PRO-ISRAEL WITH FLAGS AND CIGARS

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

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


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


Plus several hairy tofu from Berkeley.


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


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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

WE ARE JEWS AND NON-JEWS...

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


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


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



THE BERKELEY DAILY PLANET

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


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

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


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


Specifically, the urge to BLAME THE JEWS for everything.


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

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

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



PETITION

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

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


WE ARE JEWS AND NON-JEWS…

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

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

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

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

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



Go ahead - sign the petition.

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



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

VIOLENT ANTI-SEMITES RALLY FOR PEACE

Peace rally in San Francisco's civic center turns into angry confrontation. Activists scream hatred at Jews. Angry Lakota Sioux radical spouts racist rant, finishes by bad drumming and unintelligible chanting. Dick Becker has a fit. Speaker at microphone calls the police mothe***88ers and accuses them of wanting to kill people. Arab bites cop. Palestinians attack Jews in metro.
Saturday March 21st, one PM to about three PM.



DEMONSTRATING FOR PEACE... AND THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL!

There had been nearly two thousand people at Justin Herman Plaza earlier, but by the time the marchers reached Civic Center there were only seven hundred of them left - over half of them angry Arab teenagers, anxious to prove to their kinfolk overseas that they had NOT gone native in the US, but in fact despised the country where they lived, and were against everything American. Especially the despicable liberties that allowed other people to express opposing points of view.
Such as the seventy of us who had gathered on Polk Street in front of SF City Hall to counterdemonstrate the anti-Israel message of International ANSWER and their co-conspirators.


CONFRONTATION

As soon as the crowd reached Civic Center, about two hundred Keffiyeh-wearing young persons headed towards us intent on mayhem, but the presence of the police forced them instead to scream insults and threats, at one point starting a lively chant of "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Filistin" ('with our soul, with our blood, we will redeem you oh Palestine'), which follows the traditional formula for swearing a bloody cleansing in service of some Islamic cause or other. And as usual, their non-Arab sympathisers stood there smiling their approval.
Having learned that hate-slogans in Arabic are bad public relations, the organizers of the event stilled the chant, and got them instead to scream something more acceptable, which was the promise to ethnically cleanse the area between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea.
The police eventually gently persuaded all of them to return to the proper side of the street for uttering death threats, that being the area designated by the permit for the peace rally.

As only one of them had a megaphone, this tempered the noise considerably. Shaking fists and giving the one-fingered salute is, on the whole, a rather impotent display.


PALESTINIAN YOUTHS

Not that one should consider the San Francisco Palestinian youth impotent. In fact, that might very well be the problem - there is probably massive sexual frustration in their ranks. It really is hard to get laid when you despise people outside your own community, violently disapprove of relations before marriage, and treat the weaker sex like dirt.
Despite the dimwitted blondes who are attracted by Arab machismo, and the revolutionaries who are willing to do anything, anything! to prove their devotion to the cause, well, when you don't have a place of your own AND all of your praeconceptions are going full-tilt, humping just isn't a solution.

Of course, if you are female, the likely prospect of sexual brutalization by a cousin isn't very appealing either.


A TWELVE-YEAR OLD WITH A ROCK

True to cultural trope, at least one of the Palestinian-Americans wished to throw rocks. Unfortunately he did so at the SFPD, who were not amused by this charming display of traditional self-expression and wished to arrest him. The crowd then waxed belligerent at the SFPD's insensitivity, chanting and screaming at the police - several of them needed to be restrained.
I believe the police eventually decided not to arrest the twelve-year old, who was blubbering like an infant by then. Instead they chose some of the more violently inclined older individuals who attacked them.

One of whom, we now know, has teeth.

Attacking the police is not a wise thing to do - neither is calling them motherf****s, as one of the ANSWER speakers on the podium did - his words were clear, distinct, and amplified. He was urging people to stay away from 'tha po-lees, do not provoke tha po-lees, don't get tha po-lees angry, man, you can't win against tha po-lees, they be jest wanting to put you six feet under, man, tha po-lees'.

The twelve year old who was nearly arrested is the son of a Palestinian-American family that runs a liquor store. I shall not say anything negative about them, as Palestinian store owners are hardworking people making an honest living in some interesting parts of town. Once you get to know them, you discover that they are very genuine people, with big hearts, who care about the community in which they live.

Some of their children, on the other hand.... Well, many of the kids are typical urban American teenagers. Meaning that they have horrible taste in music, chips on their shoulders, attitude problems, and are desperate for someone to hate.
Oh, and frustrated. Very, very frustrated. That doesn't help.


POLICE PROVOKE CONFRONTATION BY REMAINING CALM AND ACTING IN A MATURE FASHION

That was the strident message of one of International Answer's speakers. While the pro-Palestinians were screaming insults at the police on the southwest corner of the plaza, this speaker was demanding loudly into the microphone that the police leave civic center, insisting that their being there was enough to cause trouble, the mere presence of police was a disruptive influence on the peaceful natures of the peace demonstrators, who had no choice but to bay for the blood of the officers.

Actually, the seventy of us who were there standing for Israel's right to exist were the disruptive influence - if the police were not there, they would've bayed for our blood. As they had repeatedly clarified.
And most of the time, they did in fact bay for our blood.

It was rather dreary, and very unimaginative. Though very much appreciated by the union members and older radicals from Berkeley who attended (heck, those delicious youth could've danced the rumba and the Berkeleyites would've been appreciative).



VIOLENCE IN THE UNDERGROUND

Some of the Palestinian youth were so frustrated by the police maintaining order that they gave vent to their fury in the Civic Center Bart Station. From all accounts, they ganged up on a group of four people who had left the protest in disgust. What might have turned into bloodshed was prevented by the judicious application of pepper spray and the arrival of the police, who arrested the most criminally inclined of the mob.
Quick action by the SFPD prevented assault and battery from becoming a visit to the emergency room.


ATTENDANCE

Altogether, about a dozen violent peace activists ended the day in handcuffs. The police acted with remarkable restraint, and succeeded in maintaining order despite the provocative behaviour displayed by a violence-prone mob.

This did not please the organizers of the peace protest. Several of their speakers foamed incomprehensibly into the microphone, upset at this peaceful turn of events.
I'm still not sure what the Lakota drumming and chanting was for (that speaker had called the Arabs, Chicanos, and Philippinos his bruthas, and angrily damned all white people without reservation), and the hysterical Arab hatemongstress had bored even her own side, who preferred to stand facing the Israel supporters, screaming about Jew-Nazi-Kikes and promising to kill our families.

