So off we went to the fish restaurant and saw large groups of teenagers heading up the hill by us with police in yellow jackets directing traffic. Over dinner we asked the people by us what the demonstration was about, although I could guess.
The next day in the newspapers it said that there were 10's of thousands of people demonstrating the "police violence" when they were clearing a Jewish settlement in Amona earlier in the week. It was a real mess (not the demonstration, that was peaceful) but the clearing of the Occupied Territory settlement. Unlike last summer or fall when the Israeli's decided to clear the settlement and it was completely nonviolent, this time the settlers were dropping big cinder blocks on the police's heads, and taking other aggressive action. The police forcibly removed the settlers and a policeman and one settler was hurt seriously. This gave the right wing in Israel an excuse to bitch and moan. All the Israeli's I talked to were very annoyed about this--not the police but the settlers. Unfortunately, these teenage protesters reminded me of my protesting of the Vietnam War in the 60's--all reactivity and very little understanding of the situation. However, I am glad that Israel is a democratic society where people are allowed peaceful protest. The "police brutality" issue in this case is a strawdog designed to distract the public from the issue of the illegal settlements of the rightwing Jews.
This has been quite a week in the Middle East. First, Hamas won the election over the Palestinians and no one knows what's going to happen there. I met a congresswoman from Florida who was on a political trip here with some other congress people. I asked her how the US can refuse to support a political party that is democratically elected? We are always screaming about wanting democracy in the Middle East. She said that we can't support a regime (Hamas) that is advocating the violent overthrowing of a country that is our ally (Israel). It seems kind of not that simple to me. After all, that is the excuse that Al Queda uses for being unsupportive of the US, isn't it, kind of? Anyway....
The other big story here has been that dumb cartoon of Muhammed with the bomb on his head. I guess the deal there is that Muslims aren't supposed to reproduce any likenessses of Muhammed let alone one's with bombs on his head. However, of course, as you all know, the irony is that all this violence has erupted all over amonst the Muslims for being portrayed as violent. I watched that handsome president of Denmark trying to calm things down last night and felt so glad that I'm not in charge of this crazy world.
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