There was another hate-fest in San Francisco yesterday. No, it wasn't organized by Richard Becker and International ANSWER - they seem to have lost all zipp lately - but by a bunch of unknowns, largely of the juvenile delinquent persuasion and senescent Berkeley earthmother type.
Evenso, several known names of terror-supporters and their organizations were listed as sponsors, and much internet poofle had been generated by the pro-Palestinian side about the event.
UNION SQUARE, 4 - 6 PM, DECEMBER 27, 2009
It was the one year anniversary of operation cast lead. Which meant that for the Israel-hating Bay Area ultras, it was an opportunity to stand in the cold and yell insults.
Except that their sound-system failed, and not many people showed up.
The vast majority of the people in Union Square were either shopping or waiting for their turn on the ice rink, and were absolutely unaware of the petulant throng at the south-west corner. Not surprising, as they only had three flags and few balloons, and didn't know what to do. Not without leadership, a sound system, and rocks or bottles.
Across the street from them stood about one hundred and twenty cheerful pro-Israel individuals, who occasionally taunted the Hamas supporters for their lack of direction and paltry performance.
THREE PALESTINIAN FLAGS, SIXTY ISRAELI AND AMERICAN FLAGS
Other than watching the luscious eye-candy passing by (mini skirts, even in frigid weather, are a vast blessing), there was not much to entertain me.
I was standing in front of Victoria's Secret, looking up the street and across, keeping my eye out for infiltrators and other bogies. I hardly had any cause to look behind me, as there was a security presence just a few yards away.
Which meant that I missed something VERY IMPORTANT!
Quote: "At one point their performance was so boring I went into the Victoria's Secret Store to browse."
Source: http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2009/12/hamas-rally-in-san-francisco-sunday.html
The writer of that sentence is Steffy, a fellow blogger. Whom I would have loved to have finally met face to face. I am very disappointed.
Steffy, if you remember the middle-aged chap with the Israeli Flag and the goatee who was smoking cigarillos, please feel free to introduce yourself the next time you attend one of these fêtes.
I will gladly take you out for coffee once it's over.
Don't worry, I do not bite.
SAD ENDING TO DULL AFTERNOON
Anyhow. The adult supervision on the anti-Israel side faded out by around six o'clock, leaving only a tenured radical from SF State in charge of the bloodthirsty children, who obediently started screaming unimaginative slogans in unison.
It was dreary, and reminiscent of screechy children's choirs singing Christmas carols.
Quite the most uninspired political action of the year.
The pro-Israel side soon got bored, and decided that food, coffee, and the tail-end of the game were far more important than observing Arab juveniles in a rutting frenzy, and decided to leave.
Some nice young men from the ZFA escorted a few of us back to our cars. They had been engaged in spirited "debate" with the other side, firing back sharp and witty retorts, for about twenty minutes in all - they too felt bored by the exercise.
A battle of wits with a moron is rather like clubbing a harp-seal - the poor hurt eyes of the animal look up in dumb reproach, unable to actually understand what is happening. It is very sad.
By six thirty, only the angry Pally pubescenti remained in the square, utterly disconsolate at the lack of attention.
The presence on the Hamas side of Rob Kanter and Jim Harris, looking baffled as usual, could not make up for that; they grumbled their ire. Self-hating Jews are far less satisfying an audience than actual Jews.
But maybe Rob Kanter and Jim Harris had left already also - their departure having been as unremarkable as their presence ever is.
Showing posts with label Street Zionism 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Street Zionism 2009. Show all posts
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
AIPAC - A JEWISH HEADACHE
Today I am a man with kopfvetig. It's my own fault too.
Though I'll happily blame the Jews.
The headache is the result of yesterday's love-fest outside the hotel where AIPAC had its annual dog-and-pony show for the members. Which always brings out the worst in some people.
[Friend and co-conspirator Chaim ben David gives his impression of the event HERE.
Out-takes: psychopaths, Hassan Fouda and Marilyn Fouda, tantrums, poltroons, loonies, and Paul Larudee.]
PROTEST AND COUNTER-PROTEST
I got there at around 4:40 PM, well in advance of most members of the dark side, with six Israeli flags and two American flags. Said hi to several comrades-in-arms, passed out flags, took up position.
At this point, no headache yet.
Within half an hour, some of the usual misguided and remarkably ignorant intellectuals from Berkeley showed up to support the eradication of Israel.
Several of them are members of Jewish Voice for Peace or Women in Black - of whom most are sour Presbyterians, Methodists, or Jews of Convenience (Jewish when it is politically appropriate to be Jewish but not actually Jewish Jewish). We glared at each other from opposite sides of the street. Our happy band of pro-Israel activists clearly gave them indigestion.
Still no headache.
By six o'clock, most attendees of the AIPAC dinner had gone inside, and the sidewalk across the street was populated by several unruly juveniles of Arab and Hispanic background, middle aged white densities from Berkeley, Dick Becker and few others - occasionally chanting threats to ethnically cleanse Israel ("Palestine will be free from the river to the sea", "ba ruh, ba damn, nafdeek ya falesteen", etc.), or yelling unintelligible stuff.
On our side, several of the attendees on their way in thanked us for being there, some of the uniformed individuals winked at us or flashed victory signs.
No headache.
During the hour between six and seven PM, an immature person from the pro-Palestinian side started mumbling into his friend's megaphone, a few provocateurs tried to come over to steal flags or act threatening, some "observers" slipped on by unobtrusively after having ditched their anti-Israel signs, and a verbal altercation between unstable elements on both sides of the street at the intersection of Taylor and O'Farrell was providing much amusement.
The cops moved in several times to prevent the more offensive members of the pro-Palestinian side from inadvertently endangering themselves.
No headache at this point either.
WORDS OF COMFORT
Even the frequent confrontations on my corner with middle-aged Berkeley Jew-haters and other pro-Palestinians intent on incidental mayhem did not give me a head-ache. Rather, I felt a sense of exhilaration. Even encouraged a few of them to play in traffic.
Apparently I am an obnoxious sob ("thank you for your words of praise!"), a kike warmonger ("but, but, but, I haven't monged any war in soooooo long!") and a Jew-Nazi-Fascist ("you used it in a sentence, good, but can you spell it?").
In case you are wondering, I am also a Zio-imperialist, and I bomb children.
None of which causes headaches.
I still did not have the headache when I got home shortly after eight o'clock with some flowers for Savage Kitten.
Then I had a cup of coffee and a snack, prepared myself a nice tall glass of grapefruit juice with sparkling water, and sat down to watch a Japanese science-fiction movie.
Within twenty minutes the headache started.
So I had some more coffee, and then some more grapefruit juice.
TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DREAM
I kept waking up in the middle of the night and having more grapefruit juice. Smoke a bit, finish the glass, return to bed.
Then I'd think about things for another hour, get up again and have some more grapefruit juice, repeat. I've had maybe five hours sleep.
I still have the headache today.
See, if I hadn't joined the pro-Israel demo outside the Hilton, I probably would've had a cocktail or two at a bar instead. No problem, no pain.
