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NYC Middle East Peace Rally Recap
By Daniel Sieradski / January 12, 2009
As you can tell from the photos, yesterday’s rally was a modest success by general protest standards, and yet it was a great success for something whipped together in 3 days without any institutional support.
All in all about 40 people turned out to brave the cold and an onslaught of fiery invective from some pro-Israel demonstrators who couldn’t quite grasp how we could be against the killing on both sides. It was a hard day but spirits stayed high and we outlasted our detractors, overpowering their angry epithets with Hebrew and Arabic songs of peace, and opening up a few of them to possibilities beyond continuing violence.
We also got a fair amount of attention from local, national, and Jewish community press and we’re hoping to see our voice enter the debate on this issue in print and on television over the next few days. Please keep an eye out for articles mentioning our event and share them with us. If you have any photos or videos to share, we encourage you to do so as well.
Thank you so much to everyone who attended and also to those who helped get the word out! We’ll let you know about any future demonstrations which, b’ezrat hashem/inshallah/God willing won’t be necessary should a ceasefire come soon.
More photos:
(Credit: Eli Valley)
(Credit: Daniel Sieradski)
(Credit: Daniel Sieradski)
Cross-posted at Orthodox Anarchist.
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I occasionally find myself asking: how would the inestimable Hulagu have handled Hamas? Then I remind myself why I’m glad I don’t have to make any sort of important geopolitical or military decisions for Israel, or anyone else.
Duvidle. I’d like you to reconsider your position on Gold LammĂ© Jackets. It’s a great look for you and adds color to you otherwise pallid shtetl complexion. Really, you should wear that jacket always!
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I love the nightlife, I love to boogie at Jewlicious.com
Can’t solve Israel’s problems. But we can rethink our position on mass immigration here.Â
According to this post, an email received from Jews Against The Occupation "one of many such emails and comments I have received" urged you to abandon your demonstation and instead join the Palestinian solidarity rally. This strikes me as being motivated less by fear of reprisals from the mainstream Jewish establishment and more by ideological considerations that insist on positing the fault for the situation in Gaza and everything else that’s wrong in the Middle East, exclusively upon Israel. Hmmm…
As for moral compromises, we make them every day. They are unavoidable – especially when lives are at stake. I have great respect for the principled restraint shown by pacifists for instance. But pacifism is not a Jewish value at all nor is it a particularly good survival strategy when dealing with an entity that is unstoppably committed to your complete obliteration. Maintining one’s moral stature is important but there is no morality in a corpse. As for branding, I’d rather be a somewhat tarnished but viable brand than a stellar brand that everyone remembers with fondness – like the Shtetl Jews of Poland for instance.
And I don’t believe for a second that our conduct in this war against Iran… oops, I mean Hamas is anything for us to be ashamed of. The IDF has acted with commendable restraint given the context of an intractable foe on its border behaving with callous lack of care for the best interests of its constituents and innocent civilians on both sides.
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I blog at Jewlicious.com
I like the term "soixante huitards," but I think the question here is whether unleashing the dogs of war in Gaza will be a more effective means of saving Jewish lives than the more moderate approach that Mobius advocates. This is not some stupid discussion where a weed-addled rube hopes that his kindness will soften Hamas’s position. But, what about international opinion? Is it in Israel’s best interest to dismiss it so cavalierly? Please don’t attribute the stupidity of sacrificing Jewish lives to European armchair morality to advocates of peace. This is a more serious issue than that. There are high costs, beyond offending frivolous lefties, to a military operation with a high civilian death toll. Is the operation worth it?Â
The whole "civilized" world, such as it is imagined to be by the civilized progressive left in Europe and the United States, is already as anti-Israel as can possibly be imagined if only because Israel has dared to ally itself with the United States (aka, the font of the world’s problems and evils). Call it the geopolitical version of the original sin. The same soixante huitards that justified the slaughter of Israeli athletes at Munich as an "anti-colonial" or "anti-imperialist" action in 1972 are today’s Eurocrats tut tutting Israel for immoderation in the defense of Jewish lives. Any attempt to placate them is as fruitless as attempting to placate Hamas – no apology or groveling will ever be enough for them.
There is nothing we can do to please these people, and it’s long past time we stopped caring so much about what they think of us.
