"Moderate Mammal" <BunnERabbit@verizon.hutch.net> wrote in message
news:o5uru0t8f9ee7t02skevucmq04g4h554sj@4ax.com...

http://www.zombietime.com/bus_19_berkeley/

Well? Still think open borders is a good thing?

None of these assholes, Jews or Palestinians, should be in American
streets to demonstrate about their war.

Perhaps Homeland Security is taking notes and will deport the terror-loving
pali-freaks, but I won't hold my breath.

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 06:09:16 GMT, Moderate Mammal
<BunnERabbit@verizon.hutch.net> wrote:

http://www.zombietime.com/bus_19_berkeley/

Well? Still think open borders is a good thing?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16689

Protesting an Anti-Terror Rally? Only in Berkeley
By Cinnamon Stillwell and Lee Kaplan
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 19, 2005

Held on Sunday, January 16, at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Park,
the Rally Against Global Terrorism almost never took place. The city
of Berkeley constantly stalled on a permit until the organizers were
interviewed on KNEW conservative talk radio host Jeff Katz's talk

show. What followed was enough public outrage that a flurry of emails
to City Hall got the permit granted the very next day. Katz became one
of the keynote speakers that day giving a rousing call to define
terrorism for what it really is: a crime against humanity and not
something to be regarded as justified in any way.

As centerpiece for the rally and to bring the reality of terrorism
closer to home, the wreckage of Jerusalem Bus #19, destroyed last year
in a suicide bombing that killed 11 and wounded 45 passengers, was on
display to show the horrors of terrorism up close. The back of the bus
was completely blown away along with parts of the front roof. The
interior of the bus was all burned and made any sensitive viewer
understand the agony of those inside the bus that fateful day the
attack occurred.

"Most of those passengers were simply people going to or from work,"
Katz told the sympathetic crowd. A large portable mural displayed
photos of many of those killed in over 50 suicide bombing attacks on
buses in Israel.

700 people attended the rally to protest terrorism worldwide and
listen to a diverse group of speakers representing different
religious, ethnic, and political points of view. This was an event for
Muslims, Jews, Arabs, Hindus, Christians and others who all joined
that day to oppose terrorism worldwide. Even some of Berkeley's
homeless joined in. A large portable mural displayed photos of many of
those killed in terrorist attacks.

Unfortunately, the day was marred by the bellicose presence of
protesters against the bus's presence in Berkeley because it shows the
world the damage that can be done by a suicide bomber. Word got out
quickly and even before the rally officially began at noon, a crowd of
300 pro-Palestinian and radical communist and anarchist groups such as
International Answer and the International Socialist Organization
showed up determined to disrupt the event. They gathered across the
street to express their outrage that Jews, Christians, and other
supporters of Israel and America had dared to gather and speak out
against terrorism.

Groups such as the Justice in Palestine Coalition, Middle East
Children's Alliance (MECA), East Bay Peace Action, United for Peace
and Justice, and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) were
present. Paul La Rudee, the leader of Norcal ISM who once wrote about
his experiences sleeping in the bed of a suicide bomber , was also
present as a leader. As evidence of just where the sympathies of
Berkeley's political establishment lay, Berkeley City Councilman Max
Anderson was also part of the crowd.

Around 40 pro-Palestinian college students, the women wearing hijabs
and the men sporting Arafat-style black and white checkered keffiyehs
(in some cases covering their whole faces, terrorist-style), waved
Palestinian flags and used bullhorns to chant "Down with Israel!" and
" Down with the U.S.A!." They yelled "Free Palestine!" in an attempt
to drown out the anti-terrorism speakers on the platform.

Members of San Francisco State University's General Union of
Palestinian Students and UC Berkeley's Muslim Student Association also
joined their ranks and became the most vocal and rowdy of the bunch.
They unraveled a large banner reading "United States and Israel:
Terrorists Against Humanity."

One has to wonder at the logic of people who would protest a protest
against world terrorism in the name of "humanity." The demonstrators
even brought small children who stood alongside them, shouting slogans
and imitating their behavior.

Expecting hostility, members of San Francisco Voice for Israel,
Protest Warrior, and DAFKA set up opposite the pro-Palestinian forces
and began waving Israeli and American flags. One man blew a shofar (a
ram's horn used traditionally to call Jews to prayer) that became a
potent opposing weapon in a battle of noise. Some of the Palestinian
protesters drove by in a car festooned with flags, yelling "Zionist
scum!" at several elderly people who came to protest terrorism that
day.

Members of "Jews for a Free Palestine" stood nearby, trying not to
call attention to themselves as they supported a crowd of obvious
Jew-haters. Down the street a little way, members of Women in Black
and MECA (including executive director Barbara Lubin) stood silently,
holding aloft signs purporting to represent Palestinians who died in
the conflict. Lubin - a veteran of Berkeley's far left raises money
for a charity that directs money to Arabs in the Middle East and
refuses to guarantee its funds won't be used for terrorism. For
Israelis and their children who are the daily victims of terrorism no
such concern was shown at all, as usual.

