MESSAGES FROM THE DARK SIDE

The following e-mail selections are opportunistic attempts by known rotten eggs to take over the OWS movement in the Bay Area.
If they succeed the original goals of the protests will have become irrelevant.
Decent people should resist this, as should their elected representatives.
What Barbara Lee does is her own affair, and quite beside the point.


ITEM NO. 1 - INTERNATIONAL ANSWER

QUOTE: ANSWER Stands in Full Solidarity with Occupy Oakland. Police have stepped up their attacks to crush the Occupy actions across the country. Police forces in a number of cities have conducted mass sweeps and arrests of peaceful protesters. From the mass false arrest of more than 700 on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1 to mass arrests in Chicago, Atlanta, Oakland, Denver, Nashville and beyond, the police forces have made clear their role as the servants of the 1 percent.
We must all stand together. Let's continue to organize, occupy and protest in the coming days and weeks. This is a global grassroots movement for justice and change. We won't be pushed back by police violence.
There will be several actions throughout the day on Wed. Nov. 2nd in solidarity with Occupy Oakland. We ask that our supporters join us for this important Day of Action.
Oscar Grant Plaza (formally Frank Ogawa Plaza) 9am and 12noon Rally, 5pm March 14th and Broadway 12th St. BART Station. End quote


ITEM NO. 2 - BAY AREA WOMEN IN BLACK

QUOTE: BAWiB supports the #Occupy Oakland Movement and the General Strike!
Please join our silent vigil at 5pm on 14th & Broadway on Wed., Nov. 2, at 5 pm. We will stand until the march to the Port of Oakland begins, and those who choose to march to shut down the port may do so. Transport for seniors and disabled people to the port has been planned by cuido. Please call 510 686-3139 for further information on transportation.
At last, Occupation We Can Believe In! Occupy Oakland, not Palestine!
Salaam/Shalom,
BAWiB Steering Committee.
End quote


ITEM NO. 3 - JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE

QUOTE: The Oakland-based staff of Jewish Voice for Peace and local JVP members are honoring the Oakland General Strike tomorrow, November 2.
Want to join us? Meet us tomorrow at the fountain on 16th and San Pablo Avenue at the Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza at 9 am, 12 noon, and 5 pm. We will also join progressive Jewish and interfaith contingents in the plaza at 10 am.
We will be rallying in support of Occupying Oakland, not Palestine, and plan to be part of the vibrant and visible community-wide Jews and allies contingent.
From Cairo, to Ramallah, to Tel Aviv, to Oakland: Jewish Voice for Peace supports the global movement for justice.
The similarities between Oakland and Palestine cannot be ignored.
Our aspirations overlap; our struggles converge. Our oppressors, whether greedy corporations or military occupations, are united in profiting from wars, pillage, environmental destruction, repression and impoverishment. We must unite in our common quest for freedoms, equal rights, social and economic justice, environmental sanity, and world peace. We can no longer afford to be splintered and divided; we can no longer ignore our obligations to join hands in the struggle against wars and corporate exploitation and for a human-friendly world community not a profit-maximizing jungle. (Palestinian BDS National Committeee) The Oakland Police Department and the Israeli army have deployed the same weapons-from the same American company-against unarmed demonstrators. In both places, an Oaklander was injured when a tear gas canister hit his head, causing a skull fracture: Tristan Anderson in: Tristan Anderson in Nil'in in 2009 and Scott Olsen in Oakland last week.
Join us tomorrow. Occupy Oakland, not Palestine!
End quote


ITEM NO. 4 - ANNE BALTZER

QUOTE: US Campaign National Organizer Anna Baltzer with #Occupy protesters Last Tuesday night at Oakland City Hall, barricades and riot police had replaced the hundreds of committed activists who had inhabited Oscar Grant Plaza since Occupy Oakland began. Helicopters swarmed above. The atmosphere was tense and thick with teargas. Earlier that day, Scott Olsen, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, had been shot in the head with a tear gas canister and hospitalized. Oakland native Tristan Anderson met a similar fate in 2009 when the Israeli military shot him in the head with a U.S.-made high-velocity tear gas canister while he nonviolently protested Israel's Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin. Bassem Abu Rahmah was fatally wounded the following year when the Israeli army fired a tear gas canister at his chest as he protested the wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in. His sister Jawaher died in January after inhaling U.S.-made tear gas, which the Israeli military fired aggressively during a protest against the wall, which still annexes huge swaths of Bil'in's land. The connections between the struggles of Palestinians and the #Occupy movement are unmistakable: the spotlight on privilege and inequality, the mass imprisonment, the police repression, and the people's steadfastness. As the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) wrote in a statement of unity with the "global 99%": "Our aspirations overlap; our struggles converge. Our oppressors, whether greedy corporations or military occupations, are united in profiting from wars, pillage, environmental destruction, repression and impoverishment. We must unite in our common quest for freedoms, equal rights, social and economic justice, environmental sanity, and world peace."
End quote


NOTE:

Should the probably sincere and idealistic OWS activists allow the career-scumballs cited above to in any way influence the discourse, they will lose whatever appeal they may have had among rational people, and be naught more than just another mob of angry clueless a-holes.

