Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: protest

Showing posts with label protest. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 08, 2023

Rallies: Do They Make a Difference (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Rallies have figured large in the wake of October 7^th. Not in Israel, mind you. In Israel, we are too busy to hold rallies. We prefer to rally around each other.

Outside of Israel, things are different. There, the rally has become an important vehicle for expressing solidarity; for taking sides, and in some cases, for whipping up the masses to kill Jews.

The rally is many things, but what, in fact, does the rally really achieve for those of us on the side of Israel? It’s all a numbers game, and their numbers will always be larger: There are more of them than us.

Does it matter? Of course it does. The rally is a kind of test; a chance to choose good or evil, though it’s not always cut and dried. There are the sheeple who passively allow themselves to be swayed by the crowd; they just want to fit in. On the other hand, there is true evil, the thugs, and the academics who say they are exhilarated by what happened to the Jews—and the people who tear down posters of Jewish babies held hostage in Gaza.

NYC - New York County public defender Victoria Ruiz caught removing posters of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.

It is absolutely unacceptable for someone with such bias and hate to serve in your office @nyc_defenders pic.twitter.com/mOwajkuArt
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 5, 2023

Evil takes other forms, sometimes in the guise of a Jew who will tell you that as Jew, they say it’s okay to commit atrocities as long as you know the context—as long as you know the history. . .

. . . or the woman who shouts “I’m a rabbi and I demand a ceasefire!” These Jews are sick, sicker, sickest and the very definition of the banality of evil.

It must be said that sometimes, and here there is only one phrase, crude as it is, to describe the phenomenon: the rally is a pissing contest. Sometimes the participants scuffle or worse.

Sometimes someone hits an elderly Jew over the head with a megaphone and kills him, and the police can’t decide if it’s murder.

It’s not all bad, though. There are Jews, pure of heart, who flock to rallies to express anguish and cry out for justice, “Justice, justice, you shall pursue.”

That’s very nice. But as I told my relatives on the eve of October 11, “From experience, all of you should stay close to home. I wouldn't go to shul or to rallies. It's not worth the risk, even with beefed up security. Personal safety is more important, and it's bad to be in crowded places. . . Don't be lulled into thinking you're far away and safe. I mean it. Please just stay safe. The rallies don't help us anyway, IMHO.”

The response? “This was an attack on all of us.”

That’s true. I’m glad their eyes are open. But it doesn’t help us in the aftermath. There’s a war, and it is those of us in Israel who must fight it.

What would help us would be unceasing rallies at the White House, protesting Biden’s aid to Iran and Hamas, and his demands for a ceasefire. Short of that, rallies are pretty useless. They may make you feel good, and give you a feeling of communal bonding, but that’s not a good enough reason to get together when it isn’t safe out there for Jews and lovers of justice and light.

***
Our IDF soldiers need ceramic vests to keep them safe as they fight Hamas. We have started a crowdfunding campaign to purchase these vests for my son's platoon: Ceramic Vests for IDF Soldiers.

Even a small donation would be greatly appreciated--each vest costs approximately $520.

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Did Ehud Barak plan the mass protests in Israel years before "judicial reform" in a bid to return to power?

Akiva Bigman in Mida writes that Ehud Barak had been planning to bring Benjamin Netanyahu down via mass protests long before the judicial reform issue was brought up.

Ehud Barak is a central figure in the protest movement against judicial reform. If you have been following the media, you may get the impression that although he is adamantly against Netanyahu and judicial reform, he is merely providing commentary and interpreting events. The reality is the opposite. Do not be deceived by his age or because he is a former prime minister and supposed elder statesman. At 81 years old, Barak is one of the main architects behind the current mass demonstrations. Yet, his involvement goes deeper. Barak is not only orchestrating today’s mass demonstrations, he has been integral in forming the anti-Bibi movement over the past seven years.

Recently, a chilling video of a Zoom conversation was circulated in which Barak describes a scenario of how he will return to power. He mentions that he has a friend, a historian, who told to him that he will become Prime Minister again when there are “bodies floating in the Yarkon river” of Jews murdered in a civil war. Barak immediately said that this should never happen. Yet, that he would mention such a grotesque idea, a truly horrifying scenario is disturbing. Moreover, this comment was made to a forum whose whole raison d’être is to get rid of Netanyahu and explore ideas on how to implement such a plan. Perhaps this was a slip of the tongue, or maybe it was said by someone whose purpose in orchestrating these protests is about his own return to power.

