As we liberals were distracted by the hoopla over Bush’s predictable stem cell bill veto, the House of Representatives voted 411-2 to pass the Rothman-Kirk Resolution, calling on the UN Security Council to punish Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for violating international laws pertaining to genocide.

If you’ve ever wondered just how many representatives are controlled by the pro-war ideology of AIPAC, now you have your answer - all but two. As if you hadn’t guessed already, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul were the only two members of the House to stand up against this anti-Iranian propaganda. As usual, both men have shown themselves to be the only presidential candidates, serving in congress, who give a damn about the international perception of our country.

With the help of both Democrats and Republicans, the Israeli government is essentially trying to make it an international crime to question their legitimacy. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines the act of genocide as, among other things, the act of killing members of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the targeted group.

The Rothman-Kirk Resolution quotes Ahmadinejad’s violations of the convention. Such offenses include a speech in which he said the Middle East would be better off “without the existence of the Zionist regime”, and called the Israeli government an “illegitimate regime” with “no legal basis for its existence”. He then accused the United States of using Israel as a proxy to control the region and its oil resources.

When one takes President Ahmadinejad’s words in context, you see that he is not calling for genocide against the Jews, but for the destruction of Israel’s Zionist regime, which has been occupying Palestine for 40 years and been on the offensive against its neighbors for even longer. It’s hardly anti-Semitic to be opposed to such a government. Using congress’ logic, we could say just as easily that our own president is guilty of violating the convention by calling for all Koreans and Persians to be exterminated when he insists that the world would be safer without the governments of North Korea or Iran in place. Luckily, we’re smarter than that, right?

Like most Americans, Ahmadinejad has also called for an end to the Neocon administration of America. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party seems to think that getting rid of any murderous leader, whether it be Bush or Olmert, is an option which should not even be considered. Hillary Clinton, for example, said we should support the government of Israel “no matter who the government is“. While that statement should send chills up the spine of any sane person who believes human rights are indeed rights, such blind allegiance has been the exact policy of our government for decades.

As was made obvious by the politically motivated knighting of Salman Rushdie, which was done to retaliate against the British sailor situation, the strategy right now amongst western countries is to simply piss off Iran with isolation, punishment, and childish taunts until they give us the slightest reason to invade.

There is plenty to bash Ahmadinejad for, but if he is truly guilty for what he’s said about Israel, then our own government officials ought to be charged for their remarks as well. The US and Israel have suffered no disciplinary action from the international community for even threatening to use nuclear weapons against the Iranian population. Even Democratic presidential candidates like Obama and Clinton have said that “all options are on the table”. The United States and Israel don’t make empty promises when it comes to military action. The same threats were made to Saddam just before the US wiped his regime off the map. More recently, the democratically elected Hamas government was exiled to occupied Gaza by a US/Israeli-funded coup. Unlike Israel, and its arsenal of around 200-300 nuclear weapons, Iran has much to fear.

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