International A.N.S.W.E.R. destroyed the anti-war movement by their take-over, and is known for supporting tyrants like Moammer El Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Mahmud Ahmedinejad, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and that cretin in North Korea.

Bay Area Women in Black consists of vicious old Presbyterian anti-Semites and some of the nastiest trolls in dresses this side of the underworld, as well as the two oldest living anarchists, and have supported every single destructive anti-Israel action ever held in the Bay Area.

Jewish Voice for Peace has proudly stood alongside Arab-Americans screaming for the death of Jews and the annihilation of Israel, of the United States, and of the entire civilized world.
Their ignorance and depravity are in perfect balance.

Because of a complete lack of any handicap, people like Anne Baltzer usually go far.
I've met her, and I detest her.

On a cautionary note, it is also extremely likely that the Anarchists and similar delusionary revolutionary wannabees will flock to Oakland, bent on creating as much chaos and mayhem as they possibly can.
Their success will be described as a victory.


Nevertheless, I shall show "solidarity" with the rowdy people of Oakland. Specifically, by refusing to purchase anything made there, and by not patronizing any of the businesses in that stinking hellhole till Wall Street falls.
There is no there there, and nothing that anyone would want anyway.
If the Oakland Police Department do not intend to use water cannons to clear the air, the entire town should burn down.
The less anyone has to do with that place, the better.

Oh, and by the way: the Raiders suck. Big time. So do their fans.


Unleash the teargas forthwith.


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NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
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MALAYSIA, BERKELEY, BIGOTS, AND, GENERALLY SPEAKING, AN APPRECIATION

A few years ago I wrote a post that, upon revisiting, I realized was far too mild and bland.
Still, worth considering again, and rereading it might give you a nice warm feeling.
You deserve that.
I'm all about nice warm feelings.

http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/04/trolls-with-keyboards.html

Referenced directly or otherwise were Dick Becker, tightly clenched Lily Haskell, Yaman Salahi, Barbara Lubin, Finkelstein, Mahathir Mohamad, and Joe Stalin.

Nothing but love, babies, nothing but love.

Both Malaysia and Berkeley are pretty ghastly places, and while Berkeley does have less rape, incest, and casual abuse of small animals than Malaysia, the food is far worse and the natives are much more likely to be tattooed savages.
On the plus side, however, it's easier to get to, and Mahathir Mohamad doesn't live there.
Both places are also unbearably precious and full of themselves.

Whether either place is better than Pakistan is debatable.

Again, feel the love.
Nice and warm.
Chihuahuas.



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NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

SORRY, BERKELEY!

At the risk of irritating all my readers in Berkeley, I would like to remind everyone that today marks the anniversary of the historic United Nations vote that grudgingly acknowledged the inevitable: The Jewish homeland would once again become a Jewish state.

Possibly further irritating all my readers in Berkeley, I hasten to point out that the United Nations vote in effect did not really mean anything – it was the Haganah and the other organized groups among the Jews in the Land who made it happen, but it was the Britain and the United Nations who were entirely powerless to stop Israel becoming a state, OR prevent the Arab armies from trying to wipe the young state off the map.

[Well, the English did not actually have any intention, ever, of keeping the Arabs from invading - the Arab forces were largely armed by Britain, allied to the British, and led by British officers. Hugely embarrassing that they lost, eh what? So badly, too. Tssk, tsk.]

And also probably irritating to my readers in Berkeley: the Arabs of the part of British Mandate Palestine which was not carved off and given to the Hashemites (gotta park those hosers somewhere, they might prove useful eventually) could have had a state as early as 1947.

Let me repeat that:

The Arabs of British Mandate Palestine COULD have had a state as early as 1947!


That they did not get their state was due entirely to their fellow Arabs and their British puppet masters.
It also proved the United Nations impotent even at that early date.
That the Arabs of British Mandate Palestine STILL don’t have a state is because of their peculiar pathology.
And the help of their friends.

The Arabs of British Mandate Palestine could have had a STATE as early as 1947!

Since then, of course, the United Nations has become a patsy of the Arabs, and Berkeley has become a sanctuary for hatefilled scumsuckers.

Sorry, Berkeley.


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NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

PRO-ISRAEL WITH FLAGS AND CIGARS

The other side called a demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate at noon today.
It wasn't planned by any of the usual Jew-hating organizations with which the SF Bay Area is so richly larded.
More of a badly thought-out spur of the moment flash of dullness by the disconnected.

[The usual Bay Area Jew-hate orgs: JVP, IJAN, Brit Tzedek, Women in Black, International ANSWER, ISM-norcal, Code Pink, MSA, The Gloria La Riva Fanbase, South Bay Mobilization, Marin County Peace and Justice Coalition, SJP, Queers for Hamas, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Lake Merrit United Methodist Church, and St. Johns Presbyterian on College Avenue.
Have I forgotten anybody? Please register the name of your anti-Semitic yet oh so politically correct guild of irritating busybodies in the comments field below this post and thank you.]