Nonetheless, the Zoom conversation video containing the “bodies in the Yarkon river” comment actually occurred in 2020 during the Corona pandemic, years before judicial reform became a legislative issue. Meaning, the notion that it is specifically judicial reform that is bothering Barak, or the people he is guiding, is bogus. And the fact that Barak was having conversations with those who raised the idea of mass civil disobedience only serves to reinforce Barak’s role in guiding these protests.

Barak's words in the 2020 video sure sounds like a blueprint for the protests happening today, especially using the word "democracy" as a slogan.

But he had been saying the same thing since 2016:

These are Barak’s words at the Herzliya conference, pay attention to the recurring motifs that he still talks about today:
“We have been led for more than a year by a prime minister and a government that is weak, limp and all talk, even according to senior members of its coalition, deceitful and extremist, that fails repeatedly, in guaranteeing security, undermining the fabric of democracy in Israel, failing in managing diplomatic relations with the United States and in stabilizing Israel’s position in the world… Here, I call on the government to come to its senses and immediately get back on track. If you don’t do that, we will all have to get up from our comfortable and less comfortable seats – and overthrow it, through a popular protest and through the voter’s ballot – before it’s too late.”

These are the components of Ehud Barak’s second political comeback: de-legitimization of the government, a deep animus towards Bibi and therefore the slogan ‘anything-but-Bibi’, and mass demonstrations.

Bigman's article goes on to bring other evidence to bolster this thesis.

Could this be true?

I am reading a pre-release edition of "(In)sighrs: Thirty Year of Peacemaking in the Oslo Process" by Gidi Grinstein. Grinstein was the secretary and youngest member of the Israeli delegation at Camp David in 2000 and his book is an account of the negotiations at the time. He worked for the Barak government during his premiership and famously used the Heimlich maneuver when Barak was choking at Camp David.

Grinstein loves Ehud Barak. He was "blown away" by Barak's speeches. He describes him as "the smartest man in the room" who manages to break down complex problems into a "matrix" of small tasks. He describes Barak's political brilliance in building a coalition as well as in his ambitious attempts to accomplish three things in a short time period - a peace deal with Syria, withdrawal from Lebanon whether negotiated or unilateral, and then peace with the PLO, all before Clinton would leave office.

But, whether Grinstein realizes it or not, Barak comes off as a jerk in this book. His "matrix" of things to be done were all in his head and he wouldn't share his strategy or plans with anyone. On the contrary, Barak would instruct his PLO negotiating team to continue their work even as he sabotaged their progress because he wanted to work on the other tracks first. Grinstein admits this: chief negotiator Dr. Oded Eran was a serious expert who led the team, but he was a "pawn in Barak's masterplan" whose hands were politically tied by Barak, and Barak then built his own secret negotiating team, completely leaving Eran out of the loop.

This was hardly the only example where Barak would throw people under the bus because he thought he was the only one brilliant enough to see the big picture - and to maintain his power. There was no chain of command in Barak's government, and the only possible result in such a system is chaos. Grinstein himself admits that one day Barak asked him to leak information to the New York Times, bypassing his boss, and leaving him in an uncomfortable position. Official positions were circumvented by Barak's personal backchannels. No one knew their real roles. Everyone working for Barak was a chess piece for his ambition, not a human being. Barak comes off as a paranoid, power-mad Machiavellian far more than the wise peacemaker Grinstein tries to position him as.

The theory that Ehud Barak is the force behind the protests today in a bid to regain power, when he cannot hope to do so by democratic means, is entirely consistent with the Ehud Barak described in a book that adores him.

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Hamas brutally represses Gaza demonstrations. Media nowhere to be found.

Last week I reported that Gazans planned a major anti-Hamas rally on Sunday, July 30. I also noted that this news was essentially censored from all Palestinian Arabic media, even Hamas' archrival Fatah did not report on these plans.

A lot of what happens in Gaza is simply not reported by the media.

Thankfully, Gazans publish their own videos and photos on Telegram and similar social media, and the indomitable Imshin has put together a thread showing the demonstrations on Sunday - and Hamas' brutal repression of them.

Here is her thread. And Western media is essentially complicit in Hamas' censorship and repression by adhering to terrorist directives not to report things that make them look bad.

1/ This afternoon there were demonstrations against Hamas all over Gaza Strip.
This is Khan Younes.
#TheGazaYouDontSee

2/ This afternoon there were demonstrations against Hamas all over Gaza Strip.
This is Nuseirat "refugee camp".

