RICHARD BECKER EMASCULATED ON SATURDAY

International ANSWER's big anti-Israel hate-fest at UN Plaza in San Francisco on Saturday June 8 fizzled monumentally. All their planning yielded no more than 125 or so die-hard haters. And their rally was over by two-thirty, though they wanted to be there till tea-time.
They were going to bus in anti-Semites from the South-Bay, the Sacramento area, Marin and Sonoma counties. They had several organizations on board, all of whom were going to bring in their people to scream and shout against Israel. Richard Becker, west coast chief wombat of International ANSWER, would address the masses.

[Participating organizations: Al-Awda Palestine Right of Return Coalition, Free Palestine Alliance, American Indian Movement, Middle East Children’s Alliance, FMLN of Northern California, Barrio Unido for Total and Unconditional Amnesty, West County Toxics Coalition, National Committee to Free the Cuban 5, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Industrial Workers of the World-SF Bay Area, Code Pink, Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in Philippines, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, World Can’t Wait, AND the fabulous Anarchists.]



ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE PEOPLE?


That's ALL you could manage, Richard?


Epic fail!


Half of those people were your own event-staff and your pet speakers. You must feel very small right now. All shriveled, huh?
It probably didn't help that the eighty or ninety pro-Israel activists who showed up to counter-demonstrate decided that it wasn't worth their while to stay, and instead happily marched down Market Street after Gloria La Riva had her fit of Jew-baiting hystrionics on the farm truck y'all were using as a podium.


The SFPD probably also thought it was a paltry performance - they nearly outnumbered your side.



ONLY ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE PEOPLE?

You poor man! All that pre-event hoopla, and there was nearly nobody there to appreciate your fine speechy-weechy.
What did you end up saying? Was it the usual stuff about how defeating the racist-Jew nazi-zionists would lead to a workers' paradise where the Jewish and Muslim working classes would rebuild Gaza into a flower garden? Was it that stuff about how pro-Israel activists ONLY exist to excoriate you and prevent your wisdom from circulating? How about that wonderful theory that North Korea, Iran, and Gaza are all true examples of socialism in action? The US is the root of all evil in the world? Hugo Chavez speaks truth to power? Fidel Castro is a righteous leader (even though perhaps not quite Maoist enough)?


Did anybody listen?


Yes, the anti-Zionist Jews did show up to support you, Richard - all four of them!
They were too busy feeling pleased with themselves to pay attention to anything.

The World Can't Wait also endorsed your rally - this is what they wrote to their acolytes last week:

World Can't Wait (SF Bay Area) has endorsed and supports this June 6th rally in San Francisco, demanding: "End the Siege of Gaza!"

We invite you to join the World Can't Wait contingent (look for the orange super-picket signs and the 9-foot rolling "Obama-nator" puppet).


June 6th,this Saturday, is the 42nd anniversary of the seizure of Gaza by Israel.
[cut]
World Can't Wait steadfastly opposes and works to raise resistance in this country against all moves by the U.S. government to exert domination, unjust wars and occupation, and illegal aggression.
[cut]
To anyone who had hoped that a post-Bush/Cheney administration under Obama would deliver true change in U.S. policy and role toward the Middle East -- listen to Barack Obama's speech in Cairo on Thursday. Hear Obama himself tell you how U.S. policy is not, on his watch, going to significantly break with the dangerous trajectory of the Bush years. Please join us in the streets of San Francisco this Saturday!

EVENT: Solidarity Day on the 42nd Anniversary of Israel's Seizure of Gaza
TIME: Saturday, June 6, 12 noon
PLACE: UN Plaza (7th St. & Market St.), San Francisco

- - - - - -


NO WAITING

Apparently, The World Can't Wait can't be bothered to actually show up. Same goes for The South Bay Mobilization.
Unless those ten or so middle aged middle class people were them.

In short, Richard Becker, we had more sincerely pro-Israel people from just the local community than all the opportunistic bigots you could pull in from the entire Bay Area. Perhaps your strident anti-Jew spew is not as appealling as you heretofore thought, and your harem of radical hate-speakers may have ruined your reputation by their rhetoric.
In fact, I'm convinced of it - a failure of this magnitude is not due to your loathesomeness alone, you had help.


TEETH

And I note, by the way, that the news clip did not flatter you. Horrid video!
Normally I would recommend a good dentist (one I go to myself - he's REALLY good!), but I would not wish his bills to go unpaid, and I fear that your health-care coverage as chief office worker of International ANSWER (or whatever it is that you do for a living - you ARE employed, aren't you?) would not cover the work that needs to be done.
Those teeth look like they need serious attention.
But that may have just been the natural lighting.


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IN OTHER NEWS:


Apparently a bunch of stalwart revolutionaries were arrested very early Sunday morning trying to commit vandalism at the location of Israel In The Gardens.


Additionally, a rowdy protest against everything Jewish, scheduled for Sunday at noon in front of Israel In The Gardens was much of a non-event - The anti-Israel activists intended to have a few hundred protestors in front of the fair, but they got about thirty.
Ron (Ralph?) Berg, who had been at Saturday's non-event was there also with his pro-Palestinian signs.
I mention Ralph (Ron?) Berg, because I remember his response when asked how he could possibly justify standing alongside anti-Semites yelling "the Jews are our dogs" in front of the consulate a few years back - he demanded to know what the context was in which they yelled that slogan.

[Falastin balad'na wa'l Yahud qalab'na - 'Palestine is OUR land and the Jews are our dogs']


It looks like Ron (Ralph?) Berg is now formally a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. So that means that there are actually five of them, not four.
Unless Lily of Arab Resource is ALSO a member - she's VERY multifacetted.


Friday evening: Women in Black are a no-show for their monthly vigil in downtown SF.
The three of us called victory after waiting for them for twenty minutes.
Maybe they're sick. In which case, refuah sheleima!
And see you next month, ladies. We'll be waiting for you.