Misery Index

YESTERDAYS PROTESTS

AUSTIN, TEXAS
Pro-Palestine

A group of about 200 protesters yelled “end the occupation” and held signs calling for a halt to the bombings in Gaza outside the Texas Capitol.  Some had Palestinian flags and signs that read “free Palestine” or “Cease Fire.”

BOSTON, MA
Pro-Palestine

About 80 - 100 demonstrators marched in Boston.

“It’s genocide. It’s a holocaust,” said “Frank from Arlington” about Israel’s police in the occupied territories.  “I don’t say that to diminish the horror of the holocaust, but that’s what they’re doing.”

More pics.

CAMBRIDGE, MA
Pro-Palestinian

Over 100 people from the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights and several other human rights and pro-Palestinian organizations held a protest.  Organizers say more protests are to follow later this week.

CHICAGO
Synagogue fire bombed

In Chicago, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at a North Side synagogue on Monday.

When the fire department arrived, they found a small fire on the wall in a fenced-in playground area.

The police Bomb & Arson Unit is investigating along with the Chicago Police hate crime division.

NEW YORK CITY
Pro-Palestine March

In NYC, over a thousand protestors flooded Rockefeller Center in Manhattan on the 28th.  The protestors chanted “Free Free Palestine” and “While you’re shopping bombs are dropping.”

Lots more pictures on Webshots.

NEW YORK CITY
Pro-Israeli

Pro-Israel groups organized a rally in support outside the Isreali consulate in Midtown and dropped leaflets calling on Hamas to adhere to a cease-fire.  The group “Stand With Us” said “Hamas and its supporters bear sole responsibility for any harm to Gaza’s civilians.”

INDIANAPOLIS
Pro-Palestine March

About 75 people gathered at Monument Circle on Monday evening to protest Israel airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.  The demonstration, which was pulled together at the last minute by word of mouth, included Palestinian-Americans marching around the Circle holding candles and signs.  One read, “Mothers are grieving in Palestine and Israel.”  Another was scrawled with the words, “300+ dead?  Not kosher.”

Bashar Ghanem, 32, a heating and cooling technician said he immigrated to Indianapolis from Nablus six years ago and is now a U.S. citizen.  “The war is not equal,” he said.  “Israel’s army has all kinds of high-tech weapons.”  [But it was fair when Hamas was sending daily rockets and mortars into Israel?  And who said war was fair?]

Anas Al-Marouq, 22, a student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indy who lived in Hebron from ages 12 to 17 said, “A lot of people say if Hamas wasn’t firing rockets as Israel, this wouldn’t have happened, and it’s true, but if there wasn’t a huge embargo on Gaza, there wouldn’t be a huge resistance.  You can only trap a cat in the corner so long until it starts fighting for itself.”  [But if the dog (Israel) fights back at the cat(Hamas), then it’s wrong, right?]

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
Pro-Palestine

A “few hundred” demonstrators tied up Market Street traffic in San Francisco.  Organizer Lubna Morrar said, “We are just representing our people of the Gaza who have been bombed every day,” she said.

The Arab Organizing and Resource Center held a protest speaking of the “connections between Palestinian and other indigenous struggles against genocide as well as the complicity of US taxpayers in the atrocity.”

AROUND THE WORLD

Just a small sampling from around the world.

In Sydney, Australia today, Pro-Palestine protests brought the city to a standstill, as more than 1000 Arab Australians marked on the US Consulate in an anti-Israel, anti-US rally.

In Beirut, Lebanon, tens of thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah supporters were involved in a protest carrying Palestinian, Lebanese and yellow Hezbollah flags and banners supporting the Palestinian people.  Hezbollah has vowed to support Hamas, but has for now held its fire.

In London, England, about 2,000 protestors marched outside the Israeli embassy.  Protestors threw red liquids at the gate of the Israeli embassy.