3/ At first Hamas took over the demonstrations, turning them into "pro-Hamas" demonstrations.

https://t.co/Stq7PCx3Hi t.me/abualiexpress/…

אבו עלי אקספרסתומכי חמאס משתלטים על מוקדי הפגנות ועושים להן "המרה". הם מניפים דגלי חמאס. כדי להגיב לכתבה לחצו כאן https://t.me/abualiexpress/47288

4/ Then the guns came...

5/ And the shooting at demonstrators started.

More footage of dispersing anti-Hamas demonstrations in Gaza.

Demonstrators injured by Hamas "security" thugs.

More demonstrators injured by Hamas this afternoon.
These are brothers Salama and Rami Barbakh whose father was killed by Hamas in the past.

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Gazans plan a major anti-Hamas protest on Sunday

Last night there were anti-Hamas demonstrations in various locations in Gaza.

The protesters reject the disastrous conditions that the Gaza Strip is going through, and demand as good a life as the children of Hamas leaders enjoy.

Here's one that was posted on TikTok this week although I don't know when it occurred:

There are actually two stories here. One is that there are demonstrations like these altogether, and the other is that the media roundly ignores them.

Hashtags accompanying videos of last night's demo say "Where is Al Jazeera?" nearly as often as they say the slogan of the demonstrations, "We want to live."

Earlier this month, the leaders of the protests issued a list of demands to Hamas to improve their lives.

The word "Israel" is not mentioned - they blame Hamas and Hamas alone for their predicament.

They are demanding more hours of electricity, timely payment of Gaza government salaries, and for Hamas to stop taking out "taxes" on the money Qatar sends to Gazans (as well as an increase.)

If the demands aren't met, the protesters plan a huge set of demonstrations this coming Sunday, July 30.

So why are these issues not being covered by the media, including Arabic media?

One major reason is that there is an unwritten rule: unless problems can be blamed on Israel, they must not be publicized. And even ordinary Palestinians have internalized this rule when they speak to reporters on the record.

When they are assured anonymity, they are much freer to criticize their leaders, but most reporters aren't even interested in asking the right questions. The international media has its own narrative to uphold, and that one coincides with that of the PA and Hamas - always blame Israel and Israel alone.

Yes, there is censorship from Hamas and the PA, and they routinely will insult their political opponents on their own media so we know about their own infighting. But popular protests like these do not benefit the PA, because they have their own critics and protesters, and the optics of showing Palestinians protest against their own leaders is problematic for both sides.

These sorts of things only get any traction when they are too big to ignore.

This Sunday's protests will probably not bother Hamas - they will repress them and try to keep them quiet. But any Middle East media that ignores those protests are clearly not media that can be trusted to report anything accurately.

Which is essentially all the media in the region.

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Bahrainis protest against...Chanukah

"Death to Israel"

El Bashayer reports:

On Friday, a demonstration took place in the Sitra area of Bahrain, rejecting the holding of Hanukkah activities in the country, and all forms of normalization with the Israeli entity, and in support of the Palestinian cause.

"Chanukah is a Zionist project and normalization program"

Palestine Today reports that the demonstration was repeated today, and managed to cancel a Chanukah event tonight.

Sunday evening, a massive demonstration took place in Bahrain to condemn the normalization of Manama with the Israeli occupation.

Activists circulated on social media, video clips, the moment a mass demonstration began near Bab Al Bahrain, denouncing normalization and holding Hanukkah events in the country.

The participants raised banners denouncing the condemnation and slogans of "Death to Israel".

The demonstration led to the cancellation of the first Hanukkah activities scheduled to start this evening at Bab Al Bahrain.

Here's video with plenty of chants of "Death to Israel."

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Iran pressured its Jewish community to issue a statement against the protests

Times of Israel reported last week:

The small Jewish community in Tehran on Thursday condemned the ongoing anti-regime protests in Iran, which broke out over the death of a young woman held for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

In a letter, the Tehran Central Jewish Committee said it was standing by the Iranian regime amid a deadly crackdown on protesters.

“This is a condemnation of the recent unrest in the country that led to the death and injury of several people in our country, as well as many financial losses to the country,” the letter said.

“The community declares that it has always obeyed the position of the supreme leader,” it added.

“The community declares that the enemies of the system are creating insecurity by targeting the unity of the people. In recent days, unfortunate events and incidents have occurred in our beloved country, which has hurt the hearts of those loyal to Iran and the holy Islamic system,” the letter said.

The letter sounds like it was written with a gun to their heads.

And that is not far from the truth.

