Yesterday night, 1,000 Israelis marched to protest the prospect of an Israeli military attack on Iran. The rally was an offshoot of the Israel Loves Iran social network phenomenon which has been sweeping Facebook for the past week. For me as an American Jew, one of the more interested aspects of the protest was the posters which denounced Aipac for pimping the war. The pro-Israel group holds sacred cow status with most Israelis and the fact that it would be attacked is something I’ve never seen before. It’s also a welcome development.
When I put out an APB seeking photos from the rally, an Iranian Facebook friend alerted me to photos from the rally that appeared in an Iranian publication. This too is an example of the interconnectedness of a world even as it teeters on the brink of war. Iranians and Israelis (and in my case, Jews) have more in common than divides them. Only their leaders are ginning up war for the sake of political or strategic regional power games. We must defy the accepted wisdom (especially Israeli) and what the intelligence and military analysts tell us about acceptable levels of risk in the event of an Israeli strike. They cannot represent us. Nor can they define us.
The march began at the same location where the J14 movement started its protests last summer and united some of the same elements of the social justice movement. Though of course, it was a much smaller group because J14 coalesced around economic and social issues, not national security issues. It’s much harder inside Israel to advocate for peaceful solutions because society is so militarized.
Dear Richard,
You should not be too suprised to see a poster which denounced Aipac in this demonstartion, since as you can see by the red flags and the red signs with the green-red logo on the top left, this demonstartion was orginized by Hadash party.
I’m guessing that you political views are similar to this party, but most Israeli Jews see it as a mostly Pro-Arab / Palestinians political party, with a handful of jewish supporters.
I would have been supriesed if I saw an Israeli flag there.
BR,
Nimrod
Denouncing AIPAC is not anti-Israel. Denouncing AIPAC is PRO Israel.
AIPAC’s policies are driving the Jewish people and the Jewish state into the dirt. Stopping AIPAC is GOOD for the Jewish people and GOOD for the state!
It is time to give up the hopeless dream of Greater Israel and live in peace with our neighbors. The power game…is not…working…any…more…
Stopping AIPAC is good for the US as well! I can envision the AIPAC response about the anti-Israel influence in Israel, or (Stand With Us) the self-hating Jews and their anti-semitic colleagues!
I would loooove to buy that bald guy with the sign a beer.
My two cents would be that I have to agree with certain reservations, that being anti-AIPAC is good for Israel and even me (not being a Jew) and not a Anti-Zionist do not believe that such a lobby group is good for world peace. Also in the same vein, do think that Israel a world military power house and even the USA needs to acknowledge that. Please no war with Iran, Israel cannot be used as a US foreign policy tool(box) or Swiss Army knife if you like-pawn.
Being an American Jew must be really so ever difficult in this time.
The reality of an expanding Zionist state is there and the Palestinians should know that and the Iranian’s supreme leader will have no choice to be increasingly hawkish in his rhetoric against the ‘Zionist Regime”
Lets wait and see the day when USA is no longer behind the Zionist State…food for thought.
What is the deal with all the red flags?
There are 4 prominent ones in the foreground and I see at least 2 or 3 more in the background.
Do you know what that is all about?
Hadash Party
So where are these photos (from the Iranian publication or otherwise) that your APB fetched ya?
Our governments cannot “define us” but they can, and regularly do, “defie us”. In the USA, we are having our noses rubbed in the dirty business of oligarchic rule by the 1% over the 99%, whereby our governing bodies (legislatures, administrations, administrative agencies, and even our voters — subject to overwhelming electoral propaganda from corporations and rich individuals) act as if “owned” by the 1% (more likely, the 0.01%), justifying the old canard of “the best congress that money can buy”.
It no longer matters very much what voters need or should have or even know they desire. Government is in service of war-mongers (because so much profit is to be had from war-making and war-preparation). Those 10-yeqr wars of the USA in Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t come from no-where. Powerful interests wanted them. And got them.
I imagine it is the same in Israel, with generalized and well-nurtured fear and racial/religious/national hatred, again well nurtured, and Holocaust-remembrance, again and again very, very well nurtured playing an important role in softening up the Israeli public for acquiescence in war — to say nothing of willing acquiescence in the perpetuation of international lawlessness through the settlement program.
This stuff is choreographed, folks. Wake up and admire the choreography!
RE: “1,000 Israelis marched to protest the prospect of an Israeli military attack on Iran.” ~ R.S.
ALSO NOTE: Tikkun/NSP is running the following ad in major American newspapers.
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P.S. ALSO SEE: Hawks Steering Debate on How to Take on Iran, By Eric Lichtblau and Mark Landler, New York Times, 3/18/12
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/world/pro-israel-groups-differing-approaches-on-iran.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Do you still think that Israel will attack Iran or do you think these marches and movements will prevent that from happening?
I think Israel will attack. But I think we should have every march & protest we can to make them pay the price if they do go to war. And to go on record opposing it when the war starts to go bad as it inevitably will.
Israel — government and voters — has been warned:
– President Obama told the Republicans that war is not a game; President was elected, remember, to end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to start a bigger war against Iran.
– Pentagon leaked CENTCOM war game that suggested an Israeli attack would lead Iran to hit US ships in the Persian Gulf (“a bath-tub” as a former naval officer calls it), killing about 200 sailors, leading to all out bombing of Iran. Resilt: Israeli raid delays Iranian nuke one year, although it convinces Iran to make bombs from their program. US bombing delays another two years. Chaos in oil market, good chance of all-hands war around Persian Gulf.
– A Pentagon leak is US government warning
– ex Secretary of Defense Gates says that war with Iran would be catastrophe for US
– General Anthony Zinni, retired head of CENTCOM, puts it plainly: “If you liked Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ll love Iran”.