In Vancouver, Canada, about 250 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were chanting “Viva, viva intifada!” and “1-2-3-4, we don’t want this racist war!” and “Occupation is a crime, from Iraq to Palestine.”  Meanwhile across the street 8 pro-Israel demonstrators shouted “Hamas is a terrorist organization” and waved the Israeli flag.

In Barcelona, Span, “hundreds of people” protested with a Palestinian banner in front of the Israel-Spain chamber of commerce, demanding the government of Catalonia region end its trade agreements with Israel.  Some carried placards reading “genocide” and “racist”.  The protest followed a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy.

In Baghdad, Iraq about 1,000 protestors chanted “No, no to Israel” and burned Israeli and American flags.

In Switzerland, there was a protest, however I can not find the number attended or even a news article about it.

RANT ON

First, one Gaza official is saying that the Palestinian death toll is at 364.  Of that, the U.N. is saying around 62 of the dead were civilians.  That means over 300 terrorists were killed.  Yes, you read that right, terrorists.  Hamas is not a government.  Hamas is not an army.  Hamas is not a country.  Hamas is a terrorist organization.  They are a group of militia acting like terrorists who self imposed their own rule.  And as I have said before, those who choose to live in the Gaza Strip under their rule obviously agree with what they are doing, thus the residents of Gaza are terrorist supporters.  It would seem that the “innocent civilians” would greatly outnumber Hamas.  It is a war on terrorism in an area that holds 1.5 million people.

I find it interesting that when Hamas was sending rockets and mortars over to Israel on a daily basis, killing innocent civilians on nearly a daily basis for years, that the Palestinians around the world never EVER said that it should stop, that it was wrong.  I never EVER heard one Palestinian cry for the rights of the Israeli children. Especially when fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools.  But when their children are killed, its a totally different situation, right? Its genocide then.

And if you think all those people that live in Gaza are against Hamas… have a look at the below video.  This video was shot on December 14th, of this year at a celebration marking Hamas’ 21 year anniversary.

And I haven’t heard ONE Palestinian talk about how WRONG it was on Christmas Day when Hamas lobbed a mortar at the Erez crossing just as a group of Gaza Christians were standing in line to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.

Or what about all the years of suicide bombings, which one included a school bus?

Or what about on Monday when Hamas sent a missile into a bus station at Ashdod?

Can you imagine living like this on a day to day basis in Israel?  “It’s totally disrupting life.  Here you have 15-20 seconds to prepare, to get cover.  It’s so disruptive to the lives of the people who are living within the rage … and it’s a daily thing … People send their kids to school and they don’t know if they’re gonna come back.”  Tell me, how would you feel if you have to live like this on a daily basis?  How would you feel if you walked out the door that day, not knowing if you would ever see your family alive again?  EVERY DAY?  Or how would you feel if you knew that at any moment, everything you own could be destroyed by a rocket.  And how well would you sleep at night knowing that at any time a rocket could drop on your home?  I’m pretty sure that you get mad right now, if your neighbor throws trash in your yard, right?  And what would you think if Tijuana started lobbing a few rockets across the border to the United States to San Diego on a daily basis.   Or if Canada started thrown a few mortars across the border to Albany, NY?  Exactly how long would that last? 

Now that Israel has had enough, and decided to eradicate the terrorists, they are wrong, and are in violation of International Law?  How can you be in violation of International Law when you attack terrorists and their supporters?  Whine, whine, whine.  Now that you are on the losing end, you claim FOUL and want fair play.  Sorry.. too late for that.  Now Hamas and those living in Gaza, whose number is obviously rather high, now get a taste of what they have been handing out.. and they don’t like it.  Too bad.

But Hamas also wants to eradicate Jews all in the name of Allah.  Hamas has previously claimed all of what is now Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, and its charter calls for the destruction of Israel.  Until Hamas recognizes Israel’s right to exist, this “war” will NEVER END.