From Radio Farda, three days before this:

A senior member of the Iranian Christian community says that security officials are pressuring religious minorities to remain silent and not participate in anti-government protests.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Yonathan Betkolia, the head of Assyrian Society of Tehran, as saying that the intelligence and security authorities of the Islamic republic have asked the representatives of Christians, bishops, and Assyrian priests to prevent the participation of Christian and Assyrian citizens in nationwide protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

If Christian minorities are being pressured by the Iranian regime, you can be certain that the Jewish community is being pressured that much more.

And the Christians know that if they support the protests, they will be supported by many Christians worldwide. There would be serious public relations consequences. But if the Jews supported the protests, they would be labeled Zionist spies - the Iranians have already ludicrously claimed that Zionists are behind the protests. Israel's hands are tied; they cannot show support for the same reason.

So we cannot blame the Iranian Jews for pretending to support the regime. Any other decision would be fatal.

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Elder Comix: Timing is everything

A huge percentage of anti-Israel actions on campus, whether it is BDS votes in student unions or anti-Israel protests, are scheduled for when Jews are likely to be unavailable.

But don't call them antisemitic!

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Calling for the murder of Jews on the streets of New York City

On Monday, there was a rally in Manhattan's Washington Square Park demanding that Israel free all terrorists from prison.

At the rally one could see this sign to "globalize the Intifada," a call to attack Jews worldwide.

Even more explicit were these signs for "Palestinian return" and "Palestinian liberation" - "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY."

"By any means necessary" means "including murdering Jews." It isn't even a dog whistle, it literally justifies terrorism.

This is incitement to murder Jews being proudly displayed in the city with the world's largest Jewish population.

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Palestinians know that Abbas is a dictator. Why doesn't the West?

On Monday, hundreds of Palestinian lawyers protested Mahmoud Abbas' sweeping powers:

Hundreds of Palestinian lawyers held a rare street protest Monday against what they described as the Palestinian Authority's "rule by decree", condemning president Mahmud Abbas for governing without a parliament.

The Palestinian Legislative Council -- created under the Oslo Peace Accords with Israel -- has been inactive since 2007, meaning Abbas has led without a functioning parliament for nearly all of his tenure as president.

But a new leadership at the Palestinian Bar Association has sought to pressure the PA.

The draft Palestinian constitution allows for presidential decrees "if necessary", in cases where the PLC cannot act, but lawyers said Abbas has gone too far.

According to estimates by Palestinian legal experts, Abbas has issued some 400 presidential decrees while in office.

He officially dissolved the PLC in 2018.

The article doesn't come close to describing Abbas' control of all the branches of the Palestinian government.

In order to "legally" dissolve the PLC, he needed the Palestinian Constitutional Court to make that decision. And guess who appointed every member of that group in 2016?

Yes, it was Abbas himself.

So Mahmoud Abbas controls, either directly or by proxy, the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the Palestinian Authority.

But his powers don't end there, because the PA is not independent - it reports to the PLO, which is still legally considered the "“Sole Legitimate Representative of the Palestinian People” - and whose chairman is also Mahmoud Abbas.

This is all documented. It is no secret that Abbas controls everything.

Yet Western media almost completely ignores this basic fact. Abbas is never referred to as a dictator - except by Hamas media.

The reason, as always, is that pointing out the corruption of the Palestinians seems to weaken the overarching narrative of an evil Israeli oppressive presence that controls every aspect of Palestinian life, and that narrative must be protected as much as possible.

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Used to be, Palestinian terror leaders could get automatic throngs for demonstrations.No more.

Not too long ago, whenever Hamas or Islamic Jihad or Fatah wanted to fire up their people, they would put together a massive rally where tens of thousands could be summoned at seemingly the snap of a finger.

Here's a Hamas rally from 2017:

An Islamic Jihad rally from 2016:

But on Thursday, The Palestinian Authority and Islamic Jihad held a rally to protest President Biden's visit to Israel.

And the turnout was pathetic.

Here was Islamic Jihad's rally:

And here is another demonstration in Ramallah:

In Gaza, with a captive audience, a couple hundred people came to a rally organized by several socialist groups.

It looks like it is not only other Arab nations who are sick of Palestinian leadership.

Palestinians are, too.

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Teaneck protest against MDA, like all such protests, are not "pro-Palestinian" but anti-Israel

On Sunday, there was a fundraising event in Teaneck, NJ, to raise money for an ambulance for Israel's Magen David Adom service.

A dozen people counter-protested, because, apparently, God forbid that Israelis have the ability to save people's lives.

