San Francisco Gay

Pride Parade

Come and celebrate Israel's commitment to diversity by marching with us in the 38th annual Gay Pride Parade. This year's theme is United by Pride, Bound for Equality. Sunday, June 29th, 2008 in Downtown San Francisco. We are contingent #135, and we assemble on Beale St. between Mission and Folsom in downtown San Francisco. Click here for more information.

LGBT Rights in Israel

Gays have full rights to serve in the military

Sodomy laws struck down in 1988

Full civil rights for LGBT established in 1992

Partner benefits for all govt employees, including El-Al, the nat'l airline

Partner adoption rights

The State of Israel recognizes same gender marriages performed abroad

I slept in till about 6:19 AM this morning after passing out from sheer exhaustion at around 10PM last night. I watched the final DVD of BSG Season 1 (Lords of Kobol, Part 2 + bonus material) while I inhaled roast chicken and vegetables. I was feeling so lazy that I just stripped down to my crazy printed boxers, pulled a blanket over me and drifted into la la land. I remember dreaming, but don't remember the dreams. When I was younger (yes, I can say that now), I used to record my dreams but stopped doing that once I married. Goodness. Ten years of no dream recording. Something happened. Anyway, sleeping longer was not possible this morning. Once I'm awake, the cats are quite insistent on being fed pronto. No problem though, once I'm consciously aware of sunlight, my mind turns on and cannot be turned off.

At 11 my friend is coming over and she and I will trek across (under, that is) the Bay to San Francisco to the Contemporary Jewish Museum on Mission Street. I noticed that the museum was still under some last minute construction at the Israel in the Gardens counter-protest a couple of weeks ago. I'm very much looking forward to the exhibitions and to admire the architecture itself. The location is superb for dining as well, since the Metreon is directly across the street (and next to Yerba Buena Gardens) with numerous eateries on the ground floor. Very convenient. I'll be missing my counter-protest at the Grand Lake but what the heck. In a few more weeks at the end of June I'll be a contingent monitor with the SFV4I in the Pride Parade (SF).

Now, I need to eat.

You are invited to Israel in the Gardens 2008


The skinny:

Come and join us to celebrate Israel's Independence day! June 1, 2008 at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco California (on Mission St. between 3rd and 4th).

This annual festival presented by the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation and the Israel Center celebrates Jewish culture and marks Israel's 60th anniversary with food, fashion, music and film. The all-day event features an extensive program (see website for details) with live music, a mini Israeli film festival, activities for children and families, as well as a wide array of arts & crafts and food vendors presented in an open-air market reminiscent of Jerusalem's [market]. No pets, please.

I'd like to personally thank all servicemen and servicewomen, gay, hetero, bi, atheist, christian, muslim, and jewish, and all other walks of life who have served my country.

Thank you for defending our principles, way of life, etc.

To the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan - I think you're doing a superb job.

To our enemies at home and abroad, be thankful that my President is such a nice appeasing-sort-ofguy. He needs to be tougher on Islamic states like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran. Talk is cheap these days. Dancing with Saudi overlords is not OK. Sending Rice to Israel to wag a finger and insist they drop their guard is not OK either.

Enough for now.

Happy Memorial Day Everyone.

Here's some reading material if you're up late due to the heat. I wish I had some beer in the house right about now.

HonestReporting exposes anti-Israel activists manipulating the online encyclopedia.

Link

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia anyone can edit, may strive for pure democracy, but that doesn't mean it's always fair. Our colleagues at CAMERA learned this the hard way last month when their effort to fight anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia ended in several members being banned from the site and bad press for the organization. CAMERA's campaign involved recruiting volunteers and instructing them in the basics of Wikipedia participation. The Palestinian advocacy group, Electronic Intifada (EI), however, branded the effort "a plan to rewrite history" and filed a bitter complaint with Wikipedia administrators, resulting in unusually stiff penalties for the CAMERA volunteers involved.

EI's chief evidence against CAMERA was a series of private e-mails exchanged by CAMERA staff and their volunteers. An EI staff member infiltrated the group and turned the e-mails over to Wikipedia, claiming they revealed a plot by CAMERA to manipulate Wikipedia and to pass off "crude propaganda as fact." An investigation followed, resulting in two indefinite bans and several shorter-term bans for CAMERA members.

A closer look at Wikipedia's inner workings, however, reveals there is more to the story. Research carried out by Social Media expert Dr. Andre Oboler, a Legacy Heritage Fellow at NGO Monitor, reveals that it was EI, not CAMERA, that manipulated Wikipedia to achieve its ideological goals.