It did, however, contain many of the usual haters: Kate Bender Raphael, Hassan Fouda, Randy whose last name I temporarily cannot remember, John with a surname in the same forgettable category, Rusty from telegraph Avenue, an International ANSWER politburo guy, a raving lunatic, a poe-faced Wibbie who ALWAYS shows up at these things.......


Plus several hairy tofu from Berkeley.


As well as a number of sincere young people who intended the event to be a remembrance of Tristan Anderson, who was hit in the head by a teargas canister a year ago while at a demonstration in the West Bank.


I've always had problems with those West Bank Village demonstrations - genuine peaceniks, smiling Arabs, and rabid hate-filled troublemakers on one side, the IDF on the other.
It seems so unfair, as the sincere yet ignorant will inevitably end up in a violent melee started by criminals and saboteurs using unarmed and panicked demonstrators as cover and as human shields.
It is a great pity that Tristan got hit in the head instead of one of those racists or terror-supporting infiltrators - surely the world would have been a much better place if a rock-throwing Jihadi got whacked? Or a hate-preaching PA imam from the local mosque, or an Israeli peace-activist, or a revolutionary from Western Europe........


In the same manner, I have a problem with demonstrations in front of the consulate where sincere (and sincerely ignorant) 'peace activists' allow themselves to be used by opportunistic scum like Kate Bender Raphael and Hassan Fouda.
Or, mentioning the trolls who were there in spirit but couldn't make it in flesh: Hatem Bazian, Lilly Haskel, Karima Al-Helew, Richard Becker, Barbara Lubin, the Wallach sisters, Paul Larudee........


None of the usual self-identified 'victimized Palestinians' and their hoodlum fellow-travelers showed up either, however. So what with the absence of both Richard Becker and the Thugs For Palestine, there was no riot.


It was mostly thirty Berkeleyite youth, plus a dozen convinced anti-Semitic activists (see names above), and half-a-dozen pro Israel demonstrators presenting the voice of reason.

Kudos to the two dozen police who were there. By their mere presence, they kept me from punching a horribly offensive anti-Israel boor in the gut. And that is a good thing.

All in all, not bad for a lunch break.
I was in a far better mood when I left than when I got there.

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

The flags and cigars in the title of this post? The flags were Israeli and American, both of which irritated a goodly number of people. The cigars were small Dutch stogies smoked by Baruch and myself, in contravention of the city ordinance about smokers staying fifteen feet away from commercial doorways - but the only people who were irritated by the smoke were anti-Israel activists. Who deserve to be smoked at.

CODE PINK - CHANTING AND TWIRLING FOR FREEDOM!

Sometimes I like cruising into the Indymedia sites just to see what the hobbits are up to.
It hasn't been very productive recently, as many of them now neglect to put their announcements up - perhaps they no longer trust the big bad internet since the Jews and Masons have taken over.

But today, lucky strike!


Sunrise CodePINK:Women for Peace (RE) Commitment Ceremony
Friday January 01
6:30 AM - 8:00 AM

Sunrise (RE)Commitment Ceremony, New Year’s Day Jan 1, 2010, Ocean Beach, SF, 6:30am
Let’s begin our new year, our new decade, with an inspirational CodePINK: Women for Peace Sunrise (RE)Commitment Ceremony New Year’s Day. We will build a bonfire on the beach, sing, talk, chant, and revive our wills, fine tune our commitments, stoke our determination.

Comment: And the chanting will tell the flying saucers where to land!


Bring a log, a branch, a speck, a piece of paper, with you to this Sunrise Ceremony to throw onto the fire. Bring a blanket, your own cup for organic hot apple cider, dress warm, look for the PINK on Ocean Beach, west of Golden Gate Park!

Comment: For the cold, a fur coat or bearskin rug is probably best.
If you bring alcoholic beverages, make sure that they too are organic certified - you can tell by the soft golden aura around the bottle.


The next three months will be the MOST critical times of our lives in this country: we will get to determine if Congress grants President Obama BILLIONS more of our money to fund his proposed SURGE against Afghanistan! Or not!

Comment: We weren't succesfull against Bush and Cheney, but Obama is a wuss, and Congress is now dominated by our androids. If we lose AGAIN, it's surely because of the FreeMasons, the Bilderburgers, the Club of Rome, the Illuminati, and the Zionists.


What will WE do to ensure it is NOT? Let us (RE)commit ourselves on New Years Day, Friday, January 1st, to doing EVERYTHING in our power over the next three months – the beginning of this new decade, January, February, and March – to BLOCKING this war supplemental and thereby turning the tide of our wars once and for all.

Comment: Everything in our power includes chanting, tunnel hum, twirling clockwise AND counter-clockwise, shaking tortoise shell rattles, and pouting. We are all Medea Benjamin.


