ABBAS: NO NEGOTIATIONS

Fellow blogger Death By Noodles alerts me to an article in Arutz Sheva that makes for interesting reading.

Abbas: Agree on Borders First, then Hold Direct Talks
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137734


QUOTE:
"Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas revealed Thursday that he does not intend to hold direct negotiations with Israeli leaders until Israel and the PA have reached a United States-mediated final agreement regarding the borders of a future PA state. Those borders must include Jerusalem as the capital, he added."
End quote.

SOURCE: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137734


As Death By Noodles writes:
"This means that unless Israel gives up her capitol city - the focus of Jewish yearning for all the long years of exile and for several centuries overwhelmingly Jewish - the PLO will not even consider coming to terms with reality and the existence of the state which predates their own violent nationalism."


That is an accurate assessment.
It wasn't until Yassir Arafat started referring to his own group as "Palestinians" that anyone had even heard of them. Till that time, the term had been applied to Jews who populated the area - who had declared their nationhood a generation earlier, with the approval of the United Nations.
The Arabs who stayed in the land became citizens; the Arabs who left after being encouraged to do so by the defeated Egyptians, Syrians, and other English client-states, became discriminated prisoners in camps, useful as pawns, but by no means fellow citizens of their host-countries.


Death By Noodles continues:
It must of course be remembered that until 1967, the people who now call themselves Palestinians considered themselves Jordanian, Syrian, and Egyptian. In point of fact, one could argue that there was no sense of differentiation from the Arab Umma before Hussein of Jordan wrested control of his kingdom back and expelled the PLO during Black September.
End quote.

A very good point.

Read more here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2010/05/abbas-rejects-peace.html



POSTSCRIPTUM

At the end of her post she also flings some gratuitous bile at the Malays and the Pakistanis - gratuitous, but thoroughly deserved.
Malays, as is well known, still maintain an apartheid society in which Chinese Malaysians, no matter how many generations they have been there (in many cases since the early eighteen hundreds - some even since the sixteen hundreds), are discriminated against in favour of recent Javanese and Sumatran carpet baggers.
Jadi Islam, the verb for converting to the Muslim faith, also means Jadi Melayu: becoming Malay. Still not equal, but far more so than Christians, Buddhists, or Hindus could ever possibly be in Malay society.

Malaysia is a pestilential place.
How much more so Pakistan.

SH'KIA AND PROTEST

The usual once a month taunting of the you-know-whats today.
Five to six PM at the customary place.
Dusk begins at 6:25 PM. So there is plenty of time, but feel free to leave early if you have to.


NOTE: Both the Mechaber and the Rama (Orach Chaim 233.1) agree that it is permissible to daven teffiles mincha after sh'kia. The Mishne Brura avers lechatchila that it is better to daven teffiles mincha BEFORE sh'kia, and lechatchila on top of lechatchila, better at the proper time (before sh'kia) WITHOUT a minyan than after sh'kia with a minyan. Many people nevertheless have the custom of davening after sh'kia with a minyan (and remember, we are enjoined not to be poresh min ha tzibbur, which means that at times we also have to avoid being poresh mi darchei tzibbur).
However, and this is important, Rav Soloveitchik maintains that the Rama meant this leniency only for weekdays - not erev shabbes. On erev shabbes, sh'kia marks the beginning of bein hashmashot, at which time all melacha must cease. And to be on the safe side, it might perhaps even be best to put the boundary eighteen minutes before sh'kia, davka as one does with candles.


Think of it as street theatre.
Really, what else did you have planned for the cocktail hour?

ZIONIST CLAIMS, APARTHEID, AND OTHER TROPES

Recently an anonymous reader discovered a post I wrote a back in November, in which I defended Zionists and pro-Israeli activists on the Berkeley campus. As is widely known, the campus of the University of California at Berkeley is one of the most Jew-hating environments on the planet, coddling racists and bigots flying under "cause of the day" colours.
University officials, while aware of the problem, and happy to take money from donors on both the Jewish and Arab sides of the fence, gently close their eyes and pretend that all is well.


The posting was this one:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/11/pro-palestinian-activists-attack-jews.html
It is dated 11/14/2008.


The anonymous commenter who discovered it shortly after ten o'clock yesterday evening wrote:
"I don't understand Zionists' claim to a land that was already inhabited by other people. We live in a modern era. Why should Americans support an apartheid state because it believes that religious texts have 'granted' a single people the right to establish a racially defined state to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries when Jesiwh immigrants were being imported from Europe. While the Holocaust is a horrendous legacy, how does the Jewish state honor the memory of those who were killed by Nazi Germany by perpetrating similar acts of exclusion and oppression? I really don't understand the Zionist mentality...Also, many Jews are anti-Zionist."

I have responded to his query in the comment string, but as the tropes he trumpets are common, it may serve some useful purpose to deal with them in a new post.



I don't understand Zionists' claim to a land that was already inhabited by other people.

There were always Jews living there among the other people. The other people came in with conquerors over the centuries. Jews, however, have ALWAYS lived there. Furthermore, the Zionist purchased land - and developed the barren areas which they bought. It was the economic development of those lands that drew in even more people.
Also, the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem and Hebron, as well as other places inside the land, were ethnically cleansed by Arab mobs in the twenties and thirties - how do you justify Arabs even daring to claim those areas?


Why should Americans support an apartheid state

America does not support an Apartheid state - Israeli Arabs have the right to vote, to own property, and to participate at all levels in Israeli society. And there are Arabs in the ranks of most political parties and all ministries. There are also Arab parties in the Knesset. There are jobs and stations where having served in the IDF give you a much greater entry - Arabs are free to join the IDF. Druze Arabs and many Bedouin do serve in the military (and note that there are Knesset speakers, ministers, officers, and department heads from the Arab Israeli side). All who stayed in 1948 became citizens.

The distinction is with the population in the territories - who are not citizens, and do not wish to be citizens, of a praedominantly Jewish state. They have their own institutions, which are overwhelmingly Judenrein - this despite there having been Jewish populations in both the West Bank and Gaza (that latter population ethnically cleansed several times, the last time during the British period) which date back to the pre-Roman period. Obviously, a population which will not become citizens, and is not even desirous of that - which in fact is acknowledged by all sides as heading towards eventual statehood of its own - cannot be administered in the same way as citizens. They are administered under British Mandate codes and Ottoman law. As they were when the Jordanians ruled over them, and as they were after Egypt had seized Gaza. The laws in those areas are a confusing and oppressive welter, due to it being illegal to change them until locally valid representative bodies do so.


Apartheid state ....

Like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, and several others which have nationality laws based on racial and religious exclusionism, coupled with a large number of 'guest-workers' who are treated worse than animals?

But Israel treats its guest-workers and resident aliens far better. So, NOT like the countries just mentioned.

Do you wish to talk about Mexican dishwashers and lettuce pickers? How about Turks who have been three generations in Northern Europe, and are still "foreigners"? Chinese and Indians in Malaysia who have been there for centuries and are discriminated against?
Koreans in Japan? Indians and Pakistanis in the Gulf?

[02/20/2009: Adding Italy to the list above. Per Italian law, children born to foreigners do not automatically receive citizenship, some are left in limbo. This particularly applies to Gypsies and Eastern Europeans. ]


because it believes that religious texts have 'granted' a single people the right to establish a racially defined state to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries when Jewish immigrants were being imported from Europe.

Zionism is not based on the Bible but on that land being the historic homeland of the Jewish people - even the Romans admitted precisely that.
As did the Arabs - in the Quran, during the various Caliphates, under the Ottomans, and even in the 1920s when the Arabs were becoming nations. Kings Abdullah (assassinated by a Palestinian in Jerusalem) and Hussein (of blessed memory) also admitted the Jewish right to the land.

Nor is the state racially defined (and 'race' in any case is no longer used as a defining term by most anthropologists). There are Jews of every "racial" stripe known to man. In what way is a glow-in-the-dark Hassid from Lithuania the same race as a Persian Jew, an Egyptian Jew, a Baghdadi, a Jew from Samarkand or Bokhara, or a Sfard from Morocco?

And exclusion? Did I already mention that those who stayed, contrary to the commands of the invading Arab armies and at the express request of Jewish leaders in 1948, were automatically granted citizenship? If I didn't mention it yet, I apologize - I should have.

And speaking of 'exclusion', I should also mention that since 1948 the Jews were excluded in very large numbers from Islamic countries - were they had lived since before Islam, in many cases, and in some cases before the current population settled there (that being most notably ALL the lands inhabited today by Turkic majorities, all of which were conquered by invaders from the steppes between ten and four centuries ago - Istanbul used to be Constantinople, and the Greeks still want it back).