A bunch of Jews with Israeli and American flags is guaranteed to cause headaches.
Everyone knows that.
Though I'll happily blame the Jews.
The headache is the result of yesterday's love-fest outside the hotel where AIPAC had its annual dog-and-pony show for the members. Which always brings out the worst in some people.
[Friend and co-conspirator Chaim ben David gives his impression of the event HERE.
Out-takes: psychopaths, Hassan Fouda and Marilyn Fouda, tantrums, poltroons, loonies, and Paul Larudee.]
PROTEST AND COUNTER-PROTEST
I got there at around 4:40 PM, well in advance of most members of the dark side, with six Israeli flags and two American flags. Said hi to several comrades-in-arms, passed out flags, took up position.
At this point, no headache yet.
Within half an hour, some of the usual misguided and remarkably ignorant intellectuals from Berkeley showed up to support the eradication of Israel.
Several of them are members of Jewish Voice for Peace or Women in Black - of whom most are sour Presbyterians, Methodists, or Jews of Convenience (Jewish when it is politically appropriate to be Jewish but not actually Jewish Jewish). We glared at each other from opposite sides of the street. Our happy band of pro-Israel activists clearly gave them indigestion.
Still no headache.
By six o'clock, most attendees of the AIPAC dinner had gone inside, and the sidewalk across the street was populated by several unruly juveniles of Arab and Hispanic background, middle aged white densities from Berkeley, Dick Becker and few others - occasionally chanting threats to ethnically cleanse Israel ("Palestine will be free from the river to the sea", "ba ruh, ba damn, nafdeek ya falesteen", etc.), or yelling unintelligible stuff.
On our side, several of the attendees on their way in thanked us for being there, some of the uniformed individuals winked at us or flashed victory signs.
No headache.
During the hour between six and seven PM, an immature person from the pro-Palestinian side started mumbling into his friend's megaphone, a few provocateurs tried to come over to steal flags or act threatening, some "observers" slipped on by unobtrusively after having ditched their anti-Israel signs, and a verbal altercation between unstable elements on both sides of the street at the intersection of Taylor and O'Farrell was providing much amusement.
The cops moved in several times to prevent the more offensive members of the pro-Palestinian side from inadvertently endangering themselves.
No headache at this point either.
WORDS OF COMFORT
Even the frequent confrontations on my corner with middle-aged Berkeley Jew-haters and other pro-Palestinians intent on incidental mayhem did not give me a head-ache. Rather, I felt a sense of exhilaration. Even encouraged a few of them to play in traffic.
Apparently I am an obnoxious sob ("thank you for your words of praise!"), a kike warmonger ("but, but, but, I haven't monged any war in soooooo long!") and a Jew-Nazi-Fascist ("you used it in a sentence, good, but can you spell it?").
In case you are wondering, I am also a Zio-imperialist, and I bomb children.
None of which causes headaches.
I still did not have the headache when I got home shortly after eight o'clock with some flowers for Savage Kitten.
Then I had a cup of coffee and a snack, prepared myself a nice tall glass of grapefruit juice with sparkling water, and sat down to watch a Japanese science-fiction movie.
Within twenty minutes the headache started.
So I had some more coffee, and then some more grapefruit juice.
TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DREAM
I kept waking up in the middle of the night and having more grapefruit juice. Smoke a bit, finish the glass, return to bed.
Then I'd think about things for another hour, get up again and have some more grapefruit juice, repeat. I've had maybe five hours sleep.
I still have the headache today.
See, if I hadn't joined the pro-Israel demo outside the Hilton, I probably would've had a cocktail or two at a bar instead. No problem, no pain.
A bunch of Jews with Israeli and American flags is guaranteed to cause headaches.
Everyone knows that.
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!
Monday, June 29, 2009
JEWS MARCH FOR PRIDE
Yesterday was Pride Day in SF. It's actually called GLBT Pride - it used to be just Gay Pride, but various groups eventually objected to the exclusivity of that name, or the hurtful non-specificity, and it's now a totally inclusive Consonant Soup Pride.
And yes, the Bay Area Jewish Community by-and-large supports the struggle for equality of Gays and other Consonants.
So does this blogger, by the way.
This was the first year that all Jewish groups in the parade marched under the same group nomen: Jews March For Pride.
And these are my somewhat sour notes about that masochistic exercise. There will be more later.
1. Remember to leave the Glock at home next year too.
2. I really hope Ralph's head explodes before then.
3. Kate Raphael Bender is in remission from cancer. All good things must come to an end.
4. Apparently the all-inclusive Jewish community umbrella extends to those people so desperate to get away from Judaism that they not only collaborate with Jew-haters and anti-Semitic organizations, but also actively seek Israel's complete elimination as an independent state.
5. In the Bay Area, inclusion of a pro-Israel group requires demanding that they be on their best behaviour.
6. It also means that you can safely allow the Israel-haters to march with you - having included the pro-Israel group gives balance, and you've made sure that your donkey is covered.
7. Really, keep the Glock at home. Don't even load it, just leave it in the box. Lest a natural urge to go Dutch on some of the donkey-holes among the Political Jews(*) gain the upper hand. In the blah lukewarmth of the moment.
Yes, I know that being Jewish in the San Francisco Bay Area suggests to many people here that one should make nice-nice, not make waves, smile prettily at the Gentiles, and timidly hope that every nasty storm somehow magically dissipates. This is the place where people come to avoid their relatives, get away from their own kind, make new lives, and chuck all that depressing cultural baggage out the window. Long-time residents often become spongy cottonwool because of their urge not to make waves or offend their politically correct fellow travelers.
The Bray made mention on Dov's blog of 'havdala consciousness'. Despite the loud groans from many commenters, and my own cocked eye-brow at that time, I'm beginning to think that what the Bay Area Jewish Community needs is a strong infusion of precisely that.
Plus assertiveness training and pointers on handguns.
----------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE
Political Jews (PJs) are those Jews who are paid for being Jewish. Usually they work for well-known Jewish organizations advancing various Jewish causes or programs. Strictly nine to five. Their involvement in political action, promotion of Jewish causes and issues, and even loyalty to Jewishness itself, is also strictly nine to five. Their ideological commitment in any direction at all is .... nine to five. They are adept at NOT making waves. They are also very good at making Gentiles feel blandly cheerful about those Jews. Not necessarily warm and fuzzy - actual Jewishness still seems to discomfit a surprising number of Gentiles - but blandly cheerful.
I have been told that they are worthwhile people and serve a worthwhile purpose.
POST-SCRIPTUM:
Remember, dude, keep the Glock at home. It ain't worth it. Just leave it there.
And yes, the Bay Area Jewish Community by-and-large supports the struggle for equality of Gays and other Consonants.
So does this blogger, by the way.
This was the first year that all Jewish groups in the parade marched under the same group nomen: Jews March For Pride.
And these are my somewhat sour notes about that masochistic exercise. There will be more later.