Standing proudly alongside the Israel-haters were the American Postal Workers Union, the Communications Workers of America, Code Pink, Black Block and other anarchists, various individual members of Bay Area Women in Black, Students for Justice in Palestine, JVP, and several other groups who do not object to anti-Semitic rhetoric for peace, as well as numerous adherents of conspiracy theories about nine-eleven. Conspiracy theories, by the way, proved incredibly popular - second only to the cheerleading for Jew-death at the front of the crowd.


RICHARD BECKER

It must have been immensely frustrating for Dick Becker of International ANSWER that only several hundred people stayed with the rally all the way to Civic Center. His speech to the crowd (completely ignored by the Arab Jugend trying to provoke the police) asserted that San Francisco Voice for Israel was a racist group that existed only to harass him.

Sorry, Richard, that just isn't so. You are actually irrelevant. We know that you do not wish the annihilation of Israel, and the Arab youth also know that. It wouldn't make you happy at all.
You probably prefer that anti-Semitism survive at the present near-boil, so that you may surround yourself with all those delicious young Levantines, eh?
Mmmm, zesty!

Richard, are you upset at the low turn-out? Was it disappointing? Do you feel, somehow, inadequate? You should, you really should!
It really is you - you're too old, Richard.
Karmicly you are losing hair, and your aura is nearly invisible.
Again, for us in SF Voice for Israel, it ain't about you. Don't flatter yourself.
You're an egomaniac, but most people will never even know who the heck you are. You are totally unimportant.

Several of the other elderly white people from Berkeley who were at the rally were also there for the frisson provided by angry radical teenagers. But unlike the teenagers and mister Becker, they probably weren't nearly so frustrated, having developed coping mechanisms for their various urges long ago.
Still, angry young people can be so exciting!


SAD BORING END

Sometime after three o'clock the peace demonstration petered out, the crowd's enthusiasm for bloodshed having waned. The weather and the calm behaviour by the police had made clear to even the most delusional people that no Jews were going to die that day, though as the events at the BART Station subsequently proved, several stupid teenagers would end up in jail because of their violent tendencies.

This was the smallest International ANSWER peace demonstration in years. It is unlikely that Richard Becker will be able to pull together another event in March of next year. I just hope he manages to keep some of his young acolytes......
It is so sad when a manly man's vigour fades.

I WILL KILL YOU

Anti-Israel demonstration in front of the consulate in San Francisco on Montgomery Street between Sacramento and California, at 4 PM, Monday March 16th.

As usual we were outnumbered. Less than thirty of us on the pro-Israel side, around three hundred on the anti-Israel side.
I may be severely overestimating our numbers and under-counting theirs.
In which case, let me apologize - I do not mean to misrepresent the facts. Sorry.

I also wish to apologize to the gentleman who asserted that he would kill me, f*&cking kill me - yes, mister, you are ugly and stupid, and probably have body-odour issues, but none of that is your fault! I shouldn't have called you a moron. The truth hurts, and sometimes it is best to diplomatically gloss over it.
That you screamed "I will f*&cking kill you" in my face was likely in lieu of more standard small talk, and I shouldn't have reacted as I did.
Your problems are not your responsibility. Maybe nature, maybe nurture, I shan't speculate. Sorry.



TERRY THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MATH TUTOR

But I'm NOT sorry for calling Terry any of those things. He IS a moron, and he does smell a wee bit (well, he does!). He was being his own blisteringly irritating self last night - did you know I'm a Nazi child-killer? Until he pointed it out in several repetitive ways, I had been unaware of it.
He is a bore. Is there any medication for that?



TRISTAN 'CRICKET' ANDERSON

Yesterday evening's anti-Israel gangbang was in honour of Oakland activist Tristan Anderson of the ISM (International Solidarity Movement), who caught a tear-gas canister with his face last Friday while participating in a rock-throwing demonstration in a closed military zone on the Israeli border.

Unlike the SFPD, who are trained to deal with rowdy and unbalanced individuals, the IDF is tasked strictly with security - and the border is, shall we say, under contention, as well as subject to frequent assault.
Showing International Solidarity with angry Arabs by rioting in that area is not entirely safe, nor advisable.

[Quite different than Rotterdam, London, Oslo, Stockholm, or even Berkeley, where showing solidarity with angry Arabs by acts of violence and vandalism is politically sanctioned and socially approved.]


I shall not fault Mr. Anderson for sincerity. He and his girlfriend, like so many Oaklanders and Berkeleyites, may indeed sincerely believe the Jewish State to be the incarnation of all evil as prophesied by the book of revelations (or in Das Kapital), and sincerely wish Jews to be expelled from the Middle-East in a great and glorious uprising of the proletariat, with just oodles of blood and dancing and mass-action - maybe a variation on these themes which is less crimson, or a Peace-Love-Green-Tofu version of it that denies that there are ANY violent tendencies on the side which they support - but their sincerity, despite all that, need not be questioned. They probably thought that they were doing the right thing.

[Like many of the good people of the Bay Area, when they're at home they no doubt spend much of their money on feeding and clothing the homeless, and comforting the poor.]


Tristan (Cricket) Anderson is currently in the intensive care unite of Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv. His girl-friend of less than a year, Gabrielle Silverman, is by his side, and his family have flown to Israel to be there for him.

[Gabrielle Silverman is in Israel on a Birthright-Israel trip - not a few activists make happy use of this opportunity.]



ATTENDEES

Unlike most of the anti-Israel celebrations in the Bay Area, this time there was a more interesting and diverse bunch on the other side. Not just the usual hate-filled psychotics, but a wide spectrum of people, including some sincerely (and, arguably, misinformed, maleducated, misguided) peace-at-all-cost-niks.
A number of members of JVP and BAWIB were also sincerely present, showing solidarity with the Palestinian cause. And as there were no chants of 'death to the Jews', it was entirely within their comfort zone.
Often such people are the passive enablers of the rabid element - and I note that Kate Bender Raphael was on the news last night presuming to speak for all of them.

There were also about fifty anarchists in the crowd. Their fury was not so much against Israel and the Jews, as against all authority figures, building security, police, principals, and truant officers. Once the herd thinned out a bit, they intended to smash some things, and overturn some other things, while yelling juvenile taunts at adults wearing uniforms.

