Santa Cruz Vigil/Protest for Gaza

Will everybody be as peaceful as the BART shooting protest mob? Mob mentality is going to stain the drive for peace. RCNV can not associate itself with groups promoting violence, including property damage. When people start busting up windows in SF, how will they know the positions of the business owners? And I'm still trying to figure out how somebody can be an anarchist and communist at the same time.

The flaw in the logic of RCNV opposing Israeli actions is that Hamas is a violent organization. If Hamas espoused non-violence as their strategy to victory, the Palestinians could rejoice. Does RCNV ever make attempts to convince Hamas that they should change their strategy to non-violent resistance? If so, this should be more publicized.

Can I expect this comment to go uncensored so that somebody could have the opportunity to challenge my thinking? Convince me and I can convince others. Censor me and . . . .

dear commentator,

if you're trying to draw a parallel between a few folks who will hold up a couple of signs friday at the clocktower, angry citizens from oaktown who vented their frustration against the police department, and a militant Arab political party that resists a nuclear armed occupying force with garage made rockets that by their own admission can't be aimed with any precision - it's a flimsy argument at best and a gross misunderstanding of oppression and state sanctioned killing at worst.

i mean, if you believe "mob mentality" is the obstacle to peace and not the people with badges and guns who regularly murder unarmed civiliians in this country (remember Sean Bell?), then i suppose it's just as simple to believe that Hamas and the state of Israel have equal war-making capabilities and that the latter is the real victim here, not the people of Gaza.

The truth is the occupation of Palestine has been roundly condemned throughout the world for over 40 years; the truth is the United States regularly blocks any UN resolution that tries to hold Israel accountable to international law; the truth is the corporate media in the United States wants you to believe Israel is the victim of the occupation not the perpetrator; the truth is, it has been Israel and the United States who've refused to accept the legitimate election of Hamas into power 3 years ago and have done everything to undermine it, including political assassinations, a blockade, and the splitting of the political authority of the West Bank and Gaza.

you know, while rocket attacks by Hamas are reprehensible, it's utterly absurd to argue they merit the wholesale slaughter of civilians by one of the world's most powerful and well-equipped war-making machines. It's absurd to even try to couch it in terms of Israel defending itself, when the rest of the world correctly understands this as Palestinian resistance to a 40-year strangulation that pretty much gets ignored unless Israelis get hurt.

lastly, i won't speak for the RCNV but i will say that in a world where hierarchical relationships make us blind to how violence is only allowed to flow from the powerful to the powerless, the exploited and oppressed are not under any obligation to be non-violent with those who put their boots on our throats and say it is for our own good.