For years, the Iranian-backed Islamist-terrorist group, Hamas, has relentlessly attacked Israeli civilians with rockets, mortar, missiles and with the most hateful propaganda; Hamas is dedicated to the extermination of the Jewish state. At the same time, Hamas has also been systematically impoverishing and murdering its own people in Gaza.
The international community, (who are they anyway? What illusion does this phrase conjure up?), has done nothing–other than to blame Israel for “occupying” Gaza, then for leaving Gaza (!)– but without paying a high enough “dhimmi” tax to be applied to the already well funded war against the Jewish state. There have been no international demonstrations against Hamas in the West, (not even when they kill women who are not veiled, certainly not when their rocket attacks traumatized women, children, and the elderly in southern Israel), no UN resolutions, no witheringly scornful European speeches against the anti-Israel rocket attacks or against the Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence within Gaza.
Now that Israel has finally attacked Gaza back–and in self-defense–the usual anti-Israel groups (The ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Americans, Al-Awda, and International Palestine Right to Return Coalition) are out in full force. They are calling for Tuesday, December 30th, to be a “National Day of Action to show solidarity with the Palestinians and to demand an immediate end to the murderous attacks carried out by the Israeli military against the people of Gaza” in many American cities and others throughout the world.
Demonstrations against Israel began yesterday in New York City outside the Israeli Consulate. Demonstrations also took place yesterday and today in Europe (London, Madrid, Berlin, Copenhagen, Athens), the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain) and in central Asia (Turkey, Iran, and possibly Afghanistan). In London, 700 demonstrators marched, some scuffled with police, and a half dozen were arrested. The Paris demonstrations were peaceful. In Turkey, 1000 protesters marched, carrying Palestinian flags and chanting anti-American and anti-Israel slogans.
Today, according to the online edition of The Times of London, 1500 protestors tried to storm the Israeli Embassy in London. As usual, placards described Israel, not Hamas, as a “terrorist” state. The police were unprepared for the amount of rage and violence they encountered.
I must remind everyone: Even under such profound siege, Hamas has not stopped lobbing rockets into Israel. Nor did they cease during the so-called “cease fire.”
Nevertheless, anti-Israel demonstrations are taking place today, not only in New York City but, according to the Jewish Internet Defense Force (!), also in:
“Phoenix, Albion, Anaheim, Fort Bragg, LA, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, New Haven, Washington, DC, Fort Lauderdale, Ocala, Tampa, Honolulu, Chicago, New Orleans, Boston, Ann Arbor, Dearborn, the Twin Cities, Albuquerque, NYC, Cleveland, Columbus, Youngstown, Portland, Philly, Columbia, SC, Sioux Falls, Austin, Houston, Seattle, Tacoma, and in various countries like Chile (today, the 29th!), France (Lyon and Paris), Italy (Florence) and Wales.”
Yes, Virginia, there is a Jewish Internet Defense Force. And they are part of the YouTube “Smackdown” Corp. Here is the Smackdown creed:
“Our mission is to fight the spread of terrorist propaganda on YouTube. This is not an effort to stifle free speech. We value free speech as much as the next person. In fact, our efforts are to help protect that right to free speech we value so much. The terrorists use YouTube services for propaganda purposes and to recruit new members for the fight against the West. And make no mistake, those harabist, islamo-fascist terrorists who use our right to free speech, will take that right away if they win.
Some say, it is not worth the effort to fight the online cyber-jihad. “YouTube is not responsive,” they say. “Besides”, they add, “the harabists will just keep uploading their terrorist videos. What good is it to remove a few videos if they just keep coming back?” We beg to differ.
Soldiers are dying to protect our right to free speech on the battle fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to help them by fighting on a battlefield we can impact. We need to help them by taking the terrorist’s recruiting tools away. We need to let the terrorists know the West is not going down without a fight. We need to let them know we are not going to sit here and allow them to use our services against us. The fight starts right here. Tell the terrorists we are coming. Tell them we will win!”
I dunno, sounds good to me.
Years ago, in 2001-2002, when I was working on The New Anti-Semitism, and for years afterwards, I felt I was almost alone when I called for a streamlined anti-propaganda effort. Separate groups emerged, each praiseworthy. CAMERA, DEBKA, HonestReporting.com, MEMRI, Palestinian Media Watch, WorldNetDaily, etc.–each de-constructed, translated, “spun” the bias right out of the news. I still dreamed of a concerted, Cabinet-level team, a War Room, both in the West and in Israel, that would counter the Islamist hate propaganda in all languages, all venues, and in every country– one that might also focus on de-programming.
As of today, I see that a grassroots, internet effort is fully underway, at least in English.
I remain ready to report for duty.
Stay tuned for the pro-Israel counter-demonstrations that are also ready, willing and able to report for duty on the pavement. Please send me your photos and I will publish them here.
I want to publicly thank Joy Wolfe for calling the internet forces to my attention and Gloria Greenfield for informing me that the anti-Israel protests in London turned dangerously violent.
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