If the lesson of the Shalit deal for the Palestinians is that the language of force works, then that must also be the lesson for Israel.
Force works.
It's the one thing that both Hamas and the PLO can agree on.
Negotiating with the Palestinians is pointless. Negotiation has been going on since Oslo, and has yielded little more than further violence, and insulting excuses for that violence from the Europeans and the third-world gangsters of the United Nations.
"Oh those poor Palestinians, it is because they are UNFULFILLED that they have no choice but to try and kill as many Israelis as possible. Surely you understand that?"
The Palestinian national movement has an unbroken history of despicable acts against Jews, against Christians, and against Muslims.
It was too much to hope for that they would change if they were given a chance.
They've had that chance, they've had innumerable chances, for nearly two decades.
What they've done with the opportunity presented them by the Oslo Accords is kill and maim more Israelis than they had succeeded in doing in the preceding twenty years.
The Palestinian national movement is, and always has been, morally bankrupt.
END THE OCCUPATION!
That the PLO is still operational is due to the idiocy of hopeful people outside of the Holy Land, as well as the despicable opportunism of certain countries that for politics sake play with human lives.
Most of Europe. Almost all the Arab countries. The East-bloc, the communist world, and many of the rinky-tink banana republics in Latin America and Africa.
As well as many befuddled Christians in the United States.
It is an intolerable cruelty to put any member of the PLO in a position of authority over the Palestinians, and more than anything else it perpetuates Arab upon Arab violence, political terror, and corruption.
Why anyone thought it would be any different, given what Arafat and his murderers had done in Jordan and Lebanon, is an utter mystery.
Enabling that man, and the Tunis gang, to enrich themselves while running roughshod over the hopes and aspirations of their people, must certainly qualify as one of the greatest crimes against humanity. That the Europeans and Americans funded (and continue to fund) the mafia syndicate that tyrannizes the populations of the camps and the territory gained in 1967 is a black mark that surely must sicken every civilized human being.
And that the Arab world cynically continues to pay lip-service to Abbas and the PA's bluster, lends moral support to PLO thuggery, and denies the Palestinians any other future than more of the same, dishonours the Arabs far more than any of their other shameful acts.
It is no wonder Palestinian society is so dysfunctional, and hardly surprising that they venerate psychopaths.
With the encouragement of their fellow Arabs, they've cultivated brutism, irrationality, and destructiveness for over sixty years
It is time to break off all negotiations.
No peace is possible with the heirs of Yassir Arafat.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Showing posts with label Palestinian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestinian. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
Friday, May 28, 2010
ABBAS: NO NEGOTIATIONS
Fellow blogger Death By Noodles alerts me to an article in Arutz Sheva that makes for interesting reading.
Abbas: Agree on Borders First, then Hold Direct Talks
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137734
QUOTE:
"Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas revealed Thursday that he does not intend to hold direct negotiations with Israeli leaders until Israel and the PA have reached a United States-mediated final agreement regarding the borders of a future PA state. Those borders must include Jerusalem as the capital, he added."
End quote.
SOURCE: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137734
As Death By Noodles writes:
"This means that unless Israel gives up her capitol city - the focus of Jewish yearning for all the long years of exile and for several centuries overwhelmingly Jewish - the PLO will not even consider coming to terms with reality and the existence of the state which predates their own violent nationalism."
That is an accurate assessment.
It wasn't until Yassir Arafat started referring to his own group as "Palestinians" that anyone had even heard of them. Till that time, the term had been applied to Jews who populated the area - who had declared their nationhood a generation earlier, with the approval of the United Nations.
The Arabs who stayed in the land became citizens; the Arabs who left after being encouraged to do so by the defeated Egyptians, Syrians, and other English client-states, became discriminated prisoners in camps, useful as pawns, but by no means fellow citizens of their host-countries.
Death By Noodles continues:
It must of course be remembered that until 1967, the people who now call themselves Palestinians considered themselves Jordanian, Syrian, and Egyptian. In point of fact, one could argue that there was no sense of differentiation from the Arab Umma before Hussein of Jordan wrested control of his kingdom back and expelled the PLO during Black September.
End quote.
A very good point.
Read more here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2010/05/abbas-rejects-peace.html
POSTSCRIPTUM
At the end of her post she also flings some gratuitous bile at the Malays and the Pakistanis - gratuitous, but thoroughly deserved.
Malays, as is well known, still maintain an apartheid society in which Chinese Malaysians, no matter how many generations they have been there (in many cases since the early eighteen hundreds - some even since the sixteen hundreds), are discriminated against in favour of recent Javanese and Sumatran carpet baggers.
Jadi Islam, the verb for converting to the Muslim faith, also means Jadi Melayu: becoming Malay. Still not equal, but far more so than Christians, Buddhists, or Hindus could ever possibly be in Malay society.
Malaysia is a pestilential place.
How much more so Pakistan.
Abbas: Agree on Borders First, then Hold Direct Talks
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137734
QUOTE:
"Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas revealed Thursday that he does not intend to hold direct negotiations with Israeli leaders until Israel and the PA have reached a United States-mediated final agreement regarding the borders of a future PA state. Those borders must include Jerusalem as the capital, he added."
End quote.
SOURCE: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137734
As Death By Noodles writes:
"This means that unless Israel gives up her capitol city - the focus of Jewish yearning for all the long years of exile and for several centuries overwhelmingly Jewish - the PLO will not even consider coming to terms with reality and the existence of the state which predates their own violent nationalism."
That is an accurate assessment.
It wasn't until Yassir Arafat started referring to his own group as "Palestinians" that anyone had even heard of them. Till that time, the term had been applied to Jews who populated the area - who had declared their nationhood a generation earlier, with the approval of the United Nations.
The Arabs who stayed in the land became citizens; the Arabs who left after being encouraged to do so by the defeated Egyptians, Syrians, and other English client-states, became discriminated prisoners in camps, useful as pawns, but by no means fellow citizens of their host-countries.
Death By Noodles continues:
It must of course be remembered that until 1967, the people who now call themselves Palestinians considered themselves Jordanian, Syrian, and Egyptian. In point of fact, one could argue that there was no sense of differentiation from the Arab Umma before Hussein of Jordan wrested control of his kingdom back and expelled the PLO during Black September.
End quote.
A very good point.
Read more here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2010/05/abbas-rejects-peace.html
POSTSCRIPTUM
At the end of her post she also flings some gratuitous bile at the Malays and the Pakistanis - gratuitous, but thoroughly deserved.
Malays, as is well known, still maintain an apartheid society in which Chinese Malaysians, no matter how many generations they have been there (in many cases since the early eighteen hundreds - some even since the sixteen hundreds), are discriminated against in favour of recent Javanese and Sumatran carpet baggers.
Jadi Islam, the verb for converting to the Muslim faith, also means Jadi Melayu: becoming Malay. Still not equal, but far more so than Christians, Buddhists, or Hindus could ever possibly be in Malay society.
Malaysia is a pestilential place.
How much more so Pakistan.
Friday, October 23, 2009
ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST OCTOBER 22 - UNION SQUARE SAN FRANCISCO
Yesterday evening nearly 180 Israel-haters faced off against about fifty pro-Israel activists. The occasion being a speech by e-prime minister Ehud Olmert to the World Affairs Council at the St. Francis Hotel in Union Square.
Olmert's presence was merely another excuse for the people who want Israel wiped off the map to scream angrily in public.
THE HATE-FILLED MASS
The protest against Israel had been organized by Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), CODEPINK, Friends of Deiribzi'a, Northern California International Solidarity Movement, Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), South Bay Mobilization, Stop AIPAC, CAL Students for Justice in Palestine, US Palestine Communities Network (USPCN), Bay Area Women in Black.
Given the sheer number of organizations who claimed sponsorship, the turn-out by the anti-Israel crowd was pretty pathetic. Less than two hundred people, half of whom were the not academically gifted children of Palestinian liquor store owners.
The remainder consisted of agitators from International Answer, the misguided Jews from the usual cliques of mutually supportive deviants (JVP, Women In Black, Brit Tzedek, etc.), and a few members of Queers United Against Israeli Terror ('Queers for Hamas') - whose voice is much reduced since Tom Ammiano is no longer on the board of supervisors.
Dick Becker's chief-flunky Forrest was also there, as well as Lily Haskell's handler from the Lawyers' Guild. And several other known quantities.
There were no people on the anti-Israel side in favour of co-existence, which may explain why several of the chants were about freeing Palestine from the river to the sea, dying gloriously in jihad against the evil Jew, down down Israel, with our souls and our blood, and whores.
[That last one was very strange - something about Richard Becker and his love-associates, perhaps? It was nearly unintelligible, given the vast spectrum of Arab accents - everything from coarse Egyptian through Hadramawti and Yemeni to Morrocan. Mostly American-raised schoolkid.]
PEACE
Inside, Olmert's speech inside the hotel was interrupted several times, resulting in the arrest of over twenty troublemakers.
Outside, the police did a fine job of keeping the two sides apart, despite attempts by infiltrators from the disaffected side to pick fights with women and elderly Jews on the pro-Israel side.
The spirit on the pro-Israel side was lively and feisty.
The anti-Israel crowd was bellicose and blood-thirsty. And frustrated. In more than one way.
Forrest (Richard Becker's butt boy) was severely disappointed that the police escorted him back to the other side - contrary to what Baruch believes, I really think Forrest wanted to be photographed in front of Victoria's Secret, with that huge poster of the curvy woman wearing two frilly nothings in the window.
The San Francisco Chronicle mis-reported the event, of course, relying on the Associated Press stringer who had an early dinner appointment.
Festivities ended at around seven thirty, when San Francisco Voice for Israel declared victory, thanked the SFPD for their good work, and headed home.
Several of the Muslim teenagers hung around Union Square aimlessly afterwards, being still far too young to go to a bar to crow about their performance.
AD HOMINEM
To 'Saddle-bags' from the Lawyers Guild: next time you see Lily Haskell, tell her 'Alai' said 'hi'.
To Abdullah Q: do you know that your sister is seeing that black kid?
To Ahmad: man you're stupid - you didn't even recognize me! Hee hee hee!
To Myra: they think you're kinda plain and dull - some of them think that's why you left the Jews and joined them.
To Moonwind: Rifa'at simply wants to get into your panties. One more won't make a difference.
To Afifa: for g-d's sake, use condoms!
To the chubby blonde in the centre: he's just shtumping you 'cause you're easy, honey, once his cousin finishes college he's getting married. But enjoy it while it lasts, in the best of health.
To Lily Haskell: see you at the next Aipac protest, dearie.
To Naeema: sorry to hear about your mom.
To Dick Becker: I heard that you were rather small..... Now I believe it.
To Forrest: is ANYTHING going right in your life?
To Hatim: does your uncle know about your lousy grades?
To Ra'eed: how's your father doing? Everything okay at the store? Tell him Rick said 'hi'.
To S.: how are you gonna raise the kid? Jewish but self-hating, or Gentile and Jew-bating?
I guess you ain't ever gonna let you mom visit, huh?
Oh, and that also goes for 'Brian', 'Moe', and 'Sue'.
------------------------------------------------------
One a personal note, the highlight of the evening was when the gorgeous young Asian girl and her friend strolled past and smiled at me. Woooo!
Red red lipstick and fishnets. Woooo!
Woooo!
Olmert's presence was merely another excuse for the people who want Israel wiped off the map to scream angrily in public.
THE HATE-FILLED MASS
The protest against Israel had been organized by Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), CODEPINK, Friends of Deiribzi'a, Northern California International Solidarity Movement, Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), South Bay Mobilization, Stop AIPAC, CAL Students for Justice in Palestine, US Palestine Communities Network (USPCN), Bay Area Women in Black.
Given the sheer number of organizations who claimed sponsorship, the turn-out by the anti-Israel crowd was pretty pathetic. Less than two hundred people, half of whom were the not academically gifted children of Palestinian liquor store owners.
The remainder consisted of agitators from International Answer, the misguided Jews from the usual cliques of mutually supportive deviants (JVP, Women In Black, Brit Tzedek, etc.), and a few members of Queers United Against Israeli Terror ('Queers for Hamas') - whose voice is much reduced since Tom Ammiano is no longer on the board of supervisors.
Dick Becker's chief-flunky Forrest was also there, as well as Lily Haskell's handler from the Lawyers' Guild. And several other known quantities.
There were no people on the anti-Israel side in favour of co-existence, which may explain why several of the chants were about freeing Palestine from the river to the sea, dying gloriously in jihad against the evil Jew, down down Israel, with our souls and our blood, and whores.
[That last one was very strange - something about Richard Becker and his love-associates, perhaps? It was nearly unintelligible, given the vast spectrum of Arab accents - everything from coarse Egyptian through Hadramawti and Yemeni to Morrocan. Mostly American-raised schoolkid.]
PEACE
Inside, Olmert's speech inside the hotel was interrupted several times, resulting in the arrest of over twenty troublemakers.
Outside, the police did a fine job of keeping the two sides apart, despite attempts by infiltrators from the disaffected side to pick fights with women and elderly Jews on the pro-Israel side.
The spirit on the pro-Israel side was lively and feisty.
The anti-Israel crowd was bellicose and blood-thirsty. And frustrated. In more than one way.
Forrest (Richard Becker's butt boy) was severely disappointed that the police escorted him back to the other side - contrary to what Baruch believes, I really think Forrest wanted to be photographed in front of Victoria's Secret, with that huge poster of the curvy woman wearing two frilly nothings in the window.
The San Francisco Chronicle mis-reported the event, of course, relying on the Associated Press stringer who had an early dinner appointment.
Festivities ended at around seven thirty, when San Francisco Voice for Israel declared victory, thanked the SFPD for their good work, and headed home.
Several of the Muslim teenagers hung around Union Square aimlessly afterwards, being still far too young to go to a bar to crow about their performance.
AD HOMINEM
To 'Saddle-bags' from the Lawyers Guild: next time you see Lily Haskell, tell her 'Alai' said 'hi'.
To Abdullah Q: do you know that your sister is seeing that black kid?
To Ahmad: man you're stupid - you didn't even recognize me! Hee hee hee!
To Myra: they think you're kinda plain and dull - some of them think that's why you left the Jews and joined them.
To Moonwind: Rifa'at simply wants to get into your panties. One more won't make a difference.
To Afifa: for g-d's sake, use condoms!
To the chubby blonde in the centre: he's just shtumping you 'cause you're easy, honey, once his cousin finishes college he's getting married. But enjoy it while it lasts, in the best of health.
To Lily Haskell: see you at the next Aipac protest, dearie.
To Naeema: sorry to hear about your mom.
To Dick Becker: I heard that you were rather small..... Now I believe it.
To Forrest: is ANYTHING going right in your life?
To Hatim: does your uncle know about your lousy grades?
To Ra'eed: how's your father doing? Everything okay at the store? Tell him Rick said 'hi'.
To S.: how are you gonna raise the kid? Jewish but self-hating, or Gentile and Jew-bating?
I guess you ain't ever gonna let you mom visit, huh?
Oh, and that also goes for 'Brian', 'Moe', and 'Sue'.
------------------------------------------------------
One a personal note, the highlight of the evening was when the gorgeous young Asian girl and her friend strolled past and smiled at me. Woooo!
Red red lipstick and fishnets. Woooo!
Woooo!
Friday, July 24, 2009
RACHEL CORRIE, CINDY CORRIE, AND OTHER IDIOTS
In a surprisingly inane move, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival made room in their hearts for an anti-Semitic propaganda flick. There will be a screening tomorrow of the movie "Rachel", about ISM stooge and anti-Israel activist Rachel Corrie, who died in a much ballyhooed protest while reportedly guarding a weapons-smuggling tunnel in Gaza.
Adding insult to injury, Rachel Corrie's loathsome female parent Cindy Corrie will speak after the movie to the usual audience of self-satisfied middle-class Ghandi-pants.
[Cindy Corrie has energetically embarked on a successful career spreading venom since the death of her daughter - one wonders what she did before. Her prior life may have been empty, and singularly unfulfilling.]
FYI, the charge that the ISM and other internationals stage incidents for propaganda purposes has pretty much been established as fact. This pattern is in direct contravention of the safety concerns of Palestinian activists in Gaza and the West Bank, quite a few of whom would prefer that foreign volunteers not so recklessly endanger themselves.
The ISM, however, is profoundly appreciative of convenient deaths.
REGRETS
The IDF called Rachel Corrie's demise a regrettable accident.
I have little doubt that it was an accident, but all things considered I cannot regard it as regrettable.
Lest you now hasten to call me a heartless Zionist, that opinion is mirrored by other people.
Let me quote:
"Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs"
[Heartless Hamas Activist in Gaza, quoted here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/23/internationaleducationnews.students ]
BUG!
Regarding Cindy Corrie's loathsomeness, I know of this first hand. I have met her.
She was at the Sabeel event in Berkeley at Saint John's Presbyterian Church in August 2007. She was disgusting.
[See this post: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2007/08/saturday-among-cannibals.html]
FILTH
But it isn't the movie to which I object. It is the decision, by Peter Stein et al, to show the damned thing. And their collusion with the JVP and the American Society of Friends, that being the Quakers. Both of which are groups that represent the most virulent strains of middle-class hypocrisy, meddlesomeness, sanctimony, and holier-than-thou arrogance.
[I have no doubt that many of them are undoubtedly heartfelt and sincere in their hypocrisy, meddlesomeness, sanctimony, and arrogance. Stalin's thugs also had sincerity.]
Do Peter Stein and the SFJFF really presume that pandering to the haters serves any laudable purpose? Are they under the mis-apprehension that the union of misguided 'not-Jew-wannabees' and Protestant religious bigots is, in some remarkable way, a demographic to whom the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival absolutely needs to cater?
Let them still those concerns. Having met more than my fair share of the people on the other side - including members of Women in Black, JVP, Jew-hating Presbyterians, Methodists, and Quakers, self-hating ex-Jews, Unitarians, and second-generation Arab-Americans turned fashionably radical, along with all their opportunistic fellow-travelers - I can assure the SFJFF that NO useful purpose will be served by either showing this film, or allowing that odious mother creature to speak.
There will be no rapprochement. No minds will meet.
Reciprocity in any way should not be expected.