Jewish immigrants imported from Europe? Indeed, many of the citizens of Israel have ancestors who came from there (though, of course, the ancestors of the European Jews were not from Europe - see 'Historic Homeland' mentioned above).
Over half the Jewish population however came from Arab and Muslim lands that they were kicked out of in 1948 and years since.
And do not forget, there were already Jews there when they returned to Israel. Many of whom had never been elsewhere - the territory 'assigned' to them by the United Nations was the area of Jewish majority, not the total area where there were Jews. Those who were thrown out of the Arab countries were robbed by the Arabs before they left, and arrived with nothing. As the US Congress in fact recognizes. Note also that these exiles were absorbed by their kin - precisely as the Arabs have refused to absorb their own brothers who fled.


to the exclusion of the residents who were living there throughout the 19th and 20th centuries

The Jewish return to the land was already happening in small measure long before Zionism - Jews returned to Jerusalem, Hebron, Tzfat, and Gaza throughout Ottoman times, and there were Jews who already lived there.
For eight decades till 1948, Jewish population there increased more markedly than under the Caliphate.
Since 1948, it has been the Jewish state - but all in all, Jews have been a majority in their land now for several generations, since before independence. Many were born there, their parents were born there. And many even have grandparents, great grandparents, and even further kin who were born there. They live there now, and most have not lived anywhere else.
If being born in the US makes you an American, or a citizen of many other countries, then by that same reason the Jews in Israel are validly of Israel, and the "Palestinians" born in Nahr El Bard or Jordan are Lebanese and Jordanian.

Oh wait, Arabs practice an exclusionism even more bitter than Europeans and Malays. They discriminate against their own family.


While the Holocaust is a horrendous legacy, how does the Jewish state honor the memory of those who were killed by Nazi Germany by perpetrating similar acts of exclusion and oppression?

The comparison is obscene. After 1967, the Arab population in the territories more than tripled. Even in Gaza since the intifada, there has been a forty percent increase in the population, as per a news item on the BBC website which quotes UN figures. There are more Palestinians now than ever before. They have thrived most marvelously since 1948.

There are no death camps. There are no gas chambers. There are no torture rooms. The Arabs in the West Bank largely have their own officials to blame for the mess they are in (corruption nurtured and encouraged by the UN), and the Arabs in Gaza can thank Hamas (whose nickname, by the way, is SHIA - in snarky acknowledgement of the Iranian contribution) for their situation.


I really don't understand the Zionist mentality

That may be due to ignorance. Give it another shot.


Also, many Jews are anti-Zionist

That also may be due to ignorance. Provided we give them the benefit of doubt.

But more because they desperately wish to be unobjectionable to all, in every possible way. Blending in is a powerful motivator for Uncle-Tomism.
As is profound self-hatred.

[02/20/2009: I actually thought of refering to the anti-Zionist Jews as Kapos-in-training, but the situation is more complex than that. As "A" points out, "The whole issue of Jewish anti-Zionism is much more complex and should be treated in better detail and with less acrimony toward non-Jews.
Ultraorthodox Jews (Neturei Karte) did not want Zionism to usurp the traditional rabbinic leadership of the Jews.
Assimilationist Jews were/are afraid that Zionism will cast doubt on their loyalty to their current state.
Both Marxist and Assimilationist Jews believed that "progress" in a liberal or communist society would allow them to integrate and be part of larger society. In Germany and USSR, this proved to be an illusion.".]

By the same token, many pro-Palestinian activists assert that they are not anti-Semites because their 'best friends' are Jewish (in other words, strictly anti-Zionist Jews). A more common tendency among them is to avoid Jews who they feel are too "Jewish", especially as regards the Israel and Palestine issues.
And, of course, there are still convinced anti-Semites in their ranks.
Not wishing to associate with a taboo minority is also a powerful motivator, as is profound subconscious hatred.


Any questions sofar? There will be a test.



APARTHEID

Now, I find it interesting that the word 'apartheid' is so often used by the anti-Israel crowd. Interesting, because it does not mean what they intend it to mean, nor what they wish to think it means.
Apartheid is a Dutch word that strictly speaking means 'separateness', and in the South African context referred to a legal separation within the same country into ethnic classes (based, in fact, on old Dutch-Roman law and the feudal concept of Romans, nobles, freemen, and serfs) - something which in so varied and diverse a country as Israel is patently absurd.

The West Bank, of course, is different; the Arabs wish their eventual state to be as Judenrein as possible, and have made abundantly clear that they wish Jews to keep out, but do not object to dogs or Persians.

As my regular readers know, I speak, read, and write Dutch fluently. I also understand a number of Dutch dialects, including Afrikaans. Do not presume to lecture me on what 'apartheid' means. Do not even think of doing so. It is a word in my language, not yours - you have merely hijacked it, and 'colonized' it - precisely like the Arabs did to the Christian lands in North Africa, the Levant, and Iberia, exactly like Muslims did to Asia Minor, Western India, Central Asia, and parts of Indonesia. If you use that word, you betray your ignorance, and your linguistic carpetbaggery.
Plus, in this case, you devalue that word to the point of irrelevance.
As you are also doing by comparing the fairly minor Gaza war to the full-scale extermination of six million people over a five year period.

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.

JEW HATE IN SF: DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF THE ISRAELI CONSULATE TUESDAY DECEMBER 30, 2008

Apparently, I am a Jew Faggot. This per a large very dark gentleman representing International ANSWER, organizers of yesterday's protest in front of the Israeli Consulate on Montgomery Street.

Or it could be that he was a member of the Muslim American Society Freedom, the National Council of Arab Americans, Free Palestine Alliance, Al-Awda - International Palestine Coalition for the Right of Return, Bay Area Women in Black, Society for Justice in Palestine, ISM, the Spartacists, the South Bay Alliance, the Anti-Zionist Jews, or Jewish Voice for Peace. All of whom were either sponsors or participants in the largest Israel-bashing fest in SF since 2006.

But the group he represented is not the point. He was utterly convinced that I was a Jew Faggot, and very vocal about it. He does not appear to much like Jew Faggots.

I have no problem with the term, so it is with profound humility and pride that I accept the appellation 'Jew Faggot' as a badge of honour.

I was also informed by several other supporters of the Palestinian cause that I was a dog, a pig, a monkey, inhuman, the son of a whore, and that I deserved to be shot, gutted, slashed open, have my children killed, and see my wife raped.

[Given that I am, apparently, a Jew Faggot, it is not clear what is meant by the term 'wife' - explication is required. Thank you.]

And by gum, they believed themselves the ones to do all that - if only there weren't so many witnesses, dash it all.



PRO-ISRAEL COUNTERDEMONSTRATION
4:45 PM - 6:45 PM

At which approximately 100 - 120 supporters of Israel meet nearly three thousand screaming Palestinians, Peace activists, Presbyterians, Pakistanis, and assorted other Protestants and politically obtuse personages.
Plus some angry people from the Yemeni mosque on Bush Sutter Street between Polk and Van Ness (At-Tawfikheed Yemenis Cultural Center).

[Correction 01/05/2009: Masjid Al-Tawheed, 1227 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94109-5516. Denomination: Sunni (Salafi). Demographics: Predominantly Yemeni. Prayers offered: All daily prayers including formal jum'a. Language of Friday khutbah: Arabic (w/translation). Imam & Director/President: Sheikh Qaid. And regarding that mosque and its congregants, it must be mentioned that they generally speaking have improved the moral tone of the neighborhood - which is known for prostitution (both genders, and both transgenders), inebriation, and public displays of procreation, plus both partner and substance abuse. It is a lively little part of town.]


We (that being myself and five others) arrived at quarter to five with our Israeli and American flags, and it was already apparent that our side was vastly outnumbered, also that the police had lost control of the situation. The SFPD wanted to keep both sides apart. They failed utterly to do so. The anti-Israel mob occupied all of the street on the consulate side, and most of the other side of the street as well. Our people were surrounded on all sides, scattered in clumps among the screaming masses of anti-Israel activists, Muslims, and generally hate-filled opportunists. Several times the jostling and elbowing threatened to turn violent.

The cops' main focus had devolved to preventing angry confrontata from turning into active bloodshed, OR windows being broken. Nose to nose screaming matches, pushing and shoving - all fine, as long as it did not lead to punches, flying objects, shattered glass.

The SFPD actually achieved both of those humble aims, though they did not achieve anything else. They did not want to wade in to physically separate the sides, probably because of the danger that the Arab-Americans or ANSWER members would go feral.