Dr. Oboler and HonestReporting also found that despite Wikipedia's clear policy against political advocacy, initiatives such as "Wiki Project Palestine" and the Yahoo group "Wikipedians for Palestine" used the Wikipedia platform to promote their ideological views, largely unopposed by the Wikipedia community. CAMERA, however, was singled out by the administrators in order to "send a strong message to lobbying groups, campaigns and other advocacy groups."

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Also see The role of the internet in the war against Israel

Shalom.

Link

ARTICLE IN FULL

If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s being lectured on morality by a corpulent autocrat with four wives who heads one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

I speak of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that bastion of freedom of thought and freedom of religion. The king recently had a bright idea: Bring together representatives of the world’s monotheistic religions for a confab.

Many media outlets reported this as a positive thing. After all, Muslims and Jews would sit down together in Riyadh. Wouldn’t that dialogue be a good thing? The Washington Post even praised Abdullah’s action as a sign of tolerance.

A large chunk of the world’s population might have reason to feel differently. Let’s look at the details: Abdullah has a plan to unite Islam, Judaism and Christianity against a common foe — non-believers.

The Times of London reported:

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, King Abdullah said, “I have noticed that the family system has weakened and that atheism has increased. That is an unacceptable behavior to all religions, to the Koran, the Torah and the Bible. We ask God to save humanity. There is a lack of ethics, loyalty and sincerity for our religions and humanity.”

Unacceptable? That makes me a bit nervous. After all, homosexuality is “unacceptable” in Saudi Arabia. It can warrant the death penalty.

Imagine if Abdullah has singled out just about any other class of people. Pretend he had said Hinduism is increasing, and this is unacceptable. Substitute Buddhists, Sikhs, followers of Confucius or whatever. Can you imagine the uproar? Would any Christian or Jewish religious leader endorse such talks?

Apparently it’s OK to declare a new crusade as long as it’s aimed at religious skeptics. Ironically, the same day Abdullah called for interfaith dialogue, his government formally denied a request from the Vatican to build the first Christian church in Saudi Arabia. It is, after all, illegal to worship as a Christian in that country. This guy’s going to teach us how to be tolerant? No thanks.

As an aside, anyone who thinks bias against non-believers is limited to countries like Saudi Arabia should check a recent piece by Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn. Rob Sherman, a local atheist activist, testified before the Illinois House of Representative’s State Government Administration Committee, expressing his opposition to a bill that would allocate $1 million in tax funds to rehabilitate a church deemed “historic.”

Rep. Monique Davis, a Chicago Democrat, unloaded at Sherman.

“I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy — it’s tragic — when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school. I don’t see you fighting guns in school, you know? I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln, where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children…. What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous….”

Davis later added, “Get out of that seat! … You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.”

Charming.

After Davis’ harangue generated some national attention, she apologized. It’s a start, though I suspect she actually believes what she shouted during the hearing.

I have an idea: Let’s put King Abdullah and Rep. Davis in a tiny room and let them dialogue with one another. They seem to have a lot in common.

Last night, April 5th, 2008, at King Middle School in Berkeley, "Rachel Corrie Speaks" was held to benefit the Rachel Corrie Foundation.

The Oakland Women in Black were there, reminding everyone who attended that Rachel Corrie wasn't the only Rachel who has perished due to violence. The OWiB held an almost silent vigil for ALL THE RACHELS killed in Israel.

Here's a list of other Rachels killed in Israel, courtesy of Lizzy on Multiply:

The Rachels the World has Forgotten.

HERE IS A LIST OF SPONSORS WHO WILLINGLY ENDORSED THIS EVENT, thereby tacitly agreeing that it's OK to USE RACHEL CORRIE'S DEATH as a means to vilify Israel:

KPFA Radio
Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)
Global Exchange
War Resisters League
American Friends Service Committee
Code Pink
Jewish Voice for Peace
Friends of Sabeel-North America (FOSNA)
Friends of Sabeel-Bay Area
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
Fourteen Friends of Palestine
Break the Silence Mural Project
Friends of Deir Ibzi’a
Resource Center for Non-Violence/Santa Cruz
Ashkenaz Cultural Center
La Pena Cultural Center
Cody’s Books
Open Exchange
Bay Area independent bookstores

American Jews, Where are you now, When we need you most?

Link.

