Pro-Israel rally attacked in Los Angeles

Rockets continue to rain down on Israel, averaging one every 10 minutes. Hamas has long range Iranian rockets now, and 75% of the population of Israel is within their range. Just last night, Israel shot down an armed Iranian-made drone, launched from Gaza. No Virginia, this isn’t about "Palestinians throwing stones". It never was.

Yesterday, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, thousands gathered in Westwood, Los Angeles to attend a solidarity rally with Israel.

Most estimate the crowd at 2,000, but some reports are as high as 5,000. Speakers included Rabbi Marvin Hier, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Roz Rothstein co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and actress Noa Tishby. Participants stood on 3 corners at the intersection of Wilshire and Veteran Boulevards. Passing cars honked to show their support.

What happened next is in dispute, and is under investigation

From the LA Jewish Journal

A peaceful pro-Israel rally in front of the Federal Building in Westwood in West Los Angeles was interrupted late Sunday afternoon when three or four men wielding Palestinian flags arrived carrying long wooden sticks and alledgely attacked the pro-Israel demonstrators. The Los Angeles Police Department reported that more than 1,200 attended the rally.

Witnesses said several of the pro-Israel participants were hit by the sticks, but police would not immediately confirm or comment on whether anyone was wounded. A separate counter protest of about 200 supporting the Palestinians was held across the street.

When police who were already on the scene stepped in to break up the scuffle, the attackers returned to their pickup truck and drove off. As they left, witnesses say, a gun was fired in the direction of the truck by a Department of Homeland Security officer who was at the scene, according to Brian Thomas of the LAPD West Los Angeles Patrol Division.

　

UPDATE 7:00 a.m. (7/14): The four men were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to NBC4. LA County Sheriffs Department said the weapons were wooden flag poles that the men were holding as they drove through the crowd. Additionally, the shot was allegedly fired not by a DHS officer, as the LAPD initially told the Journal, but by a Federal Protective Service (FPS) officer.

More information wil be posted as it becomes available.

UPDATE

The four suspects arrested have been identified as 19-year-old Mostadafa Gamaleldin Hafez, 41-year-old Haddah Mustapha Kreidieh, 35-year-old Mohammed Said Elkhatib, and 38-year-old Fadi Ali Obeidallah.

The four men were booked for assault with a deadly weapon and released on $30,000 bond from the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station Monday morning. The Federal Protective Service officer was  placed on leave after discharging his weapon during the altercation.

Kayla Starr of Code Pink gets it wrong again

Kayla Starr of Code Pink published an article "What makes right wing U.S. Jews so violent?" that's been getting spammed across the Web.

(Sorry, I don’t link to hate sites)

Kayla writes:

“Never have I felt so frightened as I do when encountering the angry, violent rhetoric and behaviors Jewish Zionist zealots regularly use against non-violent protesters in the U.S. I have seen them use the Israeli flag poles to strike non-violent old ladies, knock cell phones out of hands, push and batter protesters. Are these my people?”

Its strange. Kayla is local, and has likely been to the same protests as I have.

Was Kayla at this event, when hundreds of anti-Israel protesters, egged on by their leadership, crashed through the police barricades and nearly lynched a handful of tired frightened middle aged “ zealots” ?




She continues

"I became active in supporting the rights of the Palestinians after the siege of Gaza, two and half years ago. I have attended rallies, marches, and teach-ins. The Jewish right wingers who show up at these events scare me more than anyone I have encountered over many decades of activism. I have marched to protest the wars, for human rights and health care, against nuclear power and weapons, for climate justice and various other progressive causes for the last 30-some years."

Just wondering Kayla- how can you tell, just by looking at someone, that they’re Jewish?

Did Kayla ever meet this charmer?


He showed up at a San Francisco "peace rally" with two cans of "non-violent resistance" gasoline. He stole a flag from a pro-Israel activist and set it on fire. He was arrested, and spent 5 days in jail. The jihadi was fined $100 plus $25 costs; he would receive an additional one year in the county jail if he violated probation. The DA specifically added a clause prohibiting him from interfering in any "lawful political activity"; the judge also added one prohibiting him from burning any flag in public or disrupting political rallies. Crime just doesn't pay.



I've heard whining like yours before, Kayla. Haven't you realized that the "Scary Jews" aren't the ones screaming "Intifada" and "Itbah al-Yahud" ? Haven't you realized that the "scary Jews" aren't the ones covering their faces?


