NAUSEATED BY WOMEN WEARING DARK CLOTHING

There are times when the internet gives me great joy. Often this is because I get to experience someone else's life vicariously, and equally often it is because a point of view that I had not theretofore considered is made crystal clear.

Sometimes it is a bit of both. Or actually a large whumping chunk of both.


Such as here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2009/03/worst-creeps-in-world.html


In the piece, the author waxes lyrical about a recent experience which discomfited her. She says everything that she wishes to say clearly, and with a tightness of speech, a conciseness, which is utterly admirable. She makes her point, and does not dwell unnecessarily on the rhetoric.


QUOTE 1
" - What she does out back behind the dumpster with her drunken victims, well, that doesn't concern me in the slightest."

QUOTE 2
" - Auntie there's a WORLD of difference between a friendly glance and a hamsahp leer! And entirely aside from me puking my guts out afterwards, you would go to jail."


The subject of that blogger's post is a group of enablers and fellow-travelers of anti-Semitism in the Bay Area. A group which inexplicably seems to have bamboozled their way into the warm fuzzy feelings of many people, despite their affectionate fondness for angry Muslims screaming Jew-hating slogans, or their joining with International ANSWER in advocating the ethnic cleansing of all of Israel from the river to the sea.
You'll just have to read the post to get the full flavour of her ire.
And be glad that at least somebody gets it.

DUTCH INSANITY

Last week, protesting soccer hooligans in Rotterdam screamed obscenities and insults at burgomaster Ahmed Aboutaleb.
Among other things, they called the honourable Ahmed Aboutaleb a "Filthy Jew" ('vuile Jood'), and chanted 'Hamas, Hamas, all Joden aan het gas' (Hamas, Hamas, all the Jews to the gas). They also offered to gas the aforementioned "Filthy Jew".


This pursuant a decision by the burgomasters of Rotterdam (Ahmed Aboutaleb) and Amsterdam (Job Cohen) to limit fan-attendance at matches between Feyenoord (the Rotterdam soccer team) and Ajax (the Amsterdam soccer team) for the next five years, due to violence and misbehaviour at such matches - the rivalry between Feyenoord and Ajax is representative of the cultural superiority of Amsterdam ('good') versus the depravity and criminal tendencies of Rotterdammers ('evil'), and soccer matches are, more than just symbolically, wars. It is a complex situation with many layers.


Two articles in Dutch from the Algemeen Dagblad:

http://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/stad/3020182/Grimmig_protest_Feyenoordfans.html
Quote: Circa tweehonderd demonstranten trokken het drukke centrum van de stad in en liepen dreigend tussen winkelend publiek door. Ze scandeerden leuzen en er zouden vernielingen zijn aangericht.
[Around two hundred demonstrators marched through the busy centre of the city and mingled threateningly with the shopping public. They chanted slogans, and there was vandalism.]

http://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/stad/3028447/Hooligans_vrijuit_na_uitschelden_Aboutaleb.html
Quote: De Feyenoord-hooligans die de Rotterdamse burgemeester Ahmed Aboutaleb dit weekend in de binnenstad uitmaakten voor ‘vuile Jood’ en scandeerden dat hij ‘aan het gas moet’, gaan vrijuit.
[The Feyenoord hooligans who called Rotterdam burgomaster Ahmed Aboutaleb a "Filty Jew" this past weekend and chanted that he should be gassed will not be prosecuted.]

I should probably mention that the nickname of Ajax is "de Jooduh'' ('da Jooz'). That has some bearing on this.
Mr. Ahmed Aboutaleb (the aforementioned "Filthy Jew"), is the son of a Moroccan Imam. Which seems beside the point, but is nevertheless a relevant detail.
The gentlemen who so helpfully offered to chuck him into a gas chamber are mostly Moroccan Dutch - many of the Moroccans in Rotterdam are fanatical supporters of their soccer club.

The Moroccan-Dutch supporters of Feyenoord are furious over the tendency of Ajax supporters in Amsterdam to beat the living daylights out of them whenever they scream anti-Jewish obscenities or burn an Israeli flag in a public place while visiting. The Israeli flag is the guerilla banner of the Ajax fans, waved from the stands whenever Ajax is playing, especially at Ajax-Feyenoord games. The primary purpose of waving the Israeli flag is to irritate the spit out of the Feyenoord supporters on the other side. Who hop up and down red-faced and gibbering whenever this is done.

Many of the Ajax supporters are also Moroccan-Dutch. Who thoroughly enjoy the apoplexy they have thus given their cousins from a city the name of which no true Amsterdammer will even admit knowing ("Rotterdam" - it's probably some German word that means garbage or prostitute or something like that, totally unimportant").


Amsterdam is probably the only town in the universe where an anti-Semite burning an Israeli flag may have the crap kicked out of him by angry Arab teenagers.

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.

DUTCH JEWS, DUTCH GENTILES

Not surprisingly, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands has increased sharply in recent months, peaking during Operation Cast Lead.
Anti-Semitism has never been absent from Dutch society, and has waxed markedly since the sixties. By the nineties, one could definitely speak of hostility and intimidation.
One could also speak of official apathy.


THE OTHER

Representatives of the 'other', in Dutch society, are always representatives of ALL of the 'other', of ALL of the worst of the 'other', and often, ONLY of the worst of the 'other' - that which is seen as good is exceptional, not representative.

Traditionally, in Dutch Christian circles, the Jews were blamed for the death of Christ. Even among non-Catholics, the role of the Romans in that tale has customarily been excused, and Dutch churchmen, whether Catholic or Calvinist, cannot ever be said to veer towards impartiality. This judgementalism has carried over generously to even the non-religious.

Not only Jews, but also Moroccans, Turks, Indonesians, Surinamers Germans, and other non-generics - all have in Dutch society been identified as prime representatives of something signally reprehensible and non-Dutch. More reprehensible, in fact, precisely by virtue of being non-Dutch.
It is a mark of blending-in to humbly acknowledge the correctness of that view, and adopt as one's own the intellectual habitus supporting the process.

Hence the Dutch (and the Dutch Muslim community) blame individual Jews for all of the perceived wrongs in the Middle-East.