1. Remember to leave the Glock at home next year too.
2. I really hope Ralph's head explodes before then.
3. Kate Raphael Bender is in remission from cancer. All good things must come to an end.
4. Apparently the all-inclusive Jewish community umbrella extends to those people so desperate to get away from Judaism that they not only collaborate with Jew-haters and anti-Semitic organizations, but also actively seek Israel's complete elimination as an independent state.
5. In the Bay Area, inclusion of a pro-Israel group requires demanding that they be on their best behaviour.
6. It also means that you can safely allow the Israel-haters to march with you - having included the pro-Israel group gives balance, and you've made sure that your donkey is covered.
7. Really, keep the Glock at home. Don't even load it, just leave it in the box. Lest a natural urge to go Dutch on some of the donkey-holes among the Political Jews(*) gain the upper hand. In the blah lukewarmth of the moment.
Yes, I know that being Jewish in the San Francisco Bay Area suggests to many people here that one should make nice-nice, not make waves, smile prettily at the Gentiles, and timidly hope that every nasty storm somehow magically dissipates. This is the place where people come to avoid their relatives, get away from their own kind, make new lives, and chuck all that depressing cultural baggage out the window. Long-time residents often become spongy cottonwool because of their urge not to make waves or offend their politically correct fellow travelers.
The Bray made mention on Dov's blog of 'havdala consciousness'. Despite the loud groans from many commenters, and my own cocked eye-brow at that time, I'm beginning to think that what the Bay Area Jewish Community needs is a strong infusion of precisely that.
Plus assertiveness training and pointers on handguns.
----------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE
Political Jews (PJs) are those Jews who are paid for being Jewish. Usually they work for well-known Jewish organizations advancing various Jewish causes or programs. Strictly nine to five. Their involvement in political action, promotion of Jewish causes and issues, and even loyalty to Jewishness itself, is also strictly nine to five. Their ideological commitment in any direction at all is .... nine to five. They are adept at NOT making waves. They are also very good at making Gentiles feel blandly cheerful about those Jews. Not necessarily warm and fuzzy - actual Jewishness still seems to discomfit a surprising number of Gentiles - but blandly cheerful.
I have been told that they are worthwhile people and serve a worthwhile purpose.
POST-SCRIPTUM:
Remember, dude, keep the Glock at home. It ain't worth it. Just leave it there.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
STEPHEN PEARCY AND JOSEPH ANDERSON AT THE BFUU
Rabbosai, a number of comments under a recent post are so interesting that I really must bring them to your attention. The post was an action alert forwarded from San Francisco Voice for Israel / Stand With Us, for a protest yesterday evening at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU).
The reason for the protest was BFUU hosting the controversial self-hating anti-Semite, apologist for terror, and Israel-hater Gilad Atzmon in a charity performance organized by Bay Area Women in Black on behalf of the friends of Hamas and Hezbollah (the ISM).
[This post:http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/06/anti-semitism-in-berkeley-bfuu-and.html ]
SELECTED COMMENTS
At 9:54 AM, Anonymous said…
Great protest at the BFUU- great energy ! And more people on the street than in the concert!
Nice grass roots effort to eliminate hate in Berkeley.
And I completely agree with one of the spokespeople- there should be ZERO tolerance for hate speech in the Progressive community.
Does anyone know the story of that loser with the HAMAS flag and Nasrallah t-shirt? Just wondering
---
At 10:06 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
Does anyone know the story of that loser with the HAMAS flag and Nasrallah t-shirt? Just wondering
That was, if I recall correctly, Stephen Pearcy - looking amazingly buff now that he's in the market again (I don't believe for a moment that he and Virginia are back together - after over a dozen years of living with her abuser, she's finally realized that even if she LIKES being taken, she can do better). Also please note that he's had his teeth whitened and his hair colour 'corrected', which rather suggests that age is creeping up on him. Given his target "audience, that cannot be a good thing.
He's working out, too. I should find out which fitness center.
Stephen Pearcy, as you may recall, is the yutz who hanged a soldier in effigy - the gruesome puppet was roped to the eave of his Sacramento house in "protest" at something, with a changing roster of offense statements. He also participated in several flag-burnings and "radical direct actions". He's a classic ultra-left Nazi. With a superhumongous ego, and no actual achievements - other than courting Virginia when she was still a minor. Not quite sure of the age differential between them, he's eighteen or nineteen years older than her (they married four years after she moved into his house, when she finally turned eighteen).
---
At 10:07 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
Quote: "In August 2005, Pearcy made national news once again when he exhibited a painting at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento showing a star-spangled map of the United States being flushed down a toilet. The painting included the words, "T'anks to Mr. Bush!" The art exhibit was controversial ... "
No shit!
---
At 10:10 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
And this, quoted on diggers realm:
"She met Steven Pearcy when she was in 8th grade [13 years old]—he was her 31 year old math tutor, going to [University of CA at] Davis and working as a lab tech. She then moved in with Pearcy. "They had their own rooms, and didn’t get romantically involved until after she left UC Davis, they said. " When Virginia turned 18, they ’suddenly‘ realized they were in luuurve and married. That same day, I believe. Steven was 36. "
[SOURCE: http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000808.html ]
---
At 12:35 PM, Strunk said…
Poncy red dye job. Looked like he had robbed a Pakistani mullah of his hennaed beard and glued it on. And the female-pattern baldness angry black man could've done with a bath. Nasty git.
---
At 1:46 PM, Anonymous said…"angry black man"
Oh! that would be Joseph Anderson. He usually uses spray on hair- perhaps he ran out.
see:
http://02d2262.netsolhost.com/anderson.html
--- --- --- --- ---
Source: this comment string:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17704096&postID=7907231199647926437&isPopup=true
============================================
JOSEPH ANDERSON
The link provided by Anonymous at 1:46 PM goes to an article wherein this quote:
"Personally, I *EXULT* everytime I see an Israeli Jew bit the dust. And the same goes for their American cousins! EVERY SINGLE JEW EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD is a just and appropriate target for anti-colonialist liberation! We need to start targeting *EVERY* synagogue, *EVERY* Jew community center, school and everywhere else that you racist devils preach and propogate your agenda."
It's an interesting article, and I recommend you read it. It admirably captures the essence of the man.
As does this quote:
"Lovelle Mixon’s name will be legendary in the Bay Area—long after people forget the names of the four cops he killed in one afternoon. "[SOURCE: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/05/18586189.php and ultimately: http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-04-02/article/32613?headline=The-Karmic-Justice-of-Lovelle-Mixon-s-Act]
Joseph Anderson, political activist, reporter manqué, and typical Berkeleyite, is a frequent contributor to the Berkeley Daily Planet, which has pretensions of being a real newspaper.
NOTE: Joseph Anderson and fellow-traveler Stephen Pearcy were outside the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists on Cedar Street yesterday evening, passionately defending free speech for Gilad Atzmon and his sponsors. This necessitated the waving of a large Hamas flag and loud vocalizing.
Berkeley is all about free speech, and the Berkeley Unitarians are keen to let one side of the issue be heard.
