The Bay Area Loves Israel

To Israel, with Love.
From the Golden State.

You may have seen the original.  Its hard not to smile watching Mattisyahu’s song reimagined as a love poem to Israel.  The images capture the diversity of Israel’s landscape and Israel’s people.

Now San Francisco is getting in on the act. 

Sure seems that the Bay area is anxious to shed its reputation as an international hub for the de-legitimization of Israel.

It's time for a champion

Soothe the soul of the land

Mend the heart from the sea and the sand

'Til the sun comes up again

San Francisco Flash Mob. In Israel, you have 15 seconds to save your life

 In Southern Israel, when the Tzeva Adom sounds, you have 15 seconds to find shelter. With rockets flying from Gaza roughly every ten minutes, its not hard to imagine how stressful the past three weeks have been to those living in Israel.

On Aug 3, Bay area residents took their message to the streets, with a flash mob in Union Square. What if you had only 15 seconds to run to safety? What if you only had 15 seconds to save your life?

Israel activist attacked. Hate Crime in San Francisco

A group of local peace activists were filming a flash mob in Union Square, in the heart of San Francisco this weekend.

 It was an attempt to show the world what  Israel has been going through, the last few weeks. 

Someone didn't want that to happen.

This clip captures a completely unprovoked attack on the cameraman. I've got a pretty good idea of what motivated him.



We'll update this as soon as we have more information

JVP, Tiaa Cref and Pointless Gestures

Some friends of ours emailed us a copy of their TIAA CREF proxy statement, proudly showing their support for Israel, in what they felt was a highly visible and effective manner




And while we were delighted about the support, we explained that proxy statements went to independent tabulating firms, not to Tiaa Cref, and this was an ineffective way to make a pro-Israel statement to their retirement fund.

Generally, its the anti-Israel activists who expend their energy in ineffective manners. Divest this points out this cringe-worthy "flash mob" (lacking, as commenters have pointed out , both "flash" and "mob")

From Divest this:
"Well we defenders of Israel might as well throw in the towel now that BDS advocates have decided to triple down on their “Flash Mob” strategy of pulling 8-12 people together to break into incoherent song and dance at telephone stores or (more recently) a meeting of TIAA CREF here in Boston. After all, who can possibly withstand the awesome political power of images such as this:"




JVP's scheme to coerce Tiaa Cref to divest from Israel's "resilient, globally-oriented and technologically advanced" economy was launched in New York June 10, 2010 , with a coalition that consisted of Code Pink (3 members), Brooklyn for Peace, Veterans for Peace (2 members), Jews Say No, and Adalah (2 members) It was a long term 3-5 year campaign, with organizers declaring "We don’t think we can win in 6 months or a year."... and wistfully mentioning "If we had a flotilla a week it can be much faster."

And they were right. In a full year, they've only managed to gather signatures on an on-line petition, the vast majority from anti-Israel activists world wide who do not hold accounts with Tiaa Cref. And yes, they've managed to get a half dozen or so folks willing to make fools of themselves on youtube. Over and over. And then there was this baffling email from JVP's own Alice Rothchild where she states "CREF has chosen to refuse to share with its own investors a shareholder proposal submitted by nearly 20 of their participants--including me" . Nearly 20, Alice? NEARLY 20? Tiaa Cref serves over 3.7 million individuals and more than 15,000 institutions. Persumably one of the main reasons for their success is that they don't allow "nearly 20" to dictate sound investment strategies for the other 3,699,980.

There is another day o'rage scheduled against Tiaa Cref July 19. Expect more "flash mobs". Yawn. Stay tuned.

Pay Attention to me! Pay Attention to ME! The BDS'ers get increasingly more desperate

The-Israel haters , having failed to get their message across though protests, vandalizing Israeli foods and harassing shoppers , are trying increasingly more bizarre tactics. The St. Louis Palestine Solidarity group is desperately trying to put together a flash mob to protest Motorola. As of today, a mere 8 people are attending, illustrating the organization’s failure at creating either “flash” or “mob” .

Their announcement:

Who's interested in being part of a flash mob? We will be meeting to learn dance moves for a December flash mob that is part of a coordinated effort to help bring awareness boycotting Motorola products.
Even if you can't dance, we will have other roles for people to assist with. However, we are desperately seeking dancers...or at least people who can move in some sort of simultaneous pre-organized and coordinated motions.
Please try to attend the Sunday November 28 Information/Rehearsal meeting at 3pm at the World Community Center (438 Skinker Blvd).

Its interesting that the BDS'ers will try and do anything, just anything to advance their cause, except of course open dialog, legitimate discourse and free debate.

The Motorola boycott , like many BDS ventures is failing, big time. The BDR'ers were apparently unable to convince the IHH terrorists on the Mavi Marmara to boycott Motorola. Each squad of mercenaries was equipped with a Motorola communication device so they could pass information to one another.