THE DUTCH JEW

Anyone who identifies as Jewish is both personally responsible for whatever any Jew has ever done, and fits in best in Dutch society if they act according to expectation - namely, as a perfect saint-victim.

What is particularly galling is that the Dutch Jewish community is nearly invisible - 45 thousand at maximum count, of which one third are only part Jewish.
Thirty thousand Jews is a better estimate, although those who are observant are probably far, far less than that (a few thousand at max).
Less than a third of a percent of the population are Jewish. And all Dutch Jews are fully assimilated.

So finding a Dutch Jew to blame for the all the ills of the world takes effort.


THE HAGUE

The Dutch government, of course, will take no responsibility for the increase in hate, intimidation, threats, or actual violence, even though it is the pronunciamentos of politicians and parliamentarians that have been conducive to the poisoned atmosphere.
When the Dutch Jewish community has finally emigrated and left entirely, they will bemoan their departure, saying "we were so good to them, we cannot fathom why they deserted us". It will be entirely the fault of the departees, not of the social environment - which, being Dutch, is of course safeguarded from any reproach.

The Dutch in the 21st century have plenty of candidates to fill the role of 'other'.
Even 'separateness' in Dutch society has a multitude of contemporary examples that can be highlighted cautionarily for rhetorical or political effect. Socio-culturally, there is no role left in Dutch society which uniquely requires Jews.
Dutch Jews have become expendable.


This blogger, of course, would gladly have them all move over here.
I need Dutch speakers in my vicinity with whom I can get along.

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.

RIOTING IN HOLLAND

Much commentary in Dutch about the Gaza situation reflects two venomous hatreds. The smaller one is anti-Semitism, the more prevalent and dominant one is Xenophobia (particularly aimed at Muslim immigrants). In actuality, these are merely 'two hands on the same stomach'.
Many Dutch cleverly combine both hatreds.
And the Dutch, as we now know, are not inclined to be humble about strongly held opinions.
The worst rhetorical tendencies in Dutch are now obscenely on display, the Dutch are exhibiting their usually soft-voiced talent for vile dialectic at full volume, cacophonous and nauseating.

I am fairly disgusted with my fellow-Dutchspeakers at present.



AHMED ABOUTALEB

A noteworthy exception is Rotterdam burgomaster Ahmed Aboutaleb, who firmly let it be known that phrases like "hamas hamas all joden aan het gas" ('Hamas Hamas all Jews to the gas'), "falastin baladna wa'l Yahud kilabna" ('Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs'), "itbach al Yahud" ('massacre the Jews'), and "al mawt al Yahud" ('death to the Jews'), are utterly unacceptable, and will lead to arrests and prosecution.

[The Netherlands has laws about hate-speech and incitement that in some respects are more authoritarian than laws in the United States.]


"Aboutaleb, maak het waar!"

[Kaptein Jean-Luc Picard]

Of course he will hampered by the wussie ineffectiveness of the Dutch police, and red-tapish attitudes of the Dutch judiciary.
But at this point, not only are the Feijenoord fans rabidly disgusted with him, but also members of his own ethnic group and religious community. Nor did this win him any friends among ordinary Dutchmen, many of whom either despise the Jews or loathe the Arabs.


DUTCH MUSLIMS

There are nearly a million Muslims in the Netherlands. Most of them live in the Randstad (the conglomeratus of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht). Most of them are urban. Many of them were born there, and many of them speak Dutch as their first language.
Dutch is the only language in which they read and write.

What you see in the videos of the demonstrations in the Netherlands are a few thousand people, fully half of whom are 'autochtoon' (native Dutch). The Rotterdam riot videos show a slightly greater number of people than Amsterdam or Utrecht, with a slightly greater proportion of allochthonous background.
That accounts for maybe about ten or twenty thousand angry Muslims, all told. Probably less, as the same people have taken part in several demonstrations.

What you do NOT see are the majority of Islamic-Dutch, but the rowdy problem cases. What you see are not the quiet shopkeepers, businessmen, or labourers, but the failures to assimilate. These are the people who are marooned between two societies, who do not even fit into their own ethnicity, and have no hope of ever blending into the mainstream.

As with all ethnicities, the problem cases tend to confirm to stereotypes.

The majority of every ethnic group are usually invisible. By assimilating, they fade into the background. It is only when members of a group misbehave that their ethnicity or affiliation becomes an issue.

The anti-Israel riots in places like London, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Antwerp - all seem to have rigidified ethnic/cultural hatreds. Precisely the same animosity as marked European society when the only groups to hate were Jews, Gypsies, and Lombards.

Europe has not changed much. But it has learned to share its hatred.

PROUD TO BE ASHAMED TO BE JEWISH

What would make the members of Jewish Voice for Peace and Bay Area Women in Black stand alongside protestors screaming for the extermination of Jews?


The answer is relatively simple: UncleTomism.


Here in the Bay Area Jew hatred is particularly virulent, and socially sanctioned. It is, for people who define themselves as 'liberal' but are incapable of thinking further than the label, extremely comfortable to censure Israel, and to progress from that censure to full-blown hate.
This tendency is supported by many progressives, and has a long history in the Bay Area. It is the acme of politically correct - even in a place where political correctness is a competitive sport.

This is by no means a development of recent weeks, but goes back years. And in many cases it is supported by officials, the intelligentsia, and academe (SFSU and UC Berkeley).


Please click on the links below for the merest sampling.


Hate graffiti reported at Jewish eatery - August 20, 2002
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2002-08-20/article/14162?headline=Hate-graffiti-reported-at-Jewish-eatery


Food fight in tofu-land - Thursday, December 5, 2002
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/12/05/ED233964.DTL


Activists at a Jewish peace rally are confronted by a mob - May 9, 2002
http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/Fear_and_Loathing_at_San_Francisco_State.asp


Bus 19 Anti-Terrorism rally in Berkeley - January 16, 2005.
http://www.zombietime.com/bus_19_berkeley/

ADL Offers Reward in San Francisco Hate Crime - January 4, 2006.
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HatCr_51/4846_51.htm


The Arabs Still Openly Call Jews 'Their Dogs,' Even in S.F. - September 30, 2006
http://www.ifcj.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=13816


It is in such an atmosphere, where being Jewish or supporting Israel are considered major flaws in one's character, that many people whose connection to Judaism is both nominal and uncomfortable at best, eventually decide to assuage their friends, colleagues, and lovers, by being more anti-Jewish than the anti-Jews.
JVP, and Bay Area Women in Black, give them a convenient out - and allow them to fly interference for some of the really rabid Jew-haters, such as the mobs from International ANSWER and other branches of the peace-movement.
It is perhaps a tribute to the tolerance for which northern California is famous that even such fervent 'Jew-don't-wannabes' are welcome.
Ideology counts for much in Berkeley and San Francisco.


