William Delahunt - who lives in the same city as two early presidents - began the fateful day of Feb. 12 telling a reporter he may leave Congress this year before flying to Israel. There, he verbally dueled with right-wing politicians while hundreds of miles south of home a female professor’s shooting spree would hand him a potential political nightmare.
On Friday, he announced that he will not run for re-election next November after representing Cape Cod and Boston’s southeastern suburbs for the last 14 years. He claimed that the professor’s crime did not prompt his decision as he considered retirement before.
During his Middle East trip, Delahunt’s linkage with two organizations accused of anti-Israel positions led to a snub he shared with Bob Filner of San Diego from deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon, while a triple murder in Alabama exposed a botched investigation of a 1986 fatal shooting in Braintree, Mass. - caused by the present-day killer - when Delahunt was the local district attorney. Delahunt’s actual role at this writing remains a mystery, pending an investigation.
This string of coincidences has a biblical or Shakesperean touch to it that suggests irony at best and raises questions of hypocrisy at the worst. The Alabama episode can demolish the credibility of a controversial critic of Israel.
Delahunt’s experience is a downhill work in progress. He left for Israel on Feb. 12 on a trip sponsored by the J Street Education Fund and Churches for Middle East Peace. Some Israel backers bash these groups as habitual Israel-bashers, which may be an unfair characterization. J Street is at best irrelevant because the new lobbying group ardently urges the creation of a Palestinian state without regard for recent history - moderate strides by Israel and sharply increased hostility from the Arabs.
Delahunt, a resident of Quincy, vehemently complained when Ayalon refused to meet with a five-member congressional delegation led by Delahunt. He was uncharacteristically silent that same week amid questions about his role in the investigation of the 1986 shooting.
On Feb. 12, a woman who grew up in Braintree - Amy Bishop, 45, a biology professor - shot to death three of her colleagues and wounded three others at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Possibly her anger at being denied tenure reached the boiling point that day.
In 1986, a 21-year-old Amy Bishop was released from custody by Braintree police after she fatally shot her brother Seth, 16, with a shotgun and afterward held two strangers at gunpoint and demanded a car to get away, according to The Boston Globe and other media sources. Bishop was never charged with a crime as the shooting was ruled an accident. State police and the district attorney’s office said Braintree police never informed them of the events following the shooting. The district attorney’s office could have charged her with these other offenses.
Bishop was released from custody shortly after her mother met with the Braintree police chief, the Globe reported.
Bishop later graduated Harvard with a doctoral degree and became a biology professor at the University of Alabama. She was denied tenure last year, and she shot her six colleagues on Feb. 12.
Delahunt’s schedule in Israel included meeting with top Arab officials, the king and prime minister of Jordan and members of the Knesset, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. Delahunt was joined by Filner and Lois Capps, also of California; Donald Payne of New Jersey; and Mary Jo Kilroy, Ohio.
All five recently signed onto a House resolution calling for Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza. They neglected to mention the ongoing detention of Israeli Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped from an Israeli military base on June 25, 2006.
While overseas, Delahunt made no attempt to enlighten anyone as to how Bishop eluded charges. “I haven’t had a real opportunity to get into the details of the case, but I suspect when I return I’ll have an opportunity to become debriefed,” he told the Associated Press.
Back in Massachusetts, Delahunt blamed Braintree police for failing to make its report available, yet this argument was undermined by attorneys who said that a state trooper assigned to Delahunt’s office should have sought this information.
As quoted in the Globe, Delahunt said, “Why did we not receive the information? We operate on the information we have before us.”
Frank J. McGee, who represents arresting officer Ronald Solimini, retorted, “If you have a shooting and someone is dead, the very first thing you do is get the police reports and, secondly, interview the arresting officer.” John Kivlan, Delahunt’s top aide in 1986, conceded that the state trooper assigned to Delahunt’s office was responsible to ensure he “gets all the information” from local police.
Aside from Delahunt’s official responsibilities, many police officers, townspeople and political insiders likely talked up a storm about the shooting and its aftermath, which means that Delahunt might have heard things through the grapevine that were worth checking out.
Delahunt may well be sincere in an attempt to improve conditions in the Middle East, but he is wasting his time aligning himself with J Street, an organization which outlived its usefulness before it was created. J Street is taking stands on issues that were satisfied by Israel nearly five years ago.
While Delahunt expended time in Israel, he could have been back in Quincy - also the home of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams - helping law enforcement authorities sort out the facts of a 24-year-old shooting death.
If these details expose serious flaws on Delahunt’s part, one can understand why he was reluctant to leave Israel.
Most importantly, if it turns out that Delahunt exercised poor judgment or acted on political motives, Israel can readily dismiss any criticisms from Delahunt because he has lost all credibility.
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