Capitol Protest (TV news screen capture)
Two so-called Jewish liberal groups staged a protest against Israel in the U.S. Capitol Wednesday as U.S. President Joe Biden visited the country. Led by absurd organizations like “If Not Now” and “The Jewish Voice for Peace,” the protestors, who do not really represent American Jews, blamed Israel for everything and, of course, insisted on equating the IDF with Hamas terrorists who tied people up before they burned them alive. And no, these groups and their supporters are not really representative of American liberalism, nor of the Jewish Left.
Apparently, these people also have no sense of shame considering what happened when a group of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol less than three years ago. And, of course, many wore Talitot (Jewish prayer shawls) during the demonstration just to show they were serious about their Judaism.
“If not now,” is part of the famous quote “If not now, when?” said by the great Rabbi Hillel. It is quoted in the Talmud in a section called “Ethics of the Fathers.” And this organization has perverted the saying.
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IfNotNow calls itself a movement of American Jews “organizing our community for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all: our neighbors, ourselves, Palestinians, and Israelis.” It claims to be comprised of Jews of all ages, with “ancestors from across the world and Jewish backgrounds as diverse as the ways we practice our Judaism.”
Like all such groups, it pretends to be opposed to any kind of oppression anywhere in the world. But for some reason, it seems to really only care about oppression when it wants to blame Israel for everything. The organization showed its true colors in the mere fact that it staged its protest only against Israel and did nothing when Hamas committed its brutal attacks on innocent civilians that included gunning people down as they tried to run away and burning to death entire families alive.
As for The Jewish Voice for Peace, that organization claims that all it wants is for all people to “live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity.”
“Like generations of Jewish leftists before us,” it says, “we fight for the liberation of all people.” Unfortunately, the group has done nothing to work to free the people of Gaza from the tyrannical rule of Hamas which allows no freedom of speech, press, or religion.
The group claims that it is organizing a “grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality, and dignity for all people.”
Again, there seems to be no concern for when Palestinians, or other Arabs, suffer at the hands of their own rulers and are forced to live in autocratic and theocratic states.
And, of course, disrupting the US Capitol is the way in which to fight this fight, while ignoring the evils committed by Hamas and other terror groups.
The U.S Capitol Police released a statement at the time of the protest saying, “A group of protesters are demonstrating inside the Cannon Rotunda. Demonstrations are not allowed inside Congressional Buildings.”
Capitol Police say they “warned the protestors to stop demonstrating and when they did not comply we began arresting them.”
The Capitol Police made a number of arrests including three people with Assault on a Police Officer during processing.
