Category: English

The anti war demonstration was supposed to be big: instead of having only radical left protesters, this one was organized by the Peace Now movement. 

Peace now is a veteran left wing movement that has influence on the Israeli political scene for over 30 years. In the Lebanon War in 2006, the joining of Peace Now to the protests marked a change in the Israeli sentiment towards the war.

This time, Peace Now blew it. First of all, there weren’t many people: only about 1000 people came, despite the organization many volunteers and workers.

And the bigger problems were in the speeches: Yariv Opnheimer of Peace Now: instead of focusing on the main message of stopping the hostilities, he talked lengthy about how Peace Now is different from those non-Zionist / Red protesters. The focus was on what divided the few protesters, rather than on the simple call for ceasefire. He told them that there are other protests for them – very bad mistake.

Also Haim Orron (aka Jumes), head of the left of center Meretz party, made a bad speech. Although his rhetoric was better than Openheimer’s, the message to the Israeli government was: “Think twice before deepening the operation” – quite a weak statement from a party that wants to be a major factor in Israeli politics.

After this disappointing protest, I’m convinced that the Israeli public will stay supportive for the war.

The only thing that can stop the war is Obama’s inauguration in a week from now. With the Bush administration in its last days, there is no internal or external force that can now stop the fighting. 

More pictures from Peace Now Gaza War Demonstration.

For the third time in a week, I came to protest against the ongoing war in Gaza. This time, the turnout was massive: there were about 10,000 people that came to protest against the war in Gaza, that is going on.

The rally was bothered by group of “counter protesters” – right wing activists that didn’t like this demonstration. Luckily, the police was scared that this event would turn violent, and there were lots of policeman that kept the two sides seperated.

The war has quite strong support among the Israeli public. But when the public is asked about the ground operation – the Israeli public is divided is divided 50-50.

Unfortunately, the ground operation began this evening, exactly in the time of the protest (and the counter protest): Lots of troops and tanks entered the northern Gaza strip. It’s all over the news.

Tens of thousands of Israeli reserve soldiers will be drafted very very soon. For Israelis, this is much more scary than the conflict was until tonight. Here’s a short video to get a feeling of the demonstration:

 

10,000 Israeli Protesters Couldn’t Stop the Ground Operation in Gaza – Click here for the most popular videos

I believe that even a succsseful operation will leave casualties on our side, something that will turn around the Israeli public from support to unapproval of the Gaza war. Barak’s war games before the elections will not achieve his goal to become popular.

I know that you, my readers are tired of hearing of yet another protest, but apart from showing that there’s another opinion in Israel, going to protests and writing about in my blog are probably the most I can do to stop this useless bloodshed.

And I’ll keep going to protests, and I’ll keep on reporting about them.

And relating again to my readers, in the past few days I’ve received a huge amount of comments. I’m not used to it, and I can’t respond to all of them. I apologize. I was quoted in Ynet, and received lots of entries from Google that are related to the Gaza war. I can’t respond to all of them, and I’m glad that in some cases, the readers began a discourse amonsgt themselves.

More picture from the Big Anti Gaza War Demonstration.

Less than 24 hours after the demonstration I attended against the war – it broke out by a blitz by the Israeli Air Force. A counter attack of rockets fell on Israeli towns. It dominates the news worldwide.

So, 8 hours after the war broke out, also the voice of the minority was heard. I attended another demonstration, with the same type of crowd, but in much bigger numbers. 

 

More than a thousand people marched from the Cinemateque to the gates of the “Kirya” – Israeli Defense Minstry in Tel Aviv. PM Olmert was visiting there at the same time and talking to reported about the operation.

The slogans were the same, and also the main speaker was the same guy – Dov Khenin. The message changed, since the war already was in action. 

He called for an immedate cessation of hostilies. 

Currently, the fighting is still going on, and only the radical left wing parties are against it. The Israeli left Meretz party currently supports it. They’ll probably change their mind in a few days, when they’ll understand that it leads to nowhere. They always wake up too late.

Anyway, for whoever is reading this overseas, I’m writing a second post about (almost) the same issue so soon, just to stress that there is also a different voice in the Israeli street, currently a very small minority.

 

 

 

More (bad quality, sorry) pictures from the second Anti Gaza War Demonstration.

The stakes are high in the Gaza strip. Black clouds of war loom over it. Not everybody is supportive of an invasion. Though I think it’s currently only a war of words, I stood with protesters this afternoon in an antiwar demonstration.

Like in the protests during the Lebanon war, the red colors dominated the scene. With the general elections coming in 6 weeks, there were signs that were directed to the elections.

The red Hadash party was behind this protest. Member of Knesset Dov Khenin was there, holding a sign, and then speaking in front of about 200 people that gathered.

He said there’s another solution to the sorry state of Quassam rockets on Sderot – not a military one. He called for a real “Tahadiya”, including a prisoner swap and resuming negotiations with Mahmuyd Abbas (Abu Mazen).

 

The slogans that were shouted over and over again throughout the protest were similar to the those during the Lebanon war: “In Gaza and in Sderot, children want to live” (literal translation from Hebrew) sounded exactly like “In Beirut and in the Krayot, children want to live”. 

The difference is that this time it’s in the south and not in the north, and that this time I went to protest before the war breaks out, and after our army is in the mud.

Well, there are other differences as well, but that’s enough for now.

More pictures from this preliminary Anti Gaza War Demonstration

I hope to upload some videos later on this weekend. Happy Holidays!

Updates: As you all know, the war broke out, and I’ve been to more demonstrations:

Gaza War – More than 1000 Israelis protest are against it

Gaza War – 10,000 Israeli Protesters Couldn’t Stop the Invasion

Gaza War also affects the price of oil.