Do not worry about how, or when, or what it will cost, or whether it will work, or not. Worry about those things that are BLOCKING YOU from committing 100% to BLOCKING this funding.

Comment: Don't forget the certified organic hard liquor. It's crucial.


We will put all those reasons blocking us, from lethargy to depression to money to priorities to whatever into these logs and burn them, transforming whatever is holding us back into positive energies!

Comment: Positive karmic energy is better than electricity! And it's organic too! Wheeeee!


Call 510-540-7007 or email info bayareacodepink .org for more info, to help organize, to participate or just BE THERE!

Comment: Humm into our answering machine!


Source:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/24/18633564.php


Ladies, don't forget to wear your tutus. Can't twirl without 'em.

=====================================================
"By expanding our awareness and intention of holding peas, being peas, speaking peas, we give voice and power to peas...... "
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AFTERWORD

CodePink was mentioned previously elsewhere in connection with their two hour starvation per day in solidarity with tourists in Egypt - two hours entirely without food, each day, for three days this week, sitting on the sidewalk in front of the Egyptian Consulate - it's something existential or Zen, don't ask - so when I found that these dear, dear ladies of loose moorings were planning an earthmother chanting and pyromania party at the beach, I just had to smile.

Girls, I love you.
Such spotless minds.
Bonfires are very macho, by the way.

Like Frank Chiu and the Bush Man of Fishermans' Wharf, you CodePinkers are ambulatory landmarks, the contemporary equivalents of Emperor Norton.

BERKELEY DAILY PLANET - HATRED'S OWN PROPAGANDA RAG

As you have no doubt figured out by now, I have a mean streak a mile wide. And while I thoroughly enjoy ripping the iridescent wings off of little puppies, torturing goblins by waving silver at them, and depriving monkeys of a valuable source of protein by de-lousing them, the cruel and vindictive thing that I probably most enjoy doing is snarking morons.


Such as Becky O'Malley - publisher of the Berkeley Daily Planet.


[Exposé of the BDP here: http://dpwatchdog.com/ ]



BERKELEY DAILY PLANET

The BDP scrabbles for survival in that narrow hell halfway twixt advertising rag and vanity publication, and, attempting to boost sales, panders shamelessly to the ignorant gut-reaction bleeding hearts and campus anti-Semites in the burg of Berkeley.

Under Becky O'Malley's leadership, the Berkeley Daily Planet has established a pattern of obsessive anti-Israel invective and vitriol. Which, in Berkeley, is ideologically mainstream and reflects a comfortably middle-class weltanschauung.
Par for the course, and perfectly normal. In Berkeley.



RABBINIC UNANIMITY

The reasonable reaction to the anti-Semitism of the Berkeley Daily Planet is perhaps best expressed by a letter recently sent by the East Bay Council of Rabbis.

Quote:
"Those who have voiced their opposition to the Daily Planet’s coverage are entitled to speak and be heard. It is not accurate to label everyone who has disagreed with positions expressed in the Planet as militant right-wingers. "
[End quote]

I usually think of myself as a strident left-winger, in the classic liberal mold. But with the Berkeley Daily Planet's encouragement, I shall also try to think of myself as a militant right-winger.
This may prove extremely difficult - I would far rather be an 'effeminate liberal' than a 'misogynist RW bastard', to quote two terms flung into the discourse on a comment-string recently.

[This post: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2009/08/get-those-rw-conservative-idiots-fact.html On this blog: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/ This comment string: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/dovbear/1140363519463313055/ ]



The crux of the letter sent by East Bay Council of Rabbis is particularly germane:

Quote:
"At times criticism of Israeli government policies and actions has crossed over into classically anti-Semitic expression when it targets Jewishness itself as a blameworthy status—as did the Kurosh Arianpour commentary the Daily Planet printed some years back. Disseminating hate speech against any ethnic or religious group, while it may be constitutionally legal, is not acceptable when allowed to stand on its own in a community paper and given the appearance of reasonable discourse. Hate speech against any group is unacceptable; in the same vein we would expect that the Planet would refrain from printing racist or homophobic material. The claim of freedom of the press does not excuse journalists from meeting the standards of civil discourse. "
[End quote]


SOURCE: http://dpwatchdog.com/dpnuts.html


What the rabbis wrote really says it all.
But, in case you want to go into further details, do please feel free to browse through the articles at the Berkeley Daily Planet Watchdog (http://dpwatchdog.com/). It's much better than actually wading through the miserable prose of the BDP itself.

[Consider this delightful comment about Becky O'Malley, for instance: "it has come time for her to seriously consider converting to Judaism. It would give her license for her obsession, and it might paradoxically help dissipate some of her inner psychological turmoil." ]


And please also sign this petition:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/fight-anti-semitic-rhetoric-at-the-berkeley-daily-planet/signatures.html


FYI: The Berkeley Daily Planet's editorial offices are at:

3023A Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
Phone: (510) 841-5600
Fax: (510) 841-5695

Feel free to write them a letter, using very simple words, and remember to complement them on their fearlessness. They like that.