Please note that while I mention Bay Area Women in Black, not all of that group are actually self-hating Jews - many of them are Jew-hating Presbyterians and Episcopalians from churches in Berkeley and North-Oakland, and some of them (well, actually, only two of them) lonely old-style anarcho-syndicalists from a radical bookstore in San Francisco.
The San Francisco branch of Bay Area Women in Black consists mostly of dysfunctionals from QUIT (Queers Undermining Israeli Terror), rejectionists, wiccans, plus assorted fellow-travelers. Again, many of them are not Jewish either, or, at best, only Jews of convenience (whenever it is convenient for someone to say "I can't be anti-Semitic, some of my best friends are Jews" - presto, there they are).
Wanting to blame someone for your psychological problems (whining, in other words) is a powerful motivator. And, in the Bay Area, a holy war.


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

4:05 PM
As I write this, I can hear the passing rabble yelling for Jewish blood on the street outside my office. Which is a distinctly San Francisco occurrence. They started at Powell and Market earlier today, they are finally here, heading toward the consulate. Arabic is a wonderful language. So evocative.

There are about thousand of them. Many are not Arabs.

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.

DAMNING ISRAEL

Reading the Dutch, German, French, and English news sites and forums today highlighted three tendencies regarding reactions and thoughts about Israel's action in Gaza. These tendencies already existed, of course, but have been more sharply drawn in the last seventy-two plus hours.


The Pro-Israel no-matter-what tendency
The writer damns all Muslims, Palestinians, Socialists, and self-hating Europeans, while lauding the actions of Israel in Gaza.
This is distinctly a minority point of view.


The Nuanced Point of View
This person tends to understand that Hamas broke their own ceasefire, has sworn to destroy Israel, and provoked the conflict by firing off over two hundred rockets towards Israeli towns. Nevertheless, civilian deaths are lamented, and question are raised. The writer is not comfortable with adding to the misery of the average Arab.
This too is a minority point of view.


The angry Anti-Israel Opinion
These writers thoroughly condemn everything that Israel does, lament the misery of Palestinian existence, curse their own governments for doing nothing, and fervently wish ill upon Israel, the Jews, and anybody who takes the side of either Israel or the Jews. Many of these writers are anti-Semitic, but assert that being anti-Israel is not actual hatred. They are not overt bigots, as they (mostly) stay within the bounds of acceptable 'progressive' discourse.
This is the overwhelming majority point of view.



Digesting it all
What became apparent, reading the various sites, is just how much Israel is hated. To a certain extent, I can understand Arab hatred of Jews and Israel - Arabs hate everything and everybody. It seems to be part and parcel of their culture. They've killed over seven million of their own in the last sixty years, and almost instinctively speak ill of each other or sabotage their own causes.
I expect no better from that side. And I'll admit it, I am probably a racist because I expect nothing else from them. For which I apologize - I honestly cannot hold them to the same high standard as the civilized world. I am a realist.

I can also understand European hatred of Jews and Israel. After all, to many Europeans, the very survival of Jews proves them wrong. Their attempts to exterminate the Jews did not succeed, their attempts to force them to convert en-masse to Christianity or Communism failed. There are still Jews. It must be keenly disappointing to have those people still around as a reminder of the failure of European society.

Life would be so much simpler for both the Arabs and the Europeans, if there were no Jews. The Arabs could slowly destroy European society, the Europeans could profit enormously from whoring to the Arabs in the meantime. Benefit to both sides.

The Jews, especially in the shape of Israel, are the fly in the ointment. And so Israel taking action against Hamas, is of course, an affront to both many Europeans and to Arabs.
Which must be thoroughly condemned.


What I have never understood is why parts of America, in particular Northern California, are so filled with Jew-hatred. Places such as San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley. Heck, I cannot fathom why Berkeley is the most Jew-hating city in all of California. It would appear that our universities inculcate a very European attitude, and deliberately undermine our society's values.
I fully expect the next domestic terrorist movement to originate in academe.



AFTERTHOUGHT
I find myself in-between the first and second tendencies. I recognize that Israel had to act, I find what they are engaged upon justified, and I applaud their successes. Granted, as a society, Israel is by no means perfect. And ideally it should be possible for any society to speak for all of its members. But in the real world, societies are not always capable of giving all goals and values equal importance. To Israel's credit, she tries. And often succeeds in advancing the interests of a large majority of her citizens. Israel does so as the only democratic state in that area, and the only liberal humanist society in the Middle-East.

That, unfortunately, is something that not a single one of the Arab states have ever done, and also something which almost none of the Arab states can even lay claim to ever trying.


The one great contribution to our vocabulary from the Arabs in modern times has been 'mukhabarat' - a term for a secret police that functions with extraordinary brutality. It is the one constant shared by all Arab states, and frequently the only efficient department in an Arab government.

DAN KLIMAN

If you haven't already done so, please read Zombie's post about Dan Kliman. It is an excellent source for updated information on the case.
Zombie knew certain aspects of Dan better than almost anybody else possibly could - both had received death-threats for making photos and recordings of the hatred and extremism evident at protests in the Bay Area.
[Zombie is, according to reliable reports, on an extremist hit-list. This is the Bay Area, and we have more unbalanced people here than many other places.]


Zombie's post:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=110
Click: R.I.P. Dan Kliman.


Zombie's main page:
http://www.zombietime.com/
Click: zombietime.
[A great resource about public displays of insanity in the Bay Area - see mention of photos and recordings above.]


OyBay also posted about it:
http://oybay.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/the-unfolding-story-of-the-death-of-dan-kliman-zl/
Click: Unfolding story.



