Monday, July 31, 2006

Take it to the Streets

With peace like this, who needs war?I'm all fired up. So, here's the situation: This Friday, August 4th, from 5-6pm there will be a "shame on Israel" rally at the corners of Pacific and Front across from the clocktower downtown. In response, there will also be a pro-Israel rally occurring at the same time at the same place.

The "shame" organizers end their call-to-action with this inspirational cry: "We call on everyone who believes in peace to come out and call for an immediate cease fire and Israel's immediate withdrawal from Lebanon and Palestine." Everyone who believes in peace... That's quite a generalization. What type of peace are we supporting? The type where these same anti-Israel demonstrators start attacking Jews in their homes and murdering them in their Federation buildings?

And if you want to see the type of un-peaceful [expletive] that's going down at other anti-Israel rallies across the US, check out this post from Solomonia.com, which documents a lone Jew's dangerous encounter at a rally in Boston. Please, let's at least have enough Jews out there this Friday so that lone Jews don't get attacked. If you're planning on coming, you can either post comments or email zmiller [at] ucsc.edu.

And, if you're not the rallying type (or even if you are, but you want to help even more), check out this website APackageFromHome.org where you can send care packages to "lone Israeli soldiers" (soldiers who do not have families
in the country) and other soldiers, packed with treats and practical items. You can also support Israel by buying stuff at the not-for-profit website ShopInIsrael.com.

Also, there is the website LemaanAchai.org which "is a neighborhood social services organization in Beit Shemesh, Israel. They are currently taking into their community Israeli refugees who have fled from the constant Hezbollah shelling of the North. Lemaan Achai is currently directing activities towards helping over 300 people who are being put up in Beit Shemesh for two weeks. Sixty-three are living in one school, Shaalei Torah, and another 60 are living in another school, Uzziel. The rest are being hosted by families in the Beit Shemesh area. Lemaan Achai is providing food and utensils for these families and it costs quite a bit of money. Every penny of your donation to Lemaan Achai will go to helping the families from the north. They don't take overhead."

May the Force be with you.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Israel's immediate withdrawal from Lebanon and Palestine."

Yeah, what the hell do you think they mean by that? Their "peace" entails the destruction of the Jewish State and violence against Jews everywhere.

Mon Jul 31, 03:17:00 PM 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just wanted to clarify-Beit Shemesh is by far not the only place that's had to take in an influx of Jews from Haifa and the northern regions of Israel. Just last Shabbos I happened to be in Kfar Chabad (ironically enough-couldn't get to where I was origionally planning to go and it was convenient and near the airport) and there they had taken in many Hassidim from Sfat as well as a whole camp or two of kids from there. The place was packed and I was lucky there was an 'away weekend' at the Baal Tshuvah Yeshiva there so I was able to stay for Shabbos in the dorms.

This further demonstrates the vast differences from both sides that you don't usually hear from most news sources. While Lebanese civilians in many southern towns are 1.being sent leaflets and other news messages by Israel urging them to leave places 2.reportedly being blockaded into some places by Hezbola and unable to leave 3.(in some cases) intentionally assisting the Hezbola, and 4. are incontrovertably being used as human shields for Hezbola and its good PR cause, most Israeli civilians in the north are either getting the hell out of danger zones or fleeing regularly to bomb shelters. So when one simply reads death counts on both sides of the conflict it's not well representative of what's really going on and definitely doesn't do justice to the real situation.


It should be clear to anyone of any common sense who actually looks into the situation (except maybe a true pacifist who will have a philosophical problem regardless of ethics-these type are, in reality, almost virtually nonexistent) that every bit of colateral and civilian casualties on both sides is the doing of Hezbola and Hezbola alone. Israel is simply doing what it has to do in response to a radical imperialist Islamic group that has preemptively waged war on it.

by the way have an easy fast for Tisha Baav,
Zev

Wed Aug 02, 01:49:00 AM 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A group of left-wing academics are working to combat resolutions calling for boycots of Israel, and left-wing anti-Semitism as well. The people involved are both Jews and Gentiles, and most but not all are based in London, England.
See their website here: http://www.engageonline.org.uk/
>> Arieh Lebowitz, writing from the Big Apple

Tue Aug 15, 08:50:00 AM 2006  

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