[Besides, Jews can take care of themselves - as one bloated red-faced woman's sign said, one dead Jew means 300 dead Palestinians, and we were not even outnumbered thirty to one.]

Two hours of angry rioting and threats of death, plus several incidents that could have become bloody, do not leave me with any positive appreciation of the pro-Palestinian side. Which includes Bay Area Women in Black, Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, and International ANSWER, in addition to agitators bused in from San Jose (South Bay Mobilization), Marin, and various heathenish pig-butt boondocks.



SLOGANS

The anti-Israel side had one slogan in English, and several more in Arabic.

The English-language slogan: "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea" - which frankly states the intent to destroy the Jewish state and ethnically cleanse the land.

The Arabic slogans: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews), "Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, jaish-Muhammad saya'ud" (Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return).

[That last slogan refers to the battle of Khaybar where the prophet Muhammad opportunistically attacked and slaughtered the Jews who had been hospitable to another Arab tribe. The subsequent sacking of Khaybar by Muhammad's forces re-energized the brigands who had flocked to his cause, and persuaded several Bedouin tribes to join Muhammad's forces in hopes of fun and profit.]


While the Arabs screamed their desire to exterminate Jews, the English-monolingualists simply stood there happily smiling their approbation. The correct pronunciation may have been beyond them, but they approved of the sentiment. Which is proven by their resolute continued presence and solidarity.
No, they do NOT have plausible deniability - the 'river to the sea' slogan shows that they wish for a genocide against Israel, and translations of the Arabic slogans have been provided so many times that they cannot claim ignorance of the meanings.
Besides, the angry Middle-Eastern Jew-hater with a bullhorn, and the rabid white chick with an equally loud bullhorn and a grating voice, made plain in great detail what the peace movement's plan for Israel and the Jews entails, as did the numerous threats and insults directed at our side by both Arabs and Anglos.


Bay Area Women in Black, in particular, should be ashamed of themselves - we know that they read our material, and they've stood side-by-side with Arabs making the Nazi salute at many other events where promises of death and destruction were chanted by the masses (hello Ron/Ralph Berg, this means you).
JVP, seeing as it has a number of not-entirely-clued-in individuals, is perhaps excusable - their familiarity with Judaism and Hebrew is that poor that they cannot possibly be expected to have any greater facility with Arabic, and they are somewhat slow besides.


At about twenty to seven PM, the vast mob headed down Montgomery Street towards Market, obediently tailed by the SFPD, worried that windows might be broken or garbage cans overturned if they were not there to keep order. Quiet returned to a street filled with ripped signs and splintered poles, and Israeli and American flags were carefully rolled up, ready for the next lovefest.



FINAL NOTE: On our side, maybe as many as ten percent (but maybe not even five percent) were not Jewish. On the anti-Israel side, despite the huge number of politically correct Jews there, at least eighty percent were Gentile, of whom about half were not Arab. This tells me that Jews cannot rely on the Gentile world for safety and justice - there just aren't very many people who give a damn about the Jews.
But you already knew that, didn't you?

One more time: 120 to 3000. Twenty five to one. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers - the few, the proud, the Jew Faggots.
I love you guys.

ANARCHO-ZIONIST TENDENCIES

[JEWS, CHRISTIANS, ANARCHISTS, LEND ME YOUR EARS...]

Pursuant yesterday's post, in which I mentioned some aspects of Anarcho-Zionism, I have noticed two things.
One of them is the intemperate fury of various individuals writing on the Cleveland Indy-media site. Apparently the concept of anarcho-Zionism struck a chord. And made them quake. These are not people capable of dealing with ideas that undermine their political superstions; there are profoundly fearful little folk in Cleveland.
The other thing I've noticed is the blog of Aaron van Praag. Who quoted me, and who subsequently was quoted to me by someone else. Interesting.
I shall return the favour.


An recent post by Aaron van Praag can be found here:
http://aaronvanpraag.livejournal.com/#entry_845
[Compatibility of Judaism and Anarchy]


Quote;
"Fundamentally, religion is not by definition anti-revolutionary. It has been argued that religions, like the societies in which they flourish, go through both revolutionary and anti-revolutionary phases. Christianity in its early centuries was profoundly revolutionary, but having become the ideology of the establishment, has subsequently been more anti-revolutionary than not. Change, in the eyes of the church, implied threat. "

This actually reflects the transformation of Christianity from a mediterranean cargo-cult to a symbol of Rome, and, after Rome fell, a bastion of stability and order during the barbarian invasions. It should be noted that since then, this has been one of the strongest (self-assumed) roles of the church, even when the attack has come from other Christians. As such, it has echoes in all ideologies formed by the Christian environment, such as the various socialist and extremist movements.


Quote:
"Judaism lacks both the Christian establishment-supporting tendency, and the Islamic religious authority as a main component in political life attitude. There is no universally acknowledged supremacy within Judaism, nor an ideology commonly accepted by the majority of Jews. In consequence, claims of religious need, or scriptural imperative, are given scant credence by most of the intended audience. This is in effect a democratic tendency within the tradition, and a strength utterly lacking in most other religions. Judaism is, in one way of looking, naturally and instinctively anarchic. "

One of the 'cultural imperatives' within the Jewish tradition is the tendency to argue over points of interpretation. Disputation, from a Judaic perspective, is part of learning the material. This cannot be said about Christianity or Islam.
Perhaps more importantly, the habitus of scholars in the Judaic tradition was also training for life, and was applied to mundane matters, whereas in Christianity (and Islam) scholarship often devolved into criticism of life - specifically, how others chose to live.
This is an aspect that Marxism and its adherents have in common with their Christian kinfolk - Marxism is often closer to fundamentalist Christianity than any other creed.
Like all fanatics, the Marxist is a critic but not a practitioner.


Quote:
"...anarchism is, logically, almost an instinctively Judaic political movement. It cannot be otherwise. "

Anybody who has contrasted the militaristic and rigid uniformity of most church experiences with the chaotic individualism of davening cannot disagree with this statement.

A shul is by definition an anarcho-Zionist collective.

Please - feel free to disagree.

ANARCHO-ZIONISM

One of the terms that is gaining wide-spread currency among those who support Israel is 'Anarcho-Zionism'. It names one of the more interesting movements, and shows that left-wing ideology need not be slavishly pro-Palestinian, nor witless, gutless, and insane.


Pursuant this concept, I would bring the intellectual heritage of Sam Dolgoff to your attention.


Sam Dolgoff was born in Russia during the Czarist period, and raised and educated in the United States, to which his family moved when he was three. He became politically active in his early twenties. Throughout most of his life he was involved in both organizing and formulating the political thought of the Anarchist movements, and represented a more intellectually rigorous approach to political theory than has been evident in recent decades.
As was common for many on the left until fairly recently, he saw national movements of liberation as great advances in human history, and particularly derived inspiration from those struggles which brought about genuine social change, such as the Cuban revolution in its early years until Stalinism took over, and most particularly the Zionist movement, which culminated in the re-birth of the Jewish homeland and the re-assumption by Jews of the rights of nation-hood, which had been in abeyance since Roman times and repressed by all subsequent imperialisms.


It must have been a matter of keen disappointment to so driven a revolutionary that Arab nationalism never acquired a strain of social liberation, becoming instead merely another authoritarian and imperialist ideology - albeit one that allows its adherents great latitude in political expression, due to the rivalries of the various societies in the Middle-East - from Nasserite and Baathist at one extreme to classic Fascism in the style of Hitler or Mussolini at the other - often combining both, and almost always shaped by the personality cults of great opportunists.


Sam Dolgoff, along with other thinkers in progressive circles, felt that Zionism was not only possibly the only counter to the dangerous tendencies in Arab Nationalism, but the best. Zionism represented an ideal which Anarchists could well support - an enlightened social movement, a national liberation movement, and a revolutionary change from the tired ideologies of social and economic control which for millennia kept the population in chains.


To quote from a key tract:
In anarcho- Zionism, Zionism is approached not as a political ideology necessarily but as a system of collective self defense and with the belief that resisting the forces of globalization and capitalism by definition includes resisting the forces of Islamic- empire building. As in all anarchist movements, anarcho-Zionism is opposed to racism, sexism and the intolerance that is often seen in Islamic areas. Islamic empire building cynically uses the religion of Islam as a means of control , both keeping the Moslem population subservient to their capitalist overlords while at the same time providing a philosophical justification for the under classes to submit to institutionalized oppression. "Zionism" provides a necessary protective stage until the Islamic world progresses through the necessary revolutionary stage.
[Nation Building as the means of Social Liberation, Passover 2008]


And to quote Sam Dolgoff himself on this issue:
".... the Israeli comrades are forced, like the other tendencies, to accept the fact that Israel must be defended. The day after the proclamation of the state of Israel (15 May 1948) Assam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, threatened that: "This will be a war of extermination and momentous massacres like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades." In discussion with Israeli anarchists it was emphasized that the unilateral dismantling of the Israeli state would not at all be anarchistic. It would, on the contrary, only reinforce the immense power of the Arab states and actually expedite their plans for the conquest of Israel."



