Garbanzo Toons

Entering into an Alternate Reality

Michael told me about a meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace. Actually, he described it at first as a pro-Palestinian meeting. I went with him. Michael likes to debate people, and he described it as "crashing" their meeting. And they certainly were pro-Palestinian.

The first and most important thing you need to know about Jewish Voice for Peace is that they are a bunch of truly twisted, deluded lunatics. They are communists, 9/11 truthers, conspiracy theorists, terror apologists, absolutely deranged, and morally deficient in their outlook on life. Yes, they are Jewish, but - and I hate to say this - they are anti-Semitic.

This meeting turned out to be a slide presentation of one woman's visit to Judea and Samaria. She was given a tour by some local Muslims living there. She swallowed every anti-Israel canard they fed her. She showed slides of the separation barrier and told us how Israelis threw garbage over the wall from their side - oh, I forgot to mention, according to her presentation, it was a 24 foot high wall the garbage was being thrown over. I guess those Israelis have really good arms. And determination. That would be quite a throw.

There were photos of where Palestinian olive groves used to be - according to the Palestinian handlers - but now they've been replaced by pine forests or housing. And then there are the Jewish only roads that go through the West Bank. On this one she was corrected by one of her own. They are Israeli only roads. Not all Israelis are Jewish. Over a million of them are - gasp - Muslims. And how many Jews are allowed to live freely in Muslim nations? But she continued throughout her presentation to refer to the "Jewish only roads."

According to this woman, these were only a few pieces of the Israeli's arbitrary cruelty to the poor downtrodden Palestinians. Apparently, the Palestinians have no freedom whatsoever. The Israelis keep randomly changing the rules on them and shooting them if they disobey. She showed a photo of two "martyrs". One was shot when he stuck his head out of his door to see if the arbitrarily placed 24/7 curfew had been lifted. Apparently it hadn't . The other was a child who was shot when the IDF was target practicing. Somebody missed. Strangely enough there were no photos of the martyrs who are really celebrated by Palestinians, homicide bombers.

This idiotic morally bankrupt woman believed everything she was told, no questions asked. And so did the audience . . . well . . . almost all of the audience.

The problem was, there was so much BS being continuously presented, it was difficult to find a starting point. I was astounded at the total and complete demonization of Israel by a Jewish organization. I don't know if everyone in the room was Jewish, but - well - they did advertise themselves as Jewish voices. And they believed and repeated gleefully every lie they were told. Nothing was put in context or questioned. Yes, the separation barrier is an eyesore, but shouldn't we be asking how many Israelis are still alive because of it? And who is really clamping down on Palestinian freedom? Have they ever known freedom living under Fatah rule? Somehow I doubt it. The Muslim world is not exactly known for its freedom of the press.

And that is why The Jewish Voice for Peace is anti-Semitic. They can criticize Israel. Anyone can. And if it's done honestly, it is political debate. But they were as honest as Hamas, as honest as every Jew-hater who is marching through cities throughout the world carrying Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyahs (and yes, there were two at this meeting), and yelling for the "liberation of Palestine" and for the Jews to "go back to the ovens." I was waiting for the woman to claim (and I was thinking of asking) that Israelis use the blood of Palestinian children to bake their Passover matzohs.

What I wanted to ask, but didn't get the chance, is if it is true as they present it, that Israel is the most evil country on Earth. After all, as they claim, the Palestinians have good reason for their "resistance" - (and yes, that was also anti-Semitic because it is a lie, as any glance at history and the charters of Fatah and Hamas will show) then it's OK to murder Jews. I wanted to bring up the fact that just as they excuse the murder of Jews by Muslims, all through history somebody somewhere has tried to justify the murder of the Jewish community. Jewish Voice for Peace is merely a link in the age-old chain of Jew-hatred.

If Jews aren't killing Christ, they're "desecrating the host" or poisoning the wells during the plague years, or plotting to take over the world, or working as money lenders, or practicing ritual murder, or- you get the idea. Watching a roomful of Jews buy into the pathology of Jew-hatred was troubling and bizarre. I know that every person in that room would vehemently deny being a Jew hater. I'm guessing they would claim to be insulted because they're Jewish and that they are anti-Zionist. But no matter how your slice it, it's still the same age-old sickness.

In the days before the meeting, I had planned on bringing a pen and paper to take notes. In all of the weather-related weirdness of the day, I forgot, so this is all from memory. These dopes made an unusually strong impression on me, and I took a few notes when I got home. I needed to remember this event.

During the Q & A, Michael's was the first question. I don't remember exactly what he asked, but he was quite dismissive of the presentation and condemned the lack of context and honesty. He became unpopular very quickly and many insults were shouted at him. One woman who wasn't shouted down, gave a long nonsensical tirade about elections in Ann Arbor. While some people around me grumbled under their breath, nobody tried to stop her. She went on for five minutes or so and I'm not sure what her point was, although it had nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Another woman got up to explain that the only thing that will solve this problem is the overthrow of capitalism and the patriarchy. At least she was brief in her idiocy.

A couple of guys wanted me to buy copies of Revolution, a newspaper put out by the Revolutionary Communist Party (find it yourself if you want, I'm not linking to these psychopaths). I asked questions about the obvious anti-Israel propaganda photo on the cover that showed a wounded man on a bed and three healthy babies on the next bed. Neither sales rep could answer. And they wouldn't stand up for the paper's trivialization of the Holocaust in one of their articles, since we know, and the JVP will back me up on this, that every time Israel defends itself, somebody screams about a new Holocaust.

We had other conversation with other audience members. One woman went on for a while trying to convince me of the conspiracies behind the JFK assassination and the fall of the Twin Towers. It was a controlled demolition, you know.

Now I'm torn between amazement that people can allow themselves to be so deluded, and anger that there are Jews so morally warped that they let themselves believe lies, and they are walking the streets of my home town.

This is truly a demonstration that evil never dies, it merely adapts and changes form so that it will become not only palatable, but welcome to some in the every generation. The fight never ends.

Labels: anti-semitism, Israel, Jewish Voices for Peace

posted by Harry @ 10:36 AM