At an anti-Israel protest yesterday in San Francisco's financial district three middle-aged Israel supporters were attacked. Fortunately no one was hurt. One of the victims, an elderly gentleman with a shofar, was rushed by several young Arab-Americans while Forrest Schmidt of International ANSWER screamed abuse.
Later a large Arab American tried to crush a pro-Israel activist whom he attacked after trying to destroy the sign that the activist was holding.
Forrest Schmidt hastened to add oil to the blaze after police had separated the two.
A third pro-Israel demonstrator was tackled by people standing around Richard Becker, head of International ANSWER.
Again, Forrest Schmidt was instrumental in furthering disruption.
Mister Schmidt seems to be developing quite a talent for making an already venomous and hate-filled event even more dangerous and explosive.
Who knows - this skill may 'come in handy' in Oakland after the Mehserle verdict is announced.
In all three instances, the SF police were markedly absent, and did not prevent the attacks.
After these assaults, the police persuaded the pro-Israel side to move to the other side of the street due to the great likelihood of further acts of aggression.
For the next two and a half hours, the crowd of Arab-American teenagers, liquor store owners, SF State U and Berkeley professors, and International ANSWER agitators screamed invective, and revolutionary slogans that promised to eradicate Israel.
"Falastin Arabbiya, kullu kullu Shah'ddiya"
'Palestine belongs to the Arab world, we are all its martyrs' - a holy war chant indicating Jihadi sentiments.
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"
This oft-repeated chant is the promise to ethnically cleanse Jews and Israel off the map.
"Ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeeq ya Falastin"
'With our souls and our blood we will redeem you oh Palastine' - the war cry for the momentous battle to eradicate the Jewish stain on the holy land and reclaim it for the Arabs and Islam.
There were several speeches about genocide, claiming that Israel was guilty of ethnic cleansing, despite the Arab population of Israel proper increasing several fold since independence, thus mirroring the massive increase in people labeled 'Palestinian' in surrounding countries.
There was no mention whatsoever of the massacres perpetrated by Jordan against Palestinians during Black September, nor of the desperate struggle of Lebanese Christians, Muslims, and Druze against the terror unleashed in Beirut by the PLO during that country's civil war, nor even of the mistreatment and expulsion of 'Palestinians' in the Gulf States after Saddam invaded Kuwait.
Crimes against Arabs by other Arabs, no matter how horrendous, are not part of Richard Becker's agenda. Even if they dwarf the number of Palestinian deaths from the Arab world's war against the Jews a hundred fold.
In contrast to other hate-fests organized by stalwarts such as Richard Becker, Forrest Schmidt, Lily Haskell, and the revolutionarily inclined faculty members of several universities in the Bay Area, this time there was scant mention of Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran - though there was repetitive angry rhetoric about Afghanistan and Iraq, and praise for the fighters in those countries 'resisting' imperialism.
I did not see any members of the National Lawyers Guild there, but their presence was nevertheless keenly felt - certainly by the SFPD, who seemed quite hesitant about their abilities to control the hostile mob.
Around seventy revolutionaries and Jew-haters, about forty Israel supporters, and perhaps two dozen of SF's finest.
Also in attendance: Jim Harris aka Tom Joad (hack for JVP / ISM), plus self-righteous harridans from Codepink and Women in Black. And several nice middle class Berkeley Jew-haters.
Not present: the San Franciscan pro-Palestinian politicians who endorsed the anti-Israel resolution tabled two weeks ago, representing the public face of the effort to attack Israel in the SF political establishment: Chris Daly, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, John Avalos, et al.
This demonstration was NOT about peace, it was NOT about justice for Palestinians, it was NOT about achieving an equitable solution to a political problem; it was about Jew-hate.
Which the pro-Palestinian side demonstrated repeatedly.
4 comments:
Jim Harris is primarily a hack for Stop AIPAC, though he also hacks part time for progressive Democrats of the East Bay. Have you noticed that there are dozens and dozens of anti Israel organizations on any given list, but it's the same handful of unwashed that keep showing up? I think it's just the illusion of a movement.
Is there a video of this event? I would like to post it on fousesquawk.
Jess Ghannam (University of California, San Francisco )and Andrew Paul Gutierrez (University of California, Berkeley) are both signatories to the US Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and have spent much time making the campuses of their universities as inhospitable to Jews as possible. Both where at that rally, both expressed their hate for Israel on the street, and both are clearly in cahoots with Forrest Schmidt and Dick Becker, whose vile hategroup has had activists on campus and in the faculty and administration of both institutions for several years.
A reasonably full list of academic hatemongers can be found here: http://usacbi.wordpress.com/endorsers/
These people represent the most vile and despicable form of anti-Semitism: Politically correct pseudo-intellectuals. The authorities in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area know that catering to the comfortable bourgeois anti-Semitism of the middle-classes pays off in the end; radical support at the voting booth, continued support for a political career.
Even the police recognize this. They too are part of the petite bourgeois machine, they too wish to be accepted. Or at least, not hindered in their careers.
Signs on the pro-Israel side need to be more...poignant; such as:
"Jordan is Palestine."
"Intifada = Slaughter/kill the Jews."
"Jews have occupied "Palestine" for 3500 Years."
In other words, redefine their BS in public.
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