After an hour and a half of sincere rhetoric, the poetry of outrage, and revolutionary rap, the crowd decided to go to Market Street to stop traffic and bang on buckets. So they headed down Montgomery, their motley presenting a colourful and utterly San Francisco spectacle. That's when the gentleman I mentioned previously offered to cause my demise. He interrupted his participation in the 'march' to make sure I got the message.

Thank you. Your sincerity is noted.



DISPERSING WITH FLAGS

I passed a burning trashcan on the way back to the office. An hour later when I headed into Chinatown, there were still many police cars parked near consulate - these were awaiting the fracas that ensued when the other side returned. According to the news there were five arrests, one of which was for assaulting a police officer. At one point, the police needed to act quite forcefully to prevent vandalism and violence.

The other side, of course, is screaming about Police Brutality and the Jack-Booted Gestapo of the Democratic Party Capitalists.
Sometimes their rhetoric gives me an uncontrollable fit of the giggles.

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.

PRO-ISRAEL VOICES IN SAN FRANCISCO

All the usual people were on the streets of San Francisco yesterday during the demonstration against Israel. But really, no more than the usual people. Hate-filled bigots, ideological wankers, opportunistic trouble-makers, garden-variety anti-Semites, and misguided hippies. Hi guys!
Gee, that's ALL you could manage?



HATRED'S CHEERLEADERS

International ANSWER, organizers of anti-Semitic events in the Bay Area, must be getting desperate. Their hardcore was there, and their safety monitors this time nearly outnumbered the Arab jugend. But it was probably one of their most pathetic demonstrations yet.
They only managed about twelve hundred people.

It will be remembered that at the start of the Iraq war over a quarter of a million people took to the streets of San Francisco.
At demonstrations a few years ago, International ANSWER pulled together three or four thousand happy anti-Semites.
Last year during the fifth-anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, with three months of organization meetings and tactical planning, ANSWER and their willing dunces managed to have a few dozen people block some intersections for an hour here and there. Most of the direct action trolls were in custody by nine am.
And yesterday?
After an entire week of intensive organizing, e-mails, textmails, pamphletting, and sign-ups?
Twelve hundred. Not even.



PRO-ISRAEL DEMONSTRATORS

The sane and rational side managed a more impressive showing than I actually expected. Altogether, there were well over four hundred of us on the pro-Israel side. Families, young couples, elderly Russians, fresh-faced youths. Our side represented a significantly broader cross-spectrum than our opponents.



THUGGISM AND IGNORANCE

The SF Chronicle called the anti-Israel event a peaceful protest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BAK6157880.DTL

Which, despite the attack on an elderly woman, the occasional roughing up of passing Jews, and the strong-arm theft of some Israeli flags by Arab bullies, I guess it mostly was.
[Note: some of the stolen flags were subsequently set on fire by masked young gentlemen to the general joy of other participants.]

The Anarchists had promised to come and commit vandalism. But their internet presence is more impressive than their actual number in the real world. That old style violent Berkeleyite goonery has fewer adherents with each passing year. Not a single one of them showed up.

Much of the violence was verbal or textual.

One or two deranged people came over to scream incoherently before being escorted back to their side by the police. There were several Jew-hating chants from the line of face-covered Keffiyeh youth, and many of the handmade signs equated Zionism with Nazism. One totally baffling sign opined that Zionism was Anti-Semitism. An unusual sign stated that Gaza in 2008 was the same as the Warsaw Ghetto in 1938.
1938?
1938?!?
1938!?!?!

Okay then, 1938.
Have it your way.

INTERNATIONAL ANSWER AND YOUR BASER INSTINCTS

After Wednesday night's disgraceful performance in Oakland, where, with ANSWER's organized encouragement, a demonstration over the shooting of an un-armed handcuffed and subdued young man by BART police, turned into a violent melee in which ANSWER signs were used to destroy windows and damage parked vehicles (and oddly, some of the video shows one or two vandals wearing keffiyehs), ANSWER might worry that future protest-permits are iffy. There was somewhat less bloodthirsty chanting than at previous demos.
I only heard a few of the usual Arabic slogans, which were not as loud nor as sustained, as at previous hate-fests organized by ANSWER.
Perhaps they've learned that screaming "massacre the Jews" in Arabic is not as opaque as they presumed.

Still, some of the Arab jugend did act predictably. Their parents must be so ashamed at their children's lack of manners and morals.
Or not.
Maybe apathetic.


The most entertaining part of International ANSWER's buffoonery, however, were the speeches. These ran the gamut from an Arab woman having unintelligible hysterics on cue into a microphone, through an IRA terrorist drawing ridiculous comparisons, to some accented British revolutionary speaking fondly of the day when Hebrew-speaking labouring classes and the proletariat of the Arab world would create a workers-paradise in which everybody could manifest their full potential in a spirit of brotherly love and co-operation, heroically overcoming Capitalism, Religion, and Fascism.

It was a hoot.

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

IN OTHER NEWS

FRIDAY
01/09/09
On Friday, two middle-aged female Zionists managed to discourage about twenty five Israel-haters in Alameda holding a pro-Hamas vigil. Mere moments after the two ladies with their Israeli flags showed up, the pro-Hamas side skedaddled while customers of a restaurant and a bar nearby came out to thank the pro-Israel side for showing up.

SATURDAY
01/10/09
Early Saturday evening, homosexual anti-Israel demonstrators held a noisy event in the Castro district, to the general disapproval of most of the people on the street. They were counter-protested by several local activists, and a swelling number of passers-by.
Most gay San Franciscans are keenly aware that only one state in the Mid-East offers gays full rights and protection. So when the Israel-haters started throwing shoes, in imitation of their ideological cohorts in parts of the extremist world, enthusiastic volunteers gathered up the flung footwear for deposit in nearby garbage cans. This proved discomfiting to the pro-terror side, as the throwers were left barefoot in consequence.
Note: Sidewalk cement is particularly frigid and uncomfortable at this time of year.

SUNDAY
01/11/09
Today, starting at 2:00 PM, pro-Israel demonstrators gathered in front of the consulate on Montgomery street, numbering nearly two hundred people at one point. Many carried Israel and American flags, others had signs advocating peace and a cessation of Hamas terrorism. People driving by waved, and many honked in support. Very inspiring.

SABBATH OFF TO A ROCKY START

Links to a near-lynching in front of the Israeli Consulate on Montgomery Street.
Friday Jan. 2 at 5:15 PM, more or less.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMXH81ctj2o&eurl=http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208

Or here, with commentary, on Zombie's blog:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208


Five pro-Israel protestors.
Five hundred or more keffiyeh-wearing people.
One hundred to one.
I still think those are do-able odds.
Though I've never seen cops have hysterics before.