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Crossposted at: http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/

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WE ARE JEWS AND NON-JEWS...

Rabbosai, good news for a change! Normally, political activism in the Bay Area, in so far as it involves Jews and concerns Israel, revolves around the hysterical members of the Proud To Be Ashamed To Be Jewish Contingent and their urge to make nice for the rather too ignorant instinctive supporters of underdogs.


We all know that the Arabs are underdogs, don't we? Poor little puppies!


Or at least, we've been told that so many times by so many honest and sincere individuals, who want nothing more than a peaceloving world in which bunny rabbits and butterflies can lead artistic and fulfilling lives, that we know the tropes.



THE BERKELEY DAILY PLANET

One of the newspapers that hammers home the "Arab: GOOD - Jew: Bad" message is the Berkeley Daily Planet. Which is the same newspaper that gleefully publishes Joseph Anderson's racist screeds against Jews, policemen, and other 'white imperialists'.


http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2004-02-24/article/18346?headline=Last-Words-On-Lecture-Controversy&status=301

http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-04-02/article/32613?headline=The-Karmic-Justice-of-Lovelle-Mixon-s-Act


While the Berkeley Daily Planet may assert that it is a valid source of both news and opinion (debatable, for several reasons), there is little doubt that both it and its various pet-opinionists slant towards a point of view that is 'charmingly' old-fashioned, and nestled deep within the political traditions of the nineteenth and twentieth century in Europe (and Detroit).


Specifically, the urge to BLAME THE JEWS for everything.


In it's current incarnation, it is best expressed by the phrase: "being anti-Israel is not anti-Semitic".

Surely you've heard that phrase before? And what did you think it really meant? Given the general nature of the person who screamed it during an angry hate-filled confrontation?

[For further background on the old-fashioned tropes that the Berkeley Daily Planet insists on white-washing and reformulating, go here: http://www.bluetruth.net/2009/03/berkeley-daily-planet-superman.html and especially here: http://www.dpwatchdog.com/ ]



PETITION

There is now a site where you may counter the crusade waged by the Berkeley Daily Planet and it's obsessed owner/editor against anything and everything Jewish (except for the 'house-Jews', who obediently parrot the party line).

If you've ever found yourself nauseated after hearing "I'm not anti-Semitic, many of my friends are Jewish", "hating Israel is not anti-Semitism", or even "I'm a Jew and these people are sincere and not racist at all", then this site is for you:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/fight-anti-semitic-rhetoric-at-the-berkeley-daily-planet.html


WE ARE JEWS AND NON-JEWS…

We abhor the deliberate and willful publication of anti-Semitic and other hateful rhetoric and screeds by the Berkeley Daily Planet.

We stand with the free speech rights of those who would criticize the Berkeley Daily Planet for its obsessive and one-sided campaign against the State of Israel.

We join these people in insisting that the publisher and editor of the Daily Planet display integrity and responsibility to ensure that their pages are devoid of irresponsible misstatements of facts whose sole malicious intent is to besmirch Jews at large, the State of Israel, and individual citizens who decry the Daily Planet’s practices.

Contributions gratefully accepted. Please send to checks made out to IACEB and post to Israel Action Committee of the East Bay, POB 9354, Berkeley, CA 94709

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/fight-anti-semitic-rhetoric-at-the-berkeley-daily-planet.html



Go ahead - sign the petition.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/fight-anti-semitic-rhetoric-at-the-berkeley-daily-planet/signatures.html



Of course, if you yourself have ever used the sentences "I'm not anti-Semitic, many of my friends are Jewish", "hating Israel is not anti-Semitism", or even "I'm a Jew and these people are sincere and not racist at all", you probably won't agree.
In that case, you may be reading the wrong blog. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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.

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


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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.

HATE: CHURCH SANCTIONED IN BERKELEY

The Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) plans to host notorious hate-monger Gilad Atzmon. The event in question will a be a charity performance on behalf of the Free Gaza and International Solidarity Movements, co-sponsored by Bay Area Women in Black.


Gilad Atzmon: Themes from Palestine
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/01/18599860.php


Apparently the BFUU decided that sponsoring a person like Gilad Atzmon trumped all pretense at decency and responsibility.

A brief review of Gilad Atzmon's writings, while nauseating, is instructive.



JEWS ARE RACISTS

Quote: "It is indeed pretty puzzling that the only people who managed to maintain and sustain a racially orientated, expansionist and genocidal national identity that is not at all different from Nazi ethnic ideology are the Jews "

A man who can write that is by no means neutral. Nor balanced.

Quote: "The Jews who had now managed to kill their God learned to believe in themselves."

No, he isn't voicing the ancient Christian anti-Semitic slur, despite what it looks like. He is instead asserting, I believe, that Jews are irreligious and cynical. And somehow not, or no longer, really Jewish.

