Rep Mike Honda Honors Activists Who "Broke the Israeli Siege of Gaza"

Rep. Mike Honda (from the official Mike Honda "How great I arth" Congressional website)


Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), who represents part of San Jose, has recently given a congressional special certificate of recognition - or some such nonsense- to three peace activists from the San Jose Committee for Peace and Justice. (My apologies that I can't put the accent mark on "Jose" as they do.)


Here is the entry from the San Jose Committee for Peace and Justice tooting their horns for their "great work" and bragging about getting a commendation from Honda.

http://www.sanjosepeace.org/article.php/20100202164111785


Tammi Benjamin of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel organization (and a friend) has sent this letter to Rep. Honda just in case he doesn't know who these people are. (Note: I do not have the referenced photos/videos.)
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"Dear Congressman Honda,

It has come to my attention that on January 30, 2010 you bestowed
Certificates of Special Congressional Recognition upon three
individuals -- Paul Larudee, Greta Berliner and Kathy Sheetz -- and
that you have also sent letters of commendation to these individuals
and to the San Jose Center for Peace and Justice (SJCPJ), the
organization which hosted the awards ceremony and itself presented
awards to these three for being "pioneers of the Free Gaza Movement
who sailed the first small boats to break the Israeli siege of
Gaza." (http://www.sanjosepeace.org/article.php/20100202164111785).
Here are some facts about these individuals and the SJCPJ of which you
may be unaware:

All three of the honorees organized and participated in the first Free
Gaza excursion in August 2008, which was a publicity stunt supported
by Hamas leaders seeking unconditional access to supplies without
being forced to end their terror attacks against Israel. As I'm sure
you know, Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the
U.S. Government, and the Hamas charter calls for the annihilation of
Israel through jihad and the genocide of the Jewish people. (See
picture below of the participants of the Free Gaza excursion, being
feted by Hamas president Ismail Haniyeh and wearing the medals he
presented to them. Paul Larudee, Greta Berliner and Kathy Sheetz, to
whom you have given Congressional awards, are all visible in this
picture, which was taken August 24, 2008).

Paul Larudee is one of the most active leaders of the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group which spreads vicious anti-Israel
and anti-Semitic propaganda and has aided and abetted Palestinian
terror against the Jewish State.

The San Jose Peace and Justice Committee houses Code Pink and the
South Bay Mobilization (SBM), two of the most virulently anti-Israel
organizations in the Bay Area, which have engaged in aggressive and
sometimes illegal activities in order to demonize and delegitimize the
Jewish State. For example, Code Pink and the SBM, along with the ISM
and several other groups, were involved in organizing an illegal
disruption of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech at
the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, at which 22 of their
members were subsequently arrested. (You can see the disgraceful
behavior of these individuals on a YouTube video). In addition, both
Code Pink and the SBM have been behind recent boycotts and the illegal
vandalization of Israeli products and the intimidation of customers at
Trader Joe's and other stores in Northern California. (See the
following YouTube video, as well as below for a call to boycott and
vandalize Israeli products).

Although this information is a matter of public record, I assume that
you did not realize the connections of these three individuals and the
SJPJC to virulently anti-Semitic groups that call for the destruction
of the Jewish State and have engaged in terrorist activity against
it. However, now that you are aware of these connections, I call on
you to rescind these awards and commendations, and to offer a public
apology for having mistakenly bestowed them. If you do not, I and the
hundreds of individuals blind-copied on this email, many of them your
constituents, will assume that the awards and letters were given with
your full awareness of the anti-Semitic nature of the activities
engaged in, and supported by, these three individuals and the SJPJC.

I look forward to hearing your response to this matter.

Sincerely,

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Board Member Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (www.spme.net)
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Apparently, either Honda is too busy to pay attention to whom he sends out letters of Congressional love and kisses or he belongs to the Cynthia McKinney wing of the Democratic Party (an ever-expanding wing, I might add.)