THE SCENE

The protests began at around noon at Powell and Market, wandered through the downtown fifteen hundred strong(*), then ended up in front of the consulate at four thirty. I could hear the crowd screaming
'ba rooh, ba dam, nafdeek ya falasteen' as they passed by on Montgomery Street.
[* Fifteen hundred is an educated guess, but it might have been as many as two thousand.]

The five of us headed over to the consulate shortly afterwards, with three Israeli flags and three signs.
[Our signs: 'STOP ROCKETS FROM GAZA', 'HAMAS MUST BE DESTROYED', and 'HAMAS HAD IT COMING']

Once they saw us, the Palestinian side started screaming threats and insults, and one of them jumped up and down on an Israeli flag while erecting his middle digit. Shoes were also waved.
[They can't spit very far. At least not without significant blow-back.]



FRACAS

Several young Palestinian gallants started hitting one of our group (a middle-aged woman), at which point one of us rushed over and tried to break some ribs. Then the cops dragged us off, and tried to herd us away from the points of contact. Someone on the Palestinian side threw a handful of small change, and in addition to the middle-digit salute some of them made the money-grubbing gesture. Shortly afterwards the yelling mob crashed over the barriers screaming threats, and the cops had a fit - several officers pushed us inside a nearby building, where we were made to stay for a while, after which they drove us to somewhere else in a small caravan of police vehicles.


Other counter-protestors?
Well, pro-Israel is rather spread out, not very well organized, and mostly fully employed.
Anti-Israel is distinctly urban, and either unemployable, local student, or running liquor stores in the seedier sections of Oakland and SF. At that point in time, most of the pro-Palestinian Jewish protestors and their Intellectually anti-Semitic Gentile friends (JVP, Women in Black, et al) were heading towards Market street to go home, leaving the rowdies entirely un-babysat. And seeing as the anti-Israel manifestation was a well-organized spontaneous demonstration, the five of us were the only counter-demonstrators to show up.


Cigars?
Had to chuck one, hardly smoked, when the cops hustled us into a lobby of a nearby office building and barricaded the door. Still wish they hadn't jammed us into the building quite so soon - I had barely lit up, and had to waste nearly an entire cigarillo.


Thoughts during this sequence of events:
"I can take out three, maybe four of five, before they get me."
"Probably won't feel any pain till I wake up dead."
"There's a few of them I can cripple, easily."

Thoughts afterwards:
"I wish someone would whack that bitch Anja Meulenbelt....., oh, and Harry van Bommel too."
"Nearly getting killed is very dehydrating....., time for tea."
"Good thing my uncle and aunt will never hear about this."
"Glock 17, nine millimeter. Or a Browning GP35."
"Next time hit higher and get 'em in the face."


Adrenaline is marvelous. It cleared out my sinus head-ache and my stuffy nose.
I have never felt so alive. Thanks guys.

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.

LAST NIGHT AT THE AIPAC DINNER

As was to be expected when AIPAC brings their traveling dog and pony show to San Francisco, both the pro-Israel and the anti-Israel camps showed up to demonstrate.

The displays of anger from both sides were impressive, the displays of sanity and rational behaviour far less so.


I had several conversations with members of the other side. Some were better than others.

Oddly, the good conversations were with people who identified themselves as Jewish, though they came in solidarity with the 'destroy-Israel' crowd.
A number of them voiced valid concerns.

My conversations with Arabs were far-less salutary - I listened to several of them working themselves into fits of rage, almost always culminating with 'destroy Israel', or similar sentiments. I doubt that any of them will ever acknowledge Israel's right to exist within secure borders, and a cessation of rockets, bombs, assaults. They are capable of homicidal fury, and several of them apparently do not believe we are human (which they expressed quite bluntly, with absolutely no possibility of doubt).
But a number of them did voice valid concerns.


There were chants conveying that Israel would be destroyed, wiped off the map, "liberated", expunged, punished, enslaved.
Not surprising.


Some of the slogans chanted by the other side reflected a depravity to which I had heretofore not been exposed - in particular, "Israel supporters watch your back, we will throw you down a shaft".


This refers to one of our core-members who was found dead last week at the bottom of an elevator shaft. I do not take the chant as an admission of guilt. But I do take it as a very clear expression of threat, demonstrating that there are indeed potential murderers (and undoubtedly some who have already realized that potential) among the Bay Area Arab population.

In consequence, I shall cease shopping at Arab stores, and only take cabs chauffeured by Sikhs. While I like many Arabs, I cannot trust them. There is far too much hatred and bigotry in their ranks.
[Bear in mind, I have also heard unsanitary remarks about black people from Arabs - to quote an Arab food seller in SF recently: "You really think they'll let that nigger be president? Back in Gaza we say if you buy a slave, first buy the whip. Bush already has the whip".
What that same individual said about Chinese people several years ago was just as appalling. And his friends all agreed with him at that time. Such people are no credit to their kind.]


I am both baffled and outraged that Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, and others of the attending collaborationists did not protest at the quoted chant, nor disagree with the hateful anti-Semitism in that as well as other chants. Their "resolute" presence supported those messages of hate. What part of murderous inclinations do they not get?


And, speaking of people who are not a credit to their kind, I will freely admit that a number of our people should have been shot with tranquilizer darts.
I shall have to suggest an 'International Zionist Conspiracy' budget allocation to that end. We might also want to invest in some straightjackets, for those of our supporters who just cannot grasp what we are trying to do, or why.


Kudos to the SFPD for putting up with some very odd behaviour last night.
I promise you guys there will be more of the same at some point.

PROTESTING AND COUNTER-PROTESTING AT ISRAEL IN THE GARDENS 2008

Israel in the Gardens: A celebration of all things Israeli and Jewish held every year in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens - sounds innocuous, no? Some people think otherwise.

SUNDAY, JUNE 1st

Attempting to pish on everyone else this year were Bay Area Women in Black, JVP, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), AlAwda, and a multitude of committed supporters of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, as well as an entire slew of Stalinists, crypto-Stalinists, neo-Stalinists, meta-Stalinists, anarcho-Stalinists, vegan femmo-Stalinists, wicca-Stalinists........

[Jim Harris was also there. He's too inchoate to qualify as any of the above, he's probably just lonesome. Hi Jim.]


ABOUT BAWIB

Bay Area Women in Black includes all variations of the above. Self-hate does marvelous things to people. BAWIB members always apologetically identify themselves as Jews, although not all of BAWIB are in fact Jewish women - several are Presbyterian or Episcopalian.

