Op-Ed: Open Anti-Semitism in San Francisco
Published: Thursday, July 06, 2006 11:30 PM
Although I'd written about it many times, and read about it in second-hand reports, I never actually heard it said with my own two ears. After all, this was America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where religious intolerance might exist in closed circles, but which was generally not openly voiced in public.
Lee Kaplan
Lee Kaplan is senior intelligence analyst with the Northeast Intelligence Network and a contributor to Front Page Magazine. He is also the national director of Dafka.org and heads Stop the ISM.
Although I'd written about it many times, and read about it in second-hand reports, I never actually heard it said with my own two ears. After all, this was America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where religious intolerance might exist in closed circles, but which was generally not openly voiced in public except by fringe hate groups like the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Palestinian supporters in America team up with those groups against Jews, but don't like to admit it. They couch their rhetoric with talk of Zionists, but how they really love Jews.
It's not that I was unaware it happens, because at the second annual conference of the International Solidarity Movement in Michigan - where Sami Al-Arian, the US head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was guest of honor before being convicted of terrorism charges - the Arabs and their activist allies were screaming in Arabic "Itbakh Al-Yahood!" Freely translated into English, it means, "Kill the Jews!"
The ISM activists, and their anarchist/communist buddies that make up a world-wide PLO support and propaganda mechanism, like to use deceptive language. People who act as human shields and supporters for terrorists thus call themselves "peace activists", but the anti-Israel crowd gathered in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on July 3rd could not hide their true opinions.
They chanted in Arabic "Through blood we will redeem you, Oh Palestine!" You can only begin to imagine the din of screaming and threats emanating from the pro-PLO crowd.
When the first few Jews showed up to counter-demonstrate, three of the Palestinian demonstrators assaulted one of them and tore up his sign. Later, an elderly woman had her Israeli flag stolen from her by a young Arab. The woman was at a loss for what to do, but after I got her to tell the police, two officers chased the perpetrator and retrieved her flag. A sign in the Palestinian crowd read "Israel has 9,000 hostages" in reference to the one Israeli soldier now in Arab hands that Hamas refuses to release. The fundamental difference, of course, is those 9,000 in Israel are mostly convicted murderers.
I took a bullhorn and began my own chanting: "USA! Israel! USA! Israel! USA! Israel!"
But most of the few Jews who were there in support of Israel just stood there, shmoozing.
The cops kept us apart, or rather I should say protected the Israel supporters, from the the Arabs and their allies from International ANSWER.
One elderly woman on the other side screamed at us that she was the only real Jew, not us, then kept giving us the finger and telling us how we were "gonna take it up the a--!" They were an impressive bunch as they hurled threats and waved their bloody-fisted flags. There had to be nearly 100 of them.
As our crowd began to diminish, I took a bullhorn and then started speaking to the cars slowly passing by and anyone who would listen: "Do you see their flags?" I asked. "They show fists of dripping blood!"
I continued, "We have American flags here. Do you see any American flags among that group over there?" Even some of the cops raised their eyebrows. "Those are the people who cut off heads! Those are the people who support the Iraqi resistance that kills American soldiers! Those are the supporters of Saddam Hussein! Those are the supporters of Osama Bin Laden and Islamic fascism!"
The din from the other side subsided a little. They clearly could not figure out how to respond, because everything I had said was true. They began to try and hide the flags with bloody fists. Some objected and tried to display them again, but their colleagues made them hide the flags again.
"Why are you hiding your flags that drip blood?" I continued, "You see no American flags over there because they hate America and they support those who kill our soldiers! They support those who cut off heads! They support Saddam Hussein!"
The ones in charge of their loudspeaker put their heads together. What to do? Finally, they turned up the volume and began shouting. "Itbakh Al-Yahood! Itbakh Al-Yahood!"
Welcome to 1930s Berlin on a contemporary San Francisco street. And hear, O Israel, America may not always be here for you like you think it will. They may have hidden their flags showing the red fists dripping with blood, but they showed their true colors:
"Itbakh Al-Yahood!" - Wipe the Jews from the face of the Earth!
It's not that I was unaware it happens, because at the second annual conference of the International Solidarity Movement in Michigan - where Sami Al-Arian, the US head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was guest of honor before being convicted of terrorism charges - the Arabs and their activist allies were screaming in Arabic "Itbakh Al-Yahood!" Freely translated into English, it means, "Kill the Jews!"
The ISM activists, and their anarchist/communist buddies that make up a world-wide PLO support and propaganda mechanism, like to use deceptive language. People who act as human shields and supporters for terrorists thus call themselves "peace activists", but the anti-Israel crowd gathered in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on July 3rd could not hide their true opinions.
They chanted in Arabic "Through blood we will redeem you, Oh Palestine!" You can only begin to imagine the din of screaming and threats emanating from the pro-PLO crowd.
When the first few Jews showed up to counter-demonstrate, three of the Palestinian demonstrators assaulted one of them and tore up his sign. Later, an elderly woman had her Israeli flag stolen from her by a young Arab. The woman was at a loss for what to do, but after I got her to tell the police, two officers chased the perpetrator and retrieved her flag. A sign in the Palestinian crowd read "Israel has 9,000 hostages" in reference to the one Israeli soldier now in Arab hands that Hamas refuses to release. The fundamental difference, of course, is those 9,000 in Israel are mostly convicted murderers.
I took a bullhorn and began my own chanting: "USA! Israel! USA! Israel! USA! Israel!"
But most of the few Jews who were there in support of Israel just stood there, shmoozing.
The cops kept us apart, or rather I should say protected the Israel supporters, from the the Arabs and their allies from International ANSWER.
One elderly woman on the other side screamed at us that she was the only real Jew, not us, then kept giving us the finger and telling us how we were "gonna take it up the a--!" They were an impressive bunch as they hurled threats and waved their bloody-fisted flags. There had to be nearly 100 of them.
As our crowd began to diminish, I took a bullhorn and then started speaking to the cars slowly passing by and anyone who would listen: "Do you see their flags?" I asked. "They show fists of dripping blood!"
I continued, "We have American flags here. Do you see any American flags among that group over there?" Even some of the cops raised their eyebrows. "Those are the people who cut off heads! Those are the people who support the Iraqi resistance that kills American soldiers! Those are the supporters of Saddam Hussein! Those are the supporters of Osama Bin Laden and Islamic fascism!"
The din from the other side subsided a little. They clearly could not figure out how to respond, because everything I had said was true. They began to try and hide the flags with bloody fists. Some objected and tried to display them again, but their colleagues made them hide the flags again.
"Why are you hiding your flags that drip blood?" I continued, "You see no American flags over there because they hate America and they support those who kill our soldiers! They support those who cut off heads! They support Saddam Hussein!"
The ones in charge of their loudspeaker put their heads together. What to do? Finally, they turned up the volume and began shouting. "Itbakh Al-Yahood! Itbakh Al-Yahood!"
Welcome to 1930s Berlin on a contemporary San Francisco street. And hear, O Israel, America may not always be here for you like you think it will. They may have hidden their flags showing the red fists dripping with blood, but they showed their true colors:
"Itbakh Al-Yahood!" - Wipe the Jews from the face of the Earth!