Today, Shimon Peres kicked off the AIPAC conference with a special address. Phil noted some observations below. Initial buzz from the speech in and around the conference center is that Peres neglected to mention the need to establish a Palestinian state as part of the peace process. This is shaping up to be an important tension between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations.
During his speech, Peres was briefly interrupted by activists from Code Pink. The photo below is of Desiree Fairooz standing on a table in front of Peres as he speaks (photo credit: Mark Wilson, Getty Images). Below is the press release they sent out after the action:
WASHINGTON -- During Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres’ speech today at the annual AIPAC (American Israeli Political Action Committee) policy conference at the Washington Convention Center, CODEPINK members raised banners saying “Want Peace? End the Occupation," “What About Gaza?," and “No Money for War Crimes."
As the six activists were forcibly dragged away from the stage, they shouted similar phrases including "Tikun olam (Heal the world) for Gaza, too!", all meant to draw attention to widespread opposition to AIPAC's policies lobbied to Congress that include unconditional support and financing for Israel’s militaristic policies including the recent devastating invasion of Gaza, building of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the separation wall, refusal to negotiate with the Palestinians’ democratically elected representatives, and threats to attack Iran.
“The brutal invasion of Gaza was a breaking point for me and many American Jews,” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin, who recently led a 60-person delegation to Gaza. “I was appalled by the devastation and the suffering I saw, particularly among the children. As a mother, I feel compelled to speak out against Israel’s bombing of civilians and the ongoing siege that is so devastating to the lives of Gaza’s 1.5 million people—most of whom are under 18.”
While AIPAC claims to represent the U.S. Jewish community, its wholesale support of the Israel government goes against the majority opinions of the Jewish Americans. According to a recent survey by the Jewish lobby group J Street, 76 percent of American Jews support a two-state solution, 69 percent support negotiating with a Fatah-Hamas unity government, and 59 percent felt the Gaza invasion did not improve Israel’s security.
“Like most American Jews, I grew up with a deep appreciation for the state of Israel," said Rae Abileah, a young American Jew of Israeli descent. "After witnessing the attack of Gaza on TV and hearing the calls for crippling sanctions on Iran, I can no longer avert my eyes to the other side of the story most rabbis still aren’t talking about. I am joining the dozens of Jewish organizations, and the growing global movement, advocating a change in the Israeli policies of occupation and aggressive violence. It's high time to drop the victim narrative so that we may all survive, and one day thrive as neighbors.”
CODEPINK activists inside the AIPAC conference (with its theme "Relationships Matter") were: Medea Benjamin, 56, Rae Abileah, 26, Blaine Clarke, 29, Christianna Reinstein, 21, Desiree Fairooz, 53, and Tighe Barry, 52.
“The most important relationships for Israel to cultivate are not with U.S. Congressional allies but with the Palestinian people,” said Christianna Reinstein, a student of Middle Eastern studies who joined the protest inside the AIPAC conference today. “AIPAC’s lobbying of Congress has not made Israel more secure and has hurt American efforts to improve relations in the Arab world.”
Great report, Adam.
Sounds like CodePink are the invaders. If they want to interrupt a President of Israel who is the firmest supporter of peace, then, okay, they really don't care about peace at all. And, by the way, Israel left Gaza a few years ago and hasn't been left alone by the brutal fascists of Hamas since then. Don't have any sympathy for these folks from CodePink who, in addition to their support of the destruction of Israeli society, actively support racism, homophobia and killing of gays, misogyny and so-called "honor" murders of family members and the abuse of young children by subjecting them to visceral hate-based propaganda about Jews being pigs and apes and worse. So, I guess it would be all right for some CodeOrange Jews to invade the Iranian political nominating committee of bloodthirsty, terror-supporting Ahmadinejad and Holocaust-denying PhD thesis writer Abbas and the morons that run Hamas and Hezbullah?
