Stan Goodenough
The ugly face of Israel and Jew hatred was revealed on the streets of Fort Lauderdale, Florida last week as hundreds gathered to demonstrate against Israel's self-defensive war against Gaza's Hamas terror group.
Up to 300 men and women, white and black, Arab and Caucasian, teenagers and gray-haired, spewed their venom at the Jewish state.
According to Tom Trento, a concerned American citizen who mingled among the demonstrators, filming them and then posting the video on YouTube, the gathering at a busy intersection of a main street boulevard, was protesting Israel and American support of Israel.
"This was not Gaza, it was not Paris, it was not London, it was not even Detroit," the horrified Trento said on commentary following the video. "This was Fort Lauderdale, Florida!"
Wearing trademark checkered PLO kaffiyeh head dresses, the anti-Israel demonstrators wore and waved banners sporting slogans ranging from "Stop US aid to Israel" to "Nuke Israel."
It's "time to go!" yelled a man through a megaphone. "Occupation is a crime," bellowed another, apparently unaware that Israel three years ago ended completely its "occupation" in Gaza, and was only fighting the Arabs there today because they had turned the Strip into a mecca for terrorism.
As the crowd grew more verbal, the language became uglier.
"You are losers - losers," a young woman shouted, addressing a small group of about 18 Israel supporters standing outside the First baptist Church on the other side of the road.
"Your mother is a whore," another screamed, then began to chant: "Nuke, nuke Israel. Nuke, nuke Israel," followed by "Go to hell; go to hell; go to hell!"
Another woman, wearing a headscarf, shouted: "Go steal other lands. Go! Murderers! Go back to the oven! You need a big oven."
Other signs accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing." "Israel is the terrorist," read a second, while a third wondered whether Israel had taken "notes during the Holocaust?"
An imam led the crowd in prayer. "Allahu Akhbar," they chanted before prostrating themselves on their prayer mats.
"We want to educate the people about what Islam really is so that they can appreciate the beauty of it," the imam told a reporter. "Once people understand the real beauty of Islam they will have no choice but to accept it because they will realize that it's part of their nature."
Following their prayers, the crowd crossed the road and confronted the pro-Israel group. Only a cordon of police appeared to prevent them from assaulting the smaller gathering.
"They're so violent" said a bewildered woman with an Israeli flag.
One commentator wrote following the presentation:
"The plan of Islam to take over the world with its insidious hatred emanating from its evil book, has been going for years in Europe. England, Holland, Sweden and other countries are infested with these evil people hiding behind the title religion of peace. This is very far from the truth. America beware."
Elsewhere around the world, hundreds of thousands of people reportedly demonstrated against Israel's efforts to defend its citizens. Venues included London, other British cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, European countries such as Italy, Germany and Turkey.
There were also demonstrations in Sweden, Norway, Greece, Cyprus and Indonesia.
"We want to educate the people about what Islam really is so that they can appreciate the beauty of it," the imam told a reporter. "Once people understand the real beauty of Islam they will have no choice but to accept it because they will realize that it's part of their nature."
Oh yes, brutality, intolerance, hatred and murder are indeed the essence of islam and are woven into human nature... but that does not make it 'beauty'.