Peoples Press Collective

Yesterday, PPC’s roving press team headed down to the state Capitol to participate in a rally for Israel. Sadly, anti-Semitism remains the last safe prejudice and is thus the pet hate of some remarkably smug and intolerant people. Take in our photo essay and check out the complete set of shots at my Flickr page.

Note the small text: Israel - Racist State.

I bet he’d tell you some of his best friends were (non-Zionist) Jews…

In contrast to the folks hiding from the camera, this kaffiyeh asshole seems awfully proud of himself. Gotta wonder what sort of intellectual knots someone like this has to tie themselves into to swallow with a smug smile the Orwellian B.S. being peddled by the people on that side of the street.

Does any other country on Earth have to make affirmations like this?

A common theme among the pro-Hamas counterprotestors was to equate Israel with Nazi Germany, often in the crudest manner possible. In this case, equating the Israeli military to Hitler’s personal bodyguard, elite military force, and executors of the Final Solution.

The whole point of this hyperbole, of course, is to undermine Israel’s legitimacy and its right to defend itself. The anger and grief felt by the Jews who these sorts of slurs are aimed at is cruel icing on the sadistic cake.

Note the signs: no hate, no racism, no anger.

More examples of the pro-Hamas protestors’ use of Nazi imagery to delegitimize Israel and sadistically taunt Jews.

Good thing it’s only Jews that they’re taunting, otherwise this kind of thing might constitute hate speech, and that would be unacceptable.

As for the…uh…guy?…on the left, he seems to have been stuck with DNC placard leftovers. (By the way, does anyone know what is located at 770 Grant in Denver?)

Huh - I didn’t know Simply Red was playing in Denver this weekend…

Not sure which moral equivalence Pierre in the back is trying to make here…either the Israelis blitzkrieged Poland and annexed it for lebensraum and nobody told me, or he’s confused on his dates and is equating the killing of the Jews trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto as part of a systematic plan of extermination with Israel’s current attempts to stop Hamas’ rocket attacks and remove its terrorist infrastructure as surgically as possible.

As for the two useful idiots in front, well…I’m guessing actually defining “justice” or “compassion” in any depth beyond the bumper-sticker bromides on their posters might be a little bit beyond their abilities. But golly, those treacly sentiments sure sound nice, don’t they? And that’s what’s important: preening your sense of self-importance with easily-mouthed and important-sounding slogans…even if those slogans provide a veneer of morality which in practice enables terrorism.

Lest we forget what the proximal cause of the current conflict is…and Israel’s saint-like patience in putting up with it for so long.

Quite a difference in message between this child and her counterparts in the counterprotest.

They murdered a bowling pin, from the looks of it.

Oh, those cruel, inhuman Israelis! How will he ever pick up that spare now?!

A twofer: one poster using the Nazi moral equivalence to delegitimize Israel itself, and another attempting to steal Israel’s basis for trying to shut down Hamas’ rocket capabilities and terror infrastructure.

While the Nazi-themed word signs were pretty offensive, for some reason I found this purely graphical sign to be the most offensive of the bunch. And that’s only because I didn’t see with my own eyes the minimally-modified Nazi Kriegsmarine ensign that one of the Hamas supporters had been waving while I was up on the capitol steps.

Not sure if she’s one of the Loretto kooks who usually show up for these sorts of things, or what - the ginormous Loretto banner wasn’t out today.

Support for Israel? Check.

Sympathy for the Palestinians and a rational assessment of their plight? Check.

American and Israeli unity? Check.

Hate? Rage? Eliminationist rhetoric? Umm…nope.

There you have it.

How can you negotiate for peace with people who do not accept your country’s right to exist in the first place?

And what’s amazing is, the woman holding the sign has probably never thought through the implications of the position on her placard, and is probably genuinely outraged when the easily foreseeable consequences of that position come calling. I can imagine her thinking the obliteration of Israel is a perfectly natural and normal and reasonable thing to hope for, and being surprised that the Israelis themselves don’t agree and make a fuss about it instead of simply committing national suicide like they should.

A smile and a joke. One example of the positive “sense of life” on display at the pro-Israel rally, as opposed to the hatred and rage across the street at the counterdemonstration.

Note that I’m not talking here about whatever grievances or differences of opinion exist between the two groups - this is a reflection of a philosophical foundation, a fundamental difference of perspective. The sort of difference which makes sending one’s children out with suicide bomb vests strapped to their bodies to commit mass murder so incomprehensible to one side, and so prideworthy to the other.

I do.