[Source: http://www.gilad.co.uk/html%20files/thewanderingwho.html]



GAZA EQUALS AUSCHWITZ

Quote: "I see the necessity to suggest that in spite of the liberal claim for peace seeking, liberal societies in general and the Anglo-American ones in particular are currently involved in crimes against humanity on a genocidal scale. "

I had heretofore not thought of Darfur as an Anglo-American liberal society. Nor Chechniya and Tibet.

In the same turgid article, he concludes: "I would argue as forcefully as I can that if the Palestinians are indeed the last victims of Hitler, then the holocaust and its meaning do belong to them more than anyone else."

Got that? Not to Jews. Not to Rwandans. Not to Cambodians. Not to Bosniaks and Kosovars. The holocaust belongs to a group that has continually insisted that it will drive the Jews into the ocean, and has praised mass-murderers and psychopaths.

Quote: "Bearing all that in mind, equating Gaza with Auschwitz is the right and only way forwards. Questioning the holocaust and its meaning is what liberation of humanity means today and in the near future. "

The comparison is obscene. Only someone who is devoid of all decency and balance could conceive of it.

[Source: http://www.gilad.co.uk/html%20files/the%20right%20to%20equate.html]



JEWS ARE EVIL

In one of his articles he calls the Israeli Government a "rabid right wing Zionist organization", and Israeli society 'clever, sinister, and calculating'.

One statement is particularly telling: "I assume that Jews, once left to themselves, happen to ask many questions they would avoid engaging in, in an open public discussion. ".
[Source: http://www.gilad.co.uk/html%20files/Sabrashatilaamnesia.html]

He assumes? Has he so put himself outside of normal human relationships that he has no way of knowing? What is this but an oblique accusation that Jews are secretive? And is that not precisely what some of his most anti-Semitic friends among the European left and the Arabs assert? Clearly, the company of apologists for torturers and terrorists is more gemütlich to Gilad Atzmon than that of decent people.



There is more, much more, on his website. He is not unshameless in trumpeting his faux intellectualism, and there is far too much of his spew to catalogue in what is meant to be a short, angry post. This is after all merely a personal opinion piece. And while Gilad Atzmon represents a foul intellectual pretentiousness, he is fairly transparent, and does not hide his loathsomeness.

All of his venom is proudly displayed here: http://www.gilad.co.uk/politiks.htm
The internet is full of his bloviating, by the way - you do not need me to guide you.


"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."
-----Gilad Atzmon



THE BERKELEY FELLOWSHIP OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS

What is truly reprehensible is that the Unitarian Universalists in Berkeley have jumped on the anti-Semitic bandwagon. Hosting Gilad Atzmon cannot be seen as anything else. Gilad Atzmon is opposed to the existence of Israel, in the same way as the Women in Black, in the same way as ISM, in the same way as so many groups in the Bay Area. It is an instinctive, culturally sanctioned, and utterly ideological hatred of Jews and of a predominantly Jewish state.
It represents a complete rejection of Jewish values, Jewish identity, and Jewish worth.

The Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, by hosting this event, prove themselves worthy heir to every tyrant and depraved ideologue in the pantheon.
It was probably too much to ask that they take a stand against socially approved politically correct bigotry - it would be so very un-Berkeley and far too decisive.
One just can not expect that of them.


BFUU

Meeting address: 1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita Avenue), Berkeley
Office and Mailing address: 1606 Bonita Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709-2022 (open 11-5 M-F)
phone: 510-841-4824 * e-mail: office bfuu.org * internet: http://www.bfuu.org/ - http://www2.blogger.com/www.bfuu.org


If you decide, AGAINST your better judgment, to write or telephone them, please be gentle and courteous. You represent all that is decent and noble, and while the other side cannot possibly ever understand any of that, they will be quick to pick up on an abrasive quality to your discourse, and reject everything else you say in consequence. Do not insult them, do not raise your voice. They are simple people, and many of them are old.
And they do so strive to fit in with the general comforting hatefulness of Berkeley. They cannot help themselves.

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

NOTE:
An article on Bluetruth also discusses Gilad Atzmon:
http://www.bluetruth.net/2009/05/bay-area-women-in-black-they-hate.html

Quote: "Atzmon has come up with ( ) gems such as “American Jews do try to control the world, by proxy” ; “There is no such thing as anti-Semitism”; and“Why is it that the Jews who repeatedly demand that the Christian world should apologize for its involvement in previous persecutions, have never thought that it is about time that they apologized for killing Jesus?” He also is a strong supporter of the Swedish fascist who goes by the pen name of Israel Shamir. Shamir has written that “we need the voices of David Duke…and Pat Buchanan”, and has claimed that Jews have indeed slaughtered Christian children for their blood"

Regarding Israel Shamir: "even extremist Israel-haters such as Ali Abuminah, Sue Blackwell and Jeff Halper dissociate themselves from him in their embarrassment at sharing the same agenda. But Atzmon consistently defends Shamir and calls him "a unique and advanced thinker"."