Cindy Corrie and her clique want to see us destroyed, the pro-Hamas activists require the end of Israel. The ISM aids and abets those who would engineer both of those goals. Rachel Corrie's activism served no 'greater good', but given the pathologies of the side she chose, her demise may very well have been the most fortuitous outcome.
It is time to let her rest in peace.
A pity that Peter Stein disagrees.
==============================================
POSTSCRIPT
Here's a lovely picture of other ISM activists posing with tools of peace:
http://sfjffwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/ism-corries-pro-terror-posse.html
It's from a post on this blog:
http://sfjffwatch.blogspot.com/
Trust me, reading that blog is much much better than attending the festival. Please remember that this time next year. And also remember to thank Peter Stein and his/her pals for making it so.
==============================================
Adding insult to injury, Rachel Corrie's loathsome female parent Cindy Corrie will speak after the movie to the usual audience of self-satisfied middle-class Ghandi-pants.
[Cindy Corrie has energetically embarked on a successful career spreading venom since the death of her daughter - one wonders what she did before. Her prior life may have been empty, and singularly unfulfilling.]
FYI, the charge that the ISM and other internationals stage incidents for propaganda purposes has pretty much been established as fact. This pattern is in direct contravention of the safety concerns of Palestinian activists in Gaza and the West Bank, quite a few of whom would prefer that foreign volunteers not so recklessly endanger themselves.
The ISM, however, is profoundly appreciative of convenient deaths.
REGRETS
The IDF called Rachel Corrie's demise a regrettable accident.
I have little doubt that it was an accident, but all things considered I cannot regard it as regrettable.
Lest you now hasten to call me a heartless Zionist, that opinion is mirrored by other people.
Let me quote:
"Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs"
[Heartless Hamas Activist in Gaza, quoted here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/23/internationaleducationnews.students ]
BUG!
Regarding Cindy Corrie's loathsomeness, I know of this first hand. I have met her.
She was at the Sabeel event in Berkeley at Saint John's Presbyterian Church in August 2007. She was disgusting.
[See this post: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2007/08/saturday-among-cannibals.html]
FILTH
But it isn't the movie to which I object. It is the decision, by Peter Stein et al, to show the damned thing. And their collusion with the JVP and the American Society of Friends, that being the Quakers. Both of which are groups that represent the most virulent strains of middle-class hypocrisy, meddlesomeness, sanctimony, and holier-than-thou arrogance.
[I have no doubt that many of them are undoubtedly heartfelt and sincere in their hypocrisy, meddlesomeness, sanctimony, and arrogance. Stalin's thugs also had sincerity.]
Do Peter Stein and the SFJFF really presume that pandering to the haters serves any laudable purpose? Are they under the mis-apprehension that the union of misguided 'not-Jew-wannabees' and Protestant religious bigots is, in some remarkable way, a demographic to whom the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival absolutely needs to cater?
Let them still those concerns. Having met more than my fair share of the people on the other side - including members of Women in Black, JVP, Jew-hating Presbyterians, Methodists, and Quakers, self-hating ex-Jews, Unitarians, and second-generation Arab-Americans turned fashionably radical, along with all their opportunistic fellow-travelers - I can assure the SFJFF that NO useful purpose will be served by either showing this film, or allowing that odious mother creature to speak.
There will be no rapprochement. No minds will meet.
Reciprocity in any way should not be expected.
Cindy Corrie and her clique want to see us destroyed, the pro-Hamas activists require the end of Israel. The ISM aids and abets those who would engineer both of those goals. Rachel Corrie's activism served no 'greater good', but given the pathologies of the side she chose, her demise may very well have been the most fortuitous outcome.
It is time to let her rest in peace.
A pity that Peter Stein disagrees.
==============================================
POSTSCRIPT
Here's a lovely picture of other ISM activists posing with tools of peace:
http://sfjffwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/ism-corries-pro-terror-posse.html
It's from a post on this blog:
http://sfjffwatch.blogspot.com/
Trust me, reading that blog is much much better than attending the festival. Please remember that this time next year. And also remember to thank Peter Stein and his/her pals for making it so.
==============================================
Friday, June 19, 2009
ISRAELI COUSCOUS AT TRADER JOE'S
One of the things which the pro-Palestinian activists who are behind the Trader Joe's action assert is that couscous represents an Israeli cultural appropriation or theft of something originally "Palestinian".
It is an absurd claim on the face of it.
Couscous is not Palestinian, but Berber. It is a staple in North Africa and the Sahel region, though not uncommon in Egypt and the Levant. It has also been eaten for centuries in France and Sicily, Greece and Cyprus. It was known in Italy as a Jewish food.
Even today, couscous is a traditional part of the diet of North African and Mizrahi Jews.
ISRAELI COUSCOUS
Ptitim (פתיתים אפויים = p'titim afuyim = baked flakes), however, is a pasta product that resembles Italian orzo. Unlike North African couscous, it is not raw-rolled semolina at all but a baked wheat product.
From Wikipedia:Ptitim was invented during the austerity period in Israel, when rice was scarce and in order to provide the needs of the Mizrahi immigrants, whose diets were largely made up of rice and couscous. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, asked Eugen Propper, one of the founders of the Osem food company, to quickly devise a wheat-based substitute to rice. Consequently, it was nicknamed "Ben-Gurion's Rice" by the people.
The company agreed to the challenge and developed ptitim, which is made of hard wheat flour and roasted in an oven. The product was instantly a success and not too long after ptitim made in the shape of small, dense balls (which the company termed "couscous") was added to the original rice-shaped ptitim.
[CUT]
Commonly, ptitim is prepared, with sautéed onions or garlic (vegetables, meat, chicken or sausages can also be added), the ptitim is then added, and fried for a short time before adding water. Ptitim can also be used as a substitute for pasta or rice. They can also go in soup, can be baked, can be served as a pie, or made as a risotto
[SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptitim]
DE-SHELVING ISRAELI PRODUCTS
From the letter demanding that Trader Joe's cease selling Israeli Couscous as well as several other products:
" .. the names of products such as "Israeli Couscous" are offensive as they allow a state that was created sixty years ago --[cut]-- to claim a type of couscous that was traditionally produced by Palestinians and other Arabs for generations. This is racist advertising for cultural theft .. "
CULTURAL THEFT?
Rice, tea, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cassia, turmeric, coconut, tamarind, citrus fruits, paper, silk, soy beans, lacquer, porcelain, distilled alcohol .........
Peanuts, okra, ivory, coffee .........
Tomatoes, potatoes, chiles, chocolate, tobacco, corn, vanilla .........
Plastic, stainless steel, modern medicine, the internal combustion engine, radio, computers, synthetic fabrics, telecommunications .........
This world could not function without cultural (especially culinary) cross-fertilization.
Much of our modern diet is the direct result of Dutch and Chinese plant-cultivation - the common orange-hued carrot, as just one example, was developed by Dutch market-gardeners during the Golden Age - but the contributions from the Americas, Asia, and Africa have also been vast.
CALL TO BOYCOTT
Never-the-less, I expect the following organizations and individuals to make do without any of the foods and inventions which are listed above.
ACTION FOR A PROGRESSIVE PAKISTAN, AMERICAN JEWS FOR A JUST PEACE, ANOTHER JEWISH VOICE, SANTA FE, BAY AREA INTERNATIONAL JEWISH ANTI-ZIONIST NETWORK, BIRTHRIGHT UNPLUGGED, BDS BAYAREA, BOSTON BDS, BOSTON COALITION FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS, BREAK THE SIEGE, BURNSVILLE AND EAGAN, MINNESOTA PEACE VIGILS, CAMPAIGN TO END ISRAELI APARTHEID – SOUTHERN, CHARLOTTE 4 PEACE, GLOBAL JUSTICE PROJECT, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION SERVICE - MO, INTERFAITH WITNESS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE, JUSTICE FIRST FOUNDATION, JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS, OPT OUT!, OWL’S NEST NORTH COLLABORATION, PEOPLE AGAINST HATE SPEECH, QUEERS UNDERMINING ISRAELI TERRORISM (QUIT!), SAN JOSE PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER, SOUTH ALAMEDA PEACE AND JUSTICE COALITION , SOUTH ASIAN COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, SOUTH BAY MOBILIZATION FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE, STUDENTS UNITED FOR PALESTINIAN EQUAL RIGHTS, THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST US TERROR WEAPONS, THE OREGON CAMPAIGN TO END ISRAELI APARTHEID, TRI-CITY PEACE AND JUSTICE, US CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL, VETERANS AGAINST TORTURE, VETERANS FOR PEACE, WESPAC FOUNDATION, WOMEN IN BLACK - LA, TOM ABERNETHY, SALMA ABY AYYASH, CAMBRIDGE, KAMAL AHMED, CHARLOTTE ALBRECH, SALEM AJLUNI, YASMINE ALKHATIB, HANNAH ALLEN, D ALWAN, AHMAD AMARA, ERIC ANDERSON, JUDY ANDLER, JAHAN ANSTAN, LOUISE ANTONY, THOMAS ASH, DEVIN ATALLAH, TERESE ATALLAH, HIMA B, MIKE BALDWIN, JANE BARK, SUSAN BARNEY, KATHLEEN BARRY, BEN BARSON, JAN BAUMAN, KHALIL BENDIB, GRETA BERLIN, BOB BOWES, UMAYYAH CABLE, ELLEN CANTAROW, GEORGE CAPACCIO, CHARLOTTE CASEY, JOHN CASSEL, JOYCE CASSEL, MARGARET CERULLO, PETER CHABAREK, CORTNEY CHILDS, DANIEL CLAYTON, SUSAN CURTISS, DEEMA DABIS, HUMA DAR, L DAVIDSON, WALT DAVIS, KATHLEEN DENSMORE, DAVID DIXON, JACK DRESSER, SUSAN DUNCAN, MARTHA DWYER, JANET EISELEY, JEAN ENTINE, HEDY EPSTEIN, KRISTI ERLICH, SHERIF FAM, SURA FARAJ, FRANCIS FEELEY, DAVID FIELDER, JULIA FIGUEIRA-MCDONOUGH, ROBERT FITZPATRICK, CHRIS FORD, MANZAR FOROOHAR, KARIN FRIEDEMANN, MELISSA FROILAND, SHALINI GERA, PROF JOHN GERASSI, ELIANE HAGOPIAN, KATHERINE HANNA, SWANEAGLE HARIJAN, KATHARINA HARLOW, MARTIN HARWAYNE, JANICE HAYDEN, JEAN HAYS, PAT HENDRICKS, CHARLIE HINTON, JOSHUA HOUGH, LYDIA HOWELL, JAY HUBBELL, MARY HUGHES, HAPPY HYDER, SUMIA IBRAHIM, HAYAT IMAM, MARY IZETT, A JARRAR, JANE JEWELL, PETER KARDAS, CASSANDRA KATSIAFICAS, JUNE KENAGY, REEMA KHAN, LOU KIPNIS, VIDULA KIRTIKAR, VICTOR KIZASKI, ALICE KLEIN, DAVID KLEIN, JEFF KLEIN, JANET KOBREN, JUDITH KOLOKOFF, JOEL KOVEL, GREG KOZICZ, BADAR KUDSI, JANE KURINSKY,PAUL LARUDEE, CECILE LENEMAN, HOWARD LENOW, MICHAEL LETWIN, MARIAH LEUNG, JOSEPH LEVINE, SCOTT LINDER, MICHAEL LYON, SUNAINA MAIRA, MICHAEL MARIA, ALICE MARSHALL, IVAN MARTIN, SAHAR MASUD, TANIA MAXWELL, HANNAH MEDROW, RASHA MHMOUD, SERGIO MONTEIRO, DORINDA MORENO, MICHEL MOUSHABECK, DR NANCY MURRAY, HIRA NABI, FARRUKH NAJMI, SHAHEEN NAZERALI, DAVID NELSON, MARCY NEWMAN, DOROTHY NAOR, ANA NOGUEIRA, KAMAL OBEID, DAVID OBERWEISER, IVAN OLSEN, MARCELLO PETRIGH, ANGELA PRICE, REV JOHN PROCHASKA, YASMIN QURESHI, MAZIN QUMSIYEH, BILL RAMSEY, ANNE REMLEY, FREDERICK REMLEY, GREGORY RIENZO, ROSALIE RIENZO, JOHN ROBERTS, KATHY ROBERTS, PAULA ROCHELLE, JULIE RUFO, ALAMEDA, AMIN SABA, DINA SABA, FADI SABA, NELLIE SABA, RAKSHANDA SALEEM, CAROLYN SCARR, SKIP SCHIEL, HANNAH SCHWARZSCHILD, JON SEIGE, BILL SELLSAHAR SHAFQAT, SAID SHEHADEH, ANNA SHENK, LENORE SHERIDAN, SNEHAL SHINGAVI, MOAZZAM SHIEKH, CATHERINE SHINN, SAUL SLAPIKOFF, EVE SPANGLER, JOHN SPRITZLER, RAMKUMAR SRIDHARAN, A STEK, CORNELIA SULLIVAN, IJAZ SYED, ALLYSON TAYLOR,JOHN THIELKING, KIN TILSEN, SAADIA TOOR, JAMES VANN, DONALD VEACH, NICOLE VOLZ, NABIL WAHBEH, DARLENE WALLACH, DONNA WALLACH, KATHLEEN WANG, LARRY WARTEL, AHMAD YAMAK, NADIA YASSA, JAMAL ZEID, MAGGIE ZHOU.
In fact, rather than merely expecting them to do without, I must insist that they cease using the products listed above.
As concerned people and organizations they support the call to boycott. Now they should show their sincerity by their example.
Admittedly that might set their life-style back a few thousand years - right about stone-age level - but they have to try. It's the very least they can do.
It's a matter of principle.
It is an absurd claim on the face of it.
Couscous is not Palestinian, but Berber. It is a staple in North Africa and the Sahel region, though not uncommon in Egypt and the Levant. It has also been eaten for centuries in France and Sicily, Greece and Cyprus. It was known in Italy as a Jewish food.
Even today, couscous is a traditional part of the diet of North African and Mizrahi Jews.
ISRAELI COUSCOUS
Ptitim (פתיתים אפויים = p'titim afuyim = baked flakes), however, is a pasta product that resembles Italian orzo. Unlike North African couscous, it is not raw-rolled semolina at all but a baked wheat product.
From Wikipedia:Ptitim was invented during the austerity period in Israel, when rice was scarce and in order to provide the needs of the Mizrahi immigrants, whose diets were largely made up of rice and couscous. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, asked Eugen Propper, one of the founders of the Osem food company, to quickly devise a wheat-based substitute to rice. Consequently, it was nicknamed "Ben-Gurion's Rice" by the people.
The company agreed to the challenge and developed ptitim, which is made of hard wheat flour and roasted in an oven. The product was instantly a success and not too long after ptitim made in the shape of small, dense balls (which the company termed "couscous") was added to the original rice-shaped ptitim.
[CUT]
Commonly, ptitim is prepared, with sautéed onions or garlic (vegetables, meat, chicken or sausages can also be added), the ptitim is then added, and fried for a short time before adding water. Ptitim can also be used as a substitute for pasta or rice. They can also go in soup, can be baked, can be served as a pie, or made as a risotto
[SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptitim]
DE-SHELVING ISRAELI PRODUCTS
From the letter demanding that Trader Joe's cease selling Israeli Couscous as well as several other products:
" .. the names of products such as "Israeli Couscous" are offensive as they allow a state that was created sixty years ago --[cut]-- to claim a type of couscous that was traditionally produced by Palestinians and other Arabs for generations. This is racist advertising for cultural theft .. "
CULTURAL THEFT?
Rice, tea, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cassia, turmeric, coconut, tamarind, citrus fruits, paper, silk, soy beans, lacquer, porcelain, distilled alcohol .........
Peanuts, okra, ivory, coffee .........
Tomatoes, potatoes, chiles, chocolate, tobacco, corn, vanilla .........
Plastic, stainless steel, modern medicine, the internal combustion engine, radio, computers, synthetic fabrics, telecommunications .........
This world could not function without cultural (especially culinary) cross-fertilization.
Much of our modern diet is the direct result of Dutch and Chinese plant-cultivation - the common orange-hued carrot, as just one example, was developed by Dutch market-gardeners during the Golden Age - but the contributions from the Americas, Asia, and Africa have also been vast.
CALL TO BOYCOTT
Never-the-less, I expect the following organizations and individuals to make do without any of the foods and inventions which are listed above.