It is interesting to note that anti-Zionism, like all classic bigotries, knows no class or caste, and occurs across the entire spectrum of political action. The Nazis were anti-Semitic, the Stalinists were and are still anti-Semitic, and the Arab Nationalists have always been anti-Semitic. That anti-Semitism reaches its fullest modern expression in anti-Zionism.
That anti-Zionism is a destructive poison which the sympathizers and collaborators of Arab Nationalist Movement on both the left and right, in America, in Europe, and in the third world, have infected the political discourse.


It is time to put paid the corrupting of social movements. To take back the discourse. To weed out the ideology of hate, and to remove anti-Zionists from the causes that they have crippled.

It is time to recognize Zionism as the great movement of social change that it is; one that should serve as an example to all progressives.

FORWARD, SISTERS! AGAINST THE ANGRY ZIONIST PATRIARCHATE!

I am in receipt of an e-mail from someone who believes that I am an African-American feminist lesbian, and will therefore be interested in revolutionary blows against the male-dominated neo-con imperialist status quo. Actually, I am not African American or lesbian - but truth be told, I may have advertently given her that impression. Oops.


Warning: not all e-mail exchanges with strangers calling themselves Malika, Leila, or Sharhazada are, in fact, contacts from valid new recruits for the Anarcho-Sexual Anti-Imperialists or the HomoSexual & Transgender Front For The Support of Palestine.
[Some of us actually think that you pro-Hamas poly-gendrics are stark raving mad, and really wish that you had developed as good a relationship with your therapist as you seem to have done with the repressive gynophobic patriarchy of the Arab world.]


Anyhoo, the e-mail that Sylphia forwarded contains some lovely text.


WOMEN IN BLACK NEEDS YOUR HELP TO DEFEAT THE ZIONIST!!!

Friday, September 5
At 5-6 PM
Montgomery and Market Streets, SF

San Francisco Women in Black (SF WIB) has been standing in opposition to War, Militarism, and Ultra-Right Nationalism for over 7 years.

We hold signs saying: End the Occupation of Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan!
Women's Rights are Human Rights! Dismantle the Settlements!

For the last several months we have been attacked by Zionists, a group of mostly men who have come bringing huge Israeli and American flags, talking, smoking and handing out flyers. Their purpose is to oppress us and to drive us away.

We need you to come and help us keep putting out the message that the Palestinians deserve their human rights! All womyn are invited!

----------------


I'm fairly certain that these lovely weiben oyf shvortz are aware of the oppression of women in Palestinian society and the rest of the Middle-East, yet they have chosen to support Hamas and the uber masculine warlords of the West-Bank as their signal contribution to revolutionary struggle.

I'm not sure how accurate they are in their portrayal of the group of Zionists who counterdemo them every first Friday - I know most of those Zionists, and consider them very liberal. Not insane, like many of the more radical residents of the Bay Area, but nevertheless far too left-wing to be entirely safe in the rust-belt, deep-south, or Alaska.
Several of those Zionists are in fact peaceful, female, and/ or gay. Being peaceful, female, and / or gay are positions very consistent with support for Israel, a nation where being any or all of those three things is socially safe and has legal and political protection.


I should probably point out that a peaceful gay female in Gaza or Tehran would probably be arrested, raped repeatedly in jail, and then stoned to death. Being gay in Egypt subjects one to brutal police harassment and broomstick penetration, and recent reports paint an unsavoury picture of sexual harassment in Cairo (virulent, omnipresent, and vicious).
Being gay or female is not safe or socially acceptable in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria...... Well, anywhere in the Arab world except for nightclubs in the Christian districts of Beirut or tourist areas of Morocco.

But never mind. I now wish to draw your attention to the passage that the e-mail reminded me of.

JUDITH: I do feel, Reg, that any anti-imperialist group like ours must reflect such a divergence of interests within its power-base.
REG: Agreed. Francis?
FRANCIS: Yeah. I think Judith's point of view is very valid, Reg, provided the movement never forgets that it is the inalienable right of every man--
STAN: Or woman.
FRANCIS: Or woman..... to rid himself--
STAN: Or herself.
FRANCIS: Or herself.
REG: Agreed.
FRANCIS: Thank you, brother.
STAN: Or sister.
FRANCIS: Or sister. Where was I?
REG: I think you'd finished.
FRANCIS: Oh. Right.
REG: Furthermore, it is the birthright of every man--
STAN: Or woman.
REG: Why don't you shut up about women, Stan. You're putting us off.
STAN: Women have a perfect right to play a part in our movement, Reg.
FRANCIS: Why are you always on about women, Stan?
STAN: I want to be one.
REG: What?
STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me 'Loretta'.
REG: What?
LORETTA: It's my right as a man.
JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
LORETTA: I want to have babies!
REG: You want to have babies?
LORETTA: It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them.
REG: But... you can't have babies.
LORETTA: Don't you oppress me.
REG: I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the foetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?
LORETTA: [crying]
JUDITH: Here! I've got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans', but that he can have the right to have babies?
FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry.
REG: What's the point?
FRANCIS: What?
REG: What's the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can't have babies?!
FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
REG: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.

[Source: Monty Python - Life of Brian]


It may not be entirely clear why the e-mail reminded me of the passage from LofB above. Just think about it. And don't call me Loretta.

I guess I should write Sylphia and tell her that, alas, Malika (or Leila, or Sharhazada) is far too busy this Friday evening, preparing a nutritious dinner for her husband and children after they return from the Masjid and break their ramadan fast. Sweet juicy dates, milk and honey, Sohan Halwa, Rice Pilaf, and Goat-leg soup! Yummers bismillah and Salaam Aleikum sister!


Note: No gentlemen named Muhammad or important members of the matriarchate were harmed in the writing of this post.

TOHOROS HA MISHPACHA

Rather than a long disquisition about the technicalities of a disquieting subject, a brief excursus into left field.


Savage Kitten woke up yesterday morning feeling out of sorts. Savage Kitten needed Ibuprofen. And had run out. And was too crampy to walk to Walgreens. And announced her intention to spend all day in bed belly-aching about an angry porcupine with high heels, beads, and granny glasses who was stomping around her insides doing the rumba.

She slept fitfully during most of the day instead.

So, rather than joining some friends snarking an Edomite cultural manifestation elsewhere in the city, I stayed home. I did not see the porcupine, and have no evidence that an angry dancing porcupine with beads, granny glasses, and high heels, actually even exists, but I will take it on faith that yes she does indeed visit every month.

Ibuprofen is a miracle drug.

By evening Savage Kitten had recovered enough to partake of some curried lamb haunch.


What I missed out on at the Edomite cultural thing was Ahmed calling someone a nazi. Ahmed subsequently calling the cops, who came by and noted that Ahmed was losing his marbles. Ahmed calling the same someone a colonialist racist. The cops tisk-tisking and leaving. Ahmed accusing someone of stealing his falafel. Ahmed taking offense at kippot. Ahmed being chided for his dietary habits. Ahmed invectivicating about the war. Ahmed stuttering. Ahmed hearing voices. Ahmed blinking obsessively while his eyes rolled back. Ahmed distributing literature calling major politicians zionazi stooges and demon spawn. Ahmed marxistically praising Ahmedinejad and Hugo Chavez, both of whom are saints and prophets by Allah! Ahmed demanding that Jinns and Jews leave the park, and take their evil wires with them! Ahmed having a worthwhile and heartfelt exchange of opinions with Borat (Borat being the catch-all term for less-than-coherent members of our side). Ahmed chanting for Ralph Nader and Cindy Sheehan, and Ahmed then hearing the space-ships coming to carry him home.


It sounds like fun. I would've liked to have been there. But sometimes nidah-zivah-zavah take precedence.

YET MORE HERBIVORE

Underneath the letter from my friend Max protesting Herbivore Restaurant's support of Jew-hatred, which I posted here: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/05/herbivore-earthly-grill.html , a commenter disagrees.


Anonymous writes:
"As a member of the east bay jewish community, i want to express admiration for the courage and moral integrity of Herbivore and other Free Palestine concert sponsors.