At this point the investigation continues. The SFPD have homicide investigators on the case, but still incline towards calling it an accident. Results will not be known for a while, and almost no information is being made public - that is standard procedure, by the way.

This may lead some to indulge in paranoid conspiracy theories - 'He was murdered for being a gay vegetarian rightwing leftwing purple-striped pro-Israel cat-lover from Mars!' - and others to worry about a cover-up. Both approaches are somewhat unnecessary.

And I note, pursuant thereto, that a previous post ( was Dan Kliman murdered? ) seems to have attracted some remarkable commenters. I am not entirely sure that absolutely all of them are sane. A few of them are probably dangerous.
Feel free to demonstrate where in the spectrum you belong.

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

3:54 PM 12/05/08 update:

This article in the TimesUnion (Albany, NY) is informative.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=747007&category=REGION
There are a few details in that piece that I have not seen elsewhere.


Cinnamon Stillwell has also posted about Dan Kliman.

Here:
http://cinnamonstillwell.blogspot.com/2008/12/rip-dan-kliman.html
It is probably worth your while to bookmark Cinnamon Stillwell's blog, as there is often something interesting there.
http://cinnamonstillwell.blogspot.com/


Of course, if you are one of the anti-Israel trolls, you will not like what you find there. Oh well. Life is tough, isn't it?

WAS ZIONIST ACTIVIST DAN KLIMAN MURDERED?

Not according the SF Police.

Quote:
"But as San Francisco police combed over the evidence Tuesday, investigators said this is what appears to have happened: Dr. Daniel J. Kliman, an Alameda physician and one of the Bay Area's foremost pro-Israel activists, stepped into an open elevator shaft by accident last week and died."

[SOURCE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/03/MNVE14GCD6.DTL&hw=Dan+Kliman&sn=001&sc=1000]


However building management's statements cast doubt on that theory.

Quote:
"the building's manager insists the door must have been secured.
The elevator in that shaft was out of order at the time, building manager Brad Bernheim said. By design, doors to a malfunctioning elevator are clamped shut and can be opened only by a mechanic, said Erika Monterroza, spokeswoman for Cal/OSHA."
[SOURCE: same as above.]


There are suspicions that it was an opportunistic hate crime, though Police Inspector Matt Krimsky wishes to dismiss that possibility.

QUOTE:
"There is no indication of any foul play at this point, even though I've been getting calls from conspiracy theorists from everywhere, even someone who said they had information from a séance"
[SOURCE: same as above.]


He is supported in his 'doubts' by Penny Rosenwasser, a national board member of Jewish Voice for Peace who asserts: "I can't imagine anyone I know doing something like that".
[SOURCE: same as above.]



I CAN IMAGINE SOMEONE YOU KNOW DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT!

Penny, in several years of being on the pro-Israel side in the Bay Area, we have been threatened, punched, pushed, kicked, and spat on. ALL of us in SF Voice for Israel have experienced such things. Many of us have been followed. All of us have been photographed and insulted.
The amount of hatred which is evident at many anti-Israel events is outrageous. I can very well imagine someone you know, Penny, doing anything like that. I can think of several people on the other side who would jump at the opportunity.

The atmosphere created in the Bay Area by the anti-Israel side is such that it is very easy to imagine an opportunistic attack. Those who in a sense of misguided "fairness" vociferate for the Palestinians, support and nourish extremists. Never more so than when, in "solidarity" with their Palestinian brothers and sisters, they stand alongside protestors yelling 'death to the Jews' in Arabic, or promising at the top of their bull-horned lungs to wipe Israel off the map.

Don't lie, Penny. Your type have indeed stood there. You did not object. You did not say anything more balanced and rational to counterweigh the rabid anti-Semitism of your comrades. Nor did you stop them yelling their homicidal hatred. You were proud to stand with Al Awda, International Answer, and supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Jewish Voice For Peace, Bay Area Women In Black, and similar patsy organizations, are the enablers of anti-Semitism in this part of the world. Students for Justice in Palestine, Al Awda, and International Answer thrive on the encouragement they receive from such groups.
If Dan was murdered, you are all guilty of that murder.



NOTORIOUS ZIONIST FOUND DEAD UNDER SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

There are excellent reasons for doubting that Dan Kliman's death was entirely accidental.

As follows:
*Dan was very well-known to the other side, his picture was posted on several sites identifying him as a Zionist "conspirator" and one of the lead-activists in the Bay Area.
*He had received several death-threats over the years - he was known by name and address.
*The pro-Palestinian side has often either used violence or threatened to do so - Dan was assaulted several times.
*The building where he was found was where he was taking Arabic classes; there were NO classes that week.
*Several members of the other side also take Arabic classes - that is one of the few schools in the area where Arabic is taught, and there is a constantly changing roster of Israel-haters studying Arabic there.
*The defective elevator had been secured so no one could enter it.


I am not going to jump to any conclusions just yet. But I am almighty curious.

And until the police PROVE that it was an accident, I have to suspect that Dan was jumped by pro-Palestinian opportunists, who knew who he was, that the building was nearly empty, and that they would not soon have so excellent a chance to "get that Zionist".

Dan was hated. And he was alone in a place frequented by many of his enemies.

PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS ATTACK JEWS ON CAMPUS

Follows a statement by the pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley regarding the violence directed at Jews on campus last night.
Please disseminate widely.


Members of Students for Justice in Palestine Attack Jews at UC Berkeley Hip-Hop Concert
(Berkeley, CA- November 13, 2008)

We, the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group at Cal, are deeply concerned by the latest in a series of attacks on Jewish and pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley perpetrated by members of Students for Justice in Palestine. On the night of November 13, 2008 at around 6:00 PM, members of Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted our hip-hop concert that celebrated the Jewish connection to the land of Israel. Then they attacked students who asked them to stop their disruption.

Three members of the Students for Justice in Palestine illegally draped large Palestinian flags behind the stage of the concert, which was part of Israel Liberation Week. Yehuda De Sa (one of the performers), Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and current ASUC Senator John Moghtader walked to the balcony from which the flags were hanging and asked the students to remove the flags as they misrepresented the concert's message. The SJP members immediately became hostile at this request and current SJP leader Husam Zakharia instigated a physical altercation by striking Weiner on the head. As Weiner and the performer tried to defend themselves, Moghtader stood away from the scuffle and then made a successful effort to break up the fight.

