Yohay Elam

The Israeli government declared a unilateral cease fire tonight. Just before the declarion, I’ve attended yet another anti war demonstration.

 

More pictures from the hopeful last anti war demonstration.

 

Contrary to the Peace Now protest, this time, it was back to the normal organizers: the radical left. Around 3000 people attended a demonstration that began on the seaside, and ended in a park in Jaffa. The demonstrators shouted different slogans. Some were the usual ones: Jews and Arabs refurse to be enemies, children want to live, stop the occupation, etc.

Other shouted slogans that called Ehud Barak a murderer, and “Enough with the country”. It was hard for me being in the same demonstration where such slogans are screamed. Again, I expected a unified message: Stop the War!

Well, hopefully it’s happening, and the unilateral cease fire will hold.

Why I’m against the Gaza war

Some readers have asked me to elaborate on why I’m against the war. In general, I think that this “Cast Lead” operation kills way too many civilians, causes lots of destruction, and isn’t a good practice of our right of self protection. We definitely have a right to protect our civilians.

I’m convinced that this terrible war isn’t the way to acheive it. And after three wees, this operation didn’t stop the Quassam rockets from landing in Israel.

There are additional reasons why I’m opposed to this war, and I can elaborate much more on the points I’ve stated above. It requires a separate post. I hope it’ll all be over, and I won’t need another post.

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.