“The most important relationships for Israel to cultivate are not with U.S. Congressional allies but with the Palestinian people,” said Christianna Reinstein, a student of Middle Eastern studies who joined the protest inside the AIPAC conference today. More true words never spoken.
LOLOLOL that is a fantastic photograph! Look at the expressions on her table-mates faces! LOL I can imagine the thoughts going through their minds "I was just chatting with her, and she seemed so nice, but when she stuck on that sign and climbed onto the table, I realized she was one of them. Nice work ladies! off-topic: Someone needs to give Jane Harman an award for this The need of the most powerful to turn themselves into victims excerpt: Just ponder the depths of irrationality and pathological persecution complex — the desperate need to self-victimize — necessary to claim that AIPAC, of all entities, is "demonized" and treated unfairly by the U.S. Government.
It looked to me from the picture, that noone was taking their actions as threatening in any way. Maybe they were forcefully removed, but the response of the security looks extremely restrained and civil. I also don't see much concern about the dissent, that it was NOT an elephant in the room, but in the room. I'll bet the experience of being at the event is a great disappointment for you guys, that AIPAC is not so conveniently evil or banal. Thats good, or else you would be like George W, defining the world into cowboys and Indians, rather than people and people.
Peres is a supporter of peace? Since when? So the demonstration by the Code Pink people was wrong but the clown protest at the racism conference (and the walkout of diplomats) was justified?
Huh? Do you even understand some of the stuff you write yourself? Witty, look, I'm not the type that is easily provoked and I don't just start calling people mean things but I sure can understand why some pepole on here just go mad reading your posts. Can you please drop the facade and just say what's on your mind? Can we see the real Richard Witty please stand up? I get the feeling that you are struggling within yourself or you are afraid to share your real thoughts with the rest of us.
Since when is Peres a supporter of peace? I dunno, at least since he almost single-handedly put together the Oslo accords, and stood behind them during both intifadas. He's a dove – probably too much of a dove. And he shared a Nobel Peace Prize with your hero 'Arafat. Peres, in his speech, did not call for the destruction of the Palestinians or any other Muslim country. So, when code-pinkers protest, it seems downright idiotic – perhaps they should have been wearing clown suits. Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, still calls for the destruction of Israel and presides over a nation that hangs gays for being gay, has a religious police force that imposes a dress code on women and brutally suppresses any true dissent. Many Iranians do think him a laughing-stock and a clown for the horrendous statements he makes at every appearance. Peres' only folly is that he pretends that Amadinejad is not as dangerous as he clearly is.
Wow, Harry Fenton managed to pack nearly every hasbara talking point into two short paragraphs. Harry and his fellow Jewish Zionists believe it is appropriate to caricaturize and stereotype Muslims and Islam, but demand the passage of hate laws and censorship when it comes to critically discussing and debating Jewish supremacist beliefs, and ugly facets of Judaism. It may well be that Jewish Zionists and Muslim Islamists deserve one another. So why does the West come down so disproportionately on the side of Israel, and engage in a "war on terror" against only Muslims? Primarily because of the wealth, power and influence of those attending the AIPAC conference, and their fellow travelers around the world. There is certainly no objective basis for the West to so full-throatily back Israel, nor much like-mindedness between the average Israeli and the average Westerner–unless that Westerner happens to be a Zionist bent on overthrowing Western values.
Hearing the phrase "Code Pink" makes me want to reach for my Luger. Their kind of leftist posturing sets my teeth on edge.
I admire their courage.
History Basics 1.0. Israel is the invader. AIPAC & their USA whore congress and White house are the enablers. The world is the loser, including most specifically, the USA. Israeli Education includes labeling all Arabs as sub-humans. The American MSM echoes this through the selective use of the word "terrorist" and the phrase "Islamo-Fascism." Harry Fenton is actually Mel Goldstein, a racist Jew sheltered by dumb US goy GIs & funded by dumb US goy taxpayers. Those goys are dumb not because they are defective in IQ, but because of propaganda in the Goebbels mode, which was copied from the Madison Avenue commercial propaganda led by an American Jew who taught the animals to smoke by using leggy shiksas in patriotic parades.
