[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Against the world

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Against the world 
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1168732124.shtml


   I just got back from the pro-Hezbollah teach-in, sponsored by our
   local [1]Activists for the Liberation of Palestine. It was about what
   I expected; there were a few semi-homeless old marxists who did
   vaguely resemble Lynn Stewart plus a smattering of Palestinians and
   their supporters. There were about 25 people in the room.

   The event was moderated by the [2]infamously anti-Semitic [3]Charlotte
   Kates, who openly supports Palestinian homicide bombers:

     In response to an e-mail query, Ms Charlotte Kates of New Jersey
     Solidarity explained that this support extends to suicide bombing,
     "We support Palestinians' right to resist occupation and
     oppression, and do not feel that it is our place as a solidarity
     movement to dictate tactics of resistance to the Palestinian
     people," she wrote. Ms Kates does not see anything wrong with
     suicide bombing. She states, "Why is there something particularly
     horrible about "suicide bombing" - except for the extreme
     dedication conveyed in the resistance fighter's willingness to use
     his or her own body to fight? Very seldom is there seen to be
     something uniquely horrible about fighter planes dropping massive
     bombs on entire cities, when the pilot flies home unscathed."

   If the New Jersey division of transportation hadn't redirected the
   road I was supposed to take, subsequently getting me lost in Jersey
   City, I would have been able to hear her speech, but as it was, I was
   too late. I never thought I'd be grateful to the Jersey DOT.

   Two things I didn't expect - the food was more awful than usual (stale
   popcorn) and I couldn't find the free-trade coffee. Based on every
   Unitarian event I've attended, every respectable lefty gathering in an
   old moldy church must have Free Trade coffee.

   The gathering consisted of a film called "Samidoun" [Steadfastness]
   followed by a long conspiracy-driven rant by the featured speaker,
   [4]Workers World writer and friend of Ramsey Clark, Bill Doares.

   The film was a bit of fairly efficient propaganda. The pro-Hezbollah
   filmmakers knew how to push the right buttons - talk about Israeli
   'atrocities' during the war, show the Shi'ia refugess who escaped the
   fighting due to early notification by the Israeli army (while
   neglecting to mention the [5]Christians from the south who forced by
   Hezbollah to remain in their homes while under Israeli bombardment).
   Finish up with a shots of Hezbollah's "Construction Jihad"*
   (seriously, that's what they call themselves), rebuilding homes in the
   south (but not in the Christian towns) with their honest, steadfast
   labor. Finish up with implications that America is to blame for the
   whole thing, have one of Hezbollahs sheiks make a few jokes about
   George Bush to get the audience laughing, then and finish up with
   cheers for Hezbollah's "Resistance."

   After the film, Bill Doares' speech, focusing on his Hezbollah-led
   tour and his recitation of various CIA-US related conspiracy theories
   had them snoring in the aisles.

   The speech started out on a good note. He held their attention in the
   beginning simply by telling the crowd that he was in Beirut for a few
   weeks. (He went to Lebanon and he survived!)

   Before Hezbollah's putsDoares and his friends met with the "Sheik
   responsible for the Resistance" in a bunker in Qana a week before the
   first [6]Hezbollah rally on December 1. This sheik in the bunker in
   Qana hinted that Hezbollah would be taking some action soon.

   Doares told us that there were 2.5 million people at the march on
   December 10th, an absurd exaggeration given that the population of
   Lebanon is 4 million. According to most reports there were
   "thousands", many fewer than at the March 14th Cedar Revolution rally.

   Doares described how, on the day before the Dec. 1 rally, poor,
   innocent Hezbollah was trying to drum up support by driving through a
   Christian neighborhood, waving their flags. (He didn't metion the fact
   that if a Christian group tried to drive into Hezbollah territory
   waving their flags, they'd be shot on sight.) He then said that the
   Christian response was so violent and biased, it reminded him of
   southerners shouting at Civil Rights marchers during the 60's. (he
   looked kind of young to be remembering that)

   He also mentioned that Communists in Lebanon think Nasrallah is 'too
   moderate'. He then noted that [7]Labor groups were planning to take
   some sort of action in Lebanon this week.