A small number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators managed to infiltrate
the anti-terror rally to try and disrupt things. A man with a sign
telling Christians to choose between "Christ or Israel" inspired
frustration in many of the ardently pro-Israel Christians in
attendance. Wendy Campbell, a wannabe filmmaker from Oakland who
makes propaganda films for and is also a professional Jew-baiter for
the PLO roamed the rally trying to give away flyers and repeating the
nonsensical phrase "ZionNazis" in answer to any attempt at dialogue.
Campbell loves to call Jews "Nazis"and recently visited Syria where
she expressed admiration and support of the Assad regime, the same
government that allows insurgents from Syria into Iraq to kill
American soldiers. Despite constant catcalls that those present
protesting terrorism that day were "Nazis," it was the

pro-Palestinian demonstrators, as usual, who were the only ones in
attendance displaying swastikas.

"Politics of Meaning" Rabbi Michael Lerner's Tikkun members tried to
sell "peace" and moral equivalency to the anti-terror crowd who would
have none of it. In fact, fellow Jews disgusted with the Tikkun's
penchant for groveling before the pro-terrorist left confronted them
on several occasions. "Self-hating Jew!" was hurled in their
direction more than once. Others attempted to engage them in
political discussion only to find the Tikkun members ignorant of the
basic facts about terrorism. These are people who even money to
rebuild Palestinian domiciles destroyed because they housed bomb
factories, terrorist cells or were used to smuggle arms to kill
Israelis.

"Give Abu Mazen a chance," one Tikkun woman implored, apparently
unaware of the five Israeli civilians murdered in a terrorist attack
in Gaza just days after the Palestinian elections. The attack was
praised in the official Palestinian Authority government press and
Mahmoud Abbas announced he was going to pay salaries to terrorists in
the Palestine Authority. It was telling that this woman would call
Abbas "Abu Mazen" his terrorist name; Mazen has a PhD in Holocaust
denial and organized the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich
Olympics in 1972.

About two hours into the rally, all hell broke loose. Up until that
point, the Berkeley Police Department-as is customary at these
events-had kept the two sides separate, with pro-Palestinian
protesters, as boisterous as they were, remaining a safe distance
across the street throughout most of the day. But all of a sudden, a
police officer crossed the street and could be seen talking to some of
the protesters. Onlookers assumed he was telling them to settle down,
but instead he appeared to motion them towards the anti-terror rally.
Pro-Palestinian and radical demonstrators from the International
Answer and ISO do this as tactic at all counterdemonstrations they do.
That is, they mingle within the opposing crowd with Palestinian flags
and anti-U.S. and anti-Israel signs so when the media takes pictures
it looks like their numbers are greater. That the Berkeley police
would cooperate with them in this technique is disturbing. Around 30
young Palestinian men headed across the street and straight into the
anti-terrorism crowd. The police officers, inexplicably, seemed to be
escorting them rather than maintaining crowd control.

But then again, this was Berkeley where even communists and anarchists
can engage in a little capitalism by selling T-shirts and
revolutionary memorabilia during demonstrations against Israel and
America.

Once on the other side of the street, the remaining police officers
parted ways and allowed the unruly mob to disrupt the anti-terror
rally. Screaming "Allahu Akbar!" and pushing their way through the
crowd, the pro-Palestinian protesters appeared as menacing as a
similar crowd in the Middle East. But still the police did nothing to
stop them. Some members of the anti-terror rally shouted at the
police officers, "Why aren't you doing anything?" or "Why don't you
stop them?" The police officers ignored them as some of the
pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted their desire to be "martyrs."

Once they penetrated the anti-terrorism crowd, the mob proceeded to
try and rush the stage, but were immediately met by the rally-goers
who stood up to such attempts at intimidation. Old men, even young
women, all remained steadfast in the face of the thugs, and at one
point, managed to push them back towards the edges of the rally. It
was only then that the police finally donned their riot gear and
stepped in. One of the Palestinian protesters, who had reportedly
gotten in a fistfight, was hauled off and presumably arrested. It was
later reported that others were arrested too. But this was little
comfort to a crowd who had come to oppose global terrorism and been
met with terrorism's supporters and who were already disillusioned
with their police "protectors."

Local television news inaccurately portrayed the conflict that day as
being between two sides that were equivalent. There was no mention of
the fact that it was the pro-Palestinian protesters who disrupted the
rally. At the end of the day, the fact that the local
"pro-Palestinian" activists chose to protest an anti-terror rally, was
eloquent in itself. Indeed, what stood out the most were their
vehement objections to the simple showing of the bombed bus. When
interviewed by the media, many of them made a claim that the bus was
"propaganda" and "one-sided," as if there were two sides to the
bombing of civilians peacefully using public transportation.

Opponents of terrorism shouldn't have to worry about offending the
sensibilities of those who evidently support it. Not even in Berkeley.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_____

"Cosmic upheaval is not so moving as a little child pondering the death
of a sparrow in the corner of a barn." -Anouk Aimee, French Actor
_____

"Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny", Aeschylus (525BC-456BC),
Agamemnon
_____

"I wear no Burka." - Mother Nature

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