[While I can thoroughly understand and sympathize with their Presbyterian and Episcopalian self-hatred, I am confused by them making Jews the target thereof. Jews are what's wrong with Anglo-Protestantism??!?]


PAUL LARUDEE

Larudee (of ISM) was also there - he is not a woman, despite his haberdashery saying that there are unresolved issues.

Paul Larudee, a fervently anti-Israel conspirator, is a sixty-one year old gentleman from Northern California whose sole field of expertise lies in piano tuning, and whose knowledge of middle-eastern matters originates with friends in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Hamas (which he defends as a peaceful, mainstream democratic movement).

[As an example thereof, note this article:
http://www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/news_item.2006-01-16.8453650708 . And please also observe that Tikkun Magazine, from whence it comes, is not precisely a friend.]

Hi Paul, nice to see you again. Why are you wearing that thing on your head?



PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Given the many unique individuals on the other side, a cultural anthropologist could have had just as much fun as a psychiatric researcher. As Zombietime's photo reportage illustrates:
http://www.zombietime.com/israel_in_the_gardens_2008/

[It also shows the positive side of the day. Entirely unlike the BAWIB report, here:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/06/01/18503762.php - worth scoping out too, if only to understand what a poisonously self-righteous coven flies under the cloak of Women in Black.]

For video of the protests and counter protests, please visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bluetruth36



A WONDERFUL CELEBRATION

On the bright side, the self-important ladies and lady wanna-bees of No Time To Celebrate (usually including Sarah Kershnar, Kinneret Israel, Perry Bellow-Handelman, Libbey Goldberg, Ms. Eric Romann, Mr./Ms./M?. Jaron Browne, et altres) didn't find a single opportunity to disrupt events inside, so instead they peaceably enjoyed some fine falafel and hummus in the food-court.

[No Time to Celebrate, also known as Na-Na-Nakba:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/notimetocelebrate/ ]


Over twenty thousand normal attendees enjoyed a sunny day in a beautiful location, great music, the company of friends, plus a multitude of booths with interesting organizations and free literature. No matter the distant tumult of the Keffiyeh-wearing cryptos outside - the day was barely marred by protests.

[Note: The keffiyeh, also known as a shemag or ghutra, is the checkered tea-cloth worn on the head to guard against the sun. Traditionally it is held in place with an 'iqal (heavy braided rope band), but stylish radikaler-jugend prefer to wear it around the neck, a la Rachel Ray. Black checks are associated with Palestinian Terrorism and Al Qaeda, red checks with Jordanian Bedouin and Saudis, though some kopstukken of AlQaeda wear either. Paul Larudee, mentioned above, favours red checks.]


THE SF POLICE

I am still furious that the police broke their stated agreement and allowed women in black and other provocateurs to walk on our side of the street to harass attendees, and did not keep the other side from yanking an Israeli flag out of the hands of one of us (officer Thompson, badge 4223, a particular pissant in that regard), then tried to prevent 'reconquest' of said flag.

The first police on site had been very reasonable.

About an hour into the protests, new police arrivals replaced most of the decent cops, and these officers were far less tolerant - although they seemed to have no animosity whatsoever towards the other side. I got the distinct impression that they felt that confronting da jooz was a jolly good thing.
Captain Balmy, who I believe arrived later, was clearly on the side of the anti-Zionists.

I suspect that there are members of the police who have been told to take sides against us, or that it is okay to do so if they wish. Supervisors Daly and Ammiano are NOT on our side - Ammiano is dangerous in that regard. It may be very good for someone's career in SF to be on unofficial record as "not in the pocket of the Jews".

Unlike last year, there is no strong indication of collusion between the anti-Israel activists and certain police officers this time.


CHILDREN HOLDING FLAGS

Many kids and adolescents were willing to hold an Israeli or American flag, even enthusiastic about doing so, and maintained their vigorous presence on the protest line for several hours, with the support of their parents, most of whom proudly took photos.
At one point a number of teenagers headed across the street en-masse to march flags and signs past sour-looking Jihadophiles - the police had no clue how to handle this incident.

["Do we arrest them? Do we club them fiercely? Tear-gas them? Do we really, really want to piss-off twenty thousand Jews?"]


EN FIN

Our booth inside the garden was busy till the very end, with our volunteers answering questions, handing out literature, signing people on to our mailing-list. We explained our positions, and got lots of good feedback from hundreds of people. So, despite being tense, angry, and having a screaming headache afterwards, I am pleased with how the day went.

SABBATH AMONG THE SAVAGES

This past Saturday the Nakba crowd had a hip-hop music party down at Civic Center. A little friendly hate-fest to introduce that segment of the population that listens to rap to the concept of reviling the Jews.

At least, that is what they intended when they first came up with the idea several weeks ago.

Instead they had to opt for a 'family event' - more because they couldn't get the headliners they wanted and were afraid that too few people would attend than that they disagreed with their own message (destroy Israel and drive the Jews into the sea). So desperate were they for attendees that instead of appealing to disaffected urban teenagers they begged middle-aged householders to bring the weib and kinder.

By all standards, the event was a failure. A few hundred local Palestinians, a handfull of the 'already-converted', and their friends, relatives, fetishists - not a success. Not the mass-happening of righteous indignation and au-courant musical taste they were hoping for. Not a mob-scene of angry urban angst and fervor.
More of a "what-ever" than a "wow, dude!"

[That can't have pleased the pro-Palestinian 'gender-ambiguating' Jews who helped organize it - Perry Bellow-Handelman, Libby Goldberg, Kinneret Israel, Sarah Kershnar, et al - they were probably hoping for a young angry crowd that could be moved to riot righteously and revolutionarily. "Onward the proletariat, comrades. Loot a FootLocker. Break a window. Show the pigs, yeah." Alas. Sorry that you couldn't squeal and wet your panties this time, gals.]


No matter their change of audience, we still disagreed with their message. So we showed up to counter-demonstrate. Yes, I know that's 'carrying on shabbes'. Think of it as part of a milchemes mitzva.

[The 'we' in this case being San Francisco voice for Israel. http://www.sfvoiceforisrael.org/ ]


I can't say I found the music entirely to my taste. The lyrics left a lot to be desired - particularly the song in which every other word seemed to be "da-joo" (or "da-jooz"). Most of the time actual words were unintelligible, no matter which 'artist' was representin'. A big fan of hip-hop I'm not.
Bring on the accordions.

