Bill on Israel deteriorates into history lesson
The Mississippi Senate adopted a resolution Friday to support Israel, but first engaged in nearly an hour-long debate about the nation’s borders.
The debate began when Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, offered an amendment that would have removed language from the resolution, which said Israel’s lands come from the “oldest recorded deed, as recorded in the Old Testament,” and that “Israel is neither an attacking force nor an occupier of the land of others.”
Bryan said the resolution’s language presumed to define the country’s borders, which have changed several times. He argued that Israel does occupy other land.
“I think all of us support Israel, but it is not for us to hold forth as to what the boundaries of the country ought to be,” Bryan said.
Discussion of the amendment quickly turned into a history lesson about how Israel’s borders have changed over time. Bryan pressed Sen. Nancy Adams Collins, R-Tupelo, to tell him whether the Sinai Peninsula should be included in Israel’s borders, or whether borders should be defined as they were drawn in 1948.
“You, having read the Bible, cannot tell us if it includes the Sinai Peninsula or not,” Bryan said.
Sen. Angela Hill, R-Picayune, said the resolution would be relevant to schools that want to teach the Old Testament as a historical document.
“We will continue to be able to look at the testament as a historical document from whence all of us derived our beings,” Hill said.
Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, asked to delay a vote on the amendment until Bryan and other senators could present more information, but Sen. Terry Brown, R-Columbus, urged the Senate to get the vote over with.
“It’s a simple vote up or down. I urge you to vote for the resolution,” he said.
Ultimately, Bryan’s amendment was defeated but the resolution was adopted.
Still, Bryan asked his colleagues: “Is this what the people sent us down here to do?”
AP
3/15/13
Magnolia Tribune
