Eulogizing Pro-War, Pro-Corporate Predation, Pro-Apartheid Israel John Lewis

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

From January 1987 to his July 17 death, Rep. John Lewis represented Georgia's 5th congressional district.

In response to his passing, establishment media heaped lavish praise on a figure demanding condemnation. More on his eulogizing below.

In Congress, Lewis was world's apart from his long ago 1960s civil rights activism as a student leader.

For over three decades in Congress, he served privileged interests at the expense of peace, equity, justice, and the rule of law he abandoned for special benefits afforded him.

As a prominent African-American public figure, he bowed to the nation's ruling class at the expense of his roots and earlier principles — testimony to the notion that power corrupts.

He and other well-known Black congressional members were long ago co-opted by undemocratic Dems (and to a lesser extent Republicans) to create the illusion of parties representing all Americans, including ordinary ones — polar opposite their pro-war, neoliberal, hardline opposition to what just societies hold dear.

Throughout his time in office, the US under both right wings of its war party smashed nations in multiple theaters worldwide.

Lewis and vast majority of other House and Senate members always supported the scourge of imperialism that demands condemnation.

Lewis and most other African-American congressional members pretended concern for human and civil rights they long ago abandoned.

Like other prominent Black public figures, notably Obama and former joint chiefs chairman Colin Powell, Lewis was a creation of the national security state.

In 2011, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian award, given him for years of service to the imperial state and corporate America.

He and other prominent Black public figures were and remain world's apart from Martin Luther King's anti-war activism.

It's why CIA hitmen assassinated him in April 1968, a year to the day after his powerful "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence" address — condemning US Southeast Asia aggression.

In deference to Dem party interests, Lewis publicly bashed Russia and other nonbelligerent nations on the US target list for regime change.

He sold out to AIPAC, becoming a reliable apartheid Israel supporter.

He backed handing the Jewish state over $10 million US taxpayer dollars — daily, largely used for militarism and war on long-suffering Palestinians, as well as against neighboring Syria and Lebanon.

In the mid-90s, he signed a congressional letter to the Clinton co-presidency that wrongfully supported Jerusalem as Israel's exclusive capital — ignoring centuries of the city as historic Palestine's capital.

Jerusalem is an international city under a UN protectorate (a corpus separatum), not the legal capital of Israel or any other country, ignored by Lewis, as well as the following:

On June 30, 1980, Security Council members unanimously passed Resolution 476 (America abstaining).

It declared that "all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation."

Israel's claims the city, "complete and united, as (its) capital" has no legal standing. East Jerusalem is illegally occupied territory.

Peace, equity and justice for Palestinians was ignored by Lewis in deference to powerful interests in Washington, the Jewish state, and its lobby.

After marching alongside Martin Luther King in the 1960s for civil rights, he abandoned his earlier activism, went another way, and supported wrong over right for special privileges afforded him.

Throughout his public life, he defended wealth and power interests over equity, justice and the rule of law.

Neither he or other prominent Black congressional members dared oppose the US military, industrial, security, media complex, Israel, or its lobby.

Six-term congressional member, first ever African-American woman elected to represent Georgia in Congress, former Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney was and remains powerfully on the side of the angels on major issues Lewis and vast majority of others in Congress oppose — notably world peace, human rights, equity for all, and support for Palestinian rights.

Earlier interdicted at sea and imprisoned by Israel for being aboard a freedom flotilla boat to Gaza with humanitarian aid, she explained her ordeal as follows, saying:

"This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle." 

"(I am one of) the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies – and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children." 

"While we were on our way to Gaza, the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around." 

"The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza." 

"We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza."

She and other activists with her spent days confined in dark, filthy dungeon conditions.

Longer-term prisoners were stripped naked, beaten, and otherwise abused.

McKinney and other activists with her refused to admit wrongdoing and were harshly mistreated.

She provided more details about abuses she and others experienced.

The above information alone explains much about Israeli ruthlessness — what Lewis and other prominent Black congressional members never condemned, supporting Israeli apartheid viciousness.

Establishment media went all-out to reinvent Lewis.

The NYT called him a "towering figure of the civil rights era" — ignoring his congressional deference to wealth and power at the expense of his long ago abandoned activism.

The CIA-connected Washington Post described him as a "front-line civil rights leader and eminen(t) Capitol Hill" figure — saying nothing about his support for wealth, power, US imperial wars, and apartheid Israeli high crimes against peace.

The Wall Street Journal hailed him as a "civil rights icon" — leaving his disturbing dark side (no pun intended) unexplained.

Reuters called him a "sharecropper's son (and) civil rights hero."

For AP News, he was a "lion of civil rights."

Other establishment media praised him in similar fashion.

His longtime congressional record of shame, disgrace, dishonor, support for war crimes, and other abuses of power went unaddressed.

America honors its worst and all too often punishes its best.

Long ago activist for civil rights Lewis abandoned his principles in deference to wealth, power, imperial wars, corporate interests, and apartheid Israel.

That's what his epitaph should say.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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"Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

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