The reason for the protest was BFUU hosting the controversial self-hating anti-Semite, apologist for terror, and Israel-hater Gilad Atzmon in a charity performance organized by Bay Area Women in Black on behalf of the friends of Hamas and Hezbollah (the ISM).
[This post:http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/06/anti-semitism-in-berkeley-bfuu-and.html ]
SELECTED COMMENTS
At 9:54 AM, Anonymous said…
Great protest at the BFUU- great energy ! And more people on the street than in the concert!
Nice grass roots effort to eliminate hate in Berkeley.
And I completely agree with one of the spokespeople- there should be ZERO tolerance for hate speech in the Progressive community.
Does anyone know the story of that loser with the HAMAS flag and Nasrallah t-shirt? Just wondering
---
At 10:06 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
Does anyone know the story of that loser with the HAMAS flag and Nasrallah t-shirt? Just wondering
That was, if I recall correctly, Stephen Pearcy - looking amazingly buff now that he's in the market again (I don't believe for a moment that he and Virginia are back together - after over a dozen years of living with her abuser, she's finally realized that even if she LIKES being taken, she can do better). Also please note that he's had his teeth whitened and his hair colour 'corrected', which rather suggests that age is creeping up on him. Given his target "audience, that cannot be a good thing.
He's working out, too. I should find out which fitness center.
Stephen Pearcy, as you may recall, is the yutz who hanged a soldier in effigy - the gruesome puppet was roped to the eave of his Sacramento house in "protest" at something, with a changing roster of offense statements. He also participated in several flag-burnings and "radical direct actions". He's a classic ultra-left Nazi. With a superhumongous ego, and no actual achievements - other than courting Virginia when she was still a minor. Not quite sure of the age differential between them, he's eighteen or nineteen years older than her (they married four years after she moved into his house, when she finally turned eighteen).
---
At 10:07 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
Quote: "In August 2005, Pearcy made national news once again when he exhibited a painting at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento showing a star-spangled map of the United States being flushed down a toilet. The painting included the words, "T'anks to Mr. Bush!" The art exhibit was controversial ... "
No shit!
---
At 10:10 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
And this, quoted on diggers realm:
"She met Steven Pearcy when she was in 8th grade [13 years old]—he was her 31 year old math tutor, going to [University of CA at] Davis and working as a lab tech. She then moved in with Pearcy. "They had their own rooms, and didn’t get romantically involved until after she left UC Davis, they said. " When Virginia turned 18, they ’suddenly‘ realized they were in luuurve and married. That same day, I believe. Steven was 36. "
[SOURCE: http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000808.html ]
---
At 12:35 PM, Strunk said…
Poncy red dye job. Looked like he had robbed a Pakistani mullah of his hennaed beard and glued it on. And the female-pattern baldness angry black man could've done with a bath. Nasty git.
---
At 1:46 PM, Anonymous said…"angry black man"
Oh! that would be Joseph Anderson. He usually uses spray on hair- perhaps he ran out.
see:
http://02d2262.netsolhost.com/anderson.html
--- --- --- --- ---
Source: this comment string:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17704096&postID=7907231199647926437&isPopup=true
============================================
JOSEPH ANDERSON
The link provided by Anonymous at 1:46 PM goes to an article wherein this quote:
"Personally, I *EXULT* everytime I see an Israeli Jew bit the dust. And the same goes for their American cousins! EVERY SINGLE JEW EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD is a just and appropriate target for anti-colonialist liberation! We need to start targeting *EVERY* synagogue, *EVERY* Jew community center, school and everywhere else that you racist devils preach and propogate your agenda."
It's an interesting article, and I recommend you read it. It admirably captures the essence of the man.
As does this quote:
"Lovelle Mixon’s name will be legendary in the Bay Area—long after people forget the names of the four cops he killed in one afternoon. "[SOURCE: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/05/18586189.php and ultimately: http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-04-02/article/32613?headline=The-Karmic-Justice-of-Lovelle-Mixon-s-Act]
Joseph Anderson, political activist, reporter manqué, and typical Berkeleyite, is a frequent contributor to the Berkeley Daily Planet, which has pretensions of being a real newspaper.
NOTE: Joseph Anderson and fellow-traveler Stephen Pearcy were outside the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists on Cedar Street yesterday evening, passionately defending free speech for Gilad Atzmon and his sponsors. This necessitated the waving of a large Hamas flag and loud vocalizing.
Berkeley is all about free speech, and the Berkeley Unitarians are keen to let one side of the issue be heard.
UNITARIANS, GILAD ATZMON, HAMAS FLAG? BERKELEY!
Last night the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists hosted Gilad Atzmon, a stridently prolix anti-Semitic enemy of Israel and Jew-hater.
Yes, Gilad Atzmon used to be Jewish and Israeli, and now passionately hates both Jews and Israelis. Perhaps he has issues. That isn't really germane.
[BFUU: Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar Street, Berkeley, CA 94709.]
CONTROVERSIAL? TRY REPREHENSIBLE'!
After the Berkeley Unitarians had been made aware of the "controversial" nature of Gilad Atzmon's writings, they decided to go ahead with the planned event, claiming they had merely "contracted to rent the BFUU hall" for a "group the BFUU-SJC had supported before", namely the ISM (International Solidarity Movement). They also assert that they were unaware "at the time" of mr. Atzmon's reputation.
[BFUU-SJC = Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists - Social Justice Committee.]
Both of those are very interesting claims. Absurd and entirely unbelievable, but interesting.
The internet is a potent source of information.
A search using the name 'Gilad Atzmon' pulls up scads of stuff, the majority of which is mister Atzmon's own torrid rhetoric, most of which is hatefilled faux-intellectual garbage. And please note that while his supposed claim to fame is as a saxophonist, his poison penmanship is what stands out - so much so that one might overlook his music.
He certainly makes no effort to hide his rabid hatred of Israel, or Jews, or even the US. His published articles and his own internet site prove him to be a racist and bigot.
Yes, Gilad Atzmon used to be Jewish and Israeli, and now loathes both Jews and Israelis. Probably he has issues, but that isn't really germane.
PROTEST
At six thirty in the evening, about twenty of us gathered outside the BFUU hall (located at 1924 Cedar Street in Berkeley, one block up from the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Cedar), to protest Gilad Atzmon's scheduled performance, the BFUU for hosting it (and, as they admit, initially cosponsoring - though they are fudging their role in their latest handout), Bay Area Women in Black for organizing the event, and the ISM for being dangerous radicals involved in a number of pro-Hamas events. Flags, signs, and a clear message calling the BFUU to task for promoting and enabling anti-Semitism.
This did not please the BFUU. Some of their members stood outside the building looking farklempt. One of their members is a racist Jew who screamed at us. Another one is a Columbian woman who may have had a few cocktails before she tried to snatch a sign. Most of them were far too sour and sullen to scream or snatch.
Solidly bourgeois Berkeleyites just don't do such things.
But the BFUU did have the able assistance of Stephen Pearcy and his friend Joseph Anderson, vocalizing on their behalf.