Many Jews were involved in the planning of this concert, and many Jews support equal human rights for Palestinians, as does the UN and international law. The stance of the concert and its supporters is that zionism is a racist ideology that is harmful to Jews as well as Arabs and others. Anti-zionism is not anti-semitism; an end to political zionism is the only hope for the continuation and morality of Jewish culture.

It is a loss to everyone when any dialogue about, or dissent from, mainstream zionist ideology is censored within Jewish communities."

--- --- ---

My dear Anonymous,


There is a profound difference between supporting human rights for Palestinians and actively participating in an event based upon a constructed narrative of hatred and blame - as the ideology of the Nakba-groups, Meca, AlAwda, and others so obviously are (and even a cursory glance at their literature and their websites will make that clear).

Anti-Zionism is, as you say, not necessarily anti-Semitism - but all anti-Zionism in the Arab world IS very much sodden with anti-Semitism, as is obvious from the popularity of anti-Semitic classics such as the Protocols, The Eternal Jew, Mein Kampf, and even Mahmoud Abbas' doctoral thesis ("The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement", later published as "The Secret Relationship Between Nazism And Zionism), which is as stellar an example of poison and holocaust denial as you will find. Holocaust denial is one of the fundaments of the Arab cause, it runs like a poisoned artery through all pro-Palestinian propaganda.

Even admitting that Jews are humans is a rarity among those who espouse the Palestinian cause, and how much rarer still is it to find an Arab who will admit that Israel has any right to exist. That they more-or-less accept that at present it does exist is hardly commendable - no Brownie points for admitting an obvious fact.

To be sure, Palestinians do deserve better lives and self-determination. But as long as their organizations, activists, and advocates support violence, murder, and bigotry, the world has an interest in keeping their dreams from being realized.

Israel deserves peace and security - if the Palestinians cannot be relied upon to respect even that little, those of us who support Israel have no reason whatsoever to support any part of the Palestinian dream. The history of terror attacks (no, do not dare call them 'acts of resistance' - Munich was not resistance, the murder of American diplomat George C. Moore in Khartoum was not resistance, killing Leon Klinghofer was not resistance, Netanya was not resistance, Sbarro's Pizzeria was not resistance, Mahane Yehuda was not resistance) diminishes the Palestinian cause to the point where their weal or woe is of little consequence or concern.

One may disagree with Zionism, and criticize Israel's actions and policies. Certainly that is legitimate - necessary even. But doing so is only constructive if it is not paired with uncritically lending active support to those who seek Israel's destruction. Let Herbivore show that they are not bigots and Jew-haters by holding the Palestinians and Arabs to the same high standards that they hold Israel; I'm sure that the P's and A's would be found much more wanting.

Your concern with human rights for the Palestinians is commendable. Do not let it blind you to the rights of Israel, or the great good of that country, and neither let it turn you against your own people - your family, your kinfolk, your community.


===================================

Punkt.

That being said, I do agree that 'It is a loss to everyone when any dialogue about, or dissent from, mainstream Zionist ideology is censored within Jewish communities'. I do not believe that is likely or even happening, though. Certainly not in the Bay Area. With such a diversity of Judaisms and political ideas here, getting Jews to shut up is well-nigh impossible, censoring them positively Sisyphean. They speak, they argue, they nuance their positions, they shout, they write, they opinionate. They certainly do not allow anyone to silence them.

The one thing they do not seem to do is support Israel in public. There were far more Jews at last Saturday's hate-fest than across the street protesting. I hope they enjoyed Herbivore's vegetarian offerings.


Actually, I sincerely hope it gave them food-poisoning. I'm really not that warm to them or their cause. Or their pet restaurant.

AN ATTEMPT TO NUANCE AND SPIN-DOCTOR THE DESCRIPTION 'FRIGGIN' CLUELESS'

My recent post entitled "ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BAY AREA JEWS BEING SO FRIGGIN' CLUELESS YOU WONDER WHERE THEIR HEADS ARE", which appeared both on this blog and as a crosspost at Jameel's (http://muqata.blogspot.com/) prompted a contra-comment from Dan (http://lifeinthedanlane.blogspot.com/).


Dan wrote:
Please do not imply that all of the Jews, or even a majority, support the wacko anti-Zionist Jews.

The vast majority of Jews in the Bay Area are Zionist, even those afraid to say so in public in front of their far leftist friends.

It is true that we have more than our fair share of anti-Zionists and other wackjobs, but it is no more fair to call us Bay Area Jews "friggin' clueless" than it is to label all blacks as criminals, all Arabs as terrorists, or all Haredim as gay stabbing child raping intolerants due to the actions of a small minority.


Blogger Friar Yid (not Shlita) http://friaryid.blogspot.com/ also responded.

Friar Yid commented:
You're basically right on this, Dan, though I'd modify it and say that there is probably a sizable Zionist number of BA Jews, who unfortunately aren't as visible as their counterparts, with a silent majority that probably thinks Israel is good or at least "fine" but doesn't feel the need to go out and fight with protesters about it.

You can criticize the latter group for their apathy, B.O.T.H., but it's unfair to conflate that with actually supporting the nuts.



Okay. I accept their points.

I could split hairs and say that I didn't say all, but just indicated that there were Jews in the Bay Area who are f-verb clueless. But that doesn't diminish the effect, which was an implication that ALL are thus.

That was not the intent - I do indeed realize that it is not all. Unlike the SF Chronicle, who couldn't see five thousand pro-Israel Jews in Justin Herman Plaza on April 14th, 2002 (they were there for several hours, but the SF Chronicle made utterly no mention of that demonstration), I can and do see pro-Israel Jews here in the Bay Area.
Though sometimes not nearly enough of them.


I also see far too many anti-Israel Jews.
That is a subjective judgment, however. From my point of view all we need is ONE anti-Israel Jew to satisfactorily prove that indeed there is a diversity of opinion on the subject. But because there are several hundred if not a few thousand of them in San Francisco et environs, and at least several hundred of them who scream and shout and won't shut up, and get interviewed at the drop of a hat by every radio-station talk-jock or tin-can reporter who wants to highlight his or her own anti-Israel agenda while hiding behind a Jew-of-convenience, there are far too many of them.


Here in the Bay Area, the Jews who support Israel sometimes seem invisible, but the Jews who have decided to piss on everything are extremely visible. This is not a question only of perception, but of the tendency of the Bay Area to hold up the loud anti-Israel Jew as the example. Being anti-Israel wins you praise and love, while being pro-Israel gets you a fight in a bar.


Anyone (Jew or Gentile) who supports Israel will be called names, or have their sanity, humanity, and loyalty questioned by his or her associates, whereas a strident anti-Israel Jew is treated like a paragon of all the civilized virtues.

A Jew who supports Israel may be considered a divisive element in their synagogue or at work. A Jew who criticizes Israel ad nauseum is considered a team-player capable of understanding other points of view.

A supporter of Israel will often be considered, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, to be an ultra right-wing racist nutjob - by Jew and Gentile alike. But the anti-Israel Jew obediently and enthusiastically shouts down that pro-Israel nutcase while the majority happily sit back and smile approvingly.



The 'cluelessness' is in the pretense that there are two equal sides and that the truth lies somewhere between their opposing points of view - relativism at its worst.
The 'friggin' cluelessness' lies in assuming that despite all evidence to the contrary in the Bay Area the right side still has the support of the majority and if we just ignore the public demonstrations of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment, those people have no influence. That is compromise with the devil at best, 'head-firmly-up-one's-donkey' at worst.


We have already lost Holland and Britain - many more people in those countries believe that Israel is a threat to world peace than support Israel's right to defend herself. Far too many there oppose Israel in everything while supporting any and all Palestinian actions.

France and Germany are as much a blessing as a curse in that regard. Europe, as a whole, is barely on our side. Western European public opinion is overwhelmingly and often uncritically pro-Pal.

Here in the US, the Bay Area most resembles Europe. It is perhaps an exaggeration to also compare the Bay Area to pre-war Europe at this stage. But not by much.

ZIONIST CHOP SQUAD

A report on our counterdemo to the protest in front of the Israeli consulate last Friday organized by MECA (Middle East Children's Alliance - a probable HAMAS front group) and ANSWER (an umbrella organization of various well-known extremist Marxian groups and individuals who have taken over the anti-war movement, and front for several reprehensible and outright repulsive causes).

TIME: Friday, March 7th, 4PM-7PM.
PLACE: Downtown San Francisco, 456 Montgomery Street.



How did it go?

