Attempts by Lee Terry (R-NE) and Steve King (R-IA) to block inquiry into Israel's execution of a 19-year-old unarmed US citizen; Who do they really represent?

Nebraska congressman Lee Terry and Iowa congressman Steve King cosponsored HR 5501, a house bill that, among other things, directed the United States to "oppose any investigation by the United Nations (U.N.) into the flotilla incident (involving the May 2010 Israeli interception of ships carrying supplies to Gaza.)"
     The measure failed, but not for lack of trying by Terry and King. King and Terry are enthusiastic supporters of continued foreign aid to Israel, which now totals at least $100-$114 billion since 1973, but the total cost of US support to Israel in recent decades may be as high as 1.6 trillion dollars. according to Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington. That's twice the cost of the US war in Vietnam.

US citizen Furkan Dogan, shot multiple times
in the head after being repeatedly kicked
 while lying on deck bleeding from previous
gunshots from Israeli Self Defense forces.
Terry and King voted to block a UN
investigation of Dogan's death.

     Israel's illegal raid resulted in the execution of an unarmed 19-year-old US citizen, Furkan Dogan who was videotaping the incursion, in international waters, on a humanitarian aid ship bound for Gaza.  Al Jazeera, the Arab news network, reported the UN fact-finding mission's report on the incident:

"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence."

     The report also rejected Israel's stance that its forces acted in self-defence when they raided the flotilla, arguing that even those who did not attempt to stop Israeli soldiers from boarding the aid ships "received injuries, including fatal injuries."

     "The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution."

     Israel insisted that it acted in line with international law, arguing that it had the right to retaliate against ships attempting to breach its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
     However, the panel said that since Gaza was suffering from a humanitarian crisis on the day of the deadly raid, for this reason alone, Israel's blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law.

     Israel, which confiscated video cameras and footage on board the ship in order to make a propaganda film justifying its action, called the report "biased."
     According to the report, Dogan was filming with a small video camera when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot.
     The report says Dogan, born in Troy, New York and living in Turkey, had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in the face.



YouTube description: Video broadcast by Turkey's Cihan News Agency appears to show two Israeli soldiers on board the Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010, kicking and then shooting one of the activists. The broadcaster identifies the victim as Furkan Dogan, a nineteen year old Turkish young man who was also a US citizen. An autopsy has already revealed that Dogan was shot five times from less that 45cm in the face, the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back.