Truly Gilad Atzmon and the BFUU represent Berkeley values.

FLING POO AT THE JEW

There is no better way to put it: the pro-Palestinian side are a bunch of monkeys. Who else flings poo? I'm not talking metaphorical poo (yes, they fling that too), but very real poo. Smelly poo.
Faeces, fewmets, caca, skyte, and shizzle.


GRANDLAKE POO

It happened this past Saturday in front of the Grandlake Theater in Oakland.

Every Saturday the anti-Israel side holds a dreary one hour vigil on one side of the street, the pro-Israel side has a happy get-together with signs and flags on the other side of the street.
The anti-Israel side consists of Jews of convenience (Jewish only when it is convenient to be Jewish), old Presbyterian sourpusses, random Jew-haters, and the two lonely oldest surviving Anarcho-Syndicalists in the Bay Area.
The pro-Israel side includes a broad spectrum: Jews of INconvenience (Jewish at ALL times, not just when it is strategically useful to have a Jew in the ranks), lefties, righties, non-Jewish religious, atheists, anarchists, new-age, conservadoxim, reform, and of course the erev rav.
Real people. People like you and me.

Occasionally, pedestrians or drivers-by will holler something egregious at either side. Or voice some kind of encouragement. Or just scream. Loud and long.


This past Saturday, however, the Jew-haters hit a new low. Air-borne poo.
The hastily flung horse manure bounced off a sign, the pooflingers vehicle sped up and disappeared.


Oh crap. Flying poo.


The horse turds rolled a bit, breaking up. We kicked them into the gutter.

The rhetoric of the anti-Israel side is aptly symbolized by horsepuckey, as are their morals and ideas. The Palestinian students at UC Berkeley standardly voice horsepuckey, the Women in Black who vigilate against Israel on Friday at Sproul Plaza trade in little else, JVP is constructed around a firm base of it, and Richard Becker of International ANSWER just about wallows in it. Poo.
They cannot counterargue, so they fling poo. Their thought processes are that narrow and hateful that they have no other recourse. Poo.
Yaman Salahi expresses himself? Poo. Lily Haskell threatens to throw Zionists down an elevator shaft? Poo. Richard Becker has a naughty dream? Poo. Kate Bender blogs? Poo. Paul Larudee opinionates about his dear friends in Hezbollistan and Gaza? Poo. Medea Benjamin, anything at all? Poo.


Stephen "Lynched G.I. Effigy" and his lovely wife Virginia? Poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo,poo!


I'm used to Berkeley being full of poo. But it's overflowing, and drifting south into Oakland. Poo. There is just too much of it. A veritable surfeit. Things are getting desperate. If Berkeley is unchecked, all civilization and culture in the Bay Area might be drowned in poo.

I have heard that baseball bats can cause constipation - that may be a mighty measure against the tide of poo. I shall have to consider it.

NON-ARAB MUSLIMS ARE EXPENDABLE

In fact, judging by the angry protests from International ANSWER and the good citizens of the People's Republic of Berkeley, non-Arab Muslims are probably not even human, definitely not worth your concern.


Angry protests - what angry protests?


Exactly. There were none. There have been none. There will be none.
International ANSWER and the good citizens of Berkeley have shown themselves INFINITELY more concerned with Palestinians (Arabs) than with any number of Chechens, Somalis, Sudanese or Thais.


Chechnya: between 30,000 and more than 100,000 war dead - 1994 to present.
Somalia: hundreds of thousands dead - 1991 to present.
Sudan: Over 300,000 dead, over 2 million displaced - 2003 to present.
Thai Muslims: Over 3,500 dead since 2004.

[The three southern provinces of Thailand - Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani - were annexed by Siam in 1902. The natives are not Thai, and speak Malay. Thai and Malay are not even linguistic relatives, let alone in any way mutually intelligible. The cultural differences are just as large as the linguistic differences.]


Berkeley does not protest these deaths. International ANSWER ignores the dead Muslims of Chechnya, Somalia, Sudan, and Thailand.
The dead Muslims that make both Berkeleyites and International ANSWER folks rabid have ALWAYS been Arabs. Only Arabs. No one else but Arabs.


Chechens are not Arabs. So no outrage.
Somalis and Sudanese are far too dark, why they're quite Negro-looking! No outrage.
Thai Muslims are little brown people, and not worth any outrage whatsoever.


It is axiomatic that Berkeley and International ANSWER will never engage in mass-action on behalf of Muslims who are not Arabs, will not boycott as a protest, will not threaten people on campus, will not write to their politicians, will not hold rallies, will not, in fact, do anything at all.
Over a hundred thousand dead Chechens are just not something to get excited about, several hundred thousand dead Africans are rather inconsequential, thousands of dead Thai Muslims are manifestly minor in the grand scheme of things.
Oh, and they aren't Arabs, so they're just not worth it.
They're garbage.