Here is how the counterprotest was reported in the North Jersey Record:

Across the street from Congregation Beth Sholom, where the event was held, protesters waved signs and chanted “Free Palestine.”

“I’m not opposed to ambulances, but you have to understand this ambulance is part of the larger picture of Israel,” said Rich Siegel, a Teaneck resident and co-director of Deir Yassin Remembered, which organized the protest. “Any time there is a pro-Israel event we need to be out here to support Palestine.”

The demonstrators were joined by a group of anti-Zionist Orthodox rabbis from the Neturei Karta movement. As the event went on, counter-protesters gathered nearby and the two groups began chanting back and forth.

Were the protesters "supporting Palestine" or protesting Israel? The signs they were waving, and the comment by Siegel, show the answer:

There is nothing "pro-Palestinian" in these protests. The one sign that says "free Palestine" says "End Israel" before that. In video, the only chant that one can hear from the purported "pro-Palestinian" protesters is "Baby killers" - protesting a service that saves babies' lives.

The caption for the photos, however, say "A group of pro-Palestinian supporters organized by 'Deir Yassin Remembered' protest outside of the event."

This protest, tiny as it was, shows the truth: that there is no such thing as a "pro-Palestinian" movement. It is all anti-Israel. If Israel would disappear and be taken over by an Iranian proxy like Hezbollah, not one of these people would be in the streets chanting "Free Palestine," just as no one was in the streets protesting Jordan's annexation of the West Bank in 1949.

Again, they are not protesting Israel's government policies nor are they saying they want Palestinian independence. They are protesting an Israeli ambulance response service that saves lives without asking the religion of those they help.

Teaneck's Muslim mayor, who is far more pro-Israel than the pseudo-Jews protesting the ambulance service, was at the fundraiser:

Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin said he saw firsthand the diversity and skill of Magen David Adom’s volunteers while visiting Israel in 2014.

Hameeduddin was dining in a restaurant when a man had a seizure. Within minutes, the ambulance service responded to help.

“The vans arrived and out came people of all different backgrounds, working together to save lives,” he said. “This organization gives us all hope for the future, hope for our children and hope for peace. That’s what we all want.”

If protesters were truly pro-Palestinian, they would support Magen David Adom, not protest it.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Why Hamas' beating of protesters is a big story

This story encapsulates how much the media ignores stories from the territories that don't involve Israel.

Last night, many members of the Eshtewi family held a protest outside the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza. One of their sons, Mahmoud (in some reports Abul Magd) has been in Hamas prisons for months without charge. The family demanded that Haniyeh come out to talk to them, and they chanted slogans and held up banners.

Hamas police came and started beating them, injuring a number of family members including a female journalist Buthaina Eshtewi, and two brothers were arrested and taken away to an unknown destination.

In one story we have:

Detention without charge
Peaceful protesters being beaten
Peaceful protesters being arrested

In the grand scheme of things, this is not that big a deal. But the complete absence of any western media ever reporting stories like this while eagerly reporting on similar stories that can be blamed on Israel reveals a much bigger issue here.

Even if the media does not consider this newsworthy, "pro-Palestinian" NGOs would be expected to be compiling statistics of these sorts of events, and issuing annual reports counting the number of arrests, beatings, imprisonment without trial, cases of torture, people killed by police - all the statistics that are being zealously kept and often inflated by these same NGOs against Israel, even though they often claim that they are non-partisan.

Journalists, NGOs and diplomats have an unwritten agreement to ignore these sorts of stories to ensure that the news that filters out to the world is one-sided against Israel. The tiniest anti-Israel stories in the Hebrew press get translated and quoted prominently while Arabic stories like these get ignored. The decision as to which stories get coverage is not newsworthiness or the level of human rights being violated. No, the major decision-making is based on a single factor: whether the Jewish state can be properly blamed.

This ensures that generations of young people are brought up on biased, one-sided news stories based on simplistic memes of Jewish oppression and Arab victimhood.. It takes real effort to find out the truth and practically no one will spend the time, since there is an assumption that the news media will do their jobs. And the very people who should investigate this bias are the people who practice it.

This particular case is not a big story. But the situation that causes stories like this to be ignored day in and day out is indeed a very big deal.

Palestinian death toll in Syria rises above 1000

From the beginning of the Syrian uprising until the end of February, 1036 Palestinian Arabs have been killed, according to the "Working Group of Syrian Palestinians."

