in order to please Israel and its lobby.

Be that as it may, I would encourage people to look over both lists, and if your senator or representative happens to be among the co-sponsors, to give him or her a call. The fact that Gillibrand withdrew her support shows that complaints from constituents on this issue can make a difference.

First published 6 August 2017, richardedmondson.net/2017/08/06/three-more-senators-sign-on-as-co-sponsors-of-israel-anti-boycott-act/

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Richard Edmondson

Richard Edmondson is an author, novelist, poet, and journalist whose writings often focus on Middle East issues, the Zionist lobby, and religion. His latest novel is The Memoirs of Saint John: When the Sandstone Crumbles, a story about an archaeological team doing a dig in Syria and set amidst the current conflict in the country.

In 2014 Richard attended an International Conference on Combating Terrorism and Religious Extremism, held in Damascus. The book is part two in the Memoirs of Saint John series.

Two other books by Richard are Rising Up: Class Warfare in America from the Streets to the Airwaves, relating his experiences founding and operating an unlicensed or “pirate” FM radio station in San Francisco in the 1990s, as well as a volume of poetry entitled American Bus Stop: Essay and Poems on Hope and Homelessness.

Richard is cognizant of the words of the early Christian writer Tertullian, who in the second century-basically prognosticating the fall of the Roman Empire-wrote: “We have made merry amid the ludicrous cruelties of the noonday exhibition.”

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