BAY AREA PEACE-ACTIVISTS SUPPORT 'RESISTANCE'

As is made clear by their websites, their literature and signs in several protests, and their rhetoric, such Bay Area groups as International ANSWER, the ISM, Students for Justice in Palestine, Bay Area Women in Black, Jewish Voice for Peace, and even members of Code Pink support Hamas.


One of the tropes of the groups listed above is that Hamas represents legitimate popular apirations. The ISM even goes so far as to organize aid to Gaza for that reason.
In this endeavor they are ably assisted by such estimable people as British Member of Parliament George Galloway, whose monetary donations to Hamas have encouraged the "Islamic Resistance", and empowers them to continue their 'struggle'.
Many European socialist parties and politicians also wholeheartedly support Hamas and have contributed significantly to such efforts.

Hamas, of course, knows how to win the loyalty not only of American and European fans, but also how to gain the love of the citizens of Gaza.

Let me quote Yassir Abed Rabo on that score:
"Today, Hamas gangs are unleashed like packs of animals on the streets of Gaza against Fatah members. Because the military bases and the prisons have been destroyed, they have turned Gaza schools, Al-Nasser Hospital, the radiology department at Shifa' Hospital, Al-Aqsa University, and other places, including mosques, into centers for the detention, interrogation, and torture of Fatah members and members of other national Palestinian factions."

"Dozens of people have been shot in the leg, been beaten savagely, and had their bones broken, because they are members of the Fatah movement."



Such ongoing democratic struggle is described in a recent news article here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7976083.stm

Quotes:
"He pulls up his trousers to reveal horrifically scarred calves missing entire muscle groups. "

"A man, blindfolded and bound, having his legs broken with a club, over and over again - [cut] - writhing on the ground in a public square after what is believed to have been a Hamas punishment beating."


All of this has the sincere support of the good people of Berkeley - International ANSWER, ISM, SJP, BAWIB, JVP, and even members of Code Pink.


Here are two clips which show what else the good people of Berkeley support:

Wedding in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAy0ZiMEEmw&NR=1

Hamas pursuing justice in Palestine:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6041204945834291260&hl=en
[This is a truly charming video, and has a lovely song besides. Four stars!]


But the other side can also be accused of not playing entirely by accepted rules. That accusation has been made at lenght, by people who are righteously indignant over the trampling of human rights and the denial of a political voice to the oppressed.

Quote:
"At his home in Nablus, "Abu Moaz", not his real name, tells me that during his six months' captivity in a PA prison, he was often strung up to the ceiling by his wrists, which were tied behind his back, and beaten until he lost consciousness."


Nevertheless, the situation in Gaza under Hamas, and in the West Bank under the PA, is infinitely better than in Syria under Assad (père et fils ), or in Irak when Saddam Hussein was in power. And that is what the good people of Berkeley (International ANSWER, ISM, SJP, BAWIB, JVP, and even members of Code Pink) wholeheartedly support.

One can only admire them for their great internationalist spirit and high ideals. Bravo, Berkeley, bravo.

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.

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.

OH MY BLEEDING PILES

A gentleman from Oakland by the name of Tristan Anderson got hit in the face with a tear-gas canister three days ago. This is not something which can be expected by normal people who mind their own business. One actually has to do several things for it to happen.


What Mr. Anderson (aka 'Cricket') did was join the International Solidarity Movement, travel to Israel, cross over into Palestinian territory, and take part in a rock-throwing protest in a closed military zone.


With all due respect for people of that ilk, there may be something about such behaviour which makes the old tear-gas canister in the face a little more likely. At least the chance is no longer one in a million.
Being on the same side as rock-throwing demonstrators, in a closed military zone, with the IDF on the other side? There are certain risks involved. Even if you do have the protection of an American passport and a liberal education.
[Mr. Tristan (Cricket) Anderson at one point gained fame for squatting in the branches of a tree on the UC Berkeley campus for twenty-one months. He may have gotten college credits for that endeavor.]


Mister Anderson is currently in hospital in Israel, receiving the best medical care possible (as has been communicated by several e-mailers from the anti-Israel side). Part of his brain had to be removed, and doctors have tried to repair some of the damage to his face. He may also lose an eye.


Now, I don't really give a flying you-know-what about his face. People like that almost always have a sneering superior smirk on their face at all times, and are unpleasant to look at. That, and their ideological repulsiveness, make them less than Barbie to begin with.
But I hope he does NOT loose the eye, and I am disturbed by the brain thing. It is always a bad thing when someone's brain gets damaged.
He may be wrong, and he may quite probably be an evil self-righteous sonofabitch for joining that bunch of opportunistic Jew-hating bastards known as the ISM....., AND furthermore serious damage is something I would certainly wish to have happen to Hamas-supporters (such as the members of ISM, International ANSWER, and Bay Area Women in Black) - but, however, still, nevertheless. The brain. And the eye.
I do not feel bad about what happened to him (and have no sympathy whatsoever for his friends, family, and supporters), but it disturbs me.

Lets just say my piles bleed for him and leave it at that.

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.