Just after we arranged ourselves on the library corner, a few angry Nakba-Jews came over to carefully photograph all of us individually (probably for the wanted posters - smile at the mangy heffalump, chaveir).
A pro-Palestinian female with pearcings and tattoos who loudly insisted that she was Jewish, and her ill-looking companion, got into a long bitch-fight with a lone policeman, who insisted that they go back across the street.
A revolutionary black woman screamed a string of filthy terms at us.
A giddy Arab kept dancing out into the intersection waving a Palestinian flag and looking for a fight - the same policeman kept firmly directing him back to his side. Some little boys had fun waving bloody fist resistance banners. And periodically people passing by would demonstrate vocally that San Francisco is indeed ground-zero of anti-Semitism and lunacy west of the Rockies.

Or leastways, ground-zero of the under-medicated.

We have stellar nutballs in this town. I wonder whom they intended to convert by yelling obscenities and threats. Certainly not us. Perhaps the grim folks on the other side. Maybe the Palestinians will give them a sandwich if they but demonstrate their deep-seated grasp of revolutionary terminology.

And possibly remember them favourably when they hang out in front of the liquor store.


On the other hand, I did have a few pleasant exchanges with Arabs heading past. One in particular with any entire family about keffiyot, red fabric dye versus shocking pink underwear, and made-in-China versus local manufacture. Of course they disagreed with our message - but they were very pleasant people. Precisely the kind of people whom you wouldn't mind having as neighbors.


If it weren't for the fact that it left me tense and drained, it would've been a very nice Saturday indeed. Hate-fests in Civic Center could well become the ultimate San Francisco experience. You haven't really visited San Francisco until you've been drenched with angry rhetoric.

PLANTS ARE THE HIGHEST FORM OF LIFE!

Which, of course, is why the pro-Palestinian Woman In Black in this youtube video does not eat them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_ZoVFVwuRc

....Animals have mothers, plants do not have mothers. Plants are the highest form of life, eat animals but not plants. And tofu is racist .....


That seems to be her position as regards food - her position regarding Israel and the Palestinians is equally kopverdekont gedraaid.

Veat also gets mentioned - it's a chicken alternative for vegetarians. I keep neither kashrus nor vegetariyus....... but maybe I'll try it. Perhaps while affectionately petting my rhubarb or a bushel of legumes.
Or gluten. Gluten is also of vegetable origin, and probably very furry and affectionate.

This was one of the more interesting conversations with a pro-Palestinian we've had. Which is why I spent nearly an entire hour smiling.

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

Take a moment to check out some of the other youtube videos from bluetruth36. Especially Dick Becker of International ANSWER advocating fighter jets for Hamas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NHpfxxQzkc). It's a classic.

ZIONIST CHOP SQUAD

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

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



How did it go?

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


SPEECHY-WEECHY

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


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


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

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


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



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

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

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

Our chants were mostly not.

And we need to police ourselves a bit.

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


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

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

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

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

Direct Action starts at 7:30 AM.

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

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

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

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

WET AND ANGRY FRIDAY

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


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

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

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


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


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

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


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

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


What did they chant?

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


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

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

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


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


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

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


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

Heh.

GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM!

Yep, that's what someone said to me this evening.
How..... friggin'..... dare he!


To understand why that particularly got my goat, there are three things that you must know. All three add up to a composite that is toxic in combination with the phrase "go back where you came from".


1. I've heard that phrase far too many times. Usually it is uttered by some moron who takes offense at the way I speak English, and assumes that I "don't belong here". I have been back in the US for nearly thirty years, but I still have an accent. We went to the Netherlands when I was two, I lived there till I returned as an adult in 1978. Yep, I talk funny. Deal with it.


2. My father's family have been in the US for nearly four centuries, my mother's family have been here for slightly over three centuries. My bloodline has been here since the time of Peter Minuit - heck, my ancestor sold him ale! So, 'back where I came from' is right here.
While living in the Netherlands I was always told to go back where I came from - and I have indeed done so. What's the F*^^&%G problem?


3. I was told to go back where I came from by an anti-Israel demonstrant.
The phrase, in addition to being offensively bigoted, racist, and stupid in every possible context, also has connotations that are particularly insulting when said during a pro-Israel manifestation by someone who is anti-Israel. Arabs have yelled it across the street at us outside the consulate, neo-Nazis have shouted it at us during protests, and the Stalinists have mouthed it contemptuously during "peace-marches". Dumbass rednecks think it, and along with "ah dinnut do it, offsar", it is the most complete sentence of which they are capable,


We are all were we belong. Punkt.


I gave the harrumphacker who said it an earfull. The police asked him to back off. A minor victory.

Had the police not been so very close, he would not have gotten an earfull. He would've gotten a bloody ear. He got my goat - and I want it back.

I'm still steaming. Dammit, I want to punch someone.

APPARENTLY I'M A SCREAMING LIBERAL

I have been informed that reacting badly to two Republican yutzes who made our counterdemo seem like a 'pro-Iraq war yay Bush rah rah boomdee yay fest' will frighten away the poor gentle love-filled Republicans who otherwise would flock to our standard like happy little moths to a bright attractive light, and that we are becoming extremist lefties who scare people.

We are now repellent to dear little children, Republicans, small puppies, Republicans, girl scouts, Republicans, elderly women, and Republicans. We are like an overly perfumed pipe-tobacco, in other words.


Let me explain that a little.


On Saturday the twenty-seventh of October, about sixty or seventy people counter-demonstrated International Answer's alleged peace rally.

We, the San Francisco Branch of the vast intergalactic Zionist conspiracy, were there with signs and flyers making it clear that we objected to International Answer's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic agenda. We also made it clear that as a group we had no position on the Iraq war and were not demonstrating against the peace movement or the idea of peace, but were there only and entirely to protest against International Answer. One single and very simple issue.

This proved too complicated for the teevee reporters, who instead chose to feature sound-bytes from two simple very pro-war people who may have been Republicans.

The televised shots of the counter-demonstration showed tons of Israeli flags, but did not explain why there were any Israeli flags there. The talking neanderthals in front of that backdrop instead spoke lovingly of Bush and the Iraq war. Which effectively made it seem that all of us were there as pro-war slope brows.

I really do not like when our message is hijacked by Republicans. If the Democrats or the greens had tried it, I would be just as angry. But it was Republicans who did it. They were not there as supporters of Israel objecting to International Answer's anti-Semitism, they were not there in support of Israel - they were there purely to cheer for the war.


