Kowabunga

Anti-Israel Protests in Florida

Foxnews is running a report, with an accompanying video clip that has me stunned. Absolutely shocked. We all know there have been numerous anti-Israel protests in recent days, even one in San Francisco that involved a physical confrontation with pro-Hamas protests attacked the few Israel supporters present. SF Police intervened.

But what Foxnews is reporting in Florida shows exactly how big a problem Israel is facing today.

In the past I have preferred to not write about the conflict. I have friends who are Palestinian.

I believe the Palestinian people have a right to self-determination and to govern themselves in peace, and in peace with their neighbors. How many years has it been since there was a month, a week, or even a day, without Palestinian militants sending rockets, mortar shells, or bullets, at Israelis, predominantly at civilian targets frequented by children and teenagers? This is not how you live with your neighbors in peace. Why, if the Palestinians want to govern themselves and co-exist with Israel, did they elect the “political” arm of a terrorist organization, Hamas, to head the Palestinian Authority? Why does the PA constitution invoke Sharia Law? Why do they shoot at Israelis from within the walls of a UN run school? Where are the people of Palestine who want to live in peace and why are they not asserting themselves and leading their people to a peaceful resolution of the conflict?

Here in the United States we have the right to protest; the right of free speech. But calling for the extermination of an entire people, as was done in Florida, is not free speech. It is hate speech.

From Foxnews:

As the protest continued and crowds grew, one woman in a hijab began to shout curses and slurs that shocked Jewish activists in the city, which has a sizable Jewish population.

“Go back to the oven,” she shouted, calling for the counter-protesters to die in the manner that the Nazis used to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.

“You need a big oven, that’s what you need,” she yelled.

Foxnews also provides a video clip of the woman yelling these words, invoking images of the Holocaust. Hateful.

Emmanuel Lopez of ANSWER, one of the sponsoring organizations of the protest where this occurred, only claims it is not representative of the majority of those who were there. There was no condemnation of this outburst from ANSWER. Instead we get:

Lopez, a state coordinator for ANSWER, admitted there is a problem with anti-Semitism within his organization’s ranks. But then he went on to call the supporters of Israel across the street “barbaric, racist” Zionist terrorists.

“Zionism in general is a barbaric, racist movement that really is the cause of the situation in the entire Middle East,” Lopez said.

That sounds to me like Lopez is defending the outburst; justifying it. Was he? No condemnation of the call to roast Jews in an oven. Only gibberish about how it is Israel that is the problem, even though Israel has repeatedly worked towards peace. I don’t think Israelis like being in Gaza or southern Lebanon anymore than we like being in Iraq. But what choice does Israel have as long as terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah continue to fire rockets into Israel?

Until the people of Palestine wake up and get rid of the terrorists in their midst, stop the attacks, elect responsible leaders to the PA, and learn to live in peace, we will continue to see violence and unrest in the Middle East.

Tags: Florida, Hamas, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Protests