The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, tried to put a hold on foreign aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. It was a manifestation of the same old AIPAC-driven politics, where the US acts punitively toward one side in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

So here’s an example of the danger of tying foreign policy to humanitarian aid. The US and North Korea inked a deal on nuclear inspections and negotiations that would free up food aid for the North Korean people. Then the Kim Jong-un regime announced they would engage in a long-range missile test. And as a result, the US will suspend the food aid.

Now comes word that Israel has decided to ignore international calls for an independent, international investigation into the attack on the Gaza flotilla – and will instead investigate itself. Obama’s White House has said this is a great idea.

You don’t often get a piece of cable TV this good, so it’s worth transcribing and posting in its entirety. In a rare and contentious eight minute cable news segment, Glenn Greenwald decided to set the record straight with Eliot Spitzer on MSNBC regarding the Gaza flotilla.

Last night, Israeli commandos attacked a flotilla of humanitarian aid ships headed to Gaza. They killed at least 15 civilians on these boats during their attack according to numerous media outlets. We are now waiting for a response from the Obama administration, while emergency demonstrations protesting this attack are being organized around the world.

Israel is threatening to use force to block an international humanitarian aid shipment to Gaza.