Because of that, I suggested to the group that we should in future avoid Republicans like the plague - the ones who show up to counter-demo tend to be mush-mouthed morons and no-neck inbreds. And I was being very charitable and full of sheer buckets of love when I said that.

But saying that apparently makes me a dangerous radical lefty - because I do not look with a kindly eye on Republicans going off message when they join us.
I have been informed that there are tons and tons of Republicans in the Bay Area who would join us and protest for Israel if only we didn't chase them away with our Marxist rhetoric and hate.


Sorry, no.


There aren't tons of timid pro-Israel Republican butterflies out there, sister.

This is the Bay Area. Eighty percent plus of the population votes for the Democrats. Being pro-Israel in the Bay Area is already considered ultra-rightwing by some people in any case. We have an uphill battle against popular perception. If those timid Republicans are frightened by our not taking a stand on the war, they are frightened of everything. They are frightened of bright lights, cheese that doesn't come in slices, and their own quivering shadows.
They probably check under their beds for democrats before they go to sleep at night.


Boo, gentle Republican butterflies, boo!


And we aren't radical lefties either. I already bend over backward to keep from scaring away rational potential supporters with my extremist pro-settlement sentiments. I have not once said that if the Arabs cannot stop firing rockets the response should be devastating and final. I have never even mentioned to querulous strangers that I consider the European left, with their wussy pandering to every anti-American and anti-Israeli cause in the world, the greatest possible danger to civilization. I have studiously avoided expressing points of view which could be misinterpreted as extremist far-right Zionist here in the rather liberal Bay Area.

Because I love lucid and sane supporters of Israel, I'm already doing my bit not to frighten the mainstream. So the very least the hypothetically pro-Israel Republicans who might stand with us can do is not piss all over that.


Do NOT hijack the message.


At this point, I'm perfectly willing to mace the next person who brings a pro-war or pro-Bush sign to a counterdemo which is ONLY supposed to be pro-Israel.

If that makes me a screaming liberal, so be it.

THREE SOLDIERS

Wednesday, October 30th. 2007
[Posted at 8:05, at the moment of a rather disturbing earthquake. Over a dozen floors up. Oy.]


Rabbosai, please expand the definition of 'Prisoner of Zion' (Asserei Tzion).
In the past, the term was specifically applied to people who were imprisoned or exiled because of Zionist activity, such being illegal in the country where they were imprisoned or exiled.

A Jewish soldier, in the hands of Hamas or Hezbollah, should surely qualify also.


GILAD SHALIT, ELDAD REGEV, EHUD GOLDWASSER.


Being a Jew and a soldier of the IDF stamps them as Zionists, especially in the eyes of Hamas and Hezbollah - and the eyes of Saudi Arabia and Iran, those being the paymasters of those two terrorist entities respectively.

They are not prisoners of war - they were not captured but kidnapped, and not by a military or a foreign power, but by gangsters claiming a political cause. They are not treated as prisoners of war, but held in secret locations, denied visits by the red-cross, and denied access to religious support.


GILAD SHALIT, ELDAD REGEV, EHUD GOLDWASSER.


At five thirty this afternoon, at Montgomery and Market Streets in downtown San Francisco, while the commuters streamed past on their way home, we gathered to keep alive the memories of these men, as indeed we hope that they are still alive. We held up posters of their faces and signs with their names, we held flags and handed out literature. We spoke about them, and read aloud from material describing what they were like, and how their families and friends related to them, in order that they cease being just names, but become people to those willing to listen - so that the listeners could think of them as people, as individuals, as members of families, with friends who cared about them, classmates and companions who knew them, parents and siblings who loved them.

People. Not just names. Not just dry data in an ongoing polemic.


GILAD SHALIT, ELDAD REGEV, EHUD GOLDWASSER.


There were thirty of us. After speaking of Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev, and Ehud Goldwasser, we recited Psalm 70 in Hebrew and English. We held candles, and in the darkening street we spoke with each other. Some of us come to nearly every event, others are limited by their location and can only attend actions in San Francisco or the East Bay. Some do not come on Shabbes, others believe that attending a pro-Israel protest on Shabbes is doing the Lord's work - a milchemes mitzvah. Most of us know each other. We reconnected, exchanged news about those who could not come, mentioned people we knew, events we had been to. We interacted like normal people who get along with each other, and share in each others' lives.

Precisely like Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev, and Ehud Goldwasser should likewise be able to do.


"...Let them be ashamed and confounded, that seek after my soul;
Let them be turned backward and put to confusion, that desire my hurt...."


This year we gathered so that these three men are not forgotten.
May we gather next year to rejoice in their home-coming.

SATURDAY AMONG THE CANNIBALS

Firstly, let me say that I am ever so glad I do not look Jewish. In any way. And that there should be brocha for that.

I spent all day Saturday at the Sabeel conference at Saint John's Presbyterian Church over in Berkeley. I'm Goyish enough that I can do so.


Secondly, I wish to also clarify that the gap between the Dutch Reformed and the Presbyterians is not just doctrinal. Presbyterians are, from the point of view of Shtrenge Dutch Calvinistim, a bunch of wussies and quislings. They've never had to fight for the life of their creed against a superpower. For them, being sneeringly disapproving is a luxury they take for granted.



SABEEL

This is an organization that claims that it is " an international peace movement initiated by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land who seek a just peace based on two states-Palestine and Israel-as defined by international law and existing United Nations resolutions". Which means that they seek the destruction of Israel by appealing to the cotton wool between the ears of many ignorant Christians.

The conference I attended, advertised as "Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence: Voices We Need To Hear - a Sabeel Conference to inform and stimulate thoughtful action toward a just resolution to the Palestine-Israel conflict", was organized by Friends of Sabeel.

It turned out to be a rather unsubtle attempt at brainwashing. And, in the case of many of those sweet little old Presbies, it probably succeeded.



THE MORNING

Self-praising pro-Pal speeches by several people, including one by a smirking Roman Catholic priest from San Francisco.

[I mentioned to a priggish female sitting next to me that my ancestors had fled Brabant five centuries ago to get away from Catholics and their violent self-righteousness, and here I was actually listening to one of those people pontificate! She looked daggers at me, moved several seats away, and avoided me for the rest of the day. And I feel good about that.]

High-minded jibber-jabber. Chris Brown draws several comparisons with Apartheid - like many South Africans, he acts like he owns the word. The Apartheid theme will be repeated ad-nauseum throughout the day, by every speaker, in every possible way.
He fought apartheid, now he's fighting Jewheid.
We're supposed to feel admiring yet sorry for him, or something.