Not as bad as the old Irish war song: "Our foes were united and we were divided, we met and they scattered our ranks to the wind".
But we did not do very well. And they were better prepared. They reacted less to us, listened more to their speakers, chanted fairly damn well in unison, and made a darn good stab at avoiding certain phrases which always discredit them. No dogs, no rivers to the sea.


SPEECHY-WEECHY

Chatem Bazian spoke - he's good, real good. Ninety percent bullshit delivered eloquently, with no qualms and no shred of shame.
The Lubin woman - emotional, but collected. Mostly to the point. More bs.
[Chatem Bazian is a notorious Jew-bater and academic low-life, Barbara Lubin's sole claim to fame is hanky-panky - rumoured to have had a torrid affair with a mayor of a local burg. She's a classic kapo.]


Some dunce ranted for a while about how he promised his dad that he would never lose this key, and if not him then his son would someday open the door of their house in Yerushalayim with this key. Emotional, nearly weeping - the crowd loved it.
A fellow dunce gibbered about Haifa University, buses, apartheid, graduating but not being employable in Israel because of those bad, bad, bad Jews (bad Jew! No bagel for you!).
[Both of them are friends of Shawkat, who was also there. Shawkat is the Palestinian fire-brand with the devilish twinkle in his eye and the sunny smile. He's utterly likeable, and absolutely dangerous. None of these three should be allowed anywhere near a jerrycan of gasoline - Arabs and oil don't mix.]


Some old lady of the Berkeley self-guiltied ilk went off on a gibbering tangent. A speaker from Answer gave a toned-down revolutionary-comrades speech at the end of which he advertised for the nineteenth (*). Another Answernik spoke warmly and at length about how they would always be there for Palestine and the poor Palestinians, they would never leave them, they would always stand with them, their sacred duty, their heartfelt friends, etc, etc.
Someone mentioned sending aid to Gaza - a ship or something, someone else talked about an Islamic charity.

By around six o'clock they ran out of steam, having said everything thrice, and left.


There had been about one hundred to 150 of them, mostly local Muslims, but well-leavened by Answerscum, self-haters, student morons, and one or two of the weiben oyf shwortz.
Jewish Mom and Angry Biker Dude can identify the known members of the dark side.



WE FEW, WE HAPPY FEW, WE BAND OF..... WHAT?

On our side, we had about a dozen of our core cadre, plus a rightwinger who makes Geert Wilders look like a warm and fuzzy communist, a mother and her daughter who are very nice, and two little old ladies. One or two more. Twenty would be a mild exaggeration.

There are a few people we need to keep from the megaphone at all times. Off the top of my head, I would say anybody in the legal profession - a street fight is not a court case with rational arguments, but a question of short, sweet (or bitter, vicious, venomous - same difference), to the point noise barrage.

Our chants were mostly not.

And we need to police ourselves a bit.

No playing in traffic. No fingers (shoes and the Italian meh gesture are okay). Keep an eye on who walks behind you. Look to your left and right. Keep an eye on the cops, the other side, the flags and signs, the passersby.


It was, more or less, the usual semi-anarchic 'Yeshiva of the streets' performance. We're good conversationalists (when our blood-sugar level is up, and we've got our inhalers). That's probably not something you could've guessed.

==================================

(*) The nineteenth: a group of Bay Area activists re-started Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW), with the intent to shut San Francisco down on the fifth anniversary with a series of direct actions against corporations and government offices.
They promise a day of decentralized, multiple-target direct actions - probably involving vandalism, flying objects, and office take-overs.

In training sessions, garbage-can fires, breaking windows, and pouring water on computers are all being touted as "non-violent protest", in addition to the usual traffic blocking, barricading of doors and entry ways, plus random distribution of noxious substances.

Direct Action starts at 7:30 AM.

A group will probably be chaining themselves to the fence around the Montgomery Bart Station or the door to the office building at McKesson Plaza around late morning, others will be attempting to trash some of the corporate offices along Market Street as well as attempting to storm the British Consulate, Citicorp, and the Export-Import Bank of the U.S .

The anarchists will probably join in once they wake up - noonish, my guess. They're the window-breaking types. And if no-one is watching, they will torch trash receptacles and smash car-windows. Think of juvenile hoodlums without an organized gang-structure. Drug-addicts, unemployables, and Berkeleyites, mostly.

International ANSWER has a rally in the evening in Civic Center, after which groups will disperse over downtown for anti-government actions and manifestations (specific plans and targets unavailable).

It promises to be an exiting day. I expect that laws will be broken with gay abandon.

IN MEMORY OF THE STUDENTS OF YESHIVAT MERCAZ HA RAV

Rabbosai, I am not good at writing posts such as this. Especially not at a time when I'm virtually airborne with anger.

So I'll paste two recent messages which I have received here.
One by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo in Jerusalem, one by David Wilder in Hebron.

In Search of the “Real” Israel (1)
(Reflections on a yet another war)

In Memory of the Talmidim of Yeshivath Mercaz HaRav
Who lost their Lives only a Few Hours Ago at the Hands of Terrorists
in Jerushalayim

Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Throughout the many centuries, historians, philosophers and anthropologists have struggled with the notion called “Israel” more than with nearly any other topic. While trying hard to place Israel within the confines of conventional history they constantly experienced academic and philosophical frustration. Whatever definitions they suggested, they would always discover that these definitions would break down due to some serious inconsistencies. Was Israel a nation, a religion or an altogether mysterious entity which would remain unexplainable? Sometimes it was seen as less than a nation and more as a religion, only to be challenged by others who believed the reverse to be true. Still others claimed that it could not fit into any of these categories.

What was, and is, clear however, is the impossibility to fit “Israel” into any specific definition or known scheme. It resisted all historical concepts and generalities. The uniqueness of Israel necessarily thwarted the people’s natural desire for an explanation, since this always implies arrangement in categories. Anything which flies in the face of such an attempt is alarming and most disturbing. This fact became even more obvious once the Jew was forced out of his country by Titus the Roman and specifically after the collapse of the Bar Kochba rebellion. It was at that moment that the Jews were hurled into the abyss of the nations of the world and ever since then they have been confronted with a new condition: Ongoing insecurity. While mankind at large has always been confronted with moments of insecurity, it was the Jews to whom destiny has been denied even the smallest share of a dubious security which others possess. Whether or not the Jews were aware of it, they always lived on ground that could give way beneath their feet any moment.

Since 1948 Israel once more became a country. But many forgot that it also became a country – it became again a country, yet not only a country. All the other dimensions, such as nationhood, religion, mystery, the lack of definition and insecurity, continued to exist. Today, the people of Israel does not find itself exclusively in the land of Israel and, instead of one Israel, the world now has two. But the second new Israel has, up till now, been seen as responding to the demands of history, geography, politics and journalism. One knows where it can be found. At least one thinks that one knows where it is to be found. But it is becoming clearer that the new and definable Israel is now seriously on the way to being as much a puzzle and mysterious entity as the old Israel always was. In fact it already is.

Throughout its short history, the State of Israel has gone through the most mysterious notions modern man has ever seen. After an exile of nearly two thousand years, during which the old Israel was able to survive in contradiction to all historical criteria, it returned to its homeland. There it found itself surrounded by a massive Arab population forever incapable of mentally making peace with the idea that this small mysterious nation lives among them. After experiencing a Holocaust wherein the Jewish nation lost six million of its members, it was not permitted to live a life of tranquility on this tiny piece of land. Once more the Jew was denied the right to feel at home in his own country. From the outset, Israel was forced to fight its enemies on all fronts - it was attacked and condemned for fighting for its very existence and defending its population. Over the years Israel has had to endure the policy of double standards employed by the international community. Both in the past and also today, when Israel calls for peace, it gets condemned for creating war. When it tries, as no other nation, to avoid hurting the citizens of those countries which have declared war on it, Israel is accused of being more brutal than all the nations which have, and still do, conduct atrocities against millions of people. Simultaneously, and against all logic, this nation alone continues to build its country as no other, while repeatedly being forced to fight war after war. What took other nations hundreds of years, Israel has succeeded in accomplishing in just a few. While bombs and katushas fall on its cities, and calls for its total destruction are heard in many parts of the world, the citizens of Israel continue to build, give birth to children, create unprecedented technology and manage to create an even stronger economy. Yet the more it succeeds, the more Israel’s enemies become frustrated and irritated and consequently Israel’s security becomes more dubious. The more some nations would like to try and destroy this country, the more the world is forced to deal with its small nation and its capacity for survival. Israel now occupies more space in any major newspaper than any other political issue or general topic, as if to say that its dubious security and its irritating population are at the centre of world history.

