Monday, September 26, 2005
Citizen Smash was at an anti-war protest out in California. Here's an interesting description that includes tell of a group that's come up here many times, Al Awda:
Suddenly, a middle-aged man wearing a black “F the President” T-shirt rushes the stage, screaming at Kanj, “I’m TIRED of this CRAP! You people keep bringing this up! This is supposed to be an ANTI-WAR rally, not an ANTI-ISRAEL rally!”
Kanj yells back, into the microphone. Others in the crowd stand up and join in the shouting match.
The Arab-Israeli conflict has arrived in San Diego.
Red-vested “peace monitors” converge on T-shirt Man, trying to contain this sudden outburst of dissent. They are followed closely by the San Diego Police Department, who quickly take control of the situation and lead the man away.
As T-shirt Man exits stage right, ANSWER front man Carl Muhammed enters from stage left, strutting in front of the platform and waving a large Palestinian flag. Carl and his radical Palestinian posse face down the angry Israel supporters, and the entire rally begins to descend into chaos.
In an effort to regain control of the rally, CodePink maven Barbara Jaffe-Rose takes the podium, declaring her solidarity with the Palestinian cause. “As an anti-war Jew, I support the Palestinian Right of Return, and demand the end of U.S. aid to Israel.” She attempts to lead the crowd in a cheer: “Not one penny, not one dime, U.S. out of Palestine!”
It flops...
(via LGF)
interesting incident that points up the acute problem of the peace movement today, in that it harbors in its ranks some real war-mongers, demopaths (http://www.seconddraft.org/ess_demopaths.php ) who use peace rhetoric to urge war (in this case it apparently become too obvious).
The only war these demopaths oppose is a US-led war. Hence suicide terrorists become "freedom fighters" and Palestinians who embrace genocidal rhetoric can accuse Israel of genocide. (Ironically, the Palestinians are the only people who, for 50 years have been growing in population at a rate double that of the population that's supposedly committing "genocide" against them. http://www.martinkramer.org/pages/899529/index.htm)
a frenchmen remarked to me that the largest peace movement in history was the demonstrations of the spring of 2003 (i am a historian of the earliest mass peace movement, the peace of God, ca. 1000). Over ten million rallied for peace, he said proudly. Quite a statement from a someone in a country where Palestinian and other Arabs (NOT Iraqis) rampaged through the streets in some cases beating up groups they did not like at these "peace rallies." There is an immense difference btw being anti-war (esp when it's only a particular war) and pacifist.
Hopefully the well-meaning and sincere participants in these rallies will wake up to the demopaths in their midst.
r