Since then, it appears that several more are being killed every day:

4 on March 2
5 on March 5
12 on March 6
5 on March 9
8 on March 10

You must have seen the news coverage of the many "pro-Palestinian" demonstrations outside world embassies protesting these deaths every day, right?

Here's a video that claims to be of a Palestinian Syrian woman in front of her sister's husband's body who was hung for allegedly being a "spy" for the government.

At least Iranians admit their "Qods Day" rallies are anti-Israel

It is refreshing to see that Iran makes it very clear that their annual Qods Day demonstrations are not meant to show support for Jerusalem or support for Palestinian Arabs nearly as much as they are to show unbridled hate towards Israel. Such a difference from Western "pro-Palestinian" rallies that are anti-Israel hatefests.

Here's the description of the Iranian rally from FARS News Agency:

Iranians across the country alongside other people around the world held massive anti-Israel rallies on the last Friday of Ramadan in opposition to the continued occupation of Palestinian land by Israel.

In Tehran, millions of people gathered for the march, chanting 'Death to Israel' and holding anti-Israeli and anti-American signs.

The International Quds Day was started by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, in 1979 as a way of expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and underscoring importance of the holy Quds to Muslims.

International Quds Day is an annual event opposing Israel's occupation of Beitul-Muqaddas. Anti-Zionist rallies and demonstrations are held on the last Friday of Ramadan in Muslim and Arab countries around the world, and especially in Iran.

Protesters unanimously condemned Zionists' crimes in the Palestinian occupied lands.

The fasting people carrying placards chanted 'Down with the US' and 'Down with the Israel' and other anti-Zionist slogans.

But in one way the Iranian and Western haters of Israel do have one thing in common in their fake love for Palstinian Arabs:

Many demonstrators were also wearing Palestinian keffiyehs, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, to show their solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Some "non-violence"

Today the IDF spokesperson tweeted a message similar to messages tweeted nearly every Friday ever since they started their Twitter account:

~200 rioters near Bil'in, ~30 Ni'lin currently hurling rocks @ security forces who are responding w/riot dispersal means

And we know that stones are thrown every Friday because every once in a while the wire services decide to show the stone throwers:

Yet, invariably, the "pro-Palestinian" community pretends that these weekly protests are non-violent. In fact, there is no shortage of people who claim that they are against violence in any form. Amnesty International's blog last year featured an article claiming that Palestinian Arab non-violent resistance has its roots from the early 1900s and continues today, and that terrorism was an anomaly from the 1970s and 80s. (The is of course a ridiculous lie, as Palestinian Arab terror is exactly as old as Zionism itself.)

Yet the Bil'in protests occur every week, and every week there are rock throwers.

So either these self-described Gandhis consider throwing rocks non-violent, or they are doing nothing to discourage the stone-throwers at their most visible weekly protests.

Either way, the claim of "non-violent resistance" rings very, very hollow.

The myth of the "pro-Palestinian" rallies

The media loves to cover demonstrations, the more colorful and loud the better. And there has been ample opportunity to show lots of demonstrations about Gaza these past couple of weeks. The only problem is that the vast majority of the protesters don't really care about "Palestinians." When thousands of Palestinian Arabs were killed during Black September in 1971, there were no crowds at Jordanian embassies. When hundreds of Palestinian Arab civlians were killed in a single day in Lebanon in1975, no one protested. When thousands of Palestinian Arab civilians were murdered by Syrian-backed militia in Lebanese camps in 1985-86 (including Sabra and Shatila!), there were no demonstrations. When hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were expelled from Kuwait in a single week in 1991, there were no rallies. When Hamas and Fatah fought only two summers ago, killing hundreds in a month, the so-called "peace camp" was silent. Only when Israel gets involved in a conflict do these "activists" come out of the woodwork. Ignoring the many conflicts around the world, their fake indignation is ignited at the thought of Israel defending itself. Muslims who barely go "tsk, tsk" when Arabs kill each other are driven to a frenzy when Israelis finally decide to act after years of provocation. International ANSWER, the Communist party behind a large number of Western anti-Israel demonstrations, has nothing that is "pro-Palestinian" on its website; only diatribes against Israel and the United States. The current rallies aren't pro-Palestinian or even anti-war - they are purely anti-Israel, with more than a little anti-semitism. They are not crying over civilian deaths, they are gleefully calling Zionists "Nazis." They aren't demanding human rights; they are demanding Israel's destruction. The media is part of the problem when they refer to these demonstrations as being "pro-Palestinian." They don't give a damn about Palestinian Arabs, they never have and they never will.