ACTION FOR A PROGRESSIVE PAKISTAN, AMERICAN JEWS FOR A JUST PEACE, ANOTHER JEWISH VOICE, SANTA FE, BAY AREA INTERNATIONAL JEWISH ANTI-ZIONIST NETWORK, BIRTHRIGHT UNPLUGGED, BDS BAYAREA, BOSTON BDS, BOSTON COALITION FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS, BREAK THE SIEGE, BURNSVILLE AND EAGAN, MINNESOTA PEACE VIGILS, CAMPAIGN TO END ISRAELI APARTHEID – SOUTHERN, CHARLOTTE 4 PEACE, GLOBAL JUSTICE PROJECT, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION SERVICE - MO, INTERFAITH WITNESS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE, JUSTICE FIRST FOUNDATION, JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS, OPT OUT!, OWL’S NEST NORTH COLLABORATION, PEOPLE AGAINST HATE SPEECH, QUEERS UNDERMINING ISRAELI TERRORISM (QUIT!), SAN JOSE PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER, SOUTH ALAMEDA PEACE AND JUSTICE COALITION , SOUTH ASIAN COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, SOUTH BAY MOBILIZATION FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE, STUDENTS UNITED FOR PALESTINIAN EQUAL RIGHTS, THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST US TERROR WEAPONS, THE OREGON CAMPAIGN TO END ISRAELI APARTHEID, TRI-CITY PEACE AND JUSTICE, US CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL, VETERANS AGAINST TORTURE, VETERANS FOR PEACE, WESPAC FOUNDATION, WOMEN IN BLACK - LA, TOM ABERNETHY, SALMA ABY AYYASH, CAMBRIDGE, KAMAL AHMED, CHARLOTTE ALBRECH, SALEM AJLUNI, YASMINE ALKHATIB, HANNAH ALLEN, D ALWAN, AHMAD AMARA, ERIC ANDERSON, JUDY ANDLER, JAHAN ANSTAN, LOUISE ANTONY, THOMAS ASH, DEVIN ATALLAH, TERESE ATALLAH, HIMA B, MIKE BALDWIN, JANE BARK, SUSAN BARNEY, KATHLEEN BARRY, BEN BARSON, JAN BAUMAN, KHALIL BENDIB, GRETA BERLIN, BOB BOWES, UMAYYAH CABLE, ELLEN CANTAROW, GEORGE CAPACCIO, CHARLOTTE CASEY, JOHN CASSEL, JOYCE CASSEL, MARGARET CERULLO, PETER CHABAREK, CORTNEY CHILDS, DANIEL CLAYTON, SUSAN CURTISS, DEEMA DABIS, HUMA DAR, L DAVIDSON, WALT DAVIS, KATHLEEN DENSMORE, DAVID DIXON, JACK DRESSER, SUSAN DUNCAN, MARTHA DWYER, JANET EISELEY, JEAN ENTINE, HEDY EPSTEIN, KRISTI ERLICH, SHERIF FAM, SURA FARAJ, FRANCIS FEELEY, DAVID FIELDER, JULIA FIGUEIRA-MCDONOUGH, ROBERT FITZPATRICK, CHRIS FORD, MANZAR FOROOHAR, KARIN FRIEDEMANN, MELISSA FROILAND, SHALINI GERA, PROF JOHN GERASSI, ELIANE HAGOPIAN, KATHERINE HANNA, SWANEAGLE HARIJAN, KATHARINA HARLOW, MARTIN HARWAYNE, JANICE HAYDEN, JEAN HAYS, PAT HENDRICKS, CHARLIE HINTON, JOSHUA HOUGH, LYDIA HOWELL, JAY HUBBELL, MARY HUGHES, HAPPY HYDER, SUMIA IBRAHIM, HAYAT IMAM, MARY IZETT, A JARRAR, JANE JEWELL, PETER KARDAS, CASSANDRA KATSIAFICAS, JUNE KENAGY, REEMA KHAN, LOU KIPNIS, VIDULA KIRTIKAR, VICTOR KIZASKI, ALICE KLEIN, DAVID KLEIN, JEFF KLEIN, JANET KOBREN, JUDITH KOLOKOFF, JOEL KOVEL, GREG KOZICZ, BADAR KUDSI, JANE KURINSKY,PAUL LARUDEE, CECILE LENEMAN, HOWARD LENOW, MICHAEL LETWIN, MARIAH LEUNG, JOSEPH LEVINE, SCOTT LINDER, MICHAEL LYON, SUNAINA MAIRA, MICHAEL MARIA, ALICE MARSHALL, IVAN MARTIN, SAHAR MASUD, TANIA MAXWELL, HANNAH MEDROW, RASHA MHMOUD, SERGIO MONTEIRO, DORINDA MORENO, MICHEL MOUSHABECK, DR NANCY MURRAY, HIRA NABI, FARRUKH NAJMI, SHAHEEN NAZERALI, DAVID NELSON, MARCY NEWMAN, DOROTHY NAOR, ANA NOGUEIRA, KAMAL OBEID, DAVID OBERWEISER, IVAN OLSEN, MARCELLO PETRIGH, ANGELA PRICE, REV JOHN PROCHASKA, YASMIN QURESHI, MAZIN QUMSIYEH, BILL RAMSEY, ANNE REMLEY, FREDERICK REMLEY, GREGORY RIENZO, ROSALIE RIENZO, JOHN ROBERTS, KATHY ROBERTS, PAULA ROCHELLE, JULIE RUFO, ALAMEDA, AMIN SABA, DINA SABA, FADI SABA, NELLIE SABA, RAKSHANDA SALEEM, CAROLYN SCARR, SKIP SCHIEL, HANNAH SCHWARZSCHILD, JON SEIGE, BILL SELLSAHAR SHAFQAT, SAID SHEHADEH, ANNA SHENK, LENORE SHERIDAN, SNEHAL SHINGAVI, MOAZZAM SHIEKH, CATHERINE SHINN, SAUL SLAPIKOFF, EVE SPANGLER, JOHN SPRITZLER, RAMKUMAR SRIDHARAN, A STEK, CORNELIA SULLIVAN, IJAZ SYED, ALLYSON TAYLOR,JOHN THIELKING, KIN TILSEN, SAADIA TOOR, JAMES VANN, DONALD VEACH, NICOLE VOLZ, NABIL WAHBEH, DARLENE WALLACH, DONNA WALLACH, KATHLEEN WANG, LARRY WARTEL, AHMAD YAMAK, NADIA YASSA, JAMAL ZEID, MAGGIE ZHOU.
In fact, rather than merely expecting them to do without, I must insist that they cease using the products listed above.
As concerned people and organizations they support the call to boycott. Now they should show their sincerity by their example.
Admittedly that might set their life-style back a few thousand years - right about stone-age level - but they have to try. It's the very least they can do.
It's a matter of principle.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
PROTEST ISRAEL IN THE GARDENS
Being a notorious pro-Israel agitator, and self-declared enemy of all that is Palestinian and sweetness and light, nay, even a fervent partizan of an objectionable Zionist cell here in the San Francisco Bay Area, oh horrors, I am often sent interesting tidbits from several people who wish to remain anonymous.
Such as the one below.
------ ------ ------
RESIST!
From: ------
Subject: Protest Israel in the Gardens! June 7th!
ISRAEL IS COMING TO SAN FRANCISCO
RESIST - SUNDAY JUNE 7TH, YERBA BUENA GARDENS
12pm - 4pm
On June 7th in San Francisco, Yerba Buena will host "Israel in the Gardens". This event will celebrate the state of Israel and its claims to diversity and progressive democracy. We protest this celebration. In reality, Israel's apartheid state is not a thriving democracy but a militarized, violent system that is attempting destruction of the Palestinian people and culture through the colonization of historic Palestine. Further, Israel is fueled by systematic racism against Arabs and Mizrahi Jews. Recently, as the devastating attacks on Gaza exposed Israeli contempt for human life, Zionists and supporters of Israel continued their propaganda and claims to Israel's "Jewish Values" and "progressive Diversity". On June 7th, a gay performer, Ivri Lider, will be headlining at Israel in the Gardens. Queer people reject this exploitation in the service of a racist state. Please join us as we protest this celebration of Israel in SF!
Meet on Mission Street, across from Yerba Buena Gardens at 12pm, Sunday, June 7th!
International Jewish anti-Zionist Network, Bay Area www.ijsn.net
bay.ijsn@gmail.com :: www.ijsn.net
[end cite]
------ ------ ------
LILLY LOVE
But wait, there's more!
Not only are these self-alleged Jewish anti-Zionists going to be happily hate-festing in front of the event, they are also organized! And social-networked! Wheee!
As a lovely e-mail forwarded by another one of my anonymous friends so eloquently shows.
------ ------ ------
Report-back From IJAN International Organizers
Tuesday, June 2nd, 7p.m. Center for Political Education (522 Valencia)
You are invited to the Bay Area IJAN International Organizing report back to address these questions and more. IJAN International Organizers Sara Kershnar, Mich Levy, and Mariana Viturro will do a report-back from their recent international organizing tour, followed by a discussion on how this connects with local organizing and larger network development. This is a great opportunity for all of us to expand our lenses on the work we are doing, and further our understanding of IJAN's role as a cross-movement, liberatory Anti-Zionist Jewish network.
This is a report-back for local IJAN members only. Please do not bring non-members, as there will be a report-back the following week suited toward the general public.
To make this event run smoothly, we need a couple volunteers each to help set up, bring some food, and clean up. Please send an email to bay.ijsn@gmail. com Attn:volunteer to sign up.
[end cite]
------ ------ ------
You will note that the location mentioned is also where the Arab Resource And Organizing Center (AROC) is housed. Which is where the provocateur who started the chant about 'throwing Zionists down a shaft' can be found.
I wonder if her more rabid associates appreciate her hanging around with so many Jews, even if they are Quislings and collaborators?
Oh well - at least many of her new friends are zesty and well-equiped. Plus vibrantly involved. And what could possibly be more revolutionary than combining hugs and protest?
How very delicious.
Is that what the Tides Foundation is funding?
Such as the one below.
------ ------ ------
RESIST!
From: ------
Subject: Protest Israel in the Gardens! June 7th!
ISRAEL IS COMING TO SAN FRANCISCO
RESIST - SUNDAY JUNE 7TH, YERBA BUENA GARDENS
12pm - 4pm
On June 7th in San Francisco, Yerba Buena will host "Israel in the Gardens". This event will celebrate the state of Israel and its claims to diversity and progressive democracy. We protest this celebration. In reality, Israel's apartheid state is not a thriving democracy but a militarized, violent system that is attempting destruction of the Palestinian people and culture through the colonization of historic Palestine. Further, Israel is fueled by systematic racism against Arabs and Mizrahi Jews. Recently, as the devastating attacks on Gaza exposed Israeli contempt for human life, Zionists and supporters of Israel continued their propaganda and claims to Israel's "Jewish Values" and "progressive Diversity". On June 7th, a gay performer, Ivri Lider, will be headlining at Israel in the Gardens. Queer people reject this exploitation in the service of a racist state. Please join us as we protest this celebration of Israel in SF!
Meet on Mission Street, across from Yerba Buena Gardens at 12pm, Sunday, June 7th!
International Jewish anti-Zionist Network, Bay Area www.ijsn.net
bay.ijsn@gmail.com :: www.ijsn.net
[end cite]
------ ------ ------
LILLY LOVE
But wait, there's more!
Not only are these self-alleged Jewish anti-Zionists going to be happily hate-festing in front of the event, they are also organized! And social-networked! Wheee!
As a lovely e-mail forwarded by another one of my anonymous friends so eloquently shows.
------ ------ ------
Report-back From IJAN International Organizers
Tuesday, June 2nd, 7p.m. Center for Political Education (522 Valencia)
You are invited to the Bay Area IJAN International Organizing report back to address these questions and more. IJAN International Organizers Sara Kershnar, Mich Levy, and Mariana Viturro will do a report-back from their recent international organizing tour, followed by a discussion on how this connects with local organizing and larger network development. This is a great opportunity for all of us to expand our lenses on the work we are doing, and further our understanding of IJAN's role as a cross-movement, liberatory Anti-Zionist Jewish network.
This is a report-back for local IJAN members only. Please do not bring non-members, as there will be a report-back the following week suited toward the general public.
To make this event run smoothly, we need a couple volunteers each to help set up, bring some food, and clean up. Please send an email to bay.ijsn@gmail. com Attn:volunteer to sign up.
[end cite]
------ ------ ------
You will note that the location mentioned is also where the Arab Resource And Organizing Center (AROC) is housed. Which is where the provocateur who started the chant about 'throwing Zionists down a shaft' can be found.
I wonder if her more rabid associates appreciate her hanging around with so many Jews, even if they are Quislings and collaborators?
Oh well - at least many of her new friends are zesty and well-equiped. Plus vibrantly involved. And what could possibly be more revolutionary than combining hugs and protest?
How very delicious.
Is that what the Tides Foundation is funding?
Monday, May 11, 2009
FLING POO AT THE JEW
There is no better way to put it: the pro-Palestinian side are a bunch of monkeys. Who else flings poo? I'm not talking metaphorical poo (yes, they fling that too), but very real poo. Smelly poo.
Faeces, fewmets, caca, skyte, and shizzle.
GRANDLAKE POO
It happened this past Saturday in front of the Grandlake Theater in Oakland.
Every Saturday the anti-Israel side holds a dreary one hour vigil on one side of the street, the pro-Israel side has a happy get-together with signs and flags on the other side of the street.
The anti-Israel side consists of Jews of convenience (Jewish only when it is convenient to be Jewish), old Presbyterian sourpusses, random Jew-haters, and the two lonely oldest surviving Anarcho-Syndicalists in the Bay Area.
The pro-Israel side includes a broad spectrum: Jews of INconvenience (Jewish at ALL times, not just when it is strategically useful to have a Jew in the ranks), lefties, righties, non-Jewish religious, atheists, anarchists, new-age, conservadoxim, reform, and of course the erev rav.
Real people. People like you and me.
Occasionally, pedestrians or drivers-by will holler something egregious at either side. Or voice some kind of encouragement. Or just scream. Loud and long.
This past Saturday, however, the Jew-haters hit a new low. Air-borne poo.
The hastily flung horse manure bounced off a sign, the pooflingers vehicle sped up and disappeared.
Oh crap. Flying poo.
The horse turds rolled a bit, breaking up. We kicked them into the gutter.
The rhetoric of the anti-Israel side is aptly symbolized by horsepuckey, as are their morals and ideas. The Palestinian students at UC Berkeley standardly voice horsepuckey, the Women in Black who vigilate against Israel on Friday at Sproul Plaza trade in little else, JVP is constructed around a firm base of it, and Richard Becker of International ANSWER just about wallows in it. Poo.
They cannot counterargue, so they fling poo. Their thought processes are that narrow and hateful that they have no other recourse. Poo.
Yaman Salahi expresses himself? Poo. Lily Haskell threatens to throw Zionists down an elevator shaft? Poo. Richard Becker has a naughty dream? Poo. Kate Bender blogs? Poo. Paul Larudee opinionates about his dear friends in Hezbollistan and Gaza? Poo. Medea Benjamin, anything at all? Poo.
Stephen "Lynched G.I. Effigy" and his lovely wife Virginia? Poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo,poo!
I'm used to Berkeley being full of poo. But it's overflowing, and drifting south into Oakland. Poo. There is just too much of it. A veritable surfeit. Things are getting desperate. If Berkeley is unchecked, all civilization and culture in the Bay Area might be drowned in poo.
I have heard that baseball bats can cause constipation - that may be a mighty measure against the tide of poo. I shall have to consider it.
Faeces, fewmets, caca, skyte, and shizzle.
GRANDLAKE POO
It happened this past Saturday in front of the Grandlake Theater in Oakland.
Every Saturday the anti-Israel side holds a dreary one hour vigil on one side of the street, the pro-Israel side has a happy get-together with signs and flags on the other side of the street.
The anti-Israel side consists of Jews of convenience (Jewish only when it is convenient to be Jewish), old Presbyterian sourpusses, random Jew-haters, and the two lonely oldest surviving Anarcho-Syndicalists in the Bay Area.
The pro-Israel side includes a broad spectrum: Jews of INconvenience (Jewish at ALL times, not just when it is strategically useful to have a Jew in the ranks), lefties, righties, non-Jewish religious, atheists, anarchists, new-age, conservadoxim, reform, and of course the erev rav.
Real people. People like you and me.
Occasionally, pedestrians or drivers-by will holler something egregious at either side. Or voice some kind of encouragement. Or just scream. Loud and long.
This past Saturday, however, the Jew-haters hit a new low. Air-borne poo.
The hastily flung horse manure bounced off a sign, the pooflingers vehicle sped up and disappeared.
Oh crap. Flying poo.
The horse turds rolled a bit, breaking up. We kicked them into the gutter.
The rhetoric of the anti-Israel side is aptly symbolized by horsepuckey, as are their morals and ideas. The Palestinian students at UC Berkeley standardly voice horsepuckey, the Women in Black who vigilate against Israel on Friday at Sproul Plaza trade in little else, JVP is constructed around a firm base of it, and Richard Becker of International ANSWER just about wallows in it. Poo.
They cannot counterargue, so they fling poo. Their thought processes are that narrow and hateful that they have no other recourse. Poo.
Yaman Salahi expresses himself? Poo. Lily Haskell threatens to throw Zionists down an elevator shaft? Poo. Richard Becker has a naughty dream? Poo. Kate Bender blogs? Poo. Paul Larudee opinionates about his dear friends in Hezbollistan and Gaza? Poo. Medea Benjamin, anything at all? Poo.
Stephen "Lynched G.I. Effigy" and his lovely wife Virginia? Poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo,poo!
I'm used to Berkeley being full of poo. But it's overflowing, and drifting south into Oakland. Poo. There is just too much of it. A veritable surfeit. Things are getting desperate. If Berkeley is unchecked, all civilization and culture in the Bay Area might be drowned in poo.
I have heard that baseball bats can cause constipation - that may be a mighty measure against the tide of poo. I shall have to consider it.
Monday, March 23, 2009
VIOLENT ANTI-SEMITES RALLY FOR PEACE
Peace rally in San Francisco's civic center turns into angry confrontation. Activists scream hatred at Jews. Angry Lakota Sioux radical spouts racist rant, finishes by bad drumming and unintelligible chanting. Dick Becker has a fit. Speaker at microphone calls the police mothe***88ers and accuses them of wanting to kill people. Arab bites cop. Palestinians attack Jews in metro.
Saturday March 21st, one PM to about three PM.
DEMONSTRATING FOR PEACE... AND THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL!
There had been nearly two thousand people at Justin Herman Plaza earlier, but by the time the marchers reached Civic Center there were only seven hundred of them left - over half of them angry Arab teenagers, anxious to prove to their kinfolk overseas that they had NOT gone native in the US, but in fact despised the country where they lived, and were against everything American. Especially the despicable liberties that allowed other people to express opposing points of view.
Such as the seventy of us who had gathered on Polk Street in front of SF City Hall to counterdemonstrate the anti-Israel message of International ANSWER and their co-conspirators.
CONFRONTATION
As soon as the crowd reached Civic Center, about two hundred Keffiyeh-wearing young persons headed towards us intent on mayhem, but the presence of the police forced them instead to scream insults and threats, at one point starting a lively chant of "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Filistin" ('with our soul, with our blood, we will redeem you oh Palestine'), which follows the traditional formula for swearing a bloody cleansing in service of some Islamic cause or other. And as usual, their non-Arab sympathisers stood there smiling their approval.
Having learned that hate-slogans in Arabic are bad public relations, the organizers of the event stilled the chant, and got them instead to scream something more acceptable, which was the promise to ethnically cleanse the area between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea.
The police eventually gently persuaded all of them to return to the proper side of the street for uttering death threats, that being the area designated by the permit for the peace rally.
As only one of them had a megaphone, this tempered the noise considerably. Shaking fists and giving the one-fingered salute is, on the whole, a rather impotent display.
PALESTINIAN YOUTHS
Not that one should consider the San Francisco Palestinian youth impotent. In fact, that might very well be the problem - there is probably massive sexual frustration in their ranks. It really is hard to get laid when you despise people outside your own community, violently disapprove of relations before marriage, and treat the weaker sex like dirt.