STEPHEN PEARCY & JOSEPH ANDERSON
Stephen Pearcy, a Berkeley resident known for his flip utterances in support of violent action, an effigy of an American soldier strung up with a noose hanging from the eaves of his house in Sacramento, and praise of selective murder, came armed with a Hamas flag. It was on a very long pole - he may be compensating for something.
[He was not accompanied by his wife Virginia Pearcy (affectionately called "Little Pooh Blossom" by those of us who know of her support for extremist causes). A very great pity, as I would've loved to have seen what she looks like now that she is an adult.]
Joseph Anderson merely brought his own self. Joseph Anderson's claim to fame is his stated conviction that all Jews are legitimate targets, coupled with the paranoid belief that Noam Chomsky is a closeted Zionist apologist (*), along with almost every other left-wing Jew.
He is also in favour of cop killing, according to his own writings.
[Joseph Anderson: 'Karmic Justice': http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/karmic-justice/
'Why We Hate Cops': http://www.prisoners.com/hatecops.html
Article in which the closeted Zionist apologist accusation appears: http://dissidentvoice.org/June06/Anderson08.htm and also http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php/20060612173054885]
STALWART PARTISANS OF THE BFUU
Both of these gentlemen (Stephen Pearcy and Joseph Anderson) are perfect representatives of Berkeley peace activists, and of the BFUU. There can be no better illustration of everything that the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists stands for, than a virulent Hamas supporter and a violent bigot who applauds the murder of cops.
Seeing Stephen Pearcy and his friend Joseph Anderson with a Hamas flag outside the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists was perfect.
Just perfect.
Hearing them was even better.
It doesn't get more Berkeley than that.
Yes, Gilad Atzmon used to be Jewish and Israeli, and now passionately hates both Jews and Israelis. Perhaps he has issues. That isn't really germane.
[BFUU: Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar Street, Berkeley, CA 94709.]
CONTROVERSIAL? TRY REPREHENSIBLE'!
After the Berkeley Unitarians had been made aware of the "controversial" nature of Gilad Atzmon's writings, they decided to go ahead with the planned event, claiming they had merely "contracted to rent the BFUU hall" for a "group the BFUU-SJC had supported before", namely the ISM (International Solidarity Movement). They also assert that they were unaware "at the time" of mr. Atzmon's reputation.
[BFUU-SJC = Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists - Social Justice Committee.]
Both of those are very interesting claims. Absurd and entirely unbelievable, but interesting.
The internet is a potent source of information.
A search using the name 'Gilad Atzmon' pulls up scads of stuff, the majority of which is mister Atzmon's own torrid rhetoric, most of which is hatefilled faux-intellectual garbage. And please note that while his supposed claim to fame is as a saxophonist, his poison penmanship is what stands out - so much so that one might overlook his music.
He certainly makes no effort to hide his rabid hatred of Israel, or Jews, or even the US. His published articles and his own internet site prove him to be a racist and bigot.
Yes, Gilad Atzmon used to be Jewish and Israeli, and now loathes both Jews and Israelis. Probably he has issues, but that isn't really germane.
PROTEST
At six thirty in the evening, about twenty of us gathered outside the BFUU hall (located at 1924 Cedar Street in Berkeley, one block up from the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Cedar), to protest Gilad Atzmon's scheduled performance, the BFUU for hosting it (and, as they admit, initially cosponsoring - though they are fudging their role in their latest handout), Bay Area Women in Black for organizing the event, and the ISM for being dangerous radicals involved in a number of pro-Hamas events. Flags, signs, and a clear message calling the BFUU to task for promoting and enabling anti-Semitism.
This did not please the BFUU. Some of their members stood outside the building looking farklempt. One of their members is a racist Jew who screamed at us. Another one is a Columbian woman who may have had a few cocktails before she tried to snatch a sign. Most of them were far too sour and sullen to scream or snatch.
Solidly bourgeois Berkeleyites just don't do such things.
But the BFUU did have the able assistance of Stephen Pearcy and his friend Joseph Anderson, vocalizing on their behalf.
STEPHEN PEARCY & JOSEPH ANDERSON
Stephen Pearcy, a Berkeley resident known for his flip utterances in support of violent action, an effigy of an American soldier strung up with a noose hanging from the eaves of his house in Sacramento, and praise of selective murder, came armed with a Hamas flag. It was on a very long pole - he may be compensating for something.
[He was not accompanied by his wife Virginia Pearcy (affectionately called "Little Pooh Blossom" by those of us who know of her support for extremist causes). A very great pity, as I would've loved to have seen what she looks like now that she is an adult.]
Joseph Anderson merely brought his own self. Joseph Anderson's claim to fame is his stated conviction that all Jews are legitimate targets, coupled with the paranoid belief that Noam Chomsky is a closeted Zionist apologist (*), along with almost every other left-wing Jew.
He is also in favour of cop killing, according to his own writings.
[Joseph Anderson: 'Karmic Justice': http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/karmic-justice/
'Why We Hate Cops': http://www.prisoners.com/hatecops.html
Article in which the closeted Zionist apologist accusation appears: http://dissidentvoice.org/June06/Anderson08.htm and also http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php/20060612173054885]
STALWART PARTISANS OF THE BFUU
Both of these gentlemen (Stephen Pearcy and Joseph Anderson) are perfect representatives of Berkeley peace activists, and of the BFUU. There can be no better illustration of everything that the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists stands for, than a virulent Hamas supporter and a violent bigot who applauds the murder of cops.
Seeing Stephen Pearcy and his friend Joseph Anderson with a Hamas flag outside the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists was perfect.
Just perfect.
Hearing them was even better.
It doesn't get more Berkeley than that.
Monday, June 08, 2009
ANTI-SEMITISM IN BERKELEY - THE BFUU AND GILAD ATZMON
The following is an action alert from SF Voice for Israel / Stand With US SF.
ACTION ALERT
Vigil against Anti-Semitism in Berkeley
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar Street at Bonita, Berkeley
Monday June 8, 6:30-7:30 PM
On Monday night, the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists is hosting a concert by a musician named Gilad Atzmon. Atzmon is an ex-Israeli who now resides in the UK; he has renounced not only being Israeli, but his membership in the Jewish people and now writes and promotes classically anti-Semitic remarks.
It sounds too bizarre to be true, but he has left a well documented trail of anti-Semitic remarks such as:
"Throughout the centuries, Jewish bankers bought for themselves some real reputations of backers and financers of wars, and even one communist revolution. Though rich Jews had been happily financing wars using their assets, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States, found a far more sophisticated way to finance the wars perpetrated by his ideological brothers Libby and Wolfowitz."
"The 'Elders of Zion' syndrome: Zionists complain that Jews continue to be associated with a conspiracy to rule the world via political lobbies, media and money. Is the suggestion of conspiracy really an empty accusation?
The following list is presented with pride on several Jewish American websites.
Jews in Bush's Administration (a list of some 30 names follows…)
Let me assure you, in Clinton's administration the situation was even worse. Even though the Jews only make up 1.9 per cent of the country's population, an astounding 56 per cent of Clinton's appointees were Jews. A coincidence? I don't think so."