It’s not merely for the sake of avoiding fighting. Fighting in this case will not yield the desired outcome for Israel, nor will it serve Israel’s long term security interests. This will only serve to inflame the situation until the whole world is cheering on Ahmadinejad when he presses the button. And I’m not saying to be a court Jew. I’m saying stand firm on Jewish rights. Just do it at the negotiating table rather than while waving guns in children’s faces and obliging Hamas’ propaganda interests.
Similarly, when we seek to placate the people who seek the obliteration of Israel at any cost only for the sake of avoiding fighting, we are also doing irreperable harm to the Jewish brand. There is more to peace than the absence of war, and until our right to exist in Israel (or anywhere, really) is recognized without conditions, modifiers, footnotes, asterisks or excuses, peace is a pipe dream.
. . . would also give them a reason to not fire on Israel.
Like, Hamas is looking for "a reason to not fire on Israel"? Aside from the split infinitive, who is this twerp?Â
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I appreciate the tenor of your response and respectfully disagree. I believe that such a moral compromise will do irreparable harm to the Jewish brand, sending identification with Israel even further into the tank among both Jews and non-Jews internationally. When we cast aside our moral legacy and heritage for the sake of a hawkish security policy that hasn’t proven itself any more effective than the diplomatic alternative, we risk the entire Jewish future.Â
As per the peace groups, we invited several prominent ones to endorse our rally. They each declined stating universally that they feared reprisals from the mainstream Jewish establishment were they to participate. So I guess they agree on something.
 I have no qualms in saying that I abhor the violence that is going on in as we speak. I’m sitting here in Jerusalem, going about my ordinary life while friends are putting their lives at risk and innocent people are getting killed in Gaza – just a few hours by car from here. Would I like it all to end right now? Absolutely. But anyone with any sense knows that any lull in the fighting will only give Hamas an opportunity to regroup and rearm. If Egypt couldn’t keep Hamas from stockpiling weapons, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the Arab League, even in the context of a negotiated settlement, would be any more successful. Hamas’ job in Gaza is to follow the orders of its Iranian Shiite paymasters who clearly don’t give a rat’s ass about the lives and the welfare of Palestinian Sunni civilians. How else can one explain the launching of a Grad rocket at Ashkelon during a three-hour humanitarian cease fire meant to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the beleaguered people of Gaza? Sadly, the most effective way for the IDF to deter Hamas from continuing its attacks on Israel and its cynical exploitation of Palestinian misery, is to deal it a brutally punishing blow. The civilian lives lost as a result are tragic, but the fault for those deaths lies squarely in the hands of a craven political leadership that is a bought and paid for extension of Tehran’s Mullahs. They wanted to distract the world from their rapidly advancing nuclear program and guess what? Mission accomplished!
I know the protesters at this rally meant well, but heck – where were the American Jewish Peace groups? They couldn’t even agree to support a position of moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel! Not that that position isn’t in and of itself ridiculous. There is of course no moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel – but still. They couldn’t even agree to that.
So, while I appreciate the efforts and the good intentions of those who came out to this rally, I remain unconvinced of its premise. I don’t feel happy about it, and I hope I am wrong, but right now, I don’t think I’m wrong. I don’t think Hamas will stop attacking until such time as it is dealt a strong and powerful blow and its own supporters begin to realize that they have been sold up the river.
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I blog at Jewlicious.com
Yassir Arafat is dead and irrelevant. But perhaps he would have accepted at Taba if Israel hadn’t increased settlement growth at a rate of 300% annually and divided the West Bank into bantustans after signing Oslo.Â
Will signing a truce with Hamas buy them time to stock up on heavier artillery? Perhaps. But a negotiated resolution to the conflict backed by the Arab League would also give them a reason to not fire on Israel.
At any rate, now that I’ve had a chance to look at your blog and realize that you’re an LGF and Atlas fan, there’s clearly no more reason for me to engage you, as nothing productive can possibly come from it.
"…advocating for Israelis & Palestinians to resume diplomatic efforts has nothing to do with letting people shit all over you.."
Wrong – It has everything to do with it.
Where have you been? Does the Oslo Accords or the Taba Summit ring a bell?
Both sides are still imbued with Arafat diseased excreta thanks to him and all those who encouraged his criminal and cruel charade and swindle and now your callling for yet another bite of the "excreta" sandwich.
Does buying time for knife-in-the-teeth maniacs in Gaza achieve Israel’s security goals until their sponsors in Iran get fitted with heavier artillery?
