Protest anti-Semitic speaker Max Blumenthal

Via Dr. Mike Harris and our friends at San Francisco Voice for Israel

ACTION ALERT:

WHERE: First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
WHEN: Wednesday July 1 7:00-8:00 PM

Next week, on Wednesday July 1, the First Congregational Church in Berkeley will be hosting a talk by Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal will be promoting his latest book, "The 51 Day War" about Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer. If it's anything like his last book, "Goliath", it will be filled with outright lies, cherrypicked facts, and support for Hamas. "Goliath" was described as the "I Hate Israel Handbook" by Eric Alterman in the left wing magazine The Nation; Alterman famously stated "It is no exaggeration to say that this book could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed)".

Blumenthal's relentless promotion of anti-Semitic stereotypes and his recurrent comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany has led his writing to be endorsed by David Duke and by neo-Nazi sites such as Stormfront and Rense. Blumenthal has openly welcomed reviews of his book based on that comparison. Justifiably, Blumenthal has been condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Louis D Brandeis Center for Human Rights.

None of this will be news to KPFA-FM, which is presenting this talk (the church is not sponsoring the talk, but is renting the space so does share some responsibility for giving Blumenthal a stage). Yet they will eagerly give Blumenthal, who spoke at a pro-Hamas rally in San Francisco during Operation Protective Edge last summer, another arena in which he will present his twisted viewpoint that meets Sharansky's "3D" criteria of anti-Semitism: delegitimization of Israel, demonization of Israel, and double standards applied to Israel.

StandWithUs/SF Voice for Israel will be gathering to stand against this purveyor of hatred and those who are bringing him into our community. KPFA has every right to provide him a platform; the church has every right to allow their sacred space to be used for such profane speech. And we have just as much a right to bear witness to their action, to call them out for enabling this, and to stand up against what the Louis D Brandeis Center described as "the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism".

We will gather from 7 PM to 8 PM outside the church which is at 2345 Channing Way in Berkeley, between Dana and Ellsworth. We will have flags and signs available; please feel free to bring your own signs and Israeli and American flags. No signs may be displayed that condemn all Arabs or all Muslims as an entire group, as we do not stoop to the level of Blumenthal's supporters. Many good signs about Hamas and Gaza are on the StandWithUs website here and here

We will not be attempting to stop anyone from entering the event. Nor will we engage in arguments with Hamas supporters who will be attending the event, though if any of the attendees has an open mind and wants to engage in a civil dialogue, we will be happy to provide them with the facts that Blumenthal doesn't want them to hear.

For more information on Blumenthal:
http://avimayer.tumblr.com/…/max-blumenthal-and-the-gargant…
http://warped-mirror.com/…/free-speech-and-antisemitism-ma…/
http://warped-mirror.com/…/09/max-blumenthals-jew-hating-f…/
http://brandeiscenter.com/…

UPDATE: Max tweeted about the upcoming protest last week,  calling the organizers "right wing fanatics" and derided them for including anti-racist guidelines 
see https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/614162202736496640/photo/1 

Of course, the other side not only tolerates blatant anti-Semitic hate at their events, they feature it on their signs. See  http://www.zombietime.com/stop_the_us_israeli_war_8_12_2006/ for examples  

Review: Max Blumenthal's book "Goliath"

From Eric Alterman and Reed Richardson at the Nation, reviewing Max Blumenthal's book Goliath : Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.:

When I was asked to do my column about Max Blumenthal’s book, Goliath, I was of two minds. On the one hand, I like to be a team player. But on the other, whenever I criticize BDS types, I apparently invite an avalanche of personal invective from its fans. (This happens when I criticize neocons on Israel as well, but to be honest, the BDS types appear to have more time on their hands for this kind of thing.) Second, I’ve known the author’s parents since he was a little boy, and whatever the quality of the book, I expected that my honest views of it might threaten three decades of friendly relations.

Reading what follows, I suspect Eric is not expecting any more invitations to dinner or Canasta at the Blumenthals in the near future. (emphasis mine)

I expected to disagree with its analysis. I did not expect it to be remotely as awful as it is. Had the magazine not published its excerpt, it would have been easy to ignore. It is no exaggeration to say that this book could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed) without a single word change once it’s translated into Arabic. (Though to be fair, Blumenthal should probably add some anti-female, anti-gay arguments for that.) Goliath is a propaganda tract, not an argument as it does not even consider alternative explanations for the anti-Israel conclusions it reaches on every page. Its implicit equation of Israel with Nazis is also particularly distasteful to any fair-minded individual. And its larding of virtually every sentence with pointless adjectives designed to demonstrate the author’s distaste for his subject is as amateurish as it is ineffective. As I said, arguments this simplistic and one-sided do the Palestinians no good. There will be no Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to it. And if these are the views of the people with whom Israelis of good will are expected to agree, well, you can hardly blame them for not trusting them.

Max Blumenthal is currently on a book tour to promote his awful, simplistic, one sided propaganda tract. He'll be coming to an SJP or MSU meeting near you.