FULL ARTICLE

By Elyakim Ha'etzni April 4, 2008

Complaints we have in Israel against American Jews are not directed at the various George Soroses or Noam Chomskys, or at those Jews uninterested in the fate of the Jews in the Jewish state. We address our cries to those for whom Eretz Yisrael still holds a place in their hearts and to their organizations and institutions. We ask them the following: Where are you in our hour of need? Don?t you know that if we sink, the ground beneath your own feet will quake? Have you not yet learned that the very fact that the Jews have their own country has buttressed your status in the Diaspora?

Until this very day you regret your silence during the Holocaust, which derived from your great admiration for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and from the fear of being accused of dual loyalties. Today when you weigh those fears against the annihilation of the millions, you see matters in their proper proportions. Yet today your conscience is called upon once more to make a similar decision albeit one much simpler, for today's America is not like the anti-Semitic America of that time.

Don't you understand the danger looming over Israel? The entire world, led by the United States, is hunting Israel down to wrest from it Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, the Land of the Bible, its entire raison d'etre as a Jewish state.

Don't you see how the entire Negev and the country's south are being shelled or are under threat of shelling from rockets and missiles as a result of the Gaza withdrawal, the destruction of dozens of settlements and the transformation of 10,000 Jews to refugee status? Did their outcry touch your heart? Do you hear today's cries coming from Sderot and Ashkelon?

Don't you know that while the rockets are falling in the south, Syria and Hizbullah in Lebanon are preparing an attack from the north, and that at this moment tens of thousands of their missiles are aimed at the heart of our country?

Take note that only the center of the country still enjoys calm. The only reason for that is that the army controls Judea and Samaria, and that is because there are hundreds of Jewish towns there (the settlements, in the language of our enemies). And now, the United States is pressuring your Jewish brethren in Israel to dispense with even that defense. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have sworn to establish a Palestinian terror state right next to Tel Aviv, Netanya, Hadera and Haifa before year's end and toward that end, expel 300,000 of our Jewish brothers and sisters.

And faced with all this, you remain silent? Worse, most of your organizations support this anti-Jewish, pro-Arab policy! Today, missiles are flying from the ruins of Gush Katif and landing in the Negev. On the day that missiles are being launched from the ruins of the Jewish towns in Samaria, please don't say: We didn't see. We didn't hear. We didn't know.?

You know very well! The Annapolis Conference, in which a blind, stumbling, defeatist Israeli government open to American pressure knowingly consented to commit national suicide, occurred in your country. Rice, whose total identification with Palestinian interests is patently obvious, is applauded by your audiences. And you call President Bush, the man with the vision of a Palestinian state that will endanger every city and village in Israel,?the greatest friend Israel ever had in the White House.?You say this when in reality (and history will be the judge) he is the first president openly and explicitly raising the demand and exerting heavy pressure to establish in our midst a devil, a dragon, a dybbuk in the form of an Islamic, Arabic, radical terrorist state called by the false name of Palestine.?That state would transform every day in the life of the Jewish state into Hell on Earth. And all this for the sake of a fictitious people and a fictitious land that never existed throughout history.

Other voices in the Republican camp, including Vice President Dick Cheney and many senators and congressmen, have not enjoyed support from most of American Jewry, and have subsequently become silent. Quite the opposite, countless Jewish organizations have been supporting the Palestinian agenda.

Many Jews in America have good reason to be embarrassed that the only organized American community supporting the rights of the Jewish people to its historic homeland in Judea and Samaria and its eternal capital, Jerusalem, consists of non-Jews. They are the Evangelical Christians. For Jews faithful to their patrimony, some Christian churches are more open today than many Jewish temples. Their organizations and media are more open to nationalistic Jews than are the mainstream Jewish establishment. They visit Hebron, Shiloh and Beit El -- places that many Jewish leaders stay away from.

Everyone talks about the political power of American Jewry, but from here we see only the weakness and lockstep obedience to every presiding administration. We ask ourselves, Why do Christian pastors have no inhibitions about criticizing their president regarding his policy toward Israel, while Jewish rabbis wouldn't dare??

Today, money is not the critical factor. It is political pressure capable of meeting the enormous Arab pressure. Regarding your historic omission during the Holocaust, when you failed to exercise your power as Queen Esther did in her time (ignoring the risk to her own life), you have tried to atone with money. Yet all the money in the world cannot bring back to life a single Jewish child. Even today, it is not money that can save us, but rather the political power that you are afraid to exercise. It looks like today, when the American Jewish community is flourishing as never before and enjoying the height of acceptance by the public at large, you do not feel secure enough; hence you are doing the only safe thing ? swimming with the flow and cheering on the regime, even at the expense of your besieged brethren in the Holy Land.