"I would suggest that perhaps we should face it once and for all: the Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus who, by the way, was himself a Palestinian Jew. …..Why is it that the Jews who repeatedly demand that the Christian world should apologise for its involvement in previous persecutions, have never thought that it is about time that they apologised for killing Jesus?"
"I'm not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act."
As if that's not enough, Atzmon also boasts on his website of circulating an article denying the Holocaust written by an extremist in the UK named Paul Eisen, and supports the Swedish anti-Semitic fascist who writes under the pen name "Israel Shamir". Shamir has claimed that Jews have indeed slaughtered Christian children for their blood (the infamous "blood libel" now being vigorously promoted in some Arab countries), and claimed that "Auschwitz was an internment facility, attended by the Red Cross". Atzmon calls Shamir "a unique and advanced thinker".
The concert is co-sponsored by the church's Social Justice Committee and two anti-Israel groups: Bay Area Women in Black and International Solidarity Movement. The BFUU may not have been aware of Atzmon's promotion of hate speech when they agreed to host the event, but they were made aware of it last week and they have refused to cancel it.
San Francisco Voice for Israel will hold a vigil outside the church from 6:30-7:30. This is about more than their hosting an anti-Israel event; it's about their choice to proceed with this event despite knowing the hate speech that Atzmon both creates and promotes. So, for a change, we don't need Israeli flags or pro-Israel signs. If you want to create your own signs for this event, please do not refer to the BFUU members as anti-Semites, but feel free to criticize their decision to allow a genuine anti-Semite to appear in their church!
Suggested signs:
"Hate speech: not welcome here"
"Hate speech is unjust"
"Why does BFUU tolerate hate speech?"
Please invite your non-Jewish friends to this event. This is about hate speech in the Bay Area, and decent people of all religions and (almost) all political orientations should be justifiably concerned about this type of extremism being welcomed into our community.
StandWithUs/San Francisco Voice for Israel
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs. com
=========================================
=========================================
=========================================
AFTERWORD
Please note - the Berkeley environment is famously liberal. Apparently that liberalness now extends to coddling bigots and haters. The BFUU are of a type that gives even liberals such as this blogger the heebie-jeebies. But they are VERY much in the Berkeley pattern.
Having a famous university attracts mediocre minds, intellectual pretenders, and faux-revolutionaries. Rather like cowpie attracts flies.
ACTION ALERT
Vigil against Anti-Semitism in Berkeley
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar Street at Bonita, Berkeley
Monday June 8, 6:30-7:30 PM
On Monday night, the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists is hosting a concert by a musician named Gilad Atzmon. Atzmon is an ex-Israeli who now resides in the UK; he has renounced not only being Israeli, but his membership in the Jewish people and now writes and promotes classically anti-Semitic remarks.
It sounds too bizarre to be true, but he has left a well documented trail of anti-Semitic remarks such as:
"Throughout the centuries, Jewish bankers bought for themselves some real reputations of backers and financers of wars, and even one communist revolution. Though rich Jews had been happily financing wars using their assets, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States, found a far more sophisticated way to finance the wars perpetrated by his ideological brothers Libby and Wolfowitz."
"The 'Elders of Zion' syndrome: Zionists complain that Jews continue to be associated with a conspiracy to rule the world via political lobbies, media and money. Is the suggestion of conspiracy really an empty accusation?
The following list is presented with pride on several Jewish American websites.
Jews in Bush's Administration (a list of some 30 names follows…)
Let me assure you, in Clinton's administration the situation was even worse. Even though the Jews only make up 1.9 per cent of the country's population, an astounding 56 per cent of Clinton's appointees were Jews. A coincidence? I don't think so."
"I would suggest that perhaps we should face it once and for all: the Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus who, by the way, was himself a Palestinian Jew. …..Why is it that the Jews who repeatedly demand that the Christian world should apologise for its involvement in previous persecutions, have never thought that it is about time that they apologised for killing Jesus?"
"I'm not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act."
As if that's not enough, Atzmon also boasts on his website of circulating an article denying the Holocaust written by an extremist in the UK named Paul Eisen, and supports the Swedish anti-Semitic fascist who writes under the pen name "Israel Shamir". Shamir has claimed that Jews have indeed slaughtered Christian children for their blood (the infamous "blood libel" now being vigorously promoted in some Arab countries), and claimed that "Auschwitz was an internment facility, attended by the Red Cross". Atzmon calls Shamir "a unique and advanced thinker".
The concert is co-sponsored by the church's Social Justice Committee and two anti-Israel groups: Bay Area Women in Black and International Solidarity Movement. The BFUU may not have been aware of Atzmon's promotion of hate speech when they agreed to host the event, but they were made aware of it last week and they have refused to cancel it.
San Francisco Voice for Israel will hold a vigil outside the church from 6:30-7:30. This is about more than their hosting an anti-Israel event; it's about their choice to proceed with this event despite knowing the hate speech that Atzmon both creates and promotes. So, for a change, we don't need Israeli flags or pro-Israel signs. If you want to create your own signs for this event, please do not refer to the BFUU members as anti-Semites, but feel free to criticize their decision to allow a genuine anti-Semite to appear in their church!
Suggested signs:
"Hate speech: not welcome here"
"Hate speech is unjust"
"Why does BFUU tolerate hate speech?"
Please invite your non-Jewish friends to this event. This is about hate speech in the Bay Area, and decent people of all religions and (almost) all political orientations should be justifiably concerned about this type of extremism being welcomed into our community.
StandWithUs/San Francisco Voice for Israel
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs. com
=========================================
=========================================
=========================================
AFTERWORD
Please note - the Berkeley environment is famously liberal. Apparently that liberalness now extends to coddling bigots and haters. The BFUU are of a type that gives even liberals such as this blogger the heebie-jeebies. But they are VERY much in the Berkeley pattern.
Having a famous university attracts mediocre minds, intellectual pretenders, and faux-revolutionaries. Rather like cowpie attracts flies.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
UNHAPPY ISRAEL-HATERS
The anti-Zionists are sad and hurt. The poor dears! And who can blame them? We arrived early to counterdemonstrate against their hate-fest, and occupied the sidewalk space that THEY wanted to use.
Oh, we are such spoilers!
Neener, neener, neener.
And to make matters worse, we refused to move. We just stood there, like oxen, gaily waving our Israeli and American flags, even when they asked us to please go away. Acted like we couldn't understand a word.
'No, we're here now, and we ain't going anywhere. Get used to it.'
Remembering the Nakba 61 years - Mon 5:30pm @Israeli Consulate, SF
Yesterday evening qualifies as a victory. Instead of the pro-Israel side being outnumbered five to one, for a change there were equal numbers on both sides.
Well, the Jew-haters actually did have six more people than we did, but three of them were stoners, so intellectually it evens out.