Despite the dimwitted blondes who are attracted by Arab machismo, and the revolutionaries who are willing to do anything, anything! to prove their devotion to the cause, well, when you don't have a place of your own AND all of your praeconceptions are going full-tilt, humping just isn't a solution.
Of course, if you are female, the likely prospect of sexual brutalization by a cousin isn't very appealing either.
A TWELVE-YEAR OLD WITH A ROCK
True to cultural trope, at least one of the Palestinian-Americans wished to throw rocks. Unfortunately he did so at the SFPD, who were not amused by this charming display of traditional self-expression and wished to arrest him. The crowd then waxed belligerent at the SFPD's insensitivity, chanting and screaming at the police - several of them needed to be restrained.
I believe the police eventually decided not to arrest the twelve-year old, who was blubbering like an infant by then. Instead they chose some of the more violently inclined older individuals who attacked them.
One of whom, we now know, has teeth.
Attacking the police is not a wise thing to do - neither is calling them motherf****s, as one of the ANSWER speakers on the podium did - his words were clear, distinct, and amplified. He was urging people to stay away from 'tha po-lees, do not provoke tha po-lees, don't get tha po-lees angry, man, you can't win against tha po-lees, they be jest wanting to put you six feet under, man, tha po-lees'.
The twelve year old who was nearly arrested is the son of a Palestinian-American family that runs a liquor store. I shall not say anything negative about them, as Palestinian store owners are hardworking people making an honest living in some interesting parts of town. Once you get to know them, you discover that they are very genuine people, with big hearts, who care about the community in which they live.
Some of their children, on the other hand.... Well, many of the kids are typical urban American teenagers. Meaning that they have horrible taste in music, chips on their shoulders, attitude problems, and are desperate for someone to hate.
Oh, and frustrated. Very, very frustrated. That doesn't help.
POLICE PROVOKE CONFRONTATION BY REMAINING CALM AND ACTING IN A MATURE FASHION
That was the strident message of one of International Answer's speakers. While the pro-Palestinians were screaming insults at the police on the southwest corner of the plaza, this speaker was demanding loudly into the microphone that the police leave civic center, insisting that their being there was enough to cause trouble, the mere presence of police was a disruptive influence on the peaceful natures of the peace demonstrators, who had no choice but to bay for the blood of the officers.
Actually, the seventy of us who were there standing for Israel's right to exist were the disruptive influence - if the police were not there, they would've bayed for our blood. As they had repeatedly clarified.
And most of the time, they did in fact bay for our blood.
It was rather dreary, and very unimaginative. Though very much appreciated by the union members and older radicals from Berkeley who attended (heck, those delicious youth could've danced the rumba and the Berkeleyites would've been appreciative).
VIOLENCE IN THE UNDERGROUND
Some of the Palestinian youth were so frustrated by the police maintaining order that they gave vent to their fury in the Civic Center Bart Station. From all accounts, they ganged up on a group of four people who had left the protest in disgust. What might have turned into bloodshed was prevented by the judicious application of pepper spray and the arrival of the police, who arrested the most criminally inclined of the mob.
Quick action by the SFPD prevented assault and battery from becoming a visit to the emergency room.
ATTENDANCE
Altogether, about a dozen violent peace activists ended the day in handcuffs. The police acted with remarkable restraint, and succeeded in maintaining order despite the provocative behaviour displayed by a violence-prone mob.
This did not please the organizers of the peace protest. Several of their speakers foamed incomprehensibly into the microphone, upset at this peaceful turn of events.
I'm still not sure what the Lakota drumming and chanting was for (that speaker had called the Arabs, Chicanos, and Philippinos his bruthas, and angrily damned all white people without reservation), and the hysterical Arab hatemongstress had bored even her own side, who preferred to stand facing the Israel supporters, screaming about Jew-Nazi-Kikes and promising to kill our families.
Standing proudly alongside the Israel-haters were the American Postal Workers Union, the Communications Workers of America, Code Pink, Black Block and other anarchists, various individual members of Bay Area Women in Black, Students for Justice in Palestine, JVP, and several other groups who do not object to anti-Semitic rhetoric for peace, as well as numerous adherents of conspiracy theories about nine-eleven. Conspiracy theories, by the way, proved incredibly popular - second only to the cheerleading for Jew-death at the front of the crowd.
RICHARD BECKER
It must have been immensely frustrating for Dick Becker of International ANSWER that only several hundred people stayed with the rally all the way to Civic Center. His speech to the crowd (completely ignored by the Arab Jugend trying to provoke the police) asserted that San Francisco Voice for Israel was a racist group that existed only to harass him.
Sorry, Richard, that just isn't so. You are actually irrelevant. We know that you do not wish the annihilation of Israel, and the Arab youth also know that. It wouldn't make you happy at all.
You probably prefer that anti-Semitism survive at the present near-boil, so that you may surround yourself with all those delicious young Levantines, eh?
Mmmm, zesty!
Richard, are you upset at the low turn-out? Was it disappointing? Do you feel, somehow, inadequate? You should, you really should!
It really is you - you're too old, Richard.
Karmicly you are losing hair, and your aura is nearly invisible.
Again, for us in SF Voice for Israel, it ain't about you. Don't flatter yourself.
You're an egomaniac, but most people will never even know who the heck you are. You are totally unimportant.
Several of the other elderly white people from Berkeley who were at the rally were also there for the frisson provided by angry radical teenagers. But unlike the teenagers and mister Becker, they probably weren't nearly so frustrated, having developed coping mechanisms for their various urges long ago.
Still, angry young people can be so exciting!
SAD BORING END
Sometime after three o'clock the peace demonstration petered out, the crowd's enthusiasm for bloodshed having waned. The weather and the calm behaviour by the police had made clear to even the most delusional people that no Jews were going to die that day, though as the events at the BART Station subsequently proved, several stupid teenagers would end up in jail because of their violent tendencies.
This was the smallest International ANSWER peace demonstration in years. It is unlikely that Richard Becker will be able to pull together another event in March of next year. I just hope he manages to keep some of his young acolytes......
It is so sad when a manly man's vigour fades.
Saturday March 21st, one PM to about three PM.
DEMONSTRATING FOR PEACE... AND THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL!
There had been nearly two thousand people at Justin Herman Plaza earlier, but by the time the marchers reached Civic Center there were only seven hundred of them left - over half of them angry Arab teenagers, anxious to prove to their kinfolk overseas that they had NOT gone native in the US, but in fact despised the country where they lived, and were against everything American. Especially the despicable liberties that allowed other people to express opposing points of view.
Such as the seventy of us who had gathered on Polk Street in front of SF City Hall to counterdemonstrate the anti-Israel message of International ANSWER and their co-conspirators.
CONFRONTATION
As soon as the crowd reached Civic Center, about two hundred Keffiyeh-wearing young persons headed towards us intent on mayhem, but the presence of the police forced them instead to scream insults and threats, at one point starting a lively chant of "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Filistin" ('with our soul, with our blood, we will redeem you oh Palestine'), which follows the traditional formula for swearing a bloody cleansing in service of some Islamic cause or other. And as usual, their non-Arab sympathisers stood there smiling their approval.
Having learned that hate-slogans in Arabic are bad public relations, the organizers of the event stilled the chant, and got them instead to scream something more acceptable, which was the promise to ethnically cleanse the area between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea.
The police eventually gently persuaded all of them to return to the proper side of the street for uttering death threats, that being the area designated by the permit for the peace rally.
As only one of them had a megaphone, this tempered the noise considerably. Shaking fists and giving the one-fingered salute is, on the whole, a rather impotent display.
PALESTINIAN YOUTHS
Not that one should consider the San Francisco Palestinian youth impotent. In fact, that might very well be the problem - there is probably massive sexual frustration in their ranks. It really is hard to get laid when you despise people outside your own community, violently disapprove of relations before marriage, and treat the weaker sex like dirt.
Despite the dimwitted blondes who are attracted by Arab machismo, and the revolutionaries who are willing to do anything, anything! to prove their devotion to the cause, well, when you don't have a place of your own AND all of your praeconceptions are going full-tilt, humping just isn't a solution.
Of course, if you are female, the likely prospect of sexual brutalization by a cousin isn't very appealing either.
A TWELVE-YEAR OLD WITH A ROCK
True to cultural trope, at least one of the Palestinian-Americans wished to throw rocks. Unfortunately he did so at the SFPD, who were not amused by this charming display of traditional self-expression and wished to arrest him. The crowd then waxed belligerent at the SFPD's insensitivity, chanting and screaming at the police - several of them needed to be restrained.
I believe the police eventually decided not to arrest the twelve-year old, who was blubbering like an infant by then. Instead they chose some of the more violently inclined older individuals who attacked them.
One of whom, we now know, has teeth.
Attacking the police is not a wise thing to do - neither is calling them motherf****s, as one of the ANSWER speakers on the podium did - his words were clear, distinct, and amplified. He was urging people to stay away from 'tha po-lees, do not provoke tha po-lees, don't get tha po-lees angry, man, you can't win against tha po-lees, they be jest wanting to put you six feet under, man, tha po-lees'.
The twelve year old who was nearly arrested is the son of a Palestinian-American family that runs a liquor store. I shall not say anything negative about them, as Palestinian store owners are hardworking people making an honest living in some interesting parts of town. Once you get to know them, you discover that they are very genuine people, with big hearts, who care about the community in which they live.
Some of their children, on the other hand.... Well, many of the kids are typical urban American teenagers. Meaning that they have horrible taste in music, chips on their shoulders, attitude problems, and are desperate for someone to hate.
Oh, and frustrated. Very, very frustrated. That doesn't help.
POLICE PROVOKE CONFRONTATION BY REMAINING CALM AND ACTING IN A MATURE FASHION
That was the strident message of one of International Answer's speakers. While the pro-Palestinians were screaming insults at the police on the southwest corner of the plaza, this speaker was demanding loudly into the microphone that the police leave civic center, insisting that their being there was enough to cause trouble, the mere presence of police was a disruptive influence on the peaceful natures of the peace demonstrators, who had no choice but to bay for the blood of the officers.
Actually, the seventy of us who were there standing for Israel's right to exist were the disruptive influence - if the police were not there, they would've bayed for our blood. As they had repeatedly clarified.
And most of the time, they did in fact bay for our blood.
It was rather dreary, and very unimaginative. Though very much appreciated by the union members and older radicals from Berkeley who attended (heck, those delicious youth could've danced the rumba and the Berkeleyites would've been appreciative).
VIOLENCE IN THE UNDERGROUND
Some of the Palestinian youth were so frustrated by the police maintaining order that they gave vent to their fury in the Civic Center Bart Station. From all accounts, they ganged up on a group of four people who had left the protest in disgust. What might have turned into bloodshed was prevented by the judicious application of pepper spray and the arrival of the police, who arrested the most criminally inclined of the mob.
Quick action by the SFPD prevented assault and battery from becoming a visit to the emergency room.
ATTENDANCE
Altogether, about a dozen violent peace activists ended the day in handcuffs. The police acted with remarkable restraint, and succeeded in maintaining order despite the provocative behaviour displayed by a violence-prone mob.
This did not please the organizers of the peace protest. Several of their speakers foamed incomprehensibly into the microphone, upset at this peaceful turn of events.
I'm still not sure what the Lakota drumming and chanting was for (that speaker had called the Arabs, Chicanos, and Philippinos his bruthas, and angrily damned all white people without reservation), and the hysterical Arab hatemongstress had bored even her own side, who preferred to stand facing the Israel supporters, screaming about Jew-Nazi-Kikes and promising to kill our families.
Standing proudly alongside the Israel-haters were the American Postal Workers Union, the Communications Workers of America, Code Pink, Black Block and other anarchists, various individual members of Bay Area Women in Black, Students for Justice in Palestine, JVP, and several other groups who do not object to anti-Semitic rhetoric for peace, as well as numerous adherents of conspiracy theories about nine-eleven. Conspiracy theories, by the way, proved incredibly popular - second only to the cheerleading for Jew-death at the front of the crowd.
RICHARD BECKER
It must have been immensely frustrating for Dick Becker of International ANSWER that only several hundred people stayed with the rally all the way to Civic Center. His speech to the crowd (completely ignored by the Arab Jugend trying to provoke the police) asserted that San Francisco Voice for Israel was a racist group that existed only to harass him.
Sorry, Richard, that just isn't so. You are actually irrelevant. We know that you do not wish the annihilation of Israel, and the Arab youth also know that. It wouldn't make you happy at all.
You probably prefer that anti-Semitism survive at the present near-boil, so that you may surround yourself with all those delicious young Levantines, eh?
Mmmm, zesty!
Richard, are you upset at the low turn-out? Was it disappointing? Do you feel, somehow, inadequate? You should, you really should!
It really is you - you're too old, Richard.
Karmicly you are losing hair, and your aura is nearly invisible.
Again, for us in SF Voice for Israel, it ain't about you. Don't flatter yourself.
You're an egomaniac, but most people will never even know who the heck you are. You are totally unimportant.
Several of the other elderly white people from Berkeley who were at the rally were also there for the frisson provided by angry radical teenagers. But unlike the teenagers and mister Becker, they probably weren't nearly so frustrated, having developed coping mechanisms for their various urges long ago.
Still, angry young people can be so exciting!
SAD BORING END
Sometime after three o'clock the peace demonstration petered out, the crowd's enthusiasm for bloodshed having waned. The weather and the calm behaviour by the police had made clear to even the most delusional people that no Jews were going to die that day, though as the events at the BART Station subsequently proved, several stupid teenagers would end up in jail because of their violent tendencies.
This was the smallest International ANSWER peace demonstration in years. It is unlikely that Richard Becker will be able to pull together another event in March of next year. I just hope he manages to keep some of his young acolytes......
It is so sad when a manly man's vigour fades.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I WILL KILL YOU
Anti-Israel demonstration in front of the consulate in San Francisco on Montgomery Street between Sacramento and California, at 4 PM, Monday March 16th.
As usual we were outnumbered. Less than thirty of us on the pro-Israel side, around three hundred on the anti-Israel side.
I may be severely overestimating our numbers and under-counting theirs.
In which case, let me apologize - I do not mean to misrepresent the facts. Sorry.
I also wish to apologize to the gentleman who asserted that he would kill me, f*&cking kill me - yes, mister, you are ugly and stupid, and probably have body-odour issues, but none of that is your fault! I shouldn't have called you a moron. The truth hurts, and sometimes it is best to diplomatically gloss over it.
That you screamed "I will f*&cking kill you" in my face was likely in lieu of more standard small talk, and I shouldn't have reacted as I did.
Your problems are not your responsibility. Maybe nature, maybe nurture, I shan't speculate. Sorry.
TERRY THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MATH TUTOR
But I'm NOT sorry for calling Terry any of those things. He IS a moron, and he does smell a wee bit (well, he does!). He was being his own blisteringly irritating self last night - did you know I'm a Nazi child-killer? Until he pointed it out in several repetitive ways, I had been unaware of it.
He is a bore. Is there any medication for that?
TRISTAN 'CRICKET' ANDERSON
Yesterday evening's anti-Israel gangbang was in honour of Oakland activist Tristan Anderson of the ISM (International Solidarity Movement), who caught a tear-gas canister with his face last Friday while participating in a rock-throwing demonstration in a closed military zone on the Israeli border.
Unlike the SFPD, who are trained to deal with rowdy and unbalanced individuals, the IDF is tasked strictly with security - and the border is, shall we say, under contention, as well as subject to frequent assault.
Showing International Solidarity with angry Arabs by rioting in that area is not entirely safe, nor advisable.
[Quite different than Rotterdam, London, Oslo, Stockholm, or even Berkeley, where showing solidarity with angry Arabs by acts of violence and vandalism is politically sanctioned and socially approved.]
I shall not fault Mr. Anderson for sincerity. He and his girlfriend, like so many Oaklanders and Berkeleyites, may indeed sincerely believe the Jewish State to be the incarnation of all evil as prophesied by the book of revelations (or in Das Kapital), and sincerely wish Jews to be expelled from the Middle-East in a great and glorious uprising of the proletariat, with just oodles of blood and dancing and mass-action - maybe a variation on these themes which is less crimson, or a Peace-Love-Green-Tofu version of it that denies that there are ANY violent tendencies on the side which they support - but their sincerity, despite all that, need not be questioned. They probably thought that they were doing the right thing.
[Like many of the good people of the Bay Area, when they're at home they no doubt spend much of their money on feeding and clothing the homeless, and comforting the poor.]
Tristan (Cricket) Anderson is currently in the intensive care unite of Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv. His girl-friend of less than a year, Gabrielle Silverman, is by his side, and his family have flown to Israel to be there for him.
[Gabrielle Silverman is in Israel on a Birthright-Israel trip - not a few activists make happy use of this opportunity.]
ATTENDEES
Unlike most of the anti-Israel celebrations in the Bay Area, this time there was a more interesting and diverse bunch on the other side. Not just the usual hate-filled psychotics, but a wide spectrum of people, including some sincerely (and, arguably, misinformed, maleducated, misguided) peace-at-all-cost-niks.
A number of members of JVP and BAWIB were also sincerely present, showing solidarity with the Palestinian cause. And as there were no chants of 'death to the Jews', it was entirely within their comfort zone.
Often such people are the passive enablers of the rabid element - and I note that Kate Bender Raphael was on the news last night presuming to speak for all of them.
There were also about fifty anarchists in the crowd. Their fury was not so much against Israel and the Jews, as against all authority figures, building security, police, principals, and truant officers. Once the herd thinned out a bit, they intended to smash some things, and overturn some other things, while yelling juvenile taunts at adults wearing uniforms.
After an hour and a half of sincere rhetoric, the poetry of outrage, and revolutionary rap, the crowd decided to go to Market Street to stop traffic and bang on buckets. So they headed down Montgomery, their motley presenting a colourful and utterly San Francisco spectacle. That's when the gentleman I mentioned previously offered to cause my demise. He interrupted his participation in the 'march' to make sure I got the message.
Thank you. Your sincerity is noted.