Have you realized that the "Scary Jews" aren't the ones wearing shirts calling for "War forever"?



Haven't you realized Kayla, that the we aren't the ones showing up at peace rallies with signs that say "Kill Jews"



Take off the blinders of your personal victimhood, Kayla Starr and give a good look around. You might just be surprised.

Denying Culture, Denying History

Getty Images. People meet to pray at a vigil honoring Ben-Yosef Livnat, murdered by PA police at the Tomb of Joseph

As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. (Joshua, 24:32)

This is the history of my people. This is the story of how they brought the remains of their ancestor home to their own land from exile, and laid him to rest. Joseph's tomb has been a pilgrimage site for Jews for thousands of years. This is our heritage, in the simplest, deepest sense. A tribal ancestor and hero lies buried there. Like Hebron, like Rachel's Tomb, this is a sacred place to Jews everywhere.

Jews have always made pilgrimages to such places. A friend once told me about her grandfather, who made an annual pilgrimage from Baghdad to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, by train. I imagine this would have been in the 1930s or early 40s. Only Muslims were permitted to actually enter the tomb, but he would go as far as he was allowed, to pray as near to the shrine as he could. Every year the man did this, at enormous expense and danger, to express his piety. This is whole history lost on people who talk big about the Middle East--a total lack of understanding of what it meant to be a Jew before Jews had a country. In Baghdad, as everywhere else in the Middle East, you were a second-class citizen. Even if you had the money for a ticket from Iraq to Palestine, and most didn't, you couldn't expect to be treated like a human being in either place. And usually, you weren't.

Jews continue to travel to Joseph's tomb to pray whenever they can. The tomb rests inside the Palestinian Authority, which has permitted it to be repeatedly vandalized, but pilgrims continue to make their way there. Often they make their way under IDF guard, by prearrangement. Sometimes worshipers, especially young male worshipers, sneak in. That's what happened on April 24, when a group of young Israeli men quietly made their way to the tomb. As they were leaving, Palestinian Authority police officers opened fire on their cars. One man, 25-year-old Ben-Joseph Livnat, a father of four, was killed.

Baz Ratner/Reuters. Ben-Yosef Livnat's funeral procession.

 Peaceful civilians, leaving a place of prayer, were gunned down by armed police, murdered in cold blood, and the best excuse that could be come up with were, 'they didn't fill out the correct paperwork'. In the aftermath of the shooting, men from nearby Palestinian communities rioted and set the tomb on fire. (Again, this has happened a few time.) (In theory, Joseph's Tomb is, actually, also a Muslim holy site. How the nominal Muslims who have repeatedly vandalized it justify this to themselves is their problem.)

Another tragedy. Another murder. Another desecration of religiously and culturally sacred space.

A man who posts frequently to a blog I contribute to went a little nuts after Livnat's death, and the assault on the tomb. He said a number of things that I and the other bloggers found offensive, and was asked to tone it down. But while I was clear with him that some of the things he was saying were unacceptable, I also noticed that many other people in the group were simply shocked by his anger. Jews, like women, are not supposed to be angry. We are not supposed to feel fury when we are violated. We are supposed to consider what we did to deserve this.

Indymedia UK posted Palestine Today's comment on the incident: On the ground, Palestinian sources reported that hundreds of Israeli settlers, mostly armed, are roaming around the city of Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank. This motion by the settlers comes two days after an Israeli settler was shot dead in Nablus, believed to be by Israeli military gunfire by mistake.

The settlers was killed when a group of settlers invaded Nablus and attempted to enter the Tomb of Joseph in the city. Palestinian police tried to stop them however, the settlers pointed their guns at the police. Palestinian sources say settlers opened fire in the air to stop the settlers. Immediately a nearby Israeli military post responded to eh source of fire, which led to the settlers' death.

Both Israel and the PA are investigating the incident, but no final report has been issued yet.

So, let me see if I've got this straight--the 'settlers' invaded Nablus, tried to shoot the police, and were themselves gunned down by an Israeli military post? Oddly, that does not seem to accord with any other report, but it certainly does make it clear that the 'settlers' were entirely to blame for their own fate.

I'm angry, and I'm alienated. What is holy to me--a man's life, an ancient place of prayer--is merely a distraction to an ongoing campaign to delegitimize a nation and a people.