Pro-Terror rally in SF
Last week I was invited to attend a rally/protest in the city. I've probably mentioned this several times, but there seems to be a protest of some sort in the Bay Area at any given moment of any given day. In fact, there probably a protest going on in downtown Oakland right this second.
I quote the great movie of PCU...
Hippy guy with sign: "Free Nelson Mandela!"
Other guy with sign: "They freed him already."
Hippy guy with sign: "Oh ... Save the whales!"
But I digress, the rally I was invited to attend was actually a pro-Israel counter-protest in San Francisco organized by SF Voice For Israel. It was organized to counter International-ANSWER's pro-Hezbollah, pro-terror rally at Civic Center Plaza. And for those wondering, ANSWER stands for "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism." No joke, this is the same organization that is supporting terror groups that start wars and preach the elimination of all Jews and non-Muslims. Guess the "Stop War" and "End Racism" doesn't apply to those overtly compassionate jihadi's.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the rally because of classes and a painting project, but several other pro-Israel bloggers give their perspective. At the back of the hill does a nice write up about the Civic Center Moonbats while Balabusta in Blue Jeans describes her day amid the chaos.
Indybay.org files a partisan report in favor of the Hezbollah whacko’s and put together a photo gallery calling Israelis racist. There's that strange Jew/Racism oxymoron again.
Zombie as usual has a great photo montage from the event.
Epiphanic moment
Looking through the various photo galleries from these rallies allowed me to start connecting a few anti-defend America dots. Ever hear of the "Raging Grannies?" How about Cindy Sheehan? What about the Green Party? Code Pink for Peace? All are generally adored by the left. Heck, Cindy Sheehan is the poster child of cut-and-run liberals across the globe. And all were attending these anti-Israel/anti-U.S. hate rallies. Not once did they try to hide their support for terrorism while standing shoulder to shoulder with Palestinian teens dressed in kaffiyehs and pledging support for a global jihad. And Democrat politicians are wondering why they are being called the "party of Al Qaeda."
Anyhow, here is the complete report from the event that comes from SF Voice for Israel. I know it's long, but it's my way of showing my support to Israel and their fight against terror.
Event report - August 12 counter-demo at Civic Center
On Saturday, August 12, International ANSWER held a pro-Hezbollah, pro-jihad, anti-Israel rally in Civic Center Plaza. At previous ANSWER events opposition to the war in Iraq was the main dish, with a hefty side order of anti-Zionism, but on this day, Israel-bashing was to be the main course. As always, StandWithUs/SFVoiceForIsrael had prepared a pro-Israel counterdemonstration.
As the sun rose higher into the sky, hundreds of people were Civic Center-- to stand on our side! They came to stand for Israel's right to exist in peace and against ANSWER's support for Hezbollah and "intifada". By 11:30 AM, ANSWER's rally was in full swing - with almost as many people on our side as on theirs; several times their speaker had to ask the meager crowd to come back to the front of the stage and "stop drawing attention to the people across the street"-- probably because they didn't have anyone listening to their speaker's harangues! Of course, those announcements were met by loud cheers, whistles, applause, and shofar blasts from our side.
Our side featured a musician from the Israel Center (thank you, Achi!) leading songs of peace such as "Oseh Shalom" and "Shir Ha-Shalom"; their side featured chants of "intifada, intifada". Our side featured American and Israeli flags; theirs featured not only Palestinian and Lebanese flags, but also flags of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, with posters praising Hezbollah's genocidal leader Nasrallah.
After the intial speechifying, ANSWER left to take off on their march, disrupting traffic throughout downtown SF. Most of our participants left at that point, their mitzvah for the day having been accomplished. A small contingent did remain across the street to confront the more hard-core jihadist remnant fo the march that returned to Civic Center Plaza; at one point, the jihadists burned an Israeli flag that had somehow been stolen from us, then tried to rush across the street but were prevented from doing so by SFPD, which provided excellent protection. It was yet another example of ANSWER's lies when the speaker asked the police to stay away and not interfere in a "peaceful rally" at the moment that their own jihadis were trying to start a riot.
We will be posting pictures on our website (www.sfvoiceforisrael.org) as soon as we have a chance to go through them-- we have many photos both of our side and of theirs!
StandWithUs/SFVoiceForIsrael would like to specifically thank the 400-500 of you came out to stand up for Israel-- at most, there were 1500 on the other side (certainly not the 10,000 that they were both advertising in advance and claiming afterwards). This was a phenomenal turnout for us, and was clearly a source of great dismay to ANSWER. We would also like to thank the Jewish Community Relations Council and the director of JCRC's Middle East Project, Yitzhak Santis, for invaluable support. We also want to thank all of the other community organizations that forwarded our notice to their members. Many of you expressed a desire to get even more Jewish commmunity organizations involved with this effort; the leadership of StandWithUs/SFVoiceforIsrael completely supports that idea and we would be delighted to discuss our group's work with anyone who is interested in helping to support us! Contact us at info@sfvoiceforisrael.org.
We also want to take a moment address a problem which, although isolated, reflects badly both on our group and on the pro-Israel message which we are trying to project.
There were a very few signs that were displayed that were completely unacceptable-- ones that said "destroy Islam", "no Muslims west of the Jordan", "Islam is a blast" (with a picture of a bomb) and one that had caricatures of Muslims which we would certainly consider anti-Semitic if portraying Jews. Thank goodness none of these signs made it onto TV or into the Chronicle.
The media has enough trouble understanding the story (one of the TV reports Saturday evening ended with "after all, both sides just want peace"-- I don't know what rally THAT reporter was attending, but it sure wasn't ANSWER's!); we certainly don't want to make it seem like "it's just extremists on both sides." Of course, these signs are being prominently featured on IndyBay (an "independent" media site that functions as ANSWER's own propaganda machine) under the headline "SF Voice for Israel Sounds Like Old Fashioned Racism and Bigotry". SF Voice for Israel leadership condemns those messages; those of you who brought them should not do so again. There is an ongoing effort through JCRC to document and challenge the overt anti-Semitism within ANSWER, as seen on many signs on their side yesterday-- by bringing these messages, you completely sabotage this. If such signs are seen again, we have the option of asking the police to remove you on the grounds that you are a provocateur from ANSWER trying to hurt our image and our cause.
Otherwise, it was a fantastic day for us and for the pro-Israel effort in the Bay Area. We had a tremendous turnout that was clearly disheartening to ANSWER, we received much more TV coverage than we previously received, and we received some wonderful e-mail responses from Israel in response to the photos of us sent there by some of our participants (this will be posted on our website soon). Kol ha-kavod all those who showed up to stand peacefully, with appropriate messages, in support of Israel! Please continue to send useful ideas and suggestions to us at info@sfvoiceforisrael.org. Watch our website for upcoming opportunities to stand up for Israel-- we know that ANSWER has another large march and rally planned for October 28, and we will be there!