DISPERSING WITH FLAGS
I passed a burning trashcan on the way back to the office. An hour later when I headed into Chinatown, there were still many police cars parked near consulate - these were awaiting the fracas that ensued when the other side returned. According to the news there were five arrests, one of which was for assaulting a police officer. At one point, the police needed to act quite forcefully to prevent vandalism and violence.
The other side, of course, is screaming about Police Brutality and the Jack-Booted Gestapo of the Democratic Party Capitalists.
Sometimes their rhetoric gives me an uncontrollable fit of the giggles.
As usual we were outnumbered. Less than thirty of us on the pro-Israel side, around three hundred on the anti-Israel side.
I may be severely overestimating our numbers and under-counting theirs.
In which case, let me apologize - I do not mean to misrepresent the facts. Sorry.
I also wish to apologize to the gentleman who asserted that he would kill me, f*&cking kill me - yes, mister, you are ugly and stupid, and probably have body-odour issues, but none of that is your fault! I shouldn't have called you a moron. The truth hurts, and sometimes it is best to diplomatically gloss over it.
That you screamed "I will f*&cking kill you" in my face was likely in lieu of more standard small talk, and I shouldn't have reacted as I did.
Your problems are not your responsibility. Maybe nature, maybe nurture, I shan't speculate. Sorry.
TERRY THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MATH TUTOR
But I'm NOT sorry for calling Terry any of those things. He IS a moron, and he does smell a wee bit (well, he does!). He was being his own blisteringly irritating self last night - did you know I'm a Nazi child-killer? Until he pointed it out in several repetitive ways, I had been unaware of it.
He is a bore. Is there any medication for that?
TRISTAN 'CRICKET' ANDERSON
Yesterday evening's anti-Israel gangbang was in honour of Oakland activist Tristan Anderson of the ISM (International Solidarity Movement), who caught a tear-gas canister with his face last Friday while participating in a rock-throwing demonstration in a closed military zone on the Israeli border.
Unlike the SFPD, who are trained to deal with rowdy and unbalanced individuals, the IDF is tasked strictly with security - and the border is, shall we say, under contention, as well as subject to frequent assault.
Showing International Solidarity with angry Arabs by rioting in that area is not entirely safe, nor advisable.
[Quite different than Rotterdam, London, Oslo, Stockholm, or even Berkeley, where showing solidarity with angry Arabs by acts of violence and vandalism is politically sanctioned and socially approved.]
I shall not fault Mr. Anderson for sincerity. He and his girlfriend, like so many Oaklanders and Berkeleyites, may indeed sincerely believe the Jewish State to be the incarnation of all evil as prophesied by the book of revelations (or in Das Kapital), and sincerely wish Jews to be expelled from the Middle-East in a great and glorious uprising of the proletariat, with just oodles of blood and dancing and mass-action - maybe a variation on these themes which is less crimson, or a Peace-Love-Green-Tofu version of it that denies that there are ANY violent tendencies on the side which they support - but their sincerity, despite all that, need not be questioned. They probably thought that they were doing the right thing.
[Like many of the good people of the Bay Area, when they're at home they no doubt spend much of their money on feeding and clothing the homeless, and comforting the poor.]
Tristan (Cricket) Anderson is currently in the intensive care unite of Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv. His girl-friend of less than a year, Gabrielle Silverman, is by his side, and his family have flown to Israel to be there for him.
[Gabrielle Silverman is in Israel on a Birthright-Israel trip - not a few activists make happy use of this opportunity.]
ATTENDEES
Unlike most of the anti-Israel celebrations in the Bay Area, this time there was a more interesting and diverse bunch on the other side. Not just the usual hate-filled psychotics, but a wide spectrum of people, including some sincerely (and, arguably, misinformed, maleducated, misguided) peace-at-all-cost-niks.
A number of members of JVP and BAWIB were also sincerely present, showing solidarity with the Palestinian cause. And as there were no chants of 'death to the Jews', it was entirely within their comfort zone.
Often such people are the passive enablers of the rabid element - and I note that Kate Bender Raphael was on the news last night presuming to speak for all of them.
There were also about fifty anarchists in the crowd. Their fury was not so much against Israel and the Jews, as against all authority figures, building security, police, principals, and truant officers. Once the herd thinned out a bit, they intended to smash some things, and overturn some other things, while yelling juvenile taunts at adults wearing uniforms.
After an hour and a half of sincere rhetoric, the poetry of outrage, and revolutionary rap, the crowd decided to go to Market Street to stop traffic and bang on buckets. So they headed down Montgomery, their motley presenting a colourful and utterly San Francisco spectacle. That's when the gentleman I mentioned previously offered to cause my demise. He interrupted his participation in the 'march' to make sure I got the message.
Thank you. Your sincerity is noted.
DISPERSING WITH FLAGS
I passed a burning trashcan on the way back to the office. An hour later when I headed into Chinatown, there were still many police cars parked near consulate - these were awaiting the fracas that ensued when the other side returned. According to the news there were five arrests, one of which was for assaulting a police officer. At one point, the police needed to act quite forcefully to prevent vandalism and violence.
The other side, of course, is screaming about Police Brutality and the Jack-Booted Gestapo of the Democratic Party Capitalists.
Sometimes their rhetoric gives me an uncontrollable fit of the giggles.
Friday, February 20, 2009
DUTCH STATE SPONSORED MIS-INFORMATION ABOUT ISRAEL
During operation Cast Lead, the Dutch state-sponsored news organization featured reportage from Sander van Hoorn in Israel.
It turns out that Sander van der Hoorn had a jaundiced view - one that largely accorded with the anti-Israel bias of his organization.
[The Dutch state sponsored news organization is the NOS - Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Dutch broadcast foundation).]
This blogger has already fulminated about the BBC, the Guardian, Volkskrant, Telegraaf and the Algemeen Dagblad as examples of press engaging in propaganda, and you have possibly already visited 'bad news from the Netherlands '(http://badnewsfromthenetherlands.blogspot.com/) for an interesting perspective on informing the public. Generally speaking, news slants towards a point-of-view that supports the praeconceptions of the news-organization. Many European news orgs are sodden with Israel haters. The British are particularly notorious in that regard, but the Dutch are certainly no slouches, and probably surpass them.
[I will confess that I am not the person to judge whether the Dutch are in fact worse than the British - I am by no means unbiased, and sometimes the Dutch fairly nauseate me. Having read their pestilential news rags for four decades, I cannot be equitable and balanced about Dutch journalism or its readers. There are times that I wish the sea would erase that smarmy little earthblob off the map. It takes effort to remember that there are decent Dutchmen. Many decent Dutchmen, but nevertheless monumental effort. I rather like the British, though.]
Sander van Hoorn and his editors decided that the Dutch viewers did not need impartial and independent news, but required slant, bias, propaganda, and fuel for hatred of Israel. To that end, they engaged in a pattern of omission, distortion and manipulation.
An English language précis of a report detailing what they did can be found here:
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/02/israels-gaza-war-in-dutch-state-funded.html
You may read the Dutch language original here:
http://www.israelfacts.eu/03c1989ac60b34213/03c1989af207bce14/index.html#03c1989bb4009a304
The combination of Dutch newspapers and Dutch broadcasting, deliberately massaging the news about Israel, may explain why Dutch anti-Semitism thrives as never before. Those who rely on Dutch newssources are mal-educated and mis-informed. And frequently vicious.
The Algemeen Dagblad and the Telegraaf have ever been neck-and-neck for the title of 'Worst Newspaper of the First World'. But the NOS may well have no competition for the Most Biased Broadcaster prize.
Dutch journalism has seldom been so diseased, and the public so ill-served.
It turns out that Sander van der Hoorn had a jaundiced view - one that largely accorded with the anti-Israel bias of his organization.
[The Dutch state sponsored news organization is the NOS - Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Dutch broadcast foundation).]
This blogger has already fulminated about the BBC, the Guardian, Volkskrant, Telegraaf and the Algemeen Dagblad as examples of press engaging in propaganda, and you have possibly already visited 'bad news from the Netherlands '(http://badnewsfromthenetherlands.blogspot.com/) for an interesting perspective on informing the public. Generally speaking, news slants towards a point-of-view that supports the praeconceptions of the news-organization. Many European news orgs are sodden with Israel haters. The British are particularly notorious in that regard, but the Dutch are certainly no slouches, and probably surpass them.
[I will confess that I am not the person to judge whether the Dutch are in fact worse than the British - I am by no means unbiased, and sometimes the Dutch fairly nauseate me. Having read their pestilential news rags for four decades, I cannot be equitable and balanced about Dutch journalism or its readers. There are times that I wish the sea would erase that smarmy little earthblob off the map. It takes effort to remember that there are decent Dutchmen. Many decent Dutchmen, but nevertheless monumental effort. I rather like the British, though.]
Sander van Hoorn and his editors decided that the Dutch viewers did not need impartial and independent news, but required slant, bias, propaganda, and fuel for hatred of Israel. To that end, they engaged in a pattern of omission, distortion and manipulation.
An English language précis of a report detailing what they did can be found here:
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/02/israels-gaza-war-in-dutch-state-funded.html
You may read the Dutch language original here:
http://www.israelfacts.eu/03c1989ac60b34213/03c1989af207bce14/index.html#03c1989bb4009a304
The combination of Dutch newspapers and Dutch broadcasting, deliberately massaging the news about Israel, may explain why Dutch anti-Semitism thrives as never before. Those who rely on Dutch newssources are mal-educated and mis-informed. And frequently vicious.
The Algemeen Dagblad and the Telegraaf have ever been neck-and-neck for the title of 'Worst Newspaper of the First World'. But the NOS may well have no competition for the Most Biased Broadcaster prize.
Dutch journalism has seldom been so diseased, and the public so ill-served.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
ZIONIST CLAIMS, APARTHEID, AND OTHER TROPES
Recently an anonymous reader discovered a post I wrote a back in November, in which I defended Zionists and pro-Israeli activists on the Berkeley campus. As is widely known, the campus of the University of California at Berkeley is one of the most Jew-hating environments on the planet, coddling racists and bigots flying under "cause of the day" colours.
University officials, while aware of the problem, and happy to take money from donors on both the Jewish and Arab sides of the fence, gently close their eyes and pretend that all is well.
The posting was this one:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/11/pro-palestinian-activists-attack-jews.html
It is dated 11/14/2008.
The anonymous commenter who discovered it shortly after ten o'clock yesterday evening wrote:
"I don't understand Zionists' claim to a land that was already inhabited by other people. We live in a modern era. Why should Americans support an apartheid state because it believes that religious texts have 'granted' a single people the right to establish a racially defined state to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries when Jesiwh immigrants were being imported from Europe. While the Holocaust is a horrendous legacy, how does the Jewish state honor the memory of those who were killed by Nazi Germany by perpetrating similar acts of exclusion and oppression? I really don't understand the Zionist mentality...Also, many Jews are anti-Zionist."
I have responded to his query in the comment string, but as the tropes he trumpets are common, it may serve some useful purpose to deal with them in a new post.
I don't understand Zionists' claim to a land that was already inhabited by other people.
There were always Jews living there among the other people. The other people came in with conquerors over the centuries. Jews, however, have ALWAYS lived there. Furthermore, the Zionist purchased land - and developed the barren areas which they bought. It was the economic development of those lands that drew in even more people.
Also, the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem and Hebron, as well as other places inside the land, were ethnically cleansed by Arab mobs in the twenties and thirties - how do you justify Arabs even daring to claim those areas?
Why should Americans support an apartheid state
America does not support an Apartheid state - Israeli Arabs have the right to vote, to own property, and to participate at all levels in Israeli society. And there are Arabs in the ranks of most political parties and all ministries. There are also Arab parties in the Knesset. There are jobs and stations where having served in the IDF give you a much greater entry - Arabs are free to join the IDF. Druze Arabs and many Bedouin do serve in the military (and note that there are Knesset speakers, ministers, officers, and department heads from the Arab Israeli side). All who stayed in 1948 became citizens.
The distinction is with the population in the territories - who are not citizens, and do not wish to be citizens, of a praedominantly Jewish state. They have their own institutions, which are overwhelmingly Judenrein - this despite there having been Jewish populations in both the West Bank and Gaza (that latter population ethnically cleansed several times, the last time during the British period) which date back to the pre-Roman period. Obviously, a population which will not become citizens, and is not even desirous of that - which in fact is acknowledged by all sides as heading towards eventual statehood of its own - cannot be administered in the same way as citizens. They are administered under British Mandate codes and Ottoman law. As they were when the Jordanians ruled over them, and as they were after Egypt had seized Gaza. The laws in those areas are a confusing and oppressive welter, due to it being illegal to change them until locally valid representative bodies do so.
Apartheid state ....
Like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, and several others which have nationality laws based on racial and religious exclusionism, coupled with a large number of 'guest-workers' who are treated worse than animals?
But Israel treats its guest-workers and resident aliens far better. So, NOT like the countries just mentioned.
Do you wish to talk about Mexican dishwashers and lettuce pickers? How about Turks who have been three generations in Northern Europe, and are still "foreigners"? Chinese and Indians in Malaysia who have been there for centuries and are discriminated against?
Koreans in Japan? Indians and Pakistanis in the Gulf?
[02/20/2009: Adding Italy to the list above. Per Italian law, children born to foreigners do not automatically receive citizenship, some are left in limbo. This particularly applies to Gypsies and Eastern Europeans. ]
because it believes that religious texts have 'granted' a single people the right to establish a racially defined state to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries when Jewish immigrants were being imported from Europe.
Zionism is not based on the Bible but on that land being the historic homeland of the Jewish people - even the Romans admitted precisely that.
As did the Arabs - in the Quran, during the various Caliphates, under the Ottomans, and even in the 1920s when the Arabs were becoming nations. Kings Abdullah (assassinated by a Palestinian in Jerusalem) and Hussein (of blessed memory) also admitted the Jewish right to the land.
Nor is the state racially defined (and 'race' in any case is no longer used as a defining term by most anthropologists). There are Jews of every "racial" stripe known to man. In what way is a glow-in-the-dark Hassid from Lithuania the same race as a Persian Jew, an Egyptian Jew, a Baghdadi, a Jew from Samarkand or Bokhara, or a Sfard from Morocco?
And exclusion? Did I already mention that those who stayed, contrary to the commands of the invading Arab armies and at the express request of Jewish leaders in 1948, were automatically granted citizenship? If I didn't mention it yet, I apologize - I should have.
And speaking of 'exclusion', I should also mention that since 1948 the Jews were excluded in very large numbers from Islamic countries - were they had lived since before Islam, in many cases, and in some cases before the current population settled there (that being most notably ALL the lands inhabited today by Turkic majorities, all of which were conquered by invaders from the steppes between ten and four centuries ago - Istanbul used to be Constantinople, and the Greeks still want it back).
Jewish immigrants imported from Europe? Indeed, many of the citizens of Israel have ancestors who came from there (though, of course, the ancestors of the European Jews were not from Europe - see 'Historic Homeland' mentioned above).
Over half the Jewish population however came from Arab and Muslim lands that they were kicked out of in 1948 and years since.
And do not forget, there were already Jews there when they returned to Israel. Many of whom had never been elsewhere - the territory 'assigned' to them by the United Nations was the area of Jewish majority, not the total area where there were Jews. Those who were thrown out of the Arab countries were robbed by the Arabs before they left, and arrived with nothing. As the US Congress in fact recognizes. Note also that these exiles were absorbed by their kin - precisely as the Arabs have refused to absorb their own brothers who fled.
to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries
The Jewish return to the land was already happening in small measure long before Zionism - Jews returned to Jerusalem, Hebron, Tzfat, and Gaza throughout Ottoman times, and there were Jews who already lived there.
For eight decades till 1948, Jewish population there increased more markedly than under the Caliphate.
Since 1948, it has been the Jewish state - but all in all, Jews have been a majority in their land now for several generations, since before independence. Many were born there, their parents were born there. And many even have grandparents, great grandparents, and even further kin who were born there. They live there now, and most have not lived anywhere else.
If being born in the US makes you an American, or a citizen of many other countries, then by that same reason the Jews in Israel are validly of Israel, and the "Palestinians" born in Nahr El Bard or Jordan are Lebanese and Jordanian.
Oh wait, Arabs practice an exclusionism even more bitter than Europeans and Malays. They discriminate against their own family.
While the Holocaust is a horrendous legacy, how does the Jewish state honor the memory of those who were killed by Nazi Germany by perpetrating similar acts of exclusion and oppression?
The comparison is obscene. After 1967, the Arab population in the territories more than tripled. Even in Gaza since the intifada, there has been a forty percent increase in the population, as per a news item on the BBC website which quotes UN figures. There are more Palestinians now than ever before. They have thrived most marvelously since 1948.
There are no death camps. There are no gas chambers. There are no torture rooms. The Arabs in the West Bank largely have their own officials to blame for the mess they are in (corruption nurtured and encouraged by the UN), and the Arabs in Gaza can thank Hamas (whose nickname, by the way, is SHIA - in snarky acknowledgement of the Iranian contribution) for their situation.
I really don't understand the Zionist mentality
That may be due to ignorance. Give it another shot.
Also, many Jews are anti-Zionist
That also may be due to ignorance. Provided we give them the benefit of doubt.
But more because they desperately wish to be unobjectionable to all, in every possible way. Blending in is a powerful motivator for Uncle-Tomism.
As is profound self-hatred.
[02/20/2009: I actually thought of refering to the anti-Zionist Jews as Kapos-in-training, but the situation is more complex than that. As "A" points out, "The whole issue of Jewish anti-Zionism is much more complex and should be treated in better detail and with less acrimony toward non-Jews.
Ultraorthodox Jews (Neturei Karte) did not want Zionism to usurp the traditional rabbinic leadership of the Jews.
Assimilationist Jews were/are afraid that Zionism will cast doubt on their loyalty to their current state.
Both Marxist and Assimilationist Jews believed that "progress" in a liberal or communist society would allow them to integrate and be part of larger society. In Germany and USSR, this proved to be an illusion.".]
By the same token, many pro-Palestinian activists assert that they are not anti-Semites because their 'best friends' are Jewish (in other words, strictly anti-Zionist Jews). A more common tendency among them is to avoid Jews who they feel are too "Jewish", especially as regards the Israel and Palestine issues.
And, of course, there are still convinced anti-Semites in their ranks.
Not wishing to associate with a taboo minority is also a powerful motivator, as is profound subconscious hatred.