I conclude with two requests: First, that those Jews who support the Palestinian line should at least not emphasize their Jewishness, and add the weight of their Jewish witnessing to the brunt of pressure being applied on us. Second, that the not insignificant number of Jews who, like Mordechai in the Scroll of Esther, do not bow down before the president of the United States when he sets out to replace the vision of the prophets with the ?vision? of Palestine, should organize themselves and establish an organization paralleling the Jewish protest organizations that in Israel face off with the government and block with their bodies the slippery slide down the Palestinian slope.

Today, like the air we breathe, we need an organized Jewish political force in the United States that, together with our non-Jewish friends in America and the Jewish nationalist camp in Israel, can breach the siege that is closing us off.

Skewed perceptions

FULL ARTICLE

Last Sunday, several South African diplomats and a political science professor from an American university came to visit Sderot. It was a typical tour through Sderot with rather atypical reactions from the visitors.

Usually, foreign visitors express shock and sympathy towards the victims of rocket terror. I was then, more than surprised when the visitors asked a Sderot grandmother whose home was recently wrecked by a Kassam rocket, the following questions.

"Do you feel for the Palestinian grandmother who is in the same condition as you?"

"What would you say to the women in Gaza who are also suffering?"

"Why do you think Hamas launches these rockets at Sderot?"

As the tour guide for this group, I had to translate these questions to the elderly grandmother, Sima, who is now homeless because of the rocket fire. In a reasonable tone, she patiently answered their questions.

Sima relates to the South African diplomats that she remembers a time 20 years ago, when she used to travel to Gaza freely to buy goods from the Arabs living there. "The Arab fish market seller would come to our home here in Sderot and sell us fish as well," she says. "My daughter's bedroom furniture and our home's kitchen fixtures were bought in Gaza."

"The Arabs don't want us here," explains the grandmother. "They purposely target our women and children and our homes. Our neighbors here learned [to terrorize] from the Arabs in the north, who were launching rockets at Israel from Lebanon for years and years."

There was no anger or hatred in the Sderot grandmother towards the Palestinians in Gaza. She sympathized with the innocent Palestinians and her attitude was prevalent among the other Sderot residents who we visited during the tour, including a Sderot school teacher at a religious school.

"Every time the siren goes off, the kids hide under their school tables and sing the Psalms," says Esther, the vice principal of Amit Religious Science school. "As teachers, we tell our children to be strong, to have faith in G-d." At the end of the visit, Esther gives the visitors a book of Psalms to take with them.

As we eat lunch, one of the South African diplomats, who describes herself as a believing Protestant, asks me "why as a Jew do you have a right to come back to this land when you have not lived here for thousands of years?"

I respond to her that when I open the Bible and read of our forefathers, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, whose offspring were promised this land for eternal time, I as a practicing Jew believe in this and it is the reason why I have come back. "The longing and yearning for our land is embedded in our national subconscious--we have prayed to return to the land of our forefathers for thousands of years. The land of Israel and Jerusalem has always been the center of our Jewish prayers, holidays, and celebrations," I tell her. Besides, there have always been a tiny minority of Jews living in Israel since ancient times.

The political science professor from the US tells me that the Jewish people have never been a nation. I almost choke on my felafel at this point. I have never heard this statement before. I tell her to check out the Bible again, because Israel is referred to as a nation countless times.

We broach upon the murder of the eight yeshiva students from Merkaz Harav a few days before. "It was an extremist-Zionist yeshiva," tells me the political science professor. "They teach the boys to settle the land." "And that justifies the murder of Jewish teenage boys?" I ask, shocked.

Not the typical conversation to have in Sderot. At the end of the tour, the South African diplomat tells me that if South Africa was able to solve the apartheid, Israel should be able to do so as well. "Blacks and whites live in peace now," she tells me.

As I relate my experience to my little sister who arrived to Israel a couple months ago, she tells me that I was dealing with anti-Semitic remarks. And it finally hits me, that no matter what I would have said otherwise, people who harbor anti-Semitism in the form of anti-Israelism will always use the most irrational and unreasonable forms of argument to communicate a timeless hatred of the Jewish people.

The image of an old Jewish Morrocan grandmother sitting among the remains of her home, devastated by a Palestinian rocket, therefore, will never evoke compassion from people who harbor such sentiments.
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Also, see, It's Almost Supernatural.

Another day among the crazies, this time at an anti-war rally in San Francisco, hosted by our favorite anti-semetic/anti-America/anti-Israel, pro-terrorist organization, International ANSWER.

