Demo Report From San Francisco

Particularly addressed to:
- those who recall that we are not supposed to finance the most overtly-avowed and well-observed racist atrocities in recent history without
audible protest,
and
- those who understand that we will keep seeing Middle East wars and anti-war rallies, as long as we keep failing to audibly protest the most
overtly-avowed and well-observed racist atrocities in recent history.

The most recent SF rally was a little more encouraging than past events, in the same old way – that is, in the readiness of the people to
recognize that Palestine is the most crucial modern issue, and in their appreciation of reminders that the horrors in Palestine are undisguised and
inexcusable racism: by far the plainest moral wrong and least difficult moral argument to be found in any progressive cause (plainest for anyone,
that is, who has NOT been conditioned to make vague exceptions for Zionism).

And the rally was a little more disgusting in the same old way – that is, in the remarkable success of the organizers in mentioning Palestine
just enough to say they did, while playing it down, to virtual erasure, despite the unprecedented openness of the genocide, with all its daily
horrors.
Consistent with the Lerner/Tikkun norm, most mention of Palestine on protest signs was limited to “the occupation” (code for “post-’67
occupation”), the explicitly racist position which still demands Jewish supremacy in most of Palestine – and which dominates the first openly racist
“anti-war” movement in history.
Though Barbara Lubin, with her “Middle East Children’s Alliance for Peace,” commonly claims (to sympathetic audiences) that we must raise the
emphasis on Palestine, there was STILL no sign of this at the festival.
As usual, Elias Rashmawi, of the “Free Palestine Alliance,” gave a speech which avoided mentioning the central role of the Palestine issue, in
the Middle East war scenario, or the need to protest our tax support for Israeli genocide. Instead of anything so substantial and displeasing to
Zionists, Rashmawi provided the usual bombast that turns off every intelligent listener and reinforces the Zionist portrayal of the Palestine
problem.

From the “people perspective,” the rally was a little more encouraging, because the presence of the Palestine cause was (just barely) significant
enough to show one and all that it is, just now, an aspect of the anti-war movement – like the shepherds standing off to one side in a Christmas
nativity-scene. Yet, as usual, the organizers achieved perfect symbiosis with mainstream media by limiting the presentation of Palestine enough
to allow hundreds of dramatic news-photos to be taken and printed, without showing anything unflattering to Israel.
My own little affinity-group of three people carried the only signs of the blazingly obvious fatal flaw in the entire Middle East war-scenario:
Israel’s flagrant RACIST VIOLENCE in Palestine.
The remarkable absence of that most fundamental issue, from anti-war festivals, decade after decade, is an amazing testament to the
effectiveness of Zionist indoctrination and infiltration of the US anti-war movement. The recent rallies have been correctly interpreted by the IDF as
a green light to escalate its gory atrocities, as it has done, since the weekend, without the least danger of objection from peace activists still
proudly recovering from the weekend’s fun. George Bush too is encouraged by the failure of US “peace activists” to address the ongoing root of
Middle East hostilities; his administration’s blithe ability to smoke-screen the brazen genocide in Palestine has been fully proven. If the
mainstream media say “Iraq, Bush, Iraq, Bush,” the progressives are sure to say “Iraq, Bush, Iraq, Bush.” Those who have been paying attention
all along, and who encourage a deeper look are easily ignored by Zionist and demi-Zionist “anti-war” leaders.

Our main intent was to criticize the trend-following “peace activists,” as well as the registered Zionists. We kept our signs displayed together,
for effect. In the center were nine color photographs of head-shot Palestinian children, with names, ages (8 to 13), and “shot in head.” This
evidently gave many anti-war revelers a moment of sober pause amid the festivities. Carried close to the photos was a sign reading “A Jewish
state forced into Palestine: what part of ‘racism’ do we not understand?” Nearby was another sign reading, “Peace activist? Silence about Palestine
is a crime.”
At least half of those who saw our alternative presentation responded very well – showing the potential for REAL progress that the “peace and
justice” organizations seem determined to prevent. We gave out a flyer, as copied at bottom and attached in Microsoft Word. Quite significantly,
we received the warmest appreciation from the most ordinary people, and nearly all darker-skinned people, and the most clear-eyed activists, and
many of the most affluent and conservative-looking people, many of whom pointed out what should be obvious to all: that “Nothing will be solved
until we face THIS problem.” (and words to that effect).
Others, assuring us of their full commitment, but declining a flyer, changed their minds and took one when we pointed out that we had
attended the “No Blood for Oil” festivals twelve years ago, and the “No War on Afghanistan” festivals a year and a half ago, all of which ALSO
failed to address the Palestine issue, and that we were sure to see an endless series of such good-feeling events, as long as the overt genocide
at the source of the problem continues to pass discreetly unmentioned.

