COUNTER DEMO REPORT

Note: The silent-vigil and the counter demo started shortly after five in the evening on Friday November tenth, and ended around seven pm.

Being in a pro-Israel counter-demo is a crap-shoot; you never know how much outnumbered you will be.



Despite the extremely short notice, we were not much outnumbered.

The pro-Palestinian side had two dozen activists.

Our side (pro-Israel) had nearly twenty people.


I am especially grateful to the observant people who were present, as it cut into their shabbes. But everyone who came deserves appreciation - it took extra effort for them to be there.


Most passers-by studiously avoided eye-contact with either side, some took flyers and some engaged briefly in conversation.
Despite not being able to discuss the issue in any great depth with many people, I believe that we successfully got our message across that ever-increasing attacks on Israel, and the firing of Qassam rockets from densely populated civilian neighborhoods, is neither valid dialogue nor conducive to a peaceful resolution, but instead counts as both violent provocation and terrorism. Necessarily there will be regrettable occurrences - and in fact the Palestinian side deliberately elicits military responses because they know that civilian victims are invaluable, civilian shields a deterrent.

The demo was mostly peaceful, and fairly quiet.

Though there were also people who vociferated as they went by.


Several thoughts:

1. R told me that he thinks of this as a legitimate form of fighting Amalek.

Which, when you think about it, is a very appropriate way of rationalizing it. Amalek will rise in each generation, and the commandment is to combat Amalek in each generation. It is a commandment that transcends much else (Lakewood Yid and I had a conversation several weeks ago about this in the comments on another blog). If Amalek represents all that is deliberately and consciously evil, rather than strictly sitra achra by descent, then it follows that there are those who by choice and of their own free will are Amalek.

There are Ahavei-Yisroel, and there are the unknown Tzadkim; there are Sonei-Yisroel, and there are Amalekim.


2. The person who told me to go back "there" (by which he clearly meant Israel), with that very statement acknowledged the Jewish right to the land. He probably did not realize that.


3. The person who told me that the US should cut all aid to Israel unknowingly admitted what all of us already know, namely that the Arab world would commit a second and final holocaust if they could.

This is the logic: Arguing that US aid is the only thing that protects Israel is expressing that Israel could otherwise be succesfully dealt with by her enemies.
The Arabs have consistently tried to destroy Israel, and they have consistently empowered those who would do the dirty work. Blaming US aid for Israel's continued existence is an admission that the efforts to eliminate Israel are unceasing.

Which ab initio means that support for Israel is the only moral choice.

If we do not support Israel, who will? The Europeans?

The Europeans would have done nothing about Bosnia and Kosovo if the United States had not forced them to get involved. The Europeans are happy to sit back and let France block any measures to stop the Genocide in Darfur.
The Europeans were mute against the half-century threat presented by the Soviet Union, limp against Fascism and tyranny. The Europeans have fairly consistently taken the side of the Arabs. The only thing that can be expected from the Europeans would be inaction, recrimination, and ever more pro-Arabism.

Russia will sell arms to anybody in the Mideast who can pay, India has a history of being less than room-temperature at best towards Israel, China uses its weight at the UN against Israel, and the third-world has been in the pocket of the oil-states and the erstwhile Soviet Union for decades.

But of course, the statement that US support is the only thing that keeps Israel from going under is absolute horse-feathers. All the money in the world could not preserve Israel if Israel was not determined. This is not a battle of means, but a battle of will. Israel has the will to survive, her enemies have the will to destroy her. By aiding Israel we recognize both sides for what they are.


4. The grungy-looking gentleman who went into a long screaming tirade about 'damned Jews murdering babies' with his tax-money unwittingly demonstrated two things: The first being that the anti-Israel side has unbalanced and hate-filled members, the second being that there is a need to voice support for Israel - when hate-filled bigots reveal themselves, they publicly prove the need to counteract them.


5. The gentleman who gave me the finger had an ugly anti-Semitic finger.
I hope it turns septic and gangrenous.


6. Final thought: I really need to buy more flags. A mass of flags makes a visual statement that needs no words, they add punch to the message. And, as many of us who come to these events are understandably somewhat hesitant to shlep our flags and signs on public-transit, it makes sense for me to store more such props at work, being so conveniently close to the cockpit where these love-fests occur.