By Bruce Ramsey, Seattle Times
A news story, Feb. 15:
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The United States should break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and deliver badly needed supplies by sea, a U.S. congressman told Gaza students.
The congressman was Brian Baird. Many of his colleagues go to Israel, few to Gaza — and none as often as he. The southwest Washington Democrat likes to see things for himself. He went to Iraq, and changed his opinion of U.S. strategy there.
Why Gaza? In an interview, Baird recalled a speech some years ago by Israel’s current premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). To Baird, the speech was “thinly disguised racism” — and he recoiled from it. When the crowd applauded, he and his wife walked out.
Then there was Rachel Corrie, who in 2003 was killed in Gaza while trying to block an Israeli bulldozer from wrecking a Gazan house. The Corrie family lives in Baird’s district.
Many of his friends “are very distressed” with his criticism of Israel, Baird said. “But if they would see what I have seen and could meet the people I have met, they would change their position.”
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