Any questions sofar? There will be a test.
APARTHEID
Now, I find it interesting that the word 'apartheid' is so often used by the anti-Israel crowd. Interesting, because it does not mean what they intend it to mean, nor what they wish to think it means.
Apartheid is a Dutch word that strictly speaking means 'separateness', and in the South African context referred to a legal separation within the same country into ethnic classes (based, in fact, on old Dutch-Roman law and the feudal concept of Romans, nobles, freemen, and serfs) - something which in so varied and diverse a country as Israel is patently absurd.
The West Bank, of course, is different; the Arabs wish their eventual state to be as Judenrein as possible, and have made abundantly clear that they wish Jews to keep out, but do not object to dogs or Persians.
As my regular readers know, I speak, read, and write Dutch fluently. I also understand a number of Dutch dialects, including Afrikaans. Do not presume to lecture me on what 'apartheid' means. Do not even think of doing so. It is a word in my language, not yours - you have merely hijacked it, and 'colonized' it - precisely like the Arabs did to the Christian lands in North Africa, the Levant, and Iberia, exactly like Muslims did to Asia Minor, Western India, Central Asia, and parts of Indonesia. If you use that word, you betray your ignorance, and your linguistic carpetbaggery.
Plus, in this case, you devalue that word to the point of irrelevance.
As you are also doing by comparing the fairly minor Gaza war to the full-scale extermination of six million people over a five year period.
University officials, while aware of the problem, and happy to take money from donors on both the Jewish and Arab sides of the fence, gently close their eyes and pretend that all is well.
The posting was this one:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/11/pro-palestinian-activists-attack-jews.html
It is dated 11/14/2008.
The anonymous commenter who discovered it shortly after ten o'clock yesterday evening wrote:
"I don't understand Zionists' claim to a land that was already inhabited by other people. We live in a modern era. Why should Americans support an apartheid state because it believes that religious texts have 'granted' a single people the right to establish a racially defined state to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries when Jesiwh immigrants were being imported from Europe. While the Holocaust is a horrendous legacy, how does the Jewish state honor the memory of those who were killed by Nazi Germany by perpetrating similar acts of exclusion and oppression? I really don't understand the Zionist mentality...Also, many Jews are anti-Zionist."
I have responded to his query in the comment string, but as the tropes he trumpets are common, it may serve some useful purpose to deal with them in a new post.
I don't understand Zionists' claim to a land that was already inhabited by other people.
There were always Jews living there among the other people. The other people came in with conquerors over the centuries. Jews, however, have ALWAYS lived there. Furthermore, the Zionist purchased land - and developed the barren areas which they bought. It was the economic development of those lands that drew in even more people.
Also, the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem and Hebron, as well as other places inside the land, were ethnically cleansed by Arab mobs in the twenties and thirties - how do you justify Arabs even daring to claim those areas?
Why should Americans support an apartheid state
America does not support an Apartheid state - Israeli Arabs have the right to vote, to own property, and to participate at all levels in Israeli society. And there are Arabs in the ranks of most political parties and all ministries. There are also Arab parties in the Knesset. There are jobs and stations where having served in the IDF give you a much greater entry - Arabs are free to join the IDF. Druze Arabs and many Bedouin do serve in the military (and note that there are Knesset speakers, ministers, officers, and department heads from the Arab Israeli side). All who stayed in 1948 became citizens.
The distinction is with the population in the territories - who are not citizens, and do not wish to be citizens, of a praedominantly Jewish state. They have their own institutions, which are overwhelmingly Judenrein - this despite there having been Jewish populations in both the West Bank and Gaza (that latter population ethnically cleansed several times, the last time during the British period) which date back to the pre-Roman period. Obviously, a population which will not become citizens, and is not even desirous of that - which in fact is acknowledged by all sides as heading towards eventual statehood of its own - cannot be administered in the same way as citizens. They are administered under British Mandate codes and Ottoman law. As they were when the Jordanians ruled over them, and as they were after Egypt had seized Gaza. The laws in those areas are a confusing and oppressive welter, due to it being illegal to change them until locally valid representative bodies do so.
Apartheid state ....
Like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, and several others which have nationality laws based on racial and religious exclusionism, coupled with a large number of 'guest-workers' who are treated worse than animals?
But Israel treats its guest-workers and resident aliens far better. So, NOT like the countries just mentioned.
Do you wish to talk about Mexican dishwashers and lettuce pickers? How about Turks who have been three generations in Northern Europe, and are still "foreigners"? Chinese and Indians in Malaysia who have been there for centuries and are discriminated against?
Koreans in Japan? Indians and Pakistanis in the Gulf?
[02/20/2009: Adding Italy to the list above. Per Italian law, children born to foreigners do not automatically receive citizenship, some are left in limbo. This particularly applies to Gypsies and Eastern Europeans. ]
because it believes that religious texts have 'granted' a single people the right to establish a racially defined state to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries when Jewish immigrants were being imported from Europe.
Zionism is not based on the Bible but on that land being the historic homeland of the Jewish people - even the Romans admitted precisely that.
As did the Arabs - in the Quran, during the various Caliphates, under the Ottomans, and even in the 1920s when the Arabs were becoming nations. Kings Abdullah (assassinated by a Palestinian in Jerusalem) and Hussein (of blessed memory) also admitted the Jewish right to the land.
Nor is the state racially defined (and 'race' in any case is no longer used as a defining term by most anthropologists). There are Jews of every "racial" stripe known to man. In what way is a glow-in-the-dark Hassid from Lithuania the same race as a Persian Jew, an Egyptian Jew, a Baghdadi, a Jew from Samarkand or Bokhara, or a Sfard from Morocco?
And exclusion? Did I already mention that those who stayed, contrary to the commands of the invading Arab armies and at the express request of Jewish leaders in 1948, were automatically granted citizenship? If I didn't mention it yet, I apologize - I should have.
And speaking of 'exclusion', I should also mention that since 1948 the Jews were excluded in very large numbers from Islamic countries - were they had lived since before Islam, in many cases, and in some cases before the current population settled there (that being most notably ALL the lands inhabited today by Turkic majorities, all of which were conquered by invaders from the steppes between ten and four centuries ago - Istanbul used to be Constantinople, and the Greeks still want it back).
Jewish immigrants imported from Europe? Indeed, many of the citizens of Israel have ancestors who came from there (though, of course, the ancestors of the European Jews were not from Europe - see 'Historic Homeland' mentioned above).
Over half the Jewish population however came from Arab and Muslim lands that they were kicked out of in 1948 and years since.
And do not forget, there were already Jews there when they returned to Israel. Many of whom had never been elsewhere - the territory 'assigned' to them by the United Nations was the area of Jewish majority, not the total area where there were Jews. Those who were thrown out of the Arab countries were robbed by the Arabs before they left, and arrived with nothing. As the US Congress in fact recognizes. Note also that these exiles were absorbed by their kin - precisely as the Arabs have refused to absorb their own brothers who fled.
to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries
The Jewish return to the land was already happening in small measure long before Zionism - Jews returned to Jerusalem, Hebron, Tzfat, and Gaza throughout Ottoman times, and there were Jews who already lived there.
For eight decades till 1948, Jewish population there increased more markedly than under the Caliphate.
Since 1948, it has been the Jewish state - but all in all, Jews have been a majority in their land now for several generations, since before independence. Many were born there, their parents were born there. And many even have grandparents, great grandparents, and even further kin who were born there. They live there now, and most have not lived anywhere else.
If being born in the US makes you an American, or a citizen of many other countries, then by that same reason the Jews in Israel are validly of Israel, and the "Palestinians" born in Nahr El Bard or Jordan are Lebanese and Jordanian.
Oh wait, Arabs practice an exclusionism even more bitter than Europeans and Malays. They discriminate against their own family.
While the Holocaust is a horrendous legacy, how does the Jewish state honor the memory of those who were killed by Nazi Germany by perpetrating similar acts of exclusion and oppression?
The comparison is obscene. After 1967, the Arab population in the territories more than tripled. Even in Gaza since the intifada, there has been a forty percent increase in the population, as per a news item on the BBC website which quotes UN figures. There are more Palestinians now than ever before. They have thrived most marvelously since 1948.
There are no death camps. There are no gas chambers. There are no torture rooms. The Arabs in the West Bank largely have their own officials to blame for the mess they are in (corruption nurtured and encouraged by the UN), and the Arabs in Gaza can thank Hamas (whose nickname, by the way, is SHIA - in snarky acknowledgement of the Iranian contribution) for their situation.
I really don't understand the Zionist mentality
That may be due to ignorance. Give it another shot.
Also, many Jews are anti-Zionist
That also may be due to ignorance. Provided we give them the benefit of doubt.
But more because they desperately wish to be unobjectionable to all, in every possible way. Blending in is a powerful motivator for Uncle-Tomism.
As is profound self-hatred.
[02/20/2009: I actually thought of refering to the anti-Zionist Jews as Kapos-in-training, but the situation is more complex than that. As "A" points out, "The whole issue of Jewish anti-Zionism is much more complex and should be treated in better detail and with less acrimony toward non-Jews.
Ultraorthodox Jews (Neturei Karte) did not want Zionism to usurp the traditional rabbinic leadership of the Jews.
Assimilationist Jews were/are afraid that Zionism will cast doubt on their loyalty to their current state.
Both Marxist and Assimilationist Jews believed that "progress" in a liberal or communist society would allow them to integrate and be part of larger society. In Germany and USSR, this proved to be an illusion.".]
By the same token, many pro-Palestinian activists assert that they are not anti-Semites because their 'best friends' are Jewish (in other words, strictly anti-Zionist Jews). A more common tendency among them is to avoid Jews who they feel are too "Jewish", especially as regards the Israel and Palestine issues.
And, of course, there are still convinced anti-Semites in their ranks.
Not wishing to associate with a taboo minority is also a powerful motivator, as is profound subconscious hatred.
Any questions sofar? There will be a test.
APARTHEID
Now, I find it interesting that the word 'apartheid' is so often used by the anti-Israel crowd. Interesting, because it does not mean what they intend it to mean, nor what they wish to think it means.
Apartheid is a Dutch word that strictly speaking means 'separateness', and in the South African context referred to a legal separation within the same country into ethnic classes (based, in fact, on old Dutch-Roman law and the feudal concept of Romans, nobles, freemen, and serfs) - something which in so varied and diverse a country as Israel is patently absurd.
The West Bank, of course, is different; the Arabs wish their eventual state to be as Judenrein as possible, and have made abundantly clear that they wish Jews to keep out, but do not object to dogs or Persians.
As my regular readers know, I speak, read, and write Dutch fluently. I also understand a number of Dutch dialects, including Afrikaans. Do not presume to lecture me on what 'apartheid' means. Do not even think of doing so. It is a word in my language, not yours - you have merely hijacked it, and 'colonized' it - precisely like the Arabs did to the Christian lands in North Africa, the Levant, and Iberia, exactly like Muslims did to Asia Minor, Western India, Central Asia, and parts of Indonesia. If you use that word, you betray your ignorance, and your linguistic carpetbaggery.
Plus, in this case, you devalue that word to the point of irrelevance.
As you are also doing by comparing the fairly minor Gaza war to the full-scale extermination of six million people over a five year period.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
SHOT IN THE LEG
Excerpts from a speech by PLO Executive Committee Secretary Yasser Abd Rabbo, broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV on 1/16 and on Al-Jazeera TV on 1/22:
"Yesterday, we heard Khaled Mashal talking from Damascus about new, additional preconditions for national reconciliation – the only goal of which is to hinder the achievement of reconciliation."
[...]
"Today, Hamas gangs are unleashed like packs of animals on the streets of Gaza against Fatah members. Because the military bases and the prisons have been destroyed, they have turned Gaza schools, Al-Nasser Hospital, the radiology department at Shifa' Hospital, Al-Aqsa University, and other places, including mosques, into centers for the detention, interrogation, and torture of Fatah members and members of other national Palestinian factions."
[...]
"Dozens of people have been shot in the leg, been beaten savagely, and had their bones broken, because they are members of the Fatah movement, which took to the streets of Gaza to confront the occupation, leaving all disagreements [with Hamas] behind, during the battle against the invasion by the Israeli occupation. This is what is happening today in Gaza."
[...]
"This reminds me of the 'glorious exploits' of Chemical Ali in southern Iraq after the 1991 'Mother of All Wars.' When the smoke of battle cleared, he turned his gangs and his fire against the Iraqis in southern Iraq, and the massacre that ensued is known to all. Who is the 'Chemical' today in Gaza, who wants to turn Gaza into the venue of a new massacre?"
[...]
"I heard that Abu Marzouq is sanctioning the killing of Palestinians, in an interview with the Qatari Al-Sharq newspaper the day before yesterday. He said that they have [captured] collaborators, and they have already executed some, while others await their turn. What collaborators are you talking about, Mr. Abu Marzouq? Of course he has expanded the list, saying that anyone who criticizes the policy of Hamas a traitor and a collaborator, and that it is okay to kill him. Is this the promised Islamic rule, or is it a blood-soaked lie about Islam?"
[...]
"Who plunders the trucks bringing aid to the Gaza Strip, and distributes it only among the follows of its party and movement, while the children of Gaza are starving? Who is stealing the land of Gaza, dividing it into lots, and giving them to the cronies of Hamas members of the Shura Council?"
[SOURCE: MEMRI - © 1998-2008, The Middle East Media Research Institute,
All Rights Reserved. Materials may only be cited with proper attribution.
MEMRI: http://www.memri.org/ MEMRITV: http://www.memritv.org/ Clip #1998 - Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee Yasser Abd Rabbo Accuses Hamas of New Atrocities against Fatah Members in Gaza http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1998.htm ]
From the above it can be seen that not all Arabs, nor even all Palestinians, are supporters of Hamas. Many Palestinians have more than sufficient reason to fear Hamas, and consequently oppose them in every matter.
That is quite unlike the Bay Area pro-Palestinians, who do not question the virtues of the Harkat al Mukawamma al 'Slamiya (the Movement of Islamic Resistance, that being the name of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is recognized in many countries as a terrorist movement).
But then, those who do not have to live with Hamas will blithely ignore details that contradict their own idealism.
Those aren't their knees which are capped.
It is comfortable to live in Berkeley.
"Yesterday, we heard Khaled Mashal talking from Damascus about new, additional preconditions for national reconciliation – the only goal of which is to hinder the achievement of reconciliation."
[...]
"Today, Hamas gangs are unleashed like packs of animals on the streets of Gaza against Fatah members. Because the military bases and the prisons have been destroyed, they have turned Gaza schools, Al-Nasser Hospital, the radiology department at Shifa' Hospital, Al-Aqsa University, and other places, including mosques, into centers for the detention, interrogation, and torture of Fatah members and members of other national Palestinian factions."
[...]
"Dozens of people have been shot in the leg, been beaten savagely, and had their bones broken, because they are members of the Fatah movement, which took to the streets of Gaza to confront the occupation, leaving all disagreements [with Hamas] behind, during the battle against the invasion by the Israeli occupation. This is what is happening today in Gaza."
[...]
"This reminds me of the 'glorious exploits' of Chemical Ali in southern Iraq after the 1991 'Mother of All Wars.' When the smoke of battle cleared, he turned his gangs and his fire against the Iraqis in southern Iraq, and the massacre that ensued is known to all. Who is the 'Chemical' today in Gaza, who wants to turn Gaza into the venue of a new massacre?"
[...]
"I heard that Abu Marzouq is sanctioning the killing of Palestinians, in an interview with the Qatari Al-Sharq newspaper the day before yesterday. He said that they have [captured] collaborators, and they have already executed some, while others await their turn. What collaborators are you talking about, Mr. Abu Marzouq? Of course he has expanded the list, saying that anyone who criticizes the policy of Hamas a traitor and a collaborator, and that it is okay to kill him. Is this the promised Islamic rule, or is it a blood-soaked lie about Islam?"
[...]
"Who plunders the trucks bringing aid to the Gaza Strip, and distributes it only among the follows of its party and movement, while the children of Gaza are starving? Who is stealing the land of Gaza, dividing it into lots, and giving them to the cronies of Hamas members of the Shura Council?"
[SOURCE: MEMRI - © 1998-2008, The Middle East Media Research Institute,
All Rights Reserved. Materials may only be cited with proper attribution.
MEMRI: http://www.memri.org/ MEMRITV: http://www.memritv.org/ Clip #1998 - Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee Yasser Abd Rabbo Accuses Hamas of New Atrocities against Fatah Members in Gaza http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1998.htm ]
From the above it can be seen that not all Arabs, nor even all Palestinians, are supporters of Hamas. Many Palestinians have more than sufficient reason to fear Hamas, and consequently oppose them in every matter.
That is quite unlike the Bay Area pro-Palestinians, who do not question the virtues of the Harkat al Mukawamma al 'Slamiya (the Movement of Islamic Resistance, that being the name of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is recognized in many countries as a terrorist movement).
But then, those who do not have to live with Hamas will blithely ignore details that contradict their own idealism.
Those aren't their knees which are capped.
It is comfortable to live in Berkeley.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
ANTI-ISRAEL SLOGANS IN SF - INT'L ANSWER AND CINDY SHEEHAN
As an indication of the kind of people we are dealing with in the Bay Area - the people who have friends on the SF Board of Supervisors and among a number of the more influential political players in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco - it may help to review the slogans which were on handmade signs at the anti-Israel demonstration organized by International ANSWER this past Saturday.
[Other sponsors of the 01/10/2009 demonstration: Free Palestine Alliance, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, National Council of Arab Americans and Al-Awda-International Palestine Right to Return Coalition. The demonstration also had the support of Bay Area Women in Black (BAWIB) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).]
PROTEST SIGN TEXTS:
America Out Of Gaza!
Amerisrael Must Stop Genocide
Another Jew Against Police States
Another Jew Against the Occupation
Boycott Jews
Destroy Israel
Every Zionazi is a legitimate Military Target
Fuck AmeriKKKa
Fuck Israel
Gaza is a Holocaust
Gaza = Warsaw
Globalize the Intifada
Hamas & Hizbullah = Freedom Fighters
Hizbullah beat you ya kilab
In Gaza, Oakland, and Greece: No Justice, No Peace
Israelis = Nazis
Intifada!