Members of Students for Justice in Palestine shouted anti-Semitic epithets referencing the Holocaust throughout the ordeal. Zakharia and others from SJP were detained by the police and charged with battery. Citizens' arrests were filed against SJP members who took part in the altercation.

The violence, intimidation, and harassment exhibited by members of Students for Justice in Palestine at the concert is only one act in a pattern of similar behavior that they have exhibited towards Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus. Last year, multiple charges were filed against SJP and some of its members citing harassment, violence, intimidation, and violation of numerous other campus rules. These charges all went ignored by Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard.

We call on state officials, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor, the Dean of Students, faculty, and the student body to take a unified stand against the continued harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus, particularly by members of Students for Justice in Palestine.

----The Zionist Freedom Alliance Student Group at Cal



This blogger's afterword:
It has not been safe to be pro-Israel on campus in years. Bay Area universities have become, with the collaboration of administrators and the complaisance of many students, hotbeds of hatred and opposition to free-speech. I would have expected both the faculties and the officials in charge to have countered this, but it has become evident that most are willing panderers to extremists, the rest being both in denial, and in several cases outright anti-Semitic themselves.


To the Zionist students at UC Berkeley: Keep up the good work, boys, we're proud of you.


To my readers: Please show your support for the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group at Cal. They struggle against a vast array of anti-Semitic hate groups and front organizations, and bear the brunt of a battle for freedom of speech and diversity of opinion. Their opponents do not shy away from violence, intimidation, lies, and character assassination.

PRO-PALESTINIAN PROVOCATION ON UC CAMPUS

The Daily Californian deliberately lies.
What happened was a violent provocation by Students for Justice in Palestine. What was immediately rushed onto the internet was a deliberate distortion of the facts and an attempt to paint Jews as violent racists.
This is not the first time that the Daily Californian has been caught violating the truth and promoting an extremist pro-Palestinian agenda.



This is the version originally posted:

SJP statement on violent anti-Palestinian attack on campus
November 14, 2008-- (Berkeley, CA)

Contact: admin@calsjp.org

Student organization "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) is extremely concerned about a violent attack on three Arab Palestinian students on the evening of November 13, 2008 around 6:00PM, and calls upon campus administrators and authorities to immediately investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice.


According to dozens of witnesses on the scene, three organizers for the "Zionist Freedom Alliance" attacked one male and two female Arab students who stood nearby the event holding a Palestinian flag. The assailants were identified by the Daily Californian to include current ASUC student senator John Moghtader, Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and performer Yehuda De sa. The paper also reported that all three had been cited by the UC Police Department on several counts of battery.

The three Arab students had decided to display the flag as a silent statement after hearing offensive anti-Arab remarks at the concert. They did not attempt to interfere with the event. Shortly after they put their flags on display, the assailants were seen angrily rushing into Eshleman Hall and disturbing several meetings to reach the protestors who were located on the 2nd floor balcony. Students on the scene report that the men were yelling racial epithets directed at Arabs and Palestinians.

When the assailants arrived at the balcony, they attempted to push the protestors aside and take their flags away. Witnesses claim that the assailants eventually knocked one protestor against the balcony railing, with a scuffle ensuing where two Arab students, one male and one female, were hit several times. Within a few minutes the assailants began to rush away, though a small group of their supporters had followed them upstairs. Throughout the process the assailants and their supporters were also overheard making remarks like, "we're about to take care of some f***ing Palestinians," and "you Arab dogs, we will kill you."

The group of assailants was eventually pushed away by a crowd of students who were waiting for the police to arrive and collect statements. One of the assailants accused his victims of assaulting him, causing citations to be issued on the victims despite the testimony of several witnesses on the scene refuting the claim. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt during the ordeal.

SJP is concerned by the willful and concerted escalation to violence by these individuals, who are members of student organization Tikvah. SJP disagrees with the Daily Californian's characterization of the event as the result of "tensions between Palestinian and Jewish students." In fact, the incident was isolated, and the assailants are not representative of the Jewish community at Cal. After a series of similar threatening encounters with a handful of individuals this semester, SJP members began to document these incidents. Two of the attackers, John Moghtader and Gabe Weiner, were involved in another outburst at a campus lecture last month that led the Jewish Student Union to place Tikvah on probation [1, 2].

SJP calls upon campus administrators to pursue the incident immediately, and for students to remain committed to resolving their political differences through peaceful dialogue and discussion.




This is the version subsequently put on the Daily Cal site:


Fight Erupts at Israel Liberation Week Concert
By Will Kane and Vincent Quan
Daily Cal Staff Writers
Friday, November 14, 2008
Category: News > City > Crime

A previous version of this story was removed by editors after we became aware that some facts in the story were incorrect. That story has been replaced with this updated version.

The Daily Californian holds itself to high journalistic standards and always strives to produce objective and accurate content. The Daily Cal follows the ethics policy laid out by the Society of Professional Journalists, which is available at http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this article or our policies, please contact me at editor@dailycal.org.

-Bryan Thomas, Editor in Chief & President


Tensions between Palestinian and Jewish students on campus ran high Thursday night after a fight broke out on an Eshleman Hall balcony overlooking a concert promoting Israel Liberation Week.

At about 5:45 p.m., as rap artists performed on Lower Sproul Plaza, three Palestinian students hung up two Palestinian flags on the building's second floor balcony, witnesses said. The students said they were responding to the anti-Palestinian lyrics they heard.

Upon seeing the flags, ASUC Senator John Moghtader, former senator Gabe Weiner and Yehuda De sa, the concert's opening act, went up to the balcony in an attempt to remove the flags. All three men are Jewish.

At that point, a fight broke out, police said. Witnesses added that the fight prompted up to half a dozen members of the audience to run up to the second floor. Police said two students and one non-student were cited for battery. Weiner was one of those students.

"I went up to the second floor because the message they were sending was an abomination to our national rights," Weiner said.

Senior Husam Zakharia, who was hit in the face during the altercation, said the rap lyrics he heard spurred him to hang up the Palestinian flag.

