Mass media always focuses on the craziest protesters, but still…

1) Mass media always focuses on the craziest protesters at demonstrations. I helped organize anti-Iraq War protests in L.A. At one demo I saw twenty soccer moms with Peace Now t-shirts next to a loonie with an Assassinate Bush sign. Guess whose photo appeared in the L.A. Times? Having said that, these college protests appear […]

1) Mass media always focuses on the craziest protesters at demonstrations. I helped organize anti-Iraq War protests in L.A. At one demo I saw twenty soccer moms with Peace Now t-shirts next to a loonie with an Assassinate Bush sign. Guess whose photo appeared in the L.A. Times? Having said that, these college protests appear to have way more than a just few abhorrent bigots on the fringes.

2) It is possible to be anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic. (A few Hasidic sects are.) But it’s difficult. And is too often used as a cover for anti-Semitism. Protesters calling for Tel Aviv to be destroyed is not anti-Zionist, it’s blatantly anti-Semitic.

3) Netanyahu is a thug and so is Hamas. Neither wants peace because that might cause them to lose power. Meanwhile, millions of Palestinians are starving with their homes destroyed. And there are continuing huge protests by Jews against Netanyahu in Israel. Israel is not a monolith supporting Netanyahu, neither are Palestinians mass supporting Hamas.

4) Let’s hope this doesn’t end up like the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention protests where the official report said the police rioted and stomped and beat protesters. Because it could.