The main point, which needs to be made, is that – no matter what happens next – the Zionists and demi-Zionists will do their best to continue
the genocide in Palestine: and they will continue to succeed, unless genuine equal-rights activists and peace activists can press the primary ethnic
holocaust of our time and place into the foggy consciousness of the “anti-war movement.”

Dave Kersting

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OIL OR ZIONISM – WHAT IS THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF MIDDLE EAST WARS?


It is natural to assume that the proposed war on Iraq is all about oil, but it’s easy to show that Israel wants all these wars more than the US does, and more than
the international corporations do.
Let’s keep in mind that our tax dollars have ALREADY been waging a war, for decades, at a rate of 8 million dollars a day, as we finance Israel’s relentless
ethnic-cleansing in Palestine. No one denies that Israel is an ethnic-supremacist state, in which official “Jewish” dominion was created, fifty-five years ago by the
long-planned ethnic-cleansing of the Palestinian population.

VIOLENT STATE-RACISM SIMPLY DOES NOT OCCUR MORE BRAZENLY.
Peace cannot come to the Mideast until the perpetuation and expansion of that violent crime is stopped.


Every day that Israel prevents the return of the displaced Palestinian families – simply because they are an unwanted ethnicity, whose return would end Jewish
supremacy – is another day of racist violence by Israel, financed by you and me. That daily, institutional violence and the catalog of horrors committed by Israel, in
the “occupied” parts of Palestine – in further efforts to drive away the non-Jewish families – are the initial and ongoing aggression of the “Israel-Palestine conflict,”
giving rise to the entire “spiral of violence,” including the desperate suicide bombers.
That aggression causes endless spin-off wars: against Egypt in 1956, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in 1967-’73, Lebanon in 1982-’88, IRAQ in 1991, Afghanistan
(directly linked, by Osama bin Laden, to Palestine), and now Iraq AGAIN.

AS LONG AS THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT CONTINUES TO KEEP QUIET ABOUT ISRAEL’S RACIST AGGRESSION IN PALESTINE, THESE SPIN-OFF WARS
WILL CONTINUE.

Political Zionism openly defines itself as a drive for an officially “Jewish” state, forced into Palestine. This purpose REQUIRES the suppression of all the people in
that entire sector of the globe: it requires instability and submission to Western interests.
That openly avowed purpose, combined with the horrors we see every day in occupied Palestine, is a direct “cause for war.” It is the most overt program of ethnic
atrocities the US public has failed to protest, since the demise of slavery.
That is the only reason the US Government has alienated the Middle East and the entire Muslim world.

The West’s problem with Saddam Hussein and Iraq is that they, alone among Middle East nations, have not bowed to Israeli ethnic-supremacy in Palestine.
Of course “Big Oil” will take utmost advantage of this situation, but there is good reason to believe that the big corporations could make more profit by doing
sustainable business with thriving societies than they can by old colonial-style military bargain-hunting in toxic, decimated wastelands full of bitter enemies and
endless instability. Corporations must work within existing political realities. And no one has the public-relations power to challenge Zionist interests – which are
flagrant – while even the anti-war movement remains almost totally silent about Zionism and Palestine.

The extreme Zionists have risen to prominence, and Israel has gotten away with hideous crimes, by exploiting sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust – using
fear to excuse racist conquest, just as the Nazis did. This does no good for anyone. Yet, the anti-war movement has fallen into that trap, actually banning criticism
of Israel, until very recently. That softness toward Israel is ending and must be ended. Israel’s influence on US government, through the Israel lobby, and many
blackmail schemes, has distorted US politics so deeply that even the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, in which 34 Americans were killed, has gone without any
Congressional investigation – a situation unique in US history.
We MUST PROTEST the racist horrors our taxes are financing RIGHT NOW – and we must protest the ideology of ethnic-supremacy which inflicts such horrors.
The brazen wrong of Israeli ethnic-cleansing is the most glaring flaw in the entire war ideology toward the Middle East. The horrors of Zionism – unprecedented in
their openness – must be protested, in themselves.
That open racist violence, committed by Israel and financed by US taxpayers is, by far, the weakest point in the entire US-Israeli ideology of aggression toward
the Middle East.
It is a terrible error to let the Palestine horrors pass unprotested, brushed aside by war-talk about Iraq and oil.

“NO WAR ON IRAQ” is fine, but “STOP THE WAR ON PALESTINE” is even more urgent.