Huwaida Arraf talks about going back to her parents land, and how her people are suffering. Emotions, emotions.... are we supposed to feel sorry again?

[I think this was the woman who at previous hate-fests wailed that she couldn't go back to the town where she was born, until someone pointed out that she was from Cleveland....]

Nearly an hour of horrific images, including a short film of a demonstration being teargassed, with weeping children and wailing women, and charges by riot police in an orchard. Heavily edited, and without background information. Precisely calculated to draw gasps and condemnation from the audience. Who now feel indignant, and sorry.

This is followed by a passionate rant by Anna Baltzer, in which she states that settlements are colonies of the evil occupying population, whose inhabitants are impoverished Israelis, paid to reside illegally on land stolen from the Arabs. Subtle hint that the other Israelis don't want those poor folks too close, and in any case real people prefer to live in Tel Aviv. Asserts that the overwhelming majority of the settlers moved to the West-Bank for financial reasons (having been paid to do so), and that a lot of the settlements were founded as outposts on seized Palestinian land by violence-prone extremists.

Quotes: "Civilian settlers carrying around these HUGE weapons - a weird power dynamic". -- "Palestinians (forced to) abandon their ancestral homeland". -- "A very violent settler attack".

She also discourses about Zionists pillaging Palestinian villages and committing mayhem. The term she uses, if I remember correctly, is 'massacre'.

The gist is that settlers are violent Jewish brutes who outnumber and bully poor sensitive Palestinians.

She assures us that she is a good Jew, not like the others.



THE AFTERNOON

All of the themes above were raised again during the keynote speech after lunch, by Phyllis Bennis, who, almost obscenely relishing the accusation, spoke about the "massacre in Jenin", asserting that the refugee camp was wiped off the map. She also accused Israel of trying to create an ethnically pure Jewish state - framing it in such a way as to draw a subconscious link with another such attempt at ethnic purity.



SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS....

Nearly every speaker tried to convince us that they had nothing against Jews, many of their friends were Jewish, they loved Jews oh boy did they ever and what a pity that some of them refused to see the how right the Palestinians were and how wrong the Zionists but what else can you really expect from those people and in any case they themselves only speak to the sympathetic apologetic pro-Pally Jews nowadays, which is the Zionist Jews' fault, they started it and they are heartless, cruel, and calculating.

Subtle suggestions of Jewish plots, and too much Jewish influence in the halls of power, and in Christian churches. The Jewish establishment. The Jewish lobby. The Jewish censorship.

Subtle, in this case, means fairly blatant.

No mention, of course, of the Sfardic / Mizrahi exodus from the Muslim world. No mention of the barrage of Qassams. No mention of the unceasing attempts to kill Jews. No mention of anything that would provide context or perspective. Just an unceasing flow of anti-Israel rhetoric, from eight-thirty in the morning till lunch-time, and then for another hour afterwards, before the workshops on practical anti-Semitism and how to propagate hate...... oops, I mean the workshops on "Why Divestment Is the Best Method to End the Occupation" (by Fahad Abu-Akel, room 2005, from 2:15 PM to 3:15), and "Christian Zionism in Mainstream Churches" (by Rosemary Radford Reuther, room 200, from 3:30 to 4:30).

There were many other workshops. It was a veritable smorgasbord of love.



PROTESTERS IN FRONT

A singular bright spot was seeing the Oakland Women In Black silently protesting in front, as people were entering the grounds. At some point, a livid troll ran past screaming that he needed a felt-tip pen, he was going to make a sign warning people about the Oakland Women In Black, because they weren't REAL Women in Black (correct, some of them had beards), they..... were..... EVIL ZIONISTS!!!

He never did get his warning-sign made. I wonder what he would've put on it. Perhaps "warning, may cause awareness of reality".



BREAKS

I may have made a few intolerant Protestantish noises during the various breaks. It depends upon your point of view - if you were a Lutheran, I probably offended you. Not sorry.
And if you were the Anglican, you are probably still sick to the pit of your stomach. Again, not sorry.
I didn't notice any Baptists or Eastern Orthodox, so I'm not sorry there either. And as for the Methodists, not sorry, I'm sure you've got a sense of humour. How on earth could y'all still be Methodists otherwise? Well?

Once again, not sorry.

Y'all can be as sorry a bunch as y'wanna be. Not me.


During one of the breaks, as I was grabbing all the free literature that I could get my hands on off one of the tables, I made a snarky reference to that famous line by Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel......
"The world is founded upon FREE things.....".



ATTENDEES, ACTIVISTS, ATTITUDES

Despite many of the attendees being clearly trusting and uncritical subjects for indoctrination (who, after all, really wants to believe that the passionate and friendly speaker is utterly evil?), there were some who were not pleased at the one-sided Israel bashing. A number of them left early. Perhaps the rough treatment they received from Palestinians dressed as IDF border guards acting out the checkpoints on the lunch-queue also got to them.

There were also enough pro-Palestinian activists floating around that critical comments were quickly and firmly dealt with. Enough true-believers that skeptics knew how unwelcome a realistic point of view would be. Room for only two kinds of attendees - the already convinced, and the going-to-be-convinced.

Much of the conference was a lot of hot-air about non-violent resistance, with an implied (and at least twice plainly stated) justification of the use of violence, because, after all, it's also a valid form of resistance. Non-violence is better public relations than an exploded bus.
But let us please not mention the bus. Or the pizza parlour.

I left at five o'clock, foregoing the last hour of indoctrination. I had been spotted by too many known elements of the other side at that point, and nearly ten hours of being the black man at a KKK convention was starting to wear a bit. Let's just say I needed to lift the sheet and get some fresh air. Plus, not having partaken of the lunch that was included in the admission fee, I had a screaming head-ache and a horrible attitude.


Well actually, I had the horrible attitude from the moment I got to Berkeley. Who am I kidding?


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

Oh, I nearly forgot! Cindy and Craig Corrie spoke tear-jerkingly about their daughter. What agony, what heartbreak, oh sniff. Who can forget the outrage generated by Rachel's unfortunate filmed accident? Just like that little fella hit in the crossfire that the French press showed the entire world, Rachel Corrie's demise has been the one story that more than any other (and there are always SO many others) proves conclusively how evil the Jews are and how virtuous the concerned pro-Pally side. As, I'm sure, they have already told you many times. Such selfless martyrs.