   The crowd was awake for that part of the speech, but at some point
   (ok, I may have drifted off myself), he started with the conspiracy
   theories, going on and on about how the assassination of Pierre
   Gemayel was orchestrated by the CIA and Mossad, the Siniora regime is
   a US puppet and the US is conspiring with right wingers in Lebanon to
   impose a US-friendly 'neo-liberal regime in Lebanon'.

   As Doares ranted, some people got up to get more stale popcorn. Others
   leaned back and snored. Even the lady who was videotaping him fell
   asleep.

   Then it was time for the question and answer session. Some people woke
   up and asked a few easy questions. One lady even asked for the details
   of the plot behind Gemayel's assassination.

   His answer was basically Karl Marx's famous "Who benefitsâ? Every
   conspiracy theory can be answered with that response. And the answer
   is always the US, Israel, the Illuminati or the Masons.

   One man asked what the UN was doing in Lebanon, provoking a long rant
   about US control of the UN, how the US owns the the Siniora govenment,
   evil right wingers, the vile capitalist west and the poor, poor
   oppressed poor.

   When my turn came, I mentioned that I was attending this talk because
   I also been in Beirut during the Dec. 10th rally. Doares wasn't happy
   to hear that. I mentioned that the crowd at the rally wasn't nearly as
   big as he'd claimed. Doares said I was lying. I said that I could
   prove what I said with photographs of the empty streets set aside for
   the protest.

   That was the point when Charlotte Kates said "this is not a debate and
   you must let him speak". I only interrupted him a few more times after
   that.

   Before coming to the talk I assumed that a leftist would have some
   respect for the UN, so I asked Doares if he agreed with the UN
   resolution 1559, which "called on all Lebanese and non-Lebanese
   militias to disband and declared support for a "free and fair
   electoral process". I asked if he also agreed with the majority of the
   Lebanese people and every government on the planet (save for Iran and
   Syria) when they demanded that Hezbollah should be disarmed.

   He didn't agree at all, and again the mention of the United Nations
   drew yet another long rant about US control of the UN, US control of
   the Siniora govenment, evil right wingers, capitalism and poor, poor
   oppressed poor. Gaining steam, he shouted that he and friends were on
   the side of the resistance, on the side all that was right and good,
   and I was on the other side. It was a rousing condemnation, delivered
   with an uncharacteristic fire, a rabble rousing call that could have
   put me in physical danger if his fellow travellers weren't bleary eyed
   from their long nap.

   That must have been why no one jumped up to support him, too.

   I countered that if I was on any 'side', it was the side of the
   elected government (what he earlier labelled the "so-called Cedar
   Revolution"). At that point Kates joined in a rabble rousing call for
   all UN resolutions to be honored, especially the ones condemning
   Israel.

   Then she said that they'd only reserved the room till 5 and the
   question and answer session must end.

   One elderly lady with a "Palestine Liberation!' t-shirt on had one
   last question - she asked Doares if Hezbollah was allied with the
   Palestinians. She asked what Hezbollah was doing to help the
   Palestinians. It was fun watching him dance around that one.
   Hezbollah, like most Lebanese, hates the Palestinians. He basically
   mumbled something about them being on the same side.

   After the talk was over, the man sitting behind me who'd asked the
   question about the UN asked me what Lebanon was like. He asked if they
   hate Americans over there. I said no, many of them don't even hate our
   government. He asked why Lebanon was having so many problems, and I
   mentioned the fact that their neighbors constantly interfered in their
   business. He wasn't pro-Bush by any means, but was curious to hear
   about the Lebanese, and he did have pleasant memories of Lebanon as it
   was before the civil war. He called it "the Paris of Lebanon"

   Someone walking by made a sneering remark about the French.

   There was a lot of hate in that little church room..

References

   1. http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/
   2. http://www.tzemachmusic.com/fyi/docs/20050901.htm
   3. http://www.leftwatch.com/archives/years/2003/000026.html
   4. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/53/009.html
   5. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001361.html
   6. http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2006/12/failure_of_firs.php
   7. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/06/africa/ME-GEN-Lebanon.php