Sorry, but advocating for Israelis & Palestinians to resume diplomatic efforts has nothing to do with letting people shit all over you. I’m not going to be all sweet and loving nor stand idly by when you call me and my friends kapos for disagreeing with you over how to best achieve Israel’s security goals.
You know, the trend I notice among the folks mocking peace activists here is that they all profess to be standing up for Israel and for the Jewish people. So how does picking on Mr. Sieradski for standing up for his convictions help the Jews? Seriously. Oh wait, I just realized that he called you a few names. Your attacks are justified and helpful. Damn you and your stupid peace, Mobius!
Daniel – One of your "Peaceful"Â contributers is hurling some " fiery invective " of his own calling people "pricks" and "idiots" and telling them to go "eff "themselves. .
Any comment policy violations here?
By the way Daniel – PEACE!
and thanks for the comic relief.
It’s because he’s edgy – but still politically progressive!
At any rate, none of the people calling for "death to all Juice (sic)" are going to show up to these self-congratulatory displays of personal political enlightenment for some reason … or are they?
 Maybe they’ll see how edgy but sincere these upper class secular Jews and funky Jewcy nu-Jus are, slap their foreheads and say, "wait, we LIKE these guys! We only want conspicuously Jewish Jews – you know, Jews who insist on living like Jews among their Muslim betters – to die! Not these wonderful American liberals! They’re OK in our books!"
Then comes hand holding, a pancake breakfast, and world peace.
Rob, I think the germane part is, You say Tomato and he says, Fuck you.
See: http://orthodoxanarchist.com/2009/01/224/epic-morality-fail/
Now kindly go eff yourself.
Well, I’d appreciate it if you would walk me through your reasoning in posting that link, because I don’t get the point you’re making at all. (I’m not being sarcastic; I literally don’t understand why you think that link was a germane retort to my post.)
 -Rob
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I think what Mobius is doing is a good thing. Even if it’s possible that those who don’t sympathize with Israel’s goals would only voice support for strategic purposes, it’s important to see if a peace-driven Arab-Muslim constituency could take root and grow, however unlikely that seems presently.
See: http://orthodoxanarchist.com/2009/01/224/epic-morality-fail/
Now kindly go eff yourself.
@zbird: We had 2 Muslims join us at the rally, but since word has gotten out, others have come forward asking us to keep them informed about future events so that they can participate.
 All in all about 40 people turned out to brave the cold and an
onslaught of fiery invective from some pro-Israel demonstrators who
couldn’t quite grasp how we could be against the killing on both sides.
Good on y’all for braving that hellish inferno of invective! Speaking only for myself, I would like to buy each and every one of you a delicious cupcake, with U R My #1 Hero! in red icing.
Just out of curiosity, though — how many people from the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel demonstration came over to scold you guys for implying a false moral equivalence between "legitimate Palestinian self-defense" and "the Zionist Entity’s neo-colonialist aggression"?
I’m going to go way out on a limb and guess that the answer to my question is "zero," because everyone on the anti-Israel side (correctly) recognizes your group as a strategically valuable ally.
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I am curious to know what the crowd consisted of. How many Jews vs. Arabs vs. none of the above? Also I’d be curious to know if the crowd was basically left-wing or perhaps more politically diverse than you’d expect.
–Z
I wonder if both of you are "feeling awfully good" about being smug pricks who ridicule their fellow Jews for denouncing violence, and for speaking up, from within the Left, in favor of Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. Better we should let you two be spokespeople for the Jewish community so that everyone can be sure that we are filled with hatred and genocidal lust equal to that of Hamas. That will surely bring Israel and the Jewish people peace.
Feeling awfully good about themselves is the whole point.
Jewish peace protesters feel good about themselves by showing how morally superior they are to both sides (especially the Israeli side) and pro-Palestinian protesters feel good by showing how ferocious they are.
I wonder who has the will to win?
If Hamas was blond haired and blue eyed neo-Nazis would the Jewish peaceniks
display an Aryan Nations flag and call for compromise and understanding?
That’s so funny!
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Of the 40 people who showed up, is it safe to say they were all Jews or Christians.
Humm, who could be missing from this gathering where the Israel and Palestine flags are displayed together?
Does the expression one hand clapping mean anything to you?
Peace is a two way street. When peace becomes a one way street it is called surrender.
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