Jews must ask themselves what this non-classification really signifies. Is it merely due to a lack of vision and insight on the part of the nations? Could Jews really fit into a system, but the other nations have not yet learned how? Is it a negative phenomenon or a temporary one until, in future times, this will rectify itself?

We have only one way to comprehend the positive meaning of this otherwise negative phenomenon and that is the way of faith. From any other view point, the inability of Jews to fit into any category would be intolerable and a meaningless absurdity. What needs to be understood is that our inability to fit into any category is the foundation and meaning of our living avowal to the uniqueness of Israel. Israel’s very existence is the manifestation of a divine intervention in history of which Israel has to give evidence. In it history and revelation are one. Only in Israel do both of the components, history and revelation, coincide. While other nations exist as nations, the people of Israel exist as a reminder of Gods’ interference in world history. Only in Israel is humanity touched by the divine.

The realization of this fact has become the great challenge for modern Israel. Its attempt time and again to overcome its geographic and political insecurity by employing world politics will not work. Driven by its desire to overcome its insecurity, Israel veers from geography to nationhood, appealing to its history and religious culture but without finding a place anywhere to be known as its existential habitat.

Reading Israel’s prophets we see how they warned against such false notions of security. The prophets predicted that Israel would perish if it insists on existing only as a political structure. It can persist, however, - and this is the paradox of the reality of Israel - when it insists on existing as a vocation of uniqueness.

Israel was summoned to remind the world of God’s existence, not just as a religious category, or with a concern for religion, but as a historically reality. There is no security for Israel unless it is secure with its own destination. It must assume the burden of its own uniqueness, which is nothing other than to assume its role as God’s witness. And it must take strength from this phenomenon, especially in times such as ours in which, once more, Israel’s very existence is at stake. And once it recognizes its uniqueness, it will - paradoxically - have security and, undoubtedly, be victorious.

****

1. This essay was (re)-written hours before the terrible tragedy in Yeshivat Merkaz Ha-Rav in Yerushalayim in which several students were killed and many were wounded. May God have mercy on Israel.

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The David Cardozo Academy
Machon Ohr Aaron
In Memory of Aaron and Betsy Spijer

7 Cassuto Street
Jerusalem 96433Tel: 02-652 4053

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Thoughts after the terror attack -Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav
by David Wilder
29 Adar 5768, 3/6/2008


I was sitting in my office tonight, meeting with the director of Mattot-Arim, activist Susie Dym, when the beeper started beeping. I read it, wiped my eyes, and read it again: 20:42 - (8:42 PM) - Magen David Adom Jerusalem reports shooting inside Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem. Details to follow. The beepers kept streaming, each one bringing terrible news. Shooting for somewhere in the vicinity of ten minutes, the terrorist killed eight students and wounded at least another eleven, three of whom are in critical condition.


Listening now to the radio, the Yeshiva's director, Rabbi Sasson, spoke of how the yeshiva students all participated in a mass prayer gathering at the Kotel, the Western Wall, earlier today. This evening they were preparing Rosh Hodesh (New Month) festivities, celebrating the beginning of the new month of Adar and the upcoming Purim holiday. Only moments before the beginning of the dancing, the Rabbi said that he heard shooting in the building and immediately realized that a terrorist had infiltrated the yeshiva.


Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav is the spiritual center of Religious Zionism, founded by Israel's first Chief Rabbi, Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook. His son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook led the movement of the Jewish people back to Yesha following the 1967 Six Day War. The Yeshiva's dean, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, died a few months ago, and his son, Rabbi Ya'akov Shapira replaced him.


I worked at Mercaz HaRav some 15 years ago for about a year. The Yeshiva has a very unique atmosphere, very spiritual, and very Torah-oriented. Many many students fill the huge study hall, day and night, 24 hours a day. Many of the students are IDF officers, serving in elite units. The yeshiva's students are amongst the most patriotic Jews in Israel, serving their country, their land, their people, their G-d, in body and in spirit. Many of Israel's most important spiritual leaders are graduates of Mercaz HaRav.


It is very sad to see the pictures, to hear the voices, to feel the pain of young Torah scholars, studying Torah, celebrating the joy of the month of Adar, cut down by a terrorist's bullets, for no reason other than that they are Jews.


Earlier today I spent a couple of hours with journalists from Finland, questioning me about our presence in Hebron and in Judea and Samaria. I stressed to them that the enemy we are facing are nothing more than wild animals; only animal can perpetrate such horror attacks. Tonight another one of these animals escaped from his cage and, let loose in civilization, attacked, as does a wild lion or tiger.


I continue hearing on the radio reports how the police and security are continuing to prepare for tomorrow's "Friday prayer on Temple Mount" referring of course, to Arab, Islamic prayer. I do not understand why the Israeli authorities are going to allow these prayers to take place, especially taking into account that according to the latest reports, the terrorist who perpetrated the murder tonight is a resident of Jabal MuKaber, a neighborhood in east Jerusalem. The first thing that should have been announced tonight is that those prayers, on Temple Mount, are canceled. The second announcement should be that any and all 'peace talks' with the Arabs are suspended until further notice.


Third, the Knesset should meet in special session and pass a law which will allow immediate suspension of Knesset members who incite the enemy and who celebrate such murderous attacks as we've witnessed tonight.


Now we cry together with the yeshiva, with the families of the victims, with Klal Yisrael, But crying is not enough. Israel cannot allow such terror in our eternal capital to be ignored. The enemy must be punished.

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The Jewish Community of Hebron
P.O.B. 105 Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100Tel: 972-9965-333 - info@hebron.org.il
The Hebron Fund - hebronfund@aol.com
Tour Hebron: Tel 972-52-431-7055 or tour@hebron.com
Help Hebron: http://www.hebrontruma.com/
Web: http://www.hebron.com/ http://www.machpela.com/ http://www.hebrongifts.com/
Subscribe or unsubscribe to the Hebron list:
hebron.mail-subscribe@hebron.org.ilhebron.mail-unsubscribe@hebron.org.il

=========================================

NOTE:
There will be an anti-Israel demonstration in front of the consulate tomorrow. It is highly unlikely that the other side will have the tact, or decency, to call it off. It is much more likely that they will be in a festive mood. Please find the time to come stand with us and counter-protest them.

Friday, March 7th, 2008
4:00 - 7:00 PM
In front of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco 456 Montgomery St. (at Montgomery & California Streets) (4 blocks north from the Montgomery Bart station) San Francisco

If you show up, there are two things to bear in mind:
1. People will remember in detail slogans that seem to dehumanize those poor Pallies, but be unable to hear any outright anti-Semitism from the other side. It's remarkable.
2. The anti-Israel crowd tomorrow may be more venomous than usual - it's Friday, and that means robed radicals from some of the mosques, and lots of screaming venom.

Remember to dress warmly - the Montgomery Street corridor is a frigid wind tunnel in late afternoon. And feel free to bring a pocket flask. Not that we encourage Dutch courage, dot-dot-dot.

WET AND ANGRY FRIDAY

It rained the entire day. Cats. Dogs. Anti-Semites.


Friday was one of the most unpleasant days I've had. It left me exhilarated and inspired, yet filled with hatred for my fellow man, and murderously inclined. As well as soaked to the skin.

Parts of me that do not need mentioning had been exposed to water for so long that they looked like prunes and felt like wadded-up snotty tissue.

Sog. Drench. Splash. Puddle. Spongy.
Whatever. Many words having to do with wetness.


Our side (Zionist and pro-Israel) was out in the rain for six hours.


From twelve to one outside the consulate was taken up confronting the remarkably ignorant members of Jewish Voice for Peace, with their simplistic "Zionist evil-bad, helpless Palestinian teddybears good-weepy" message. They're idiots. We know that. May they choke.

After they left there was a forty five minute respite till the Berkeley contingent of Women In Black showed up. They too are remarkably ignorant. More sentimentalist crap in the tradition of "happy huggies good, evil Zionists bad". They stayed until just before four o'clock, clearing out like cowards before the Jihadis and Int'lAnswer showed up.
I guess they draw the line at being too close to angry Muslim teenagers, even if the angry Muslim teenagers share the same remarkable ignorance.
[JVP and Women In Black are the enablers and apologists for the anti-Semites, but probably too genteel to be seen with the morons who do the dirty work. Remarkable ignorance may be empowering, but it is not cozy. ]


Evenso, a small handful of JVP and WIB was so convinced of their rightness that they did stay, to stand with the Jihadis and aged communists, though uncomfortably off to the side.

