The sickening manipulation of ethnic and religious passions by the War Party is nowhere more dramatically demonstrated than in this “rapid response alert” sent out by someone in the office of the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, the Peninsula , Marin, Sonoma Alameda and Contra Costa Counties:
“PRO-ISRAEL ACTIVISTS – SEND A MESSAGE OF SUPPORT TO CONGRESSWOMAN NANCY PELOSI TO COUNTER AN ANTI-ISRAEL RALLY PLANNED ON
“Monday, September 26, Noon – outside Pelosi’s office at the Federal Building – 450 Golden Gate, San Francisco.
“United for Peace & Justice and ANSWER, two Anti- Israel groups, will gather outside Nancy Pelosi’s office at the Federal Building, to protest the Iraq War, and ‘the atrocities and crimes of the Israeli state.'”
The email goes on to cite a quote that does not come from UJP or Code Pink, the two co-sponsoring organizations, in an effort to link the protest — which is about the Iraq war, and nothing else — to “anti-Israel” activities. This is a lie, and a shameless one. I saw the same nonsense going on at the San Francisco antiwar rally on Saturday: there was a group of counter-protesters holding Israeli flags. I went up to one of them and said: “What does any of this has to do with Israel? After all,” I averred, “this demonstration is about the war, not Israel.” The guy told me that he had gotten an email saying that an “anti-Israel” demonstration was going to take place, and that it was his duty to show up and show the flag.
It’s interesting how the War Party lies, and manipulates ethnic-nationalist feeings to its advantage — when, in reality, the overwhelming majority of Bay Area people of the Jewish faith support the antiwar position. This email is a fraud perpetrated on the Jewish community. What in the name of all that’s holy is the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area doing acting as a shill for the War Party? An interesting question, which you might want to ask them yourself. Just call them up. Here’s the number:
415-957-1551