[" - Hi Rusty! You don't remember me, do you? You're completely out of it, you can't recognize ANY of us! Not a single one. Did they offer you a plate of spaghetti for joining their protest? Musta bin some righteous revolutionary spliff, huh? - "]
The anti-Zionists of the hour were a coterie or claque of Students for Justice in Palestine, who intended to mark the sixty-first anniversary of Israeli re-independence by screaming angrily at the building which houses the consulate.
Except that there weren't that many pro-Palestinians who showed up. Slightly more than two dozen, with an insufficient number of flags, banners, and signs.
Also there: Lily Haskell's angry and dysfunctional Moroccan friend, who glowered and sulked very prettily. And a corpulent gentleman who reminded me of nothing so much as a prissy Bengali law-clerk.
Plus, of course, Rusty - Telegraph Avenue's very own fossil.
Because we wouldn't move, they moved.
I guess screaming anti-Semitic invective requires actually standing opposite the Zionists.
After repetitious chanting and unimaginative megaphonic insults from the other side of the street, they dribbled away. Over a dozen passers-by thanked us during the course of the event for being there and supporting Israel. Several drivers on Montgomery Street cheered and gave us the thumbs up. We handed out leaflets clarifying our pro-Israel point of view, and answered the questions of curious and supportive strangers.
Let's just say it was a very positive experience. For us, at any rate.
Oh, we are such spoilers!
Neener, neener, neener.
And to make matters worse, we refused to move. We just stood there, like oxen, gaily waving our Israeli and American flags, even when they asked us to please go away. Acted like we couldn't understand a word.
'No, we're here now, and we ain't going anywhere. Get used to it.'
Remembering the Nakba 61 years - Mon 5:30pm @Israeli Consulate, SF
Yesterday evening qualifies as a victory. Instead of the pro-Israel side being outnumbered five to one, for a change there were equal numbers on both sides.
Well, the Jew-haters actually did have six more people than we did, but three of them were stoners, so intellectually it evens out.
[" - Hi Rusty! You don't remember me, do you? You're completely out of it, you can't recognize ANY of us! Not a single one. Did they offer you a plate of spaghetti for joining their protest? Musta bin some righteous revolutionary spliff, huh? - "]
The anti-Zionists of the hour were a coterie or claque of Students for Justice in Palestine, who intended to mark the sixty-first anniversary of Israeli re-independence by screaming angrily at the building which houses the consulate.
Except that there weren't that many pro-Palestinians who showed up. Slightly more than two dozen, with an insufficient number of flags, banners, and signs.
Also there: Lily Haskell's angry and dysfunctional Moroccan friend, who glowered and sulked very prettily. And a corpulent gentleman who reminded me of nothing so much as a prissy Bengali law-clerk.
Plus, of course, Rusty - Telegraph Avenue's very own fossil.
Because we wouldn't move, they moved.
I guess screaming anti-Semitic invective requires actually standing opposite the Zionists.
After repetitious chanting and unimaginative megaphonic insults from the other side of the street, they dribbled away. Over a dozen passers-by thanked us during the course of the event for being there and supporting Israel. Several drivers on Montgomery Street cheered and gave us the thumbs up. We handed out leaflets clarifying our pro-Israel point of view, and answered the questions of curious and supportive strangers.
Let's just say it was a very positive experience. For us, at any rate.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO SAYS "GO BACK TO THE OVENS"
In another triumph for freedom of speech, ten pro-Israel demonstrators were told by one hundred and fifty Palestinians and fellow-travelers that they were dogs, fascists, beasts, Jews, Nazis, murderers, and homosexuals.
And they were invited to go back to the ovens, because Hitler hadn't finished the job.
PROTEST IN SF
Union Square, at the corner of Powell and Geary streets in San Francisco, on Saturday January 17th. From three to five PM.
The request to go back to the ovens was reiterated several times, by a representative number of people in the Palestinian and fellow-traveler section. They seemed obsessed with ovens and gas.
Probably quite a few of them owned pizzerias.
There were also several references to dogs in Arabic. One entire conversation in which Jews were compared to dogs in several ways was between two students from UC Berkeley - one of them allegedly from Gaza, another known to be Moroccan. It can be assumed to have been love-talk, as the Gazan was clearly taken by her fair complexion and fiery spirit. He dislikes Jews, and has called them inhuman several times in the past.
And this time, she would love him for it.
STUDENTS
They weren't the only Berkeley students at the event, but, lest you think that the only Jew-haters in the crowd were Berkeleyites, I hasten to add that several others were San Francisco State students. SF State and Berkeley have a friendly rivalry going as to which school nourishes the most anti-Semitic environment. Having been to both schools, I have to say it's a very close call - kudos to both institutions for creativity and invective, as well as faculty and administrations that bend over backward to accommodate Jew-hate.
Both schools are clearly credits to their communities.
[Which explains the faculty members also attending. School-pride, or esprit, or something. School spirit. Yes, that's it: school spirit.]
I wonder which educational institution will claim credit for the masked thugs who subsequently followed us screaming threats and insults. I'm guessing SF State, but if UC Berkeley wants laurels for that, no problem either.
ATTENDEES, AND THE ABSENT
The event was billed as a memorial to dead children. It was attended by a cross-spectrum of Bay Areans: Palestinian parents and their children, Socialist Worker's Party Members, ANSWER volunteers, rogue Arab teenagers, aged anti-Semites, self-hating Jews and Gentiles from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Bay Area Women in Black (several of whom are Presbyterians), and a number of other communities.
Altogether about half were angry WASPS, some of whom alleged themselves Jewish. The rest were Arabs.
Many of the children were very sweet, and gave heart-rending speeches about wanting infants in Gaza to sleep in safety. The most touching speech was by a little boy who in dulcet tones informed us "Israel your turn will come, one day you will pay, we will have our vengeance!"
The crowd applauded wildly.
Shortly afterwards, an angry WASP female started a chant enthusiastically taken up by many in the crowd: "FREE U.S. FROM ISRAEL, FREE U.S. FROM ISRAEL!"
A dried up stick nearby kept mispronouncing 'iz-ra-el' as 'da jooz'. He wasn't the only one doing that. It seems to be a common speech-defect, as I've even heard it before from members of JVP and BAWIB.
In between some of the speeches by children, some of their parents or teenage brothers made wishful reference to gas-chambers, plus 'kill ya ya bitch', 'gonna get ya filthy joo', and, most interestingly, 'go back where you came from'.
That last in a heavy Maghrebi accent to a female Sabra.
AND A FEW OTHERS.....
There were, however, a few points of light. Not all of the crowd was overtly anti-Semitic; several people had pained expressions on their faces, obviously cringing from the public exhibition of sentiments that they would have vastly preferred to enjoy in private.
The tall ANSWER volunteer, who had been a monitor at a previous emotional celebration of Jew-dislike two weeks ago (obviously not in the same role this time, because of the sponsorship by Bob Avakian's group), simply wandered off at one point. He may not have felt entirely comfortable supporting hatred that his group had not pre-approved.
One or two elderly church-lady types looked aghast and frightened at the rhetoric from the jugend, though they resolutely remained there in solidarity with their Palestinian brethren.