But it seems that the “fight” has come to the United States. Prior to this incident I wrote about Israeli and Palestinian “skirmishes” and “disagreements” in my “Israeli and Palestinian Violence on UC Berkeley Campus” back in mid November.  And just like in the current news, back then, and for the past 10 years, if Palestinian students picked on Israeli students it was ignored or okay.  But when Israeli students fought back, it was a “bad thing” and a “wrong thing”.  Why is it that the world only reacts when Israel fights back, but never when Hamas attacks Israel?

I refuse to take sides however, if Israelis and Palestinians bring their demonstrations and violence into my neighborhood, I will choose the side of the Israelis. And no I am not Jewish, nor am I Muslim.  Heck, I’m not even Christian, if you really want to know.  But I have MAJOR problems with the innocent are picked on and wrongly accused.  I’m not saying that Israel is innocent in all of this, I’m simply saying that I don’t like bullies who claim they are the victim. 

If you really want someone to protest, protest Egypt who’s border guards are opening fire on those same innocent civilians who are trying to escape Gaza, and it has been reported that some Palestinians have been injured as a rest.  Egypt has added an additional 300 guards to the border.  And President Mubarak said that Egypt will keep its border crossings with Gaza closed until Abbas regains authority over the territory.  Why not protest a country that is keeping those who wish to flee the fighting stuck in their country?  But no, lets point fingers at Israel and the United States instead, right?  And lets not point fingers at Hamas, who wants to eradicate the Jews, and has in the past, for years, sent daily rocket barrages across the border into Israel, right?  Let’s just blame Israel instead.

Or we could always discuss the new news, about Hamas bringing back Crucifixion.  Did you know that Hamas “legislators” passed a Shari’a criminal code for the Palestine Authority, which authorizes crucifixion?  The Quran says, “5:33  Those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land should be punished by death, crucifixion, the amputation of an alternate hand and foot or banishment from the land:  a disgrace for them in this world, and then a terrible punishment in the Hereafter.”

Yea, that’s REAL progress.  A REAL step… a real step backwards that is.  I have bars of “Give Me That Old Time Religion” going through my head now…

Seriously, what does Hamas do?  Sit around on a Saturday night saying, “Hey, I’m bored.  Let’s go have some fun, fire a few rockets over to Israel, and kill a  few people.”  Then afterwards do they say to each other, “Let’s go see what we can do next to make ourselves even more barbaric!  Stoning, hanging, beheading and burning is just so last year….”  To blaspheme a line from the Bible:  “Do NOT forgive them, Father, for they know PERFECTLY well what they do.”

HOWEVER, there is the old saying of “overkill”.  There is a point when you have to say “enough”!  Israel has said no to a cease fire, and Hamas continues to send rockets back across to Israel.  Hamas needs to realize that Israel could totally destroy Gaza if they want, and Israel should really realize that there is such a thing as overkill, and not try genocide.  But will either of them realize this?  Probably not.

And with everyone hating and protesting the United States along with Israel, joining the side of terrorists pretty much in every Arab nation, let us hope this does NOT start a world war, especially with a new President in office.  Or is this what Biden was saying, when he said that Obama will be tested within the first six months of his Presidency?  Could this push the United States into Martial Law with all the protesting going on, and possible violence between Palestinian and Israelis?  Between Muslims and Jews?  No, Im not a conspiracy person, as I have said and shown however, lets take a step back and look at the entire picture.

  -  The US is in a recession, and depression in certain areas.
  -  Unemployment is at a 26 year high, and reaching depression numbers in certain areas.
  -  Wall Street failing, 401ks disappearing overnight.
  -  Banks getting a bailout, yet monthly mortgage payments rise.
  -  Record levels of foreclosures.
  -  More homeless.
  -  States running out of money, asking Washington for help.
  -  The Big 2 bailout, and deciding in Feb/March if they are solvent.
  -  States cutting back on health care.
  -  A war in Iraq.
  -  A war in Afghanistan.
 

I’m sure I’ve missed something, but can you come up with any other time in history when all of this is going on with the United States and the world?

Gee good thing we have about a three month stockpile of food, that could be pushed to about 4 months, and it’s pretty portable too.  Just time to start stocking up on water now.