I was called a fascist pig, told to go back where I came from (Texas, originally) and some poor, stupid lady tried to communicate with a bullhorn at point blank range. Very annoying. I lost my cool and flipped her off. That seemed to work rather well, despite that that's not really in my character to behave that way but hey, I was provoked and being an adult, she knew better. Had she wanted to talk, she could have hushed her crazy friend up and had a word with me.

In the moonbats' defense, I think their hearts are in the right places. I am reasonably certain that most of them are not anti-semetic and just want the war to end. However, there's no way to know for sure.

So, much fun was had opposing the forces of evil with the College Republicans nearby. No, we (just my friend and I) didn't stand with them but we were with them in solidarity and stood nearby with our Israeli banner, flapping ever so gently in the wind.

A few people walked up and shook my hand, engaged me in friendly conversation, I got a few thumbs up from those who were incognito and honestly, despite the aforementioned hostility, it was a crowd of twenty-something kids who weren't looking for a fight.

It was also curious to note that the pro-Palestinian thugs were NOT associating with the cretins of Intern'l ANSWER. They had their own little march on the outskirts of the plaza.

So that's it. Indybay.org will probably have pictures up soon, possibly tonight. As for me, I have to renew my Kaspersky license and do the dishes, do some reading and head off to bed. Ciao for now.

Yesterday, a group of young Asians boarded the BART train. For once, I felt tall. :)

One blog I enjoy reading is written by a fellow Bay Area person, somewhere in San Francisco, titled The Apostate. Her latest post titled Trivialities addresses a personal subject that focuses on Islam and its culture of oppression. The blog's author makes mention of an article that justifies violence towards women. The title of this post refers to this particular article.

The article: There must be violence against women

In sum: it's OK for men to beat women/girls because the Koran says so.

I like Little Green Footballs for one simple reason: its content. I appreciate that its maintainer posts about crimes committed against the State of Israel, against the Jewish people, and against democracies across the globe by jihadists and other jerks. It's a decent source of information regarding the global jihad against the forces of good.

I am also growing wary of those who comment though. I know that there are lizards who reside in the Bay Area who are also posters on LGF. They, like many others of the great lizardoid army, rant and rave, feign threats of physical violence against those with whom they disagree and otherwise bash Muslims, leftists, etc. Unlike the Free Republic, the uber-reich-wing-conservative blog, however, I get the impression that many lizards are very much unwilling to get involved with some sort of counter-demonstrating against, say, members of the Code Pinko crowd that is continually harassing the USMC recruiting office.

Truth is, I'm tired of reading all the whiny, 'oh boo hoo, my patriotism has been insulted' bullshit by lgf's posters. Quit the bitching already. Get involved. For a day, for an hour, for 30 minutes. Get into work early one day and head over to Berkeley for 30 minutes of counter-protest. Anything. Just get involved.

What the fuck am I talking about? Why am I bothering to comment on something that less than ten people will probably read? Look at this post. Notice anything? There were a total of NINE (9) of us counter-demonstrating against a very hostile crowd of 200+. In the gushing rain. In the cold. The crowd that had a permit to stand in front of the Israeli Consulate on Montgomery Street in San Francisco screamed racial insults at us. They chanted vile slogans: kill the Jews, death to the Jews, destroy Israel. On the pro-censorship site of Indybay.org, the forum's maintainer deleted any post that wasn't anti-Israel and permitted outright lies to go unchallenged against SFV4I. The local media wasn't even there. "Supporters" who stopped by gave us the "thumbs up" but otherwise didn't want to get involved.

This is how I am beginning to view the posters at LGF: eager to blow spittle at their monitors but otherwise cannot be bothered to engage the enemy. What's the phrase I used to hear about reservists? OH yes, weekend warriors.

For those who read Zombie's blog, WWW.ZOMBIETIME.COM, you may notice how the leftists/communists, jihadists, and other ignorant jerks far, far outnumber the pro-Israel, pro-US, and anti-terrorist groups. It will always be this way, but these minority groups, the ones that truly want peace, an end to the violence and an end to terrorism don't have to be so few in number. Heck, I'm a liberal and I'm involved in
an anti-terrorist "movement" that is largely dominated by conservatives. Here's the thing, for some reason, the leftists & jihadists have a greater desire to be involved in their cause(s) than do their counterparts. They are better organized, have more money and are not afraid to speak their mind, warped as it is. It greatly helps that the local and national media are on the side of the jihadists & leftists/communists of course, but the more visibility that we get, the better chance that we have to counter the message of ignorance and hate.

What is so difficult to understand about that?