BRIGHT SPOT
Probably the brightest moment was the beautiful little Palestinian girl, no more than five years old, who came up to me and held up her collage with hate slogans and pictures of corpses. I'm guessing every other adult she had met that day had praised it, and she wanted to share. She looked so unselfconsciously happy, so cheerful - aw shucks, kiddo, it's lovely. Thank you.
The fact that I was holding an Israeli flag didn't appear to register with her. She probably had no clue what it was. And yes, she was just the cutest little thing. A darling moppet.
One of my companions later told me that he thought some of the young Arab women were fetching. Striking, even. Utterly charming, in fact. So he thoroughly enjoyed holding an Israeli flag also. There is probably no better way of catching the eye of a fiery Arab lass than holding the blue-and-white.
It was a lovely hate-filled day.
==============================================
NOTE: The plus-side of angry thugs wearing keffiyot terrorist-style over their faces is that they cannot spit at you. Even pulling the cloth down temporarily to let the phlegm fly is not practical - the spit is hampered and rather lackadaisical. Either that or the boys just couldn't aim. Shaking too much, I guess. Though we were outnumbered fifteen to one, for all they knew every one of us was a Jew (two of us were actually Gentiles), and therefore dangerous and a match for any number of them. Their spit fell far short of the target.
FURTHER NOTE: The only Arab chant this time was 'ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya 'L' Gaza!' (with our soul, with our heart, we will 'redeem' you oh Gaza). The 'L' doesn't really belong there, but the chant needs the extra syllable.
Considering that the event was held several hours after the ceasefire, it surely demonstrated the peaceableness of Arabs and the likelihood of constructive dialogue.
Or at least, knowledge of ovens among their ranks. And indubitably that too is admirable.
And they were invited to go back to the ovens, because Hitler hadn't finished the job.
PROTEST IN SF
Union Square, at the corner of Powell and Geary streets in San Francisco, on Saturday January 17th. From three to five PM.
The request to go back to the ovens was reiterated several times, by a representative number of people in the Palestinian and fellow-traveler section. They seemed obsessed with ovens and gas.
Probably quite a few of them owned pizzerias.
There were also several references to dogs in Arabic. One entire conversation in which Jews were compared to dogs in several ways was between two students from UC Berkeley - one of them allegedly from Gaza, another known to be Moroccan. It can be assumed to have been love-talk, as the Gazan was clearly taken by her fair complexion and fiery spirit. He dislikes Jews, and has called them inhuman several times in the past.
And this time, she would love him for it.
STUDENTS
They weren't the only Berkeley students at the event, but, lest you think that the only Jew-haters in the crowd were Berkeleyites, I hasten to add that several others were San Francisco State students. SF State and Berkeley have a friendly rivalry going as to which school nourishes the most anti-Semitic environment. Having been to both schools, I have to say it's a very close call - kudos to both institutions for creativity and invective, as well as faculty and administrations that bend over backward to accommodate Jew-hate.
Both schools are clearly credits to their communities.
[Which explains the faculty members also attending. School-pride, or esprit, or something. School spirit. Yes, that's it: school spirit.]
I wonder which educational institution will claim credit for the masked thugs who subsequently followed us screaming threats and insults. I'm guessing SF State, but if UC Berkeley wants laurels for that, no problem either.
ATTENDEES, AND THE ABSENT
The event was billed as a memorial to dead children. It was attended by a cross-spectrum of Bay Areans: Palestinian parents and their children, Socialist Worker's Party Members, ANSWER volunteers, rogue Arab teenagers, aged anti-Semites, self-hating Jews and Gentiles from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Bay Area Women in Black (several of whom are Presbyterians), and a number of other communities.
Altogether about half were angry WASPS, some of whom alleged themselves Jewish. The rest were Arabs.
Many of the children were very sweet, and gave heart-rending speeches about wanting infants in Gaza to sleep in safety. The most touching speech was by a little boy who in dulcet tones informed us "Israel your turn will come, one day you will pay, we will have our vengeance!"
The crowd applauded wildly.
Shortly afterwards, an angry WASP female started a chant enthusiastically taken up by many in the crowd: "FREE U.S. FROM ISRAEL, FREE U.S. FROM ISRAEL!"
A dried up stick nearby kept mispronouncing 'iz-ra-el' as 'da jooz'. He wasn't the only one doing that. It seems to be a common speech-defect, as I've even heard it before from members of JVP and BAWIB.
In between some of the speeches by children, some of their parents or teenage brothers made wishful reference to gas-chambers, plus 'kill ya ya bitch', 'gonna get ya filthy joo', and, most interestingly, 'go back where you came from'.
That last in a heavy Maghrebi accent to a female Sabra.
AND A FEW OTHERS.....
There were, however, a few points of light. Not all of the crowd was overtly anti-Semitic; several people had pained expressions on their faces, obviously cringing from the public exhibition of sentiments that they would have vastly preferred to enjoy in private.
The tall ANSWER volunteer, who had been a monitor at a previous emotional celebration of Jew-dislike two weeks ago (obviously not in the same role this time, because of the sponsorship by Bob Avakian's group), simply wandered off at one point. He may not have felt entirely comfortable supporting hatred that his group had not pre-approved.
One or two elderly church-lady types looked aghast and frightened at the rhetoric from the jugend, though they resolutely remained there in solidarity with their Palestinian brethren.
BRIGHT SPOT
Probably the brightest moment was the beautiful little Palestinian girl, no more than five years old, who came up to me and held up her collage with hate slogans and pictures of corpses. I'm guessing every other adult she had met that day had praised it, and she wanted to share. She looked so unselfconsciously happy, so cheerful - aw shucks, kiddo, it's lovely. Thank you.
The fact that I was holding an Israeli flag didn't appear to register with her. She probably had no clue what it was. And yes, she was just the cutest little thing. A darling moppet.
One of my companions later told me that he thought some of the young Arab women were fetching. Striking, even. Utterly charming, in fact. So he thoroughly enjoyed holding an Israeli flag also. There is probably no better way of catching the eye of a fiery Arab lass than holding the blue-and-white.
It was a lovely hate-filled day.
==============================================
NOTE: The plus-side of angry thugs wearing keffiyot terrorist-style over their faces is that they cannot spit at you. Even pulling the cloth down temporarily to let the phlegm fly is not practical - the spit is hampered and rather lackadaisical. Either that or the boys just couldn't aim. Shaking too much, I guess. Though we were outnumbered fifteen to one, for all they knew every one of us was a Jew (two of us were actually Gentiles), and therefore dangerous and a match for any number of them. Their spit fell far short of the target.
FURTHER NOTE: The only Arab chant this time was 'ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya 'L' Gaza!' (with our soul, with our heart, we will 'redeem' you oh Gaza). The 'L' doesn't really belong there, but the chant needs the extra syllable.
Considering that the event was held several hours after the ceasefire, it surely demonstrated the peaceableness of Arabs and the likelihood of constructive dialogue.
Or at least, knowledge of ovens among their ranks. And indubitably that too is admirable.
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.
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.
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