At four o'clock the crowd outside the consulate had swelled to over a hundred and fifty - two hundred. About three-quarters of whom were Muslim (mostly young Arab), the remainder fellow-travelers who happily and inanely smiled as the Muslim jugend chanted.


What did they chant?

"Palestine is our land, all the Jews are our dogs" (Falastin bladna, kol Yahud qalabna).
"With our souls and our blood we will redeem you oh Palestine" (ba ruah, ba dam, something something Gibber-stein).
"Palestine will be free from the river to the sea" (this was in English - it means that Israel will be erased).
"Takbeer! Allahu Akbar! Takbeer! Allahu Akbar!" (This roughly means "I'm an idiot, I left my beer at home").
Etcetera.


The poor dears worked themselves up into a frenzy. Some of them would've ignited if it had not been raining so hard. But still, they steamed. Righteously.

Rhetorical question: What do one-hundred and fifty wet anti-Semites smell like?
[Unwashed hippies having group-sex? Cow-pie? Wet dog? Skunks? Berkeley?]

There were several speeches blaming Jews, Zionists, and the IDF for any number of crimes. There was the assertion that Jews and Capitalists control American foreign policy. There were accusations of genocide, war crimes, exploitation, slavery, and poison gas, plus the flooding of the streets of Gaza with sewage. There was also a ritualistic Arabic praise-chant for the holy martyrs of Hamas.
There was no mention of rockets (unless that was the "legitimate resistance" that one ideologue driveled on about), nor any mention of snipers, bombers, stabbers, kidnappers, or lying Arab politicians (probably those also fall under the rubric of "legitimate resistance").
[Strikes me that this is like a rapist asserting that his victim clearly asked for it, because she was in his neighborhood and female.]


The speechifyers whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Having half-a-dozen Zionists across the street offended them. It ignited their passion, and gave them a focus for their anger. It distracted them entirely from winning hearts and influencing people. Anybody passing by would not have been won over to their side - and dozens of pedestrians stepped off the sidewalk rather than walking through what was clearly an unstable and potentially violent mob.
Even the simple-minded JVPer who I had spoken with earlier was starting to look disconcerted. The violent rhetoric was not at all like her warm fuzzy butterflies fantasy about the Palestinians.


I smiled patiently for most of the two hours of being yelled at, except for when I had to klop a communist repeatedly with an Israeli flag in an effort to get him back to his side - by the forth klop he insisted loudly that this was a free country and he could stand wherever he wanted, by the fifth klop I reminded him that only minutes ago he had said otherwise, by the sixth klop I told him that, as an angry proletarian, I could not be held responsible for any ill-effects to his skull now get lost you despicable chowderhead. The police escorted him back across the street. He glared at me for the remainder of the time, with a hurt and confused expression on his face, as if baffled by this Zionist triumph. How did that evil Zionist win, when clearly there were so many more anti-Zionists? He didn't resume the happy hateful chanting, preoccupied as he was with the injustice of it all.
His companions, however, more than made up for his silence.

One hundred and fifty screaming fanatics yelling at six Zionists. Six cold, wet, arthritic Zionists. Yeah, that's really gonna win support for the Palestinian cause.


If you ask me, we won - there were more than twenty times the number of soaked-to-the-bone pro-Pallies than wet Zionists. That can't have been healthy for the pro-Pals.

Heh.

TWO PLANNED ANTI-ISRAEL DEMOS IN SAN FRANCISCO

And, of course, counterprotests


Rabbosai,

I am posting this here in the hope that readers will forward the information to concerned parties - we need all the help we can get fighting anti-Semitism in Berkeley and San Francisco.

----- B.O.T.H.

[Cross-posted at: http://muqata.blogspot.com/ ]
===============================================

Help Counter Protest TWO Anti-Israel demonstrations outside the Israeli Consulate

Downtown San Francisco, 456 Montgomery Street
Friday, January 25, 12:00 - 1:00 PM AND 4:00 - 6:00 PM.

On Friday, from 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Jewish Voice for Peace will hold a protest vigil in front of the Israeli Consulate.

From 4:00 - 6:00 PM, A.N.S.W.E.R., the National Council of Arab Americans, Free Palestine Alliance, Al-Awda, and others will also demonstrate at the Israeli Consulate against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

[Note: A.N.S.W.E.R. is an extremist far-left front, the NCAA is a radical Arabist organization that opposes peace with Israel and has an anti-Semitic agenda, the Free Palestine Alliance is a pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah advocacy group, Al-Awda advocates the 'Palestine right to return' and favours of the complete dissolution/destruction of Israel.]


What these groups do not acknowledge is that Israel's actions are in response to a sustained barrage of missiles from Gaza into Israel - 450 in 10 days. They also fail to mention the murder of Carlos Chavez, a young kibbutz volunteer, targeted by a sniper from Gaza while planting potatoes.

The groups sponsoring this demonstration all demonize Israel as an "apartheid" state, endorse Israel’s destruction, and refuse to even acknowledge the violence the Palestinians perpetrated against Israel that led to Israel’s defensive actions.


Israel disengaged from Gaza in September 2005. In line with international demands, Israel opened border crossings with Gaza when there were no specific terrorist threats and turned over the Rafah crossing to the Palestinians with international observers. Despite this, the Gazan militant groups, many supported or funded by Hamas, intensified their rocket attacks into Israel.
The situation in Gaza is exploited by Hamas to deflect attention from its own role in creating it, but even the Arab media is skeptical. Just this week, Abdel Rahman Rashed, of the pan-Arab Arabiya news channel, said Hamas was responsible for the suffering of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.


San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us will counter the anti-Israel/ pro-terrorism voice and genocidal hate and lies of the anti-Israel groups. Our presence in the past at these events has proven highly effective at countering their message and making sure that the anti-Israel activists can not push their propaganda on the public unopposed.

Please plan on attending at least one of these actions and bring your noisemakers, flags, and signs. As always, feel free to make your own signs but please no signs or graphics offensive to any racial or ethnic group including but not limited to Arabs, Islam, or Palestinians.
Signs in violation of our policies will not be allowed.

Demand an end to Palestinian rocket attacks against
Israeli civilians!
Demand Cpl Gilad Shalit be returned home safely!
Demand the Palestinian Authority put an end to terror
attacks!
Demand an end to the deligitimization and demonization
of Israel!
Demand the Palestinian Authority and their local
supporters choose peace so that the Palestinian people
can have a future!

San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us
http://www.sfvoiceforisrael.org/
http://www.blogger.com/www.StandWithUs.com


===============================================
Addendum I

Israel is trying to avoid a humanitarian crisis.
Israel sincerely strives for peace.
Israel is the aggrieved party in this conflict - since withdrawal from Gaza, rockets and other terror-attempts from Hamas-Gaza have increased enormously.

Hamas can afford rockets - why can't it improve the lives of its subjects?
Hamas and Palestinian activists are waging war on the civilians of Southern-Israel.
Hamas tries to kill civilians - that they are mostly unsuccesful is a miracle; it would be criminal to wait for them to become more efficient at that enterprise.

===============================================
Addendum II

MECA, which is one of the most hateful anti-Semitic groups, is co-sponsoring other protests elsewhere in the United States.

The following was taken directly from one of their helpful e-mails:

Anaheim, California: Saturday, Jan. 26, 1 p.m., 512 S. Brookhurst St., Between Orange Ave. & Broadway)

Boston: Thursday, Jan 24, noon; Israeli Consulate, Saturday, Jan 26, noon-1pm in Harvard Square

Chicago: Tues., Jan. 29, 5 pm at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 North Broadway (at benefit for the Friends of the 'Israeli Defense Force'). Initiated by ISM. Call 773-463-0311 for more information.

Cleveland: Saturday, Jan 26; for more info contact donmbryant@yahoo.com

New York City: Saturday, Jan. 26, 1 p.m. at the Israeli Embassy, 43rd St. and 2nd Ave.

Philadelphia: Friday, Jan 25; Press Conference, Saturday, Jan 26, march to Israeli Consulate. Contact: rkamel@verizon.net

San Francisco, California: Friday, Jan. 25, 4-6 p.m., Israeli Consulate, 456 Montgomery St. (near California)

Seattle: Friday, January 25, 4 p.m., Westlake Park, 4th & Pine Sts.

Washington DC: Friday, Jan. 25 (time tba), at the Israeli Embassy, 3514 International Dr. N.W.

----------------------------

Please take part in counterprotests, and write to your congressleite and newspapers in your area regarding the hateful agendas and factual distortions of MECA and other groups.
If you do not take action, who will? And if not now, when?