"We're going to go up and we're going to put up our Palestinian flag in silent protest-exercising our freedom of speech to say we're here and we exist," he said, adding that he was surprised by the violent reaction.

A number of UCPD officers and Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard spent at least two hours interviewing students and witnesses, attempting to piece together the series of events.

According to police, the fight was related to incidents of vandalism earlier this semester. In September, a bus stop sign outside Eshleman Hall promoting Israel was vandalized. That vandalism was followed by pro-Israel graffiti in a classroom in Dwinelle Hall, increasing tension among Israeli and Palestinian advocacy groups on campus.

As the altercation on Thursday night took place, Eshleman Hall's second floor was full of ASUC officials including President Roxanne Winston.

Many senators who saw the fight expressed shock that such an incident could happen among students, most notably former and current ASUC senators.

"I'm very strong now in my sentiments in that there should be immediate disciplinary action," said ASUC Senator Kifah Shah. "If it culminates to violence where three members of SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) are hit ... then that's just ridiculous."

Tags: Student Life, crime

Article Link: http://www.dailycal.org/article/103566




Background: As the Daily Cal is well aware, Students for Justice in Palestine has over the past several years promoted an atmosphere of intolerance on campus, in which Jewish and Israeli students, and their supporters, have been threatened and intimidated. Their actions have carried over into the Berkeley street, and have resulted in several incidents in which a pro-Israel view has been shouted down, speakers have been insulted and manhandled, and property vandalized.

This is mirrored by similar acts at other university campuses in California, notably at SF State and at UC Santa Cruz. School administrators and student body functionaries have not only been unwilling to step in, several are on record as stating that Zionism has no place on campus, and that Jewish support for Israel is, ultimately, the cause of such friction.

The atmosphere on the Berkeley campus was already nauseatingly anti-Semitic and poisonous before this provocation; it remains to be seen how much more vile it will become. This blogger does not expect any significant attempt by authorities and campus police to get to the truth of the matter. Especially given the increasing financial influence of certain foreign regimes in academia.

We wish the Jewish students on California campuses God-speed and the best of luck. It is a foregone conclusion that pro-Palestinian provocateurs will seek to make the academic environment even more poisonous and dangerous for Jewish students than it ever was.

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.

ENKELE VLUCHTIGE OPMERKINGEN OVER NEDERLANDERS (EN ARABIEREN) IN VERBAND MET HUN ANTI-SEMITISME

De Russen gaan in Tsjetsjnia beestachtig tekeer - niks in de Nederlandsche kranten. Soedaneesche Muslim regerings troepen moorden en verkrachten een generatie lang de Kristenen en animisten in het zuiden des lands - niks in de kranten. Het Indoneesisch leger slaat er in Atjeh op los, India schiet om de haverklap Kasjmirische Muslims neer, China is op systematische wijze de cultuur van Tibet aan het verdelgen, de Oeighoeren in Sinkiang in kampen op te sluiten, de Kristenen hunne godsdienst-vrijheid te ontzeggen.

De Arabische heersers van Algerije en Maroc onderdrukken de Berbers, de Thais ronselen jonge sexslaven uit hun minderheden omwille toeristen uit Duitsland en Nederland....

Nou ja, niks in de kranten. Het is van geen belang.

Kristenen mogen Muslims vermoorden (Tsjetsjnia), Muslims Kristenen (Soudan), Muslims andere Muslims (Atjeh), Hindoes Muslims (Kasjmir), Kommunisten de Bhoedisten, Muslims, en Kristenen (China), en ga zo maar door - echt niet de moeite van het Nederlandsche azijnzijken waard.


*Foei! Ongehoorzame Jood!*

Maar laat Israeliers trachten veiligheid voor hunzelve te bewerkstelligen, dan zal heel de "beschaafde" wereld (hetgeen voorgesteld als zijnde voornamelijk Nederland) hysterisch gillen dat ze 'n bloedbad begaan, dat 't rotte Fascisten benne, en dat 't niet mag 't niet mag 't niet mag!

Ik zou haast denken dat de Nederlandsche nieuwsmedia er een door de overheden gezegend antisemieten mentaliteit op na hield - maar nee, dat kan niet; tis puur entertainment, en niemand neemt 't serieus. Zeker niet nuchtere Nederlanders, die wachten tot ze alle feiten hebben voor ze voorzichtig een weldoordachte, historisch en sociaal bewuste, genuanceerde mening op beschaafde wijze kalmpjes uitspreken.

[Dat Nederlandsche anti-Amerikanisme vormde zich natuurlijk ook pas na lang onderzoek naar de feiten, kennismaking met veel Amerikanen, jaren geschiedkundige studie, en bovenal maandenlang de VS zelf te hebben bezocht. Want Nederlanders zijn een nuchter volk, die niet zomaar krantepaplepel-onzin uit kramen.]



Vele Nederlanders beweren zelfs dat heel bewust de Palestijnen een nog groter onrecht is aangedaan dan ooit de Joden.

Ach ja, een half miljoen Arabieren vluchtten in 1948, aangemoedigd door de aanvallende Arabische legers, zodat men onbekommerd de Joden zou kunnen uitmoorden. Daarna bleven ze 'n halve eeuw in vluchtelingen kampen (temidden van Arabische landen, nota bene!), waar ze van die zelfde Arabische landen best mogen crepeeren, mits men maar vergeet dat het de Arabische landen is die hun nog steeds laten verrekken.

Dat is beslist vergelijkbaar met vijf miljoen dooie Joden, en in ieder geval toch zo veel meer waard dan de ruw-weg drie miljoen Joden die in vergelding door de Arabieren beroofd en verdreven werden in de jaren nadat Israel de Arabische legers versloeg.
Maar Nederlanders geloven liever Arabieren. Want die liegen nooit, in tegenstelling tot wat Nederlanders en andere Europeanen overtuigd zijn van die Joden.


Emmes.

Wat mij betreft hebben de Arabieren zestig jaar lang hun eigen geloofwaardigheid teniet gedaan.
Zestig jaar lang het bestaansrecht van Israel tegengesproken, zestig jaar lang zelfs ook het bestaansrecht van alle Joden tegengesproken (met geweld, met discriminatie, met terrorisme, met boycot), en Nederland meent dat ze gelijk hebben?