Israel Jew Pigs
Jews are Terroist (stet)
Just Another Queer Jew to End the Occupation
Kill Ixrelly terrorits!
Make Jewisrael Pay!
Modern Day Nazis = Israel
Monster Nation Bloodthirsty Israel
More Quassems Peace!
Nuke Israel
Nuke The Jew State!
Obama is the enemy of world's working people!
Proud Union Queer Against Genocide
Puppies!
Smash the Jewish State
Stop the Racist U.S. /Israeli War against the Arab People.
Stop the U.S., Israeli Genocide
Target all Zionist businesses
The Jewish State is a Criminal Entity
The Real Terrorists = U.S. Israel
To Save Jewish Culture End Zionism
Want Peace? Stop U.S. Aid to Israel
Wiccan Against War!
Zionists Love Obama
[For visual confirmation of most of these, please visit:
http://zombietime.com/gaza_war_protest/
Other's are viewable in self-aggrandizing posts on Indybay, to which I do not ever intend to link.]
INTERNATIONAL ANSWER'S ENDORSEMENT
Despite having more security monitors in attendance than ever before (nearly one out of eight demonstrators wore the yellow vest assigned to monitors by International ANSWER), these signs were not removed.
Ergo, by the standards of International ANSWER, the sentiments expressed were both acceptable and justified.
In both intent and effect, International ANSWER endorses all these slogans, as do the other organizations which sponsored the demonstration, and the individual participants.
CINDY SHEEHAN
Also endorsing the anti-Semitism, I should add, was Cindy Sheehan, one of the fiery anti-Israel speakers trotted out by ANSWER.
Certainly so 'strong-minded' a woman as ms. Sheehan would have had the gumption to insist that the message of the demonstration NOT be one of hatred, bigotry, and blatant anti-Semitism.......
Unless she supported precisely that.
[Other sponsors of the 01/10/2009 demonstration: Free Palestine Alliance, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, National Council of Arab Americans and Al-Awda-International Palestine Right to Return Coalition. The demonstration also had the support of Bay Area Women in Black (BAWIB) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).]
PROTEST SIGN TEXTS:
America Out Of Gaza!
Amerisrael Must Stop Genocide
Another Jew Against Police States
Another Jew Against the Occupation
Boycott Jews
Destroy Israel
Every Zionazi is a legitimate Military Target
Fuck AmeriKKKa
Fuck Israel
Gaza is a Holocaust
Gaza = Warsaw
Globalize the Intifada
Hamas & Hizbullah = Freedom Fighters
Hizbullah beat you ya kilab
In Gaza, Oakland, and Greece: No Justice, No Peace
Israelis = Nazis
Intifada!
Israel Jew Pigs
Jews are Terroist (stet)
Just Another Queer Jew to End the Occupation
Kill Ixrelly terrorits!
Make Jewisrael Pay!
Modern Day Nazis = Israel
Monster Nation Bloodthirsty Israel
More Quassems Peace!
Nuke Israel
Nuke The Jew State!
Obama is the enemy of world's working people!
Proud Union Queer Against Genocide
Puppies!
Smash the Jewish State
Stop the Racist U.S. /Israeli War against the Arab People.
Stop the U.S., Israeli Genocide
Target all Zionist businesses
The Jewish State is a Criminal Entity
The Real Terrorists = U.S. Israel
To Save Jewish Culture End Zionism
Want Peace? Stop U.S. Aid to Israel
Wiccan Against War!
Zionists Love Obama
[For visual confirmation of most of these, please visit:
http://zombietime.com/gaza_war_protest/
Other's are viewable in self-aggrandizing posts on Indybay, to which I do not ever intend to link.]
INTERNATIONAL ANSWER'S ENDORSEMENT
Despite having more security monitors in attendance than ever before (nearly one out of eight demonstrators wore the yellow vest assigned to monitors by International ANSWER), these signs were not removed.
Ergo, by the standards of International ANSWER, the sentiments expressed were both acceptable and justified.
In both intent and effect, International ANSWER endorses all these slogans, as do the other organizations which sponsored the demonstration, and the individual participants.
CINDY SHEEHAN
Also endorsing the anti-Semitism, I should add, was Cindy Sheehan, one of the fiery anti-Israel speakers trotted out by ANSWER.
Certainly so 'strong-minded' a woman as ms. Sheehan would have had the gumption to insist that the message of the demonstration NOT be one of hatred, bigotry, and blatant anti-Semitism.......
Unless she supported precisely that.
ABOUT THE U.N., FROM SOMEONE IN A POSITION TO KNOW
Quote:
"Some may feel satisfaction at repeatedly passing General Assembly resolutions or holding conferences that condemn Israel's behavior. But one should also ask whether such steps bring any tangible relief or benefit to the Palestinians. There have been decades of resolutions. There has been a proliferation of special committees, sessions, etc. Has any of this had an effect on Israel's policies, other than to strengthen the belief in Israel, and among many of its supporters, that this great Organization is too one-sided to be allowed a significant role in the Middle East peace process?''
Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, speaking before the UN Security Council in December 2006.
"Some may feel satisfaction at repeatedly passing General Assembly resolutions or holding conferences that condemn Israel's behavior. But one should also ask whether such steps bring any tangible relief or benefit to the Palestinians. There have been decades of resolutions. There has been a proliferation of special committees, sessions, etc. Has any of this had an effect on Israel's policies, other than to strengthen the belief in Israel, and among many of its supporters, that this great Organization is too one-sided to be allowed a significant role in the Middle East peace process?''
Former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, speaking before the UN Security Council in December 2006.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
PRO-ISRAEL VOICES IN SAN FRANCISCO
All the usual people were on the streets of San Francisco yesterday during the demonstration against Israel. But really, no more than the usual people. Hate-filled bigots, ideological wankers, opportunistic trouble-makers, garden-variety anti-Semites, and misguided hippies. Hi guys!
Gee, that's ALL you could manage?
HATRED'S CHEERLEADERS
International ANSWER, organizers of anti-Semitic events in the Bay Area, must be getting desperate. Their hardcore was there, and their safety monitors this time nearly outnumbered the Arab jugend. But it was probably one of their most pathetic demonstrations yet.
They only managed about twelve hundred people.
It will be remembered that at the start of the Iraq war over a quarter of a million people took to the streets of San Francisco.
At demonstrations a few years ago, International ANSWER pulled together three or four thousand happy anti-Semites.
Last year during the fifth-anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, with three months of organization meetings and tactical planning, ANSWER and their willing dunces managed to have a few dozen people block some intersections for an hour here and there. Most of the direct action trolls were in custody by nine am.
And yesterday?
After an entire week of intensive organizing, e-mails, textmails, pamphletting, and sign-ups?
Twelve hundred. Not even.
PRO-ISRAEL DEMONSTRATORS
The sane and rational side managed a more impressive showing than I actually expected. Altogether, there were well over four hundred of us on the pro-Israel side. Families, young couples, elderly Russians, fresh-faced youths. Our side represented a significantly broader cross-spectrum than our opponents.
THUGGISM AND IGNORANCE
The SF Chronicle called the anti-Israel event a peaceful protest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BAK6157880.DTL
Which, despite the attack on an elderly woman, the occasional roughing up of passing Jews, and the strong-arm theft of some Israeli flags by Arab bullies, I guess it mostly was.
[Note: some of the stolen flags were subsequently set on fire by masked young gentlemen to the general joy of other participants.]
INTERNATIONAL ANSWER AND YOUR BASER INSTINCTS
After Wednesday night's disgraceful performance in Oakland, where, with ANSWER's organized encouragement, a demonstration over the shooting of an un-armed handcuffed and subdued young man by BART police, turned into a violent melee in which ANSWER signs were used to destroy windows and damage parked vehicles (and oddly, some of the video shows one or two vandals wearing keffiyehs), ANSWER might worry that future protest-permits are iffy. There was somewhat less bloodthirsty chanting than at previous demos.
I only heard a few of the usual Arabic slogans, which were not as loud nor as sustained, as at previous hate-fests organized by ANSWER.
Perhaps they've learned that screaming "massacre the Jews" in Arabic is not as opaque as they presumed.
Still, some of the Arab jugend did act predictably. Their parents must be so ashamed at their children's lack of manners and morals.
Or not.
Maybe apathetic.
The most entertaining part of International ANSWER's buffoonery, however, were the speeches. These ran the gamut from an Arab woman having unintelligible hysterics on cue into a microphone, through an IRA terrorist drawing ridiculous comparisons, to some accented British revolutionary speaking fondly of the day when Hebrew-speaking labouring classes and the proletariat of the Arab world would create a workers-paradise in which everybody could manifest their full potential in a spirit of brotherly love and co-operation, heroically overcoming Capitalism, Religion, and Fascism.
It was a hoot.
---------------------------------------
IN OTHER NEWS
FRIDAY
01/09/09
On Friday, two middle-aged female Zionists managed to discourage about twenty five Israel-haters in Alameda holding a pro-Hamas vigil. Mere moments after the two ladies with their Israeli flags showed up, the pro-Hamas side skedaddled while customers of a restaurant and a bar nearby came out to thank the pro-Israel side for showing up.
SATURDAY
01/10/09
Early Saturday evening, homosexual anti-Israel demonstrators held a noisy event in the Castro district, to the general disapproval of most of the people on the street. They were counter-protested by several local activists, and a swelling number of passers-by.
Most gay San Franciscans are keenly aware that only one state in the Mid-East offers gays full rights and protection. So when the Israel-haters started throwing shoes, in imitation of their ideological cohorts in parts of the extremist world, enthusiastic volunteers gathered up the flung footwear for deposit in nearby garbage cans. This proved discomfiting to the pro-terror side, as the throwers were left barefoot in consequence.
Note: Sidewalk cement is particularly frigid and uncomfortable at this time of year.
SUNDAY
01/11/09
Today, starting at 2:00 PM, pro-Israel demonstrators gathered in front of the consulate on Montgomery street, numbering nearly two hundred people at one point. Many carried Israel and American flags, others had signs advocating peace and a cessation of Hamas terrorism. People driving by waved, and many honked in support. Very inspiring.
Gee, that's ALL you could manage?
HATRED'S CHEERLEADERS
International ANSWER, organizers of anti-Semitic events in the Bay Area, must be getting desperate. Their hardcore was there, and their safety monitors this time nearly outnumbered the Arab jugend. But it was probably one of their most pathetic demonstrations yet.
They only managed about twelve hundred people.
It will be remembered that at the start of the Iraq war over a quarter of a million people took to the streets of San Francisco.
At demonstrations a few years ago, International ANSWER pulled together three or four thousand happy anti-Semites.
Last year during the fifth-anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, with three months of organization meetings and tactical planning, ANSWER and their willing dunces managed to have a few dozen people block some intersections for an hour here and there. Most of the direct action trolls were in custody by nine am.
And yesterday?
After an entire week of intensive organizing, e-mails, textmails, pamphletting, and sign-ups?
Twelve hundred. Not even.
PRO-ISRAEL DEMONSTRATORS
The sane and rational side managed a more impressive showing than I actually expected. Altogether, there were well over four hundred of us on the pro-Israel side. Families, young couples, elderly Russians, fresh-faced youths. Our side represented a significantly broader cross-spectrum than our opponents.
THUGGISM AND IGNORANCE
The SF Chronicle called the anti-Israel event a peaceful protest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BAK6157880.DTL
Which, despite the attack on an elderly woman, the occasional roughing up of passing Jews, and the strong-arm theft of some Israeli flags by Arab bullies, I guess it mostly was.
[Note: some of the stolen flags were subsequently set on fire by masked young gentlemen to the general joy of other participants.]
The Anarchists had promised to come and commit vandalism. But their internet presence is more impressive than their actual number in the real world. That old style violent Berkeleyite goonery has fewer adherents with each passing year. Not a single one of them showed up.
Much of the violence was verbal or textual.
One or two deranged people came over to scream incoherently before being escorted back to their side by the police. There were several Jew-hating chants from the line of face-covered Keffiyeh youth, and many of the handmade signs equated Zionism with Nazism. One totally baffling sign opined that Zionism was Anti-Semitism. An unusual sign stated that Gaza in 2008 was the same as the Warsaw Ghetto in 1938.
1938?
1938?!?
1938!?!?!
Okay then, 1938.
Have it your way.
INTERNATIONAL ANSWER AND YOUR BASER INSTINCTS
After Wednesday night's disgraceful performance in Oakland, where, with ANSWER's organized encouragement, a demonstration over the shooting of an un-armed handcuffed and subdued young man by BART police, turned into a violent melee in which ANSWER signs were used to destroy windows and damage parked vehicles (and oddly, some of the video shows one or two vandals wearing keffiyehs), ANSWER might worry that future protest-permits are iffy. There was somewhat less bloodthirsty chanting than at previous demos.
I only heard a few of the usual Arabic slogans, which were not as loud nor as sustained, as at previous hate-fests organized by ANSWER.
Perhaps they've learned that screaming "massacre the Jews" in Arabic is not as opaque as they presumed.
Still, some of the Arab jugend did act predictably. Their parents must be so ashamed at their children's lack of manners and morals.
Or not.
Maybe apathetic.
The most entertaining part of International ANSWER's buffoonery, however, were the speeches. These ran the gamut from an Arab woman having unintelligible hysterics on cue into a microphone, through an IRA terrorist drawing ridiculous comparisons, to some accented British revolutionary speaking fondly of the day when Hebrew-speaking labouring classes and the proletariat of the Arab world would create a workers-paradise in which everybody could manifest their full potential in a spirit of brotherly love and co-operation, heroically overcoming Capitalism, Religion, and Fascism.
It was a hoot.
---------------------------------------
IN OTHER NEWS
FRIDAY
01/09/09
On Friday, two middle-aged female Zionists managed to discourage about twenty five Israel-haters in Alameda holding a pro-Hamas vigil. Mere moments after the two ladies with their Israeli flags showed up, the pro-Hamas side skedaddled while customers of a restaurant and a bar nearby came out to thank the pro-Israel side for showing up.
SATURDAY
01/10/09
Early Saturday evening, homosexual anti-Israel demonstrators held a noisy event in the Castro district, to the general disapproval of most of the people on the street. They were counter-protested by several local activists, and a swelling number of passers-by.
Most gay San Franciscans are keenly aware that only one state in the Mid-East offers gays full rights and protection. So when the Israel-haters started throwing shoes, in imitation of their ideological cohorts in parts of the extremist world, enthusiastic volunteers gathered up the flung footwear for deposit in nearby garbage cans. This proved discomfiting to the pro-terror side, as the throwers were left barefoot in consequence.
Note: Sidewalk cement is particularly frigid and uncomfortable at this time of year.
SUNDAY
01/11/09
Today, starting at 2:00 PM, pro-Israel demonstrators gathered in front of the consulate on Montgomery street, numbering nearly two hundred people at one point. Many carried Israel and American flags, others had signs advocating peace and a cessation of Hamas terrorism. People driving by waved, and many honked in support. Very inspiring.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
SF PRO-ISRAEL COUNTERDEMONSTRATION - SATURDAY JANUARY 10
The following is a message from San Francisco Voice for Israel.
-------------------------------------------
ACTION ALERT - PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
Counter Protest International ANSWER's Anti-Israel Demonstration
This Saturday January 10
San Francisco at the Civic Center Plaza (we will gather on Polk between Larkin and McAllister Sts, directly in front of City Hall).
Meet at 11:00 AM
Once again, the streets of the Bay Area are filled with hate when Israel defends itself. International ANSWER and other anti-Israel groups in the area are claiming Israel's actions in Gaza are "genocide" . Groups protesting against Israel last week chanted "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews) and "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), clear anti-Semitic hate speech.
The groups sponsoring these demonstrations demonize Israel, endorse Israel's destruction, and justify the terrorist acts against Israel that caused the current situation. In particular, International ANSWER is the group that forced its own racist, anti-Semitic propaganda on those who wanted to march just to oppose the war in Iraq. While SF Voice for Israel takes no position on the Iraq war, we oppose ANSWER's manipulation of the antiwar movement and its demonization of Israel. Previous ANSWER demonstrations have been notable for vicious anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and pro-terror signs, speakers and chants.
San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us will stand against the anti-Israel/pro-terrorism voices. Our presence at these events has proven highly effective at countering their message and making sure that the anti-Israel activists can not push their propaganda on the public unopposed! In addition, when the local media cover these demonstrations, they always film our presence so that the public can see that supporters of Israel are willing to stand up for the truth. (Those of you who were there with us last week even had your presence noted on
CNN!).
We know that many in our community will be unable to join us because this is on Shabbat. While we will never schedule our own events on Shabbat, we are standing up against the anti-Israel hate groups that usually schedule their protests for Saturdays, specifically to try to minimize the Jewish community response.
We will meet at 11 AM and stay until ANSWER leaves Civic Center Plaza to march through the streets. We do not encourage anyone to march near them in counterprotest once they leave the Civic Center area, as we cannot assure adequate police protection should elements in their rally decide to start a rampage.
Please bring your noisemakers, flags, and signs, AND please wear BLUE and WHITE. As always, feel free to make your own signs but please no signs or graphics offensive to any racial or ethnic group including but not limited to Arabs, Islam, or Palestinians in general. Signs in violation of our policies will not be allowed.
Demand an end to Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli civilians!
Demand Cpl Gilad Shalit be returned home safely!
Demand Hamas put an end to terror attacks!
Demand an end to the deligitimization and demonization of Israel!
Demand that Hamas choose peace so that the Palestinian people can have a future!
San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.standwithus.com
for further information or questions: e-mail us at sfvoiceforisrael@yahoo.com
<mailto:sfvoiceforisrael%40yahoo.com>
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
NOTE
The anti-Israel demonstration which we will be counterprotesting is sponsored by the usual organizations: The ANSWER Coalition, Free Palestine Alliance, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, National Council of Arab Americans and Al-Awda-International Palestine Right to Return Coalition.
All of them seek the destruction of the United States and Israel. The first one listed (ANSWER) is the largest anti-Semitic hate-group in California.
Please also note that Bay Area Women in Black (BAWIB), Queers Undermining Isreali Terror (QUIT), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have repeatedly endorsed the anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel messages of the sponsors listed above, as well as stood in solidarity during speeches in favour of various terrorist groups, and while racist slogans (such as 'itbach al Yahud') where chanted.
