Press Conference v. Sen. Feinstein's Pro-Israel Rally

Peace & Freedom Party, a socialist party on the California ballot since 1968, opposes the 58 year Israeli occupation and its latest attack on Gaza and Lebanon, all paid for by and at the behest of the US government, Democrats and Republicans together for 58 years. Israel is a US military base that exists to protect US oil profits in the Middle East. Every time you vote for every Democrat and every Republican at every level of government, you vote for the murder and torture of Palestinians and theft of Palestinian land, as they all support Israel, which has been doing this for 58 years with our tax dollars. If you are serious about change, vote Peace & Freedom or Green. If there is no candidate from either party for a given position, skip that position. Stop voting for the Democrats-Republicans. Please do not say you nothing about Israel. This has been going on for 58 years with our tax dollars, constantly in the news. You can listen to KPFA at 94.1 FM, with news programs all day long, including 6 p.m. news, 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. Democracy Now and 5 to 6 p.m. Flashpoints, for starters.

Running for US Senate against Feinstein is also Marsha Feinland of Peace & Freedom Party. See http://www.peaceandfreedom2006.org/

Friday July 28, 2006

Anti-Zionist Jews can’t have it both ways


Let’s get this out of the way right at the top: Criticizing Israel and disagreeing with the whims of its government doesn’t automatically make you an anti-Zionist or an anti-Semite.

And far be it from us to tell people what they’re entitled to think. Both here and in the Jewish state, anti-Zionists are free to speak their minds — just as we are to speak ours and say they’re wrong. So that’s what we’re going to do.

At the Sunday, July 23 Israel Solidarity Rally in San Francisco, a few dozen anti-Zionist Jews — self-proclaimed anti-Zionist Jews with cardboard placards to prove it — were on the scene.

Jews criticizing the very existence of Jewish state are making a calculated statement. Their Jewishness is intended to provide some sort of moral authority.

Again, that is their right, even if we vehemently disagree with them. But at this rally, any cloak of moral authority the anti-Zionist Jews were wrapping themselves in unraveled in short order.

Just an arm’s length from the troupe of extreme Jewish critics of Israel, a group of youthful Arabs bedecked in kaffyehs and red, green and white Palestinian accoutrements chanted their support for Hezbollah and showered the pro-Israel crowd with Hitlerian salutes while shouting “Seig Heil,” cupping their hands to their faces to imitate hooknoses and shouting about how Jews supposedly smelled like excrement.

It’s a bit of a tautology, but anti-Semitic bigots do anti-Semitic, bigoted things. It’s sad, it’s maddening, but it’s no surprise.

What was surprising was that, as far as we could see, none of their Jewish brothers-in-arms stepped in and did a damn thing about it or made any effort to disassociate themselves from a textbook display of Jew hatred.

You can’t have it both ways.

If you’re going to flaunt your Judaism to swath yourself in credibility when you slam Israel, you’ve also got to step up when someone invokes or even praises Nazi behavior. Otherwise your Judaism is a charade, a hammer in the hands of anti-Israel extremists and you are nothing more than what Lenin apocryphally labeled a “useful idiot.”

Jews who deny Israel’s right to exist or espouse a one-state solution that would, in essence, destroy the Jewish state are free to stand on every street corner and shout their views to the heavens. But in failing to confront or even distance themselves from the Jew-hating behavior — and agendas — of their fellow protesters is cowardly and hypocritical.

And, dare we say it — wrong.

perhaps the palestinian protesters meant it sarcastically, not as an aryan salute but as a reference to the pro-war crowds fascism

Also See:

Pro-War Diane Feinstein, What Are The Alternatives?
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/28/18302034.php