Ik geef toe dat het sneu is wat er in de veroverde gebieden gebeurt. Maar het kan me in feite ontzettend weinig schelen. Ik bekommer me meer over onrechten elders.
Blijkbaar scheelt het de Arabieren ook niet zo - ze hebben in de afgelopen halve eeuw meer dan zes miljoen van hun eigen volk over de kling gejaagd in hun oorlogjes, dus 't is maar een kleinigheid. Vooral als ge 't vergelijkt met het nogal geringe aantal Arabieren die in strijd met de Joden gesneuvelt is.


Ik vertrouw wat dat betreft Arabieren ongeveer net zo als ik Europeanen vertrouw; dat wil zeggen, ik schiet met velen zeer goed op, heb de pest aan de meerderheid, beschouw veel van hun politiek en maatschappij als ettervals, en wil nimmer temidden van die lui woonachtig zijn. Arabieren zijn van het zelfde Machiavelliaansch niveau als de Europeanen.

De Europeanen, overigens, blijken meer een gevaar voor de wereld te zijn dan Amerikanen, Joden, of Arabieren. Weliswaar is er van hun koloniaale imperia weinig over, maar dat komt veelal omdat ze na de tweede wereld oorlog uitgeput waren.
Door de rivaliteit tussen de VS en de Soviet Unie is Europa 'n half eeuw lang opmerkelijk koest gebleven, maar die rivaliteit bestaat niet meer. De Europeanen hebben altijd een overdreven imago van hun belangrijkeid en importancie gehad, en beginnen nu weer kapsones te krijgen.

De wereld gaat onzekere tijden tegemoet.

HE PROBABLY DESERVED IT; HE WAS WEARING A KIPPAH!

One of my commenters forwarded a link to an article in the Algemeen Dagblad which I had not seen heretofore. I present the article, with an interlinear translation.


[Link: http://www.ad.nl/amsterdam/2718532/Excuses_na_mishandeling_joodse_man.html?pageNavType=all#reactie Source: Algemeen Dagblad.]



EXCUSES NA MISHANDELING JOODSE MAN
Apologies after attack on Jew

AMSTERDAM - Burgemeester Job Cohen van Amsterdam heeft contact gezocht met rabbijn Raphael Evers naar aanleiding van de mishandeling van een 20-jarige joodse man in de hoofdstad.

Amsterdam - Mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen yesterday contacted rabbi Raphael Evers concerning the mistreatment of a twenty-year old Jewish male in the capitol city.

De burgemeester heeft zijn afkeuring uitgesproken over het incident, dat afgelopen zaterdag plaatshad. Dat liet het Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (Cidi) vrijdag weten.

The mayor voiced his condemnation of the incident, which occurred last Saturday. This per the Centre for Information and Documentation of Israel (Cidi).


Volgens het Cidi heeft de burgervader eveneens zijn onvrede geuit over het feit dat het slachtoffer niet direct terechtkon bij de politie om aangifte te doen. De man, herkenbaar als jood aan zijn keppel, liep ’s middags op het Olympiaplein toen twee jongens hem uitscholden voor ’kankerjood’.

According to the Cidi the mayor also expressed his dissatisfaction that the victim could not register his complaint with the police immediately. The man, recognizable as a Jew from his kippah, was walking on the Olympia Square during the aftenoon when two boys called him a 'cancerous Jew'.

Hij vroeg wat hun probleem was en liep daarna door. De twee kwamen hem echter achterna.
Een andere jongen sloot zich bij hen aan, waarna ze de man te lijf gingen. Ook nadat hij op de grond was gevallen, bleven ze op hem intrappen.

He asked what their problem was, and then kept walking. The two then pursued him. Another boy joined them, whereupon they physically assaulted the man. After he had fallen to the ground they continued kicking him.

Het slachtoffer wilde diezelfde avond aangifte doen op het politiebureau, maar kreeg te horen dat hij een paar dagen later moest terugkomen. De politie liet in een reactie weten dat alle agenten van het desbetreffende bureau die avond bezig waren met een speciale actie tegen overvallers. De korpsleiding vond echter dat de aangifte toch meteen had moeten worden opgenomen. De politie heeft haar excuses aangeboden voor het feit dat dit niet is gebeurd.

The victim tried to register a complaint that evening with the police, but was told to come back in a few days. The police later stated that all officers at the police station in question had been engaged in a special action against attackers. Corps leadership has opined that nevertheless the complaint should have been taken immediately. The police have offered their apologies for this not having happened.

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


The reason proffered for not allowing the victim to make his complaint that same day sounds suspect. Not only because of the suspicion of anti-Semitism (the advice given by Dutch authorities in such cases is to stop wearing a kippah, or, if you are Muslim, to cringe and learn better Dutch), but also because the Dutch police standardly regard assaults and street-crime as bad for their official statistics.
Amsterdam officials in particular do not wish their city to be known as the crime-capitol of the country; that is Rotterdam's assigned position. Taking official notice of such an assault will therefore be done only if absolutely necessary.
American visitors should be aware that the Dutch police in general are not enthusiastic about pursuing cases of assault and robbery, even less so concerning anything as unimportant as casual street-bigotry.


Some of the reader-comments underneath the article are particularly interesting......


"Tis natuurlijk belachelijk dit geweld. Maar die mensen die nu huilen, waar zijn die als de joden/israel een volk onderdrukt en burgers doodmaakt en in gevangenissen stopt. Dan hoor je ze niet."

Of course such violence is ridiculous. But those who are now crying, where are they when the Jews/Israel repress a people, killing and jailing civilians. You won't hear them then.

[This reflects an idea current among many Dutch, namely that it is far less reprehensible when members of certain groups are maltreated, after all, 'that' group somehow deserves it. The groups that certainly 'deserve' it are Jews, Americans, Moroccans, Turks, richly pigmented refugees, and gypsies. Entirely aside from which, the concept that the individual is responsible for crimes alleged to his group is fundamental to much of the discourse about Israel - it's called anti-Semitism in English. Many Dutch do not consider it anti-Semitic in the slightest, however.]