It is time to call them to account for their support of bigotry and hate.
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
-----Rabbi Hillel
-------------------------------------------
ACTION ALERT - PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
Counter Protest International ANSWER's Anti-Israel Demonstration
This Saturday January 10
San Francisco at the Civic Center Plaza (we will gather on Polk between Larkin and McAllister Sts, directly in front of City Hall).
Meet at 11:00 AM
Once again, the streets of the Bay Area are filled with hate when Israel defends itself. International ANSWER and other anti-Israel groups in the area are claiming Israel's actions in Gaza are "genocide" . Groups protesting against Israel last week chanted "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews) and "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), clear anti-Semitic hate speech.
The groups sponsoring these demonstrations demonize Israel, endorse Israel's destruction, and justify the terrorist acts against Israel that caused the current situation. In particular, International ANSWER is the group that forced its own racist, anti-Semitic propaganda on those who wanted to march just to oppose the war in Iraq. While SF Voice for Israel takes no position on the Iraq war, we oppose ANSWER's manipulation of the antiwar movement and its demonization of Israel. Previous ANSWER demonstrations have been notable for vicious anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and pro-terror signs, speakers and chants.
San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us will stand against the anti-Israel/pro-terrorism voices. Our presence at these events has proven highly effective at countering their message and making sure that the anti-Israel activists can not push their propaganda on the public unopposed! In addition, when the local media cover these demonstrations, they always film our presence so that the public can see that supporters of Israel are willing to stand up for the truth. (Those of you who were there with us last week even had your presence noted on
CNN!).
We know that many in our community will be unable to join us because this is on Shabbat. While we will never schedule our own events on Shabbat, we are standing up against the anti-Israel hate groups that usually schedule their protests for Saturdays, specifically to try to minimize the Jewish community response.
We will meet at 11 AM and stay until ANSWER leaves Civic Center Plaza to march through the streets. We do not encourage anyone to march near them in counterprotest once they leave the Civic Center area, as we cannot assure adequate police protection should elements in their rally decide to start a rampage.
Please bring your noisemakers, flags, and signs, AND please wear BLUE and WHITE. As always, feel free to make your own signs but please no signs or graphics offensive to any racial or ethnic group including but not limited to Arabs, Islam, or Palestinians in general. Signs in violation of our policies will not be allowed.
Demand an end to Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli civilians!
Demand Cpl Gilad Shalit be returned home safely!
Demand Hamas put an end to terror attacks!
Demand an end to the deligitimization and demonization of Israel!
Demand that Hamas choose peace so that the Palestinian people can have a future!
San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.standwithus.com
for further information or questions: e-mail us at sfvoiceforisrael@yahoo.com
<mailto:sfvoiceforisrael%40yahoo.com>
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
NOTE
The anti-Israel demonstration which we will be counterprotesting is sponsored by the usual organizations: The ANSWER Coalition, Free Palestine Alliance, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, National Council of Arab Americans and Al-Awda-International Palestine Right to Return Coalition.
All of them seek the destruction of the United States and Israel. The first one listed (ANSWER) is the largest anti-Semitic hate-group in California.
Please also note that Bay Area Women in Black (BAWIB), Queers Undermining Isreali Terror (QUIT), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have repeatedly endorsed the anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel messages of the sponsors listed above, as well as stood in solidarity during speeches in favour of various terrorist groups, and while racist slogans (such as 'itbach al Yahud') where chanted.
It is time to call them to account for their support of bigotry and hate.
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
-----Rabbi Hillel
Monday, January 05, 2009
SABBATH OFF TO A ROCKY START
Links to a near-lynching in front of the Israeli Consulate on Montgomery Street.
Friday Jan. 2 at 5:15 PM, more or less.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMXH81ctj2o&eurl=http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208
Or here, with commentary, on Zombie's blog:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208
Five pro-Israel protestors.
Five hundred or more keffiyeh-wearing people.
One hundred to one.
I still think those are do-able odds.
Though I've never seen cops have hysterics before.
THE SCENE
The protests began at around noon at Powell and Market, wandered through the downtown fifteen hundred strong(*), then ended up in front of the consulate at four thirty. I could hear the crowd screaming
'ba rooh, ba dam, nafdeek ya falasteen' as they passed by on Montgomery Street.
[* Fifteen hundred is an educated guess, but it might have been as many as two thousand.]
The five of us headed over to the consulate shortly afterwards, with three Israeli flags and three signs.
[Our signs: 'STOP ROCKETS FROM GAZA', 'HAMAS MUST BE DESTROYED', and 'HAMAS HAD IT COMING']
Once they saw us, the Palestinian side started screaming threats and insults, and one of them jumped up and down on an Israeli flag while erecting his middle digit. Shoes were also waved.
[They can't spit very far. At least not without significant blow-back.]
FRACAS
Several young Palestinian gallants started hitting one of our group (a middle-aged woman), at which point one of us rushed over and tried to break some ribs. Then the cops dragged us off, and tried to herd us away from the points of contact. Someone on the Palestinian side threw a handful of small change, and in addition to the middle-digit salute some of them made the money-grubbing gesture. Shortly afterwards the yelling mob crashed over the barriers screaming threats, and the cops had a fit - several officers pushed us inside a nearby building, where we were made to stay for a while, after which they drove us to somewhere else in a small caravan of police vehicles.
Other counter-protestors?
Well, pro-Israel is rather spread out, not very well organized, and mostly fully employed.
Anti-Israel is distinctly urban, and either unemployable, local student, or running liquor stores in the seedier sections of Oakland and SF. At that point in time, most of the pro-Palestinian Jewish protestors and their Intellectually anti-Semitic Gentile friends (JVP, Women in Black, et al) were heading towards Market street to go home, leaving the rowdies entirely un-babysat. And seeing as the anti-Israel manifestation was a well-organized spontaneous demonstration, the five of us were the only counter-demonstrators to show up.
Cigars?
Had to chuck one, hardly smoked, when the cops hustled us into a lobby of a nearby office building and barricaded the door. Still wish they hadn't jammed us into the building quite so soon - I had barely lit up, and had to waste nearly an entire cigarillo.
Thoughts during this sequence of events:
"I can take out three, maybe four of five, before they get me."
"Probably won't feel any pain till I wake up dead."
"There's a few of them I can cripple, easily."
Thoughts afterwards:
"I wish someone would whack that bitch Anja Meulenbelt....., oh, and Harry van Bommel too."
"Nearly getting killed is very dehydrating....., time for tea."
"Good thing my uncle and aunt will never hear about this."
"Glock 17, nine millimeter. Or a Browning GP35."
"Next time hit higher and get 'em in the face."
Adrenaline is marvelous. It cleared out my sinus head-ache and my stuffy nose.
I have never felt so alive. Thanks guys.
Friday Jan. 2 at 5:15 PM, more or less.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMXH81ctj2o&eurl=http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208
Or here, with commentary, on Zombie's blog:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208
Five pro-Israel protestors.
Five hundred or more keffiyeh-wearing people.
One hundred to one.
I still think those are do-able odds.
Though I've never seen cops have hysterics before.
THE SCENE
The protests began at around noon at Powell and Market, wandered through the downtown fifteen hundred strong(*), then ended up in front of the consulate at four thirty. I could hear the crowd screaming
'ba rooh, ba dam, nafdeek ya falasteen' as they passed by on Montgomery Street.
[* Fifteen hundred is an educated guess, but it might have been as many as two thousand.]
The five of us headed over to the consulate shortly afterwards, with three Israeli flags and three signs.
[Our signs: 'STOP ROCKETS FROM GAZA', 'HAMAS MUST BE DESTROYED', and 'HAMAS HAD IT COMING']
Once they saw us, the Palestinian side started screaming threats and insults, and one of them jumped up and down on an Israeli flag while erecting his middle digit. Shoes were also waved.
[They can't spit very far. At least not without significant blow-back.]
FRACAS
Several young Palestinian gallants started hitting one of our group (a middle-aged woman), at which point one of us rushed over and tried to break some ribs. Then the cops dragged us off, and tried to herd us away from the points of contact. Someone on the Palestinian side threw a handful of small change, and in addition to the middle-digit salute some of them made the money-grubbing gesture. Shortly afterwards the yelling mob crashed over the barriers screaming threats, and the cops had a fit - several officers pushed us inside a nearby building, where we were made to stay for a while, after which they drove us to somewhere else in a small caravan of police vehicles.
Other counter-protestors?
Well, pro-Israel is rather spread out, not very well organized, and mostly fully employed.
Anti-Israel is distinctly urban, and either unemployable, local student, or running liquor stores in the seedier sections of Oakland and SF. At that point in time, most of the pro-Palestinian Jewish protestors and their Intellectually anti-Semitic Gentile friends (JVP, Women in Black, et al) were heading towards Market street to go home, leaving the rowdies entirely un-babysat. And seeing as the anti-Israel manifestation was a well-organized spontaneous demonstration, the five of us were the only counter-demonstrators to show up.
Cigars?
Had to chuck one, hardly smoked, when the cops hustled us into a lobby of a nearby office building and barricaded the door. Still wish they hadn't jammed us into the building quite so soon - I had barely lit up, and had to waste nearly an entire cigarillo.
Thoughts during this sequence of events:
"I can take out three, maybe four of five, before they get me."
"Probably won't feel any pain till I wake up dead."
"There's a few of them I can cripple, easily."
Thoughts afterwards:
"I wish someone would whack that bitch Anja Meulenbelt....., oh, and Harry van Bommel too."
"Nearly getting killed is very dehydrating....., time for tea."
"Good thing my uncle and aunt will never hear about this."
"Glock 17, nine millimeter. Or a Browning GP35."
"Next time hit higher and get 'em in the face."
Adrenaline is marvelous. It cleared out my sinus head-ache and my stuffy nose.
I have never felt so alive. Thanks guys.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
TWENTY FIVE MILES OR LESS
Fascinating facts from a newspaper article.
Since 2001, there have been 3,984 rockets and 3,943 mortar shells launched at Israel from Gaza.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/29/MNHF150KHB.DTL
[cut]
Egypt brokered a truce that took effect in June, but since then, Palestinians still fired 223 rockets and 139 mortar shells from the Hamas-controlled enclave.
[cut]
The Palestinian death toll continued to climb on Monday, yet Hamas still managed to pour rocket fire on Israeli cities such as Ashdod, more than 20 miles to the north of the Gaza Strip, bringing a million Israelis within range of the fighting.
What that last part means is that any Israeli living twenty five miles or less from a Palestinian is probably in danger. As good an argument for imposing a twenty five mile wide no-mans land as any I've seen.
Since 2001, there have been 3,984 rockets and 3,943 mortar shells launched at Israel from Gaza.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/29/MNHF150KHB.DTL
[cut]
Egypt brokered a truce that took effect in June, but since then, Palestinians still fired 223 rockets and 139 mortar shells from the Hamas-controlled enclave.
[cut]
The Palestinian death toll continued to climb on Monday, yet Hamas still managed to pour rocket fire on Israeli cities such as Ashdod, more than 20 miles to the north of the Gaza Strip, bringing a million Israelis within range of the fighting.
What that last part means is that any Israeli living twenty five miles or less from a Palestinian is probably in danger. As good an argument for imposing a twenty five mile wide no-mans land as any I've seen.
Monday, December 29, 2008
DAMNING ISRAEL
Reading the Dutch, German, French, and English news sites and forums today highlighted three tendencies regarding reactions and thoughts about Israel's action in Gaza. These tendencies already existed, of course, but have been more sharply drawn in the last seventy-two plus hours.
The Pro-Israel no-matter-what tendency
The writer damns all Muslims, Palestinians, Socialists, and self-hating Europeans, while lauding the actions of Israel in Gaza.
This is distinctly a minority point of view.
The Nuanced Point of View
This person tends to understand that Hamas broke their own ceasefire, has sworn to destroy Israel, and provoked the conflict by firing off over two hundred rockets towards Israeli towns. Nevertheless, civilian deaths are lamented, and question are raised. The writer is not comfortable with adding to the misery of the average Arab.
This too is a minority point of view.
The angry Anti-Israel Opinion
These writers thoroughly condemn everything that Israel does, lament the misery of Palestinian existence, curse their own governments for doing nothing, and fervently wish ill upon Israel, the Jews, and anybody who takes the side of either Israel or the Jews. Many of these writers are anti-Semitic, but assert that being anti-Israel is not actual hatred. They are not overt bigots, as they (mostly) stay within the bounds of acceptable 'progressive' discourse.
This is the overwhelming majority point of view.
Digesting it all
What became apparent, reading the various sites, is just how much Israel is hated. To a certain extent, I can understand Arab hatred of Jews and Israel - Arabs hate everything and everybody. It seems to be part and parcel of their culture. They've killed over seven million of their own in the last sixty years, and almost instinctively speak ill of each other or sabotage their own causes.
I expect no better from that side. And I'll admit it, I am probably a racist because I expect nothing else from them. For which I apologize - I honestly cannot hold them to the same high standard as the civilized world. I am a realist.
I can also understand European hatred of Jews and Israel. After all, to many Europeans, the very survival of Jews proves them wrong. Their attempts to exterminate the Jews did not succeed, their attempts to force them to convert en-masse to Christianity or Communism failed. There are still Jews. It must be keenly disappointing to have those people still around as a reminder of the failure of European society.
Life would be so much simpler for both the Arabs and the Europeans, if there were no Jews. The Arabs could slowly destroy European society, the Europeans could profit enormously from whoring to the Arabs in the meantime. Benefit to both sides.
The Jews, especially in the shape of Israel, are the fly in the ointment. And so Israel taking action against Hamas, is of course, an affront to both many Europeans and to Arabs.
Which must be thoroughly condemned.
What I have never understood is why parts of America, in particular Northern California, are so filled with Jew-hatred. Places such as San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley. Heck, I cannot fathom why Berkeley is the most Jew-hating city in all of California. It would appear that our universities inculcate a very European attitude, and deliberately undermine our society's values.
I fully expect the next domestic terrorist movement to originate in academe.
AFTERTHOUGHT
I find myself in-between the first and second tendencies. I recognize that Israel had to act, I find what they are engaged upon justified, and I applaud their successes. Granted, as a society, Israel is by no means perfect. And ideally it should be possible for any society to speak for all of its members. But in the real world, societies are not always capable of giving all goals and values equal importance. To Israel's credit, she tries. And often succeeds in advancing the interests of a large majority of her citizens. Israel does so as the only democratic state in that area, and the only liberal humanist society in the Middle-East.
That, unfortunately, is something that not a single one of the Arab states have ever done, and also something which almost none of the Arab states can even lay claim to ever trying.
The one great contribution to our vocabulary from the Arabs in modern times has been 'mukhabarat' - a term for a secret police that functions with extraordinary brutality. It is the one constant shared by all Arab states, and frequently the only efficient department in an Arab government.
The Pro-Israel no-matter-what tendency
The writer damns all Muslims, Palestinians, Socialists, and self-hating Europeans, while lauding the actions of Israel in Gaza.
This is distinctly a minority point of view.
The Nuanced Point of View
This person tends to understand that Hamas broke their own ceasefire, has sworn to destroy Israel, and provoked the conflict by firing off over two hundred rockets towards Israeli towns. Nevertheless, civilian deaths are lamented, and question are raised. The writer is not comfortable with adding to the misery of the average Arab.
This too is a minority point of view.
The angry Anti-Israel Opinion
These writers thoroughly condemn everything that Israel does, lament the misery of Palestinian existence, curse their own governments for doing nothing, and fervently wish ill upon Israel, the Jews, and anybody who takes the side of either Israel or the Jews. Many of these writers are anti-Semitic, but assert that being anti-Israel is not actual hatred. They are not overt bigots, as they (mostly) stay within the bounds of acceptable 'progressive' discourse.
This is the overwhelming majority point of view.
Digesting it all
What became apparent, reading the various sites, is just how much Israel is hated. To a certain extent, I can understand Arab hatred of Jews and Israel - Arabs hate everything and everybody. It seems to be part and parcel of their culture. They've killed over seven million of their own in the last sixty years, and almost instinctively speak ill of each other or sabotage their own causes.
I expect no better from that side. And I'll admit it, I am probably a racist because I expect nothing else from them. For which I apologize - I honestly cannot hold them to the same high standard as the civilized world. I am a realist.
I can also understand European hatred of Jews and Israel. After all, to many Europeans, the very survival of Jews proves them wrong. Their attempts to exterminate the Jews did not succeed, their attempts to force them to convert en-masse to Christianity or Communism failed. There are still Jews. It must be keenly disappointing to have those people still around as a reminder of the failure of European society.
Life would be so much simpler for both the Arabs and the Europeans, if there were no Jews. The Arabs could slowly destroy European society, the Europeans could profit enormously from whoring to the Arabs in the meantime. Benefit to both sides.
The Jews, especially in the shape of Israel, are the fly in the ointment. And so Israel taking action against Hamas, is of course, an affront to both many Europeans and to Arabs.
Which must be thoroughly condemned.
What I have never understood is why parts of America, in particular Northern California, are so filled with Jew-hatred. Places such as San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley. Heck, I cannot fathom why Berkeley is the most Jew-hating city in all of California. It would appear that our universities inculcate a very European attitude, and deliberately undermine our society's values.
I fully expect the next domestic terrorist movement to originate in academe.
AFTERTHOUGHT
I find myself in-between the first and second tendencies. I recognize that Israel had to act, I find what they are engaged upon justified, and I applaud their successes. Granted, as a society, Israel is by no means perfect. And ideally it should be possible for any society to speak for all of its members. But in the real world, societies are not always capable of giving all goals and values equal importance. To Israel's credit, she tries. And often succeeds in advancing the interests of a large majority of her citizens. Israel does so as the only democratic state in that area, and the only liberal humanist society in the Middle-East.
That, unfortunately, is something that not a single one of the Arab states have ever done, and also something which almost none of the Arab states can even lay claim to ever trying.
The one great contribution to our vocabulary from the Arabs in modern times has been 'mukhabarat' - a term for a secret police that functions with extraordinary brutality. It is the one constant shared by all Arab states, and frequently the only efficient department in an Arab government.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
MISERY AND FOOD GO TOGETHER
Yesterday after doomscrolling I headed out for a late lunch. Tat Yee was sitting at his usual table having an early dinner. A weepy drama in...