"Kom op zeg er worden dagelijks mensen mishandeld en omdat het nu om een jood gaat is in eens bijzonder."

Oh come on, people are abused every day, and now that it's a Jew all of a sudden it's special.

[What this commenter is suggesting is that Jews get preferential treatment over everybody else, and that Jews should not complain when they get beaten up.]


"Cohen moet zich de ogen uit zijn kop schamen dat hij Rabbijn Evers (een ultra- orthodox Jood) benaderd heeft. Evers is voostander van de liquidatiepolitiek van de Joodse terreurstaat waarbij honderden onschuldige burgers gedood worden. Het is onbegrijpelijk dat Cohen een dergelijk bedorven persoon benadert."

Cohen should be deeply ashamed of himself, that he approached Rabbi Evers (an ultra-orthodox Jew). Evers is a proponent of the liquidation-policy of the Jewish terrorist state, which kills hundreds of innocent civilians. It is incomprehensible that Cohen should approach a person so thoroughly rotten.


Well, that last comment says it all. It is precisely because of the anti-Semitic sentiments in places like the Netherlands that Israel must exist.

Not that all Dutch ascribe to such poisoned viewpoints, far from it. But it is NOT the majority one need worry about. Usually.
The violence and bigotry come from a relatively small proportion of the population; it is the majority who passively allow it to happen, and who choose to overlook it.

The victim of the assault was walking, in broad daylight, in a public place in a nice part of town (near the Bilderberg Garden Hotel, not far from the Dusselhof Garden, about ten minutes or so away from the Stedelijk Museum and the Van Gogh Museum, less than five minutes away from the Vondelpark).
It is extremely likely that there were witnesses. But they did not intervene.

The man was a Jew. And boys will be boys.

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

Tussen haakjes, beste Nederlandsche lezers, ulieden denken mogelijk dat ik hiermede Nederland onheus afdoe als zijnde een verrotte kankerland. U bent waarschijnlijk overtuigd dat het allemaal zo'n vaart niet loopt, en die man hoefde perslot van rekening echt niet zo uitdagend rond te lopen met een keppel.
Tja. Dat klopt.
Men hoeft in Nederland niet rond te lopen.

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

FURRY FABULOUS FREAKS

Pursuant two items mentioned in Friday's posting: ONE, I do NOT have a hairy posterior. Any mention of the hirsuteness of my tuches was purely the invention of my significant other, by whose standards all white people are overly endowed with fur, fuz, pelt, hairy bits, and navel-lint. Chinese people are not so fortunate, and consequently I believe she resents my rather modest topographic behairedness.

Repeat, not hairy - except in her beady little eyes, at seven-thirty in the morning, when she is full of sugar and in a feisty mood. I feel I must stress this, because I have heard that the young daughter of a friend let out a stream of ew! ew! ew! and several icks upon reading Friday's post over her mother's shoulder. Which was almost immediately followed by the question "does he really have a hairy ....?", and the snapped response thereto "how the heck should I know? Why don't you ask him yourself!".

Again, no dense moss on the keel. Despite evil rumours to the contrary.


And item number TWO: Attended the Folsom Street Fair yesterday. As previously mentioned, it was in an informative and educational capacity.

Never have so many naked men been so glad to see me. One would scarce have thought it possible that a fully clothed person smoking a pipe and wearing a kippah would be so welcomed.
[I do not often wear a kippah in public, but if everyone else is wearing tribal colours (or by their lack of clothing advertising affiliations), then it makes sense that I too should "express my individuality by dressing like my companions". And note that many attendees did just that by being undressed exactly alike.]

First one up was a Jewish gentleman from Fresno, with whom my colleague and I had a nice long chat about Israel and pro-Israel activism. This is when I realized that it would be best for me to stand the entire time, so as to be able to have a face to face conversation. My colleague, however, had to remain seated most of the day due to a physical infirmity, poor man. He coped with that situation by frequent reference to a bottle of single-malt.

My associate has informed me that he wishes to forget for the rest of his life that this day ever happened, and I shall be sure to remind him in detail of the day when he is sober again.

The pamphlets about the legal position of gays in Israel, and the freedoms accorded them, as well as their serving in the IDF, were extremely popular. Even to people who were fully clothed.
The happy pro-Israel prophylactics (slogan: "Israel - It's still safe to come") proved a smash hit ("they're like fortune cookies - you never know what you'll find inside").

Several people took them with the excuse "I'm getting these for my friend; he's Jewish". Many of the people who said this were girls. One of whom gave a disciplined nod to modesty by wearing nipple-clamps with chains that kept her err, ums from doing anything untoward.
I do not know what she was wearing below the navel, as I maintained eye-contact.
Oddly, I cannot remember what her face looked like at all.

A cluster of dear sweet goth dominatrix lolita-types grabbed handfuls to stock the bathroom at work. I forgot to ask them where they work.

By physical evidence alone, the majority of men attending the fair may have been Jewish. Even the little Asian gentleman with no place to put the free literature or the condoms.

Many people wore black. I doubt that they were chossids, but it made some of us feel right at home.

Some people combined fetishes - clamped and studded vampire pirate catgirl with fairy wings and a strap-on furry tail, or a fat man wearing leather gag hog mask, handcuffs, and a pink ballerina skirt.
Also some people dressed like European or Japanese tourists in the wrong part of town - now that's a twisted fetish I don't even want to know about, those people are just sick, along with the men wearing diapers.

After eleven hours of the fair, I know more about studs, clamps, rings, straps, collars, corsets, chains, leashes, lashes, tattoos, eye-liner, and tight leather negligee than is really healthy. On the other hand, several of the attendees now know more about Israel and the middle-east than they ever knew before, and several remarkably well-endowed Jews know that there is a group out there that fights back against the anti-Semitism with which the Bay Area is sodden. As do several sympathetic quite unJewish gentlemen.
[Including one wearing fetching yellow knee-pads and nothing else. ]


So yes, it was a productive and worthwhile day. I'm glad we did it. We must have talked to hundreds of very positive people, and given away well over a thousand pro-Israel condoms.
Put them to good use, ladies and gentlemen, and make someone happy. Use them in the best of health. Or pass them on to a friend. Feel the love.