LOL. Look at Dick Chaney. Suddenly he's a victim.
Yeah, because protesting against Israel's strangulation of Gaza means that you support honor killing. Interesting logic you espouse there, Harry.
I am always pleased when someone goes out on a limb to "crap in the punchbowl" of those who so callously commit crimes against others while celebrating their supposed ethics and restraint. Good for Code Pink!
http://digg.com/politics/CodePink_makes_a_stateme...
In the Sixties an anti-war group infiltrated a similar gathering of pro-war advocates and naked women served severed pigs heads to each table.
My visual take is that Code Pink was an abrupt annoyance, a minor stamp of free speech & sunshine law, on the brown bulk package, the insidious time bomb given to the US masses by congressional whores and other Israel Firsters, who long ago divided the world into the cowboys and the Indians. Hitler too loved Old Shatterhand; he even recommended those cowpoke tales to his Generals. Israel has merely copied Hitler. Uncle Sam is the doofus.
Oslo was a joke; Israel never intended to give away anything while demanding the Pals give away essentially all. Read a book, Harry F–one not written by a hasbara agent.
I agree, but you prefer Newt?
people and people People are suspected of crimes, people are investigated, people are tried in a court of law by their peers and all the people hear the prosecutor's and defense's case. When people who are suspected of crimes and charged with crimes that are later dropped due to political pressure, which prevents all of the people from ever finding out what happened in a court of law, then some people are going to suspect those alleged perpetrators and their supporting organizations of being criminals. Suspected criminals who publicly advocate for increasing violence, should have their humanity questioned. AIPAC's members should have their humanity questioned.
it seems to usually pass unnoticed that peres was the political architect of israel's nuke, at least if avi shlaim is to be believed. so the hypocrisy of israelis opposing the iranian nuke is especially pronounced in peres's case.
At the time JFK was shot there were two key things on his agenda, one was weakening the Fed Reserve pyramid scheme, the other was stopping Israel from getting nukes. Check it out. And what now is are worst domestic concern, and what are worse foreign policy concern? Obama has already capitulated to the bankers; next, he will to Israel. He might get shot anyway–even if he just use a bit of balance in his rhetoric…
are=our
RE: "Code Pink activists interrupt Shimon Peres during AIPAC speech" MY COMMENT: Those 'Code Pink' gals really rock!
Israel excuses itself from the rule of law via the US' de jure veto power in the UN, and treasonous American Zionists excuse themselves from the rule of law via Zionist and Zionist-owned politicians' de facto veto power over the agencies assigned to enforce the law. The net result is that Zionists are exempt from the rule of law. No wonder anger at Jews has historically reached the boiling point and then escalated into explosive outbursts and pogroms; the Zionists have bypassed all the steam valves. I wonder if this is deliberate? I wonder if the Zionists and their allies really do want dead Jews in the diaspora? Their behavior is certainly consistent with this theory. And they’re unquestionably crazy enough to advance such a program.
Israeli orthodontia.
RE: "presides over a nation that hangs gays for being gay" A RELATED ARTICLE: “Israel recruits gay community in PR campaign against Iran” – By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, 04/20/09 (EXCERPTS)…The new campaign, to be overseen by the Foreign Ministry, aims to appeal to people who are less concerned with Iran’s nuclear aspirations and more fearful of its human rights abuses and mistreatment of minorities, including the gay and lesbian community…. …The campaign plans to recruit the international gay community, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed in 2007 when he said there were no homosexuals living in his country…. …About NIS 8 million have already been budgeted for the new campaign… …Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman want to broaden the PR campaign on the subject of Iran in the wake of increasing international willingness to negotiate with Tehran over its nuclear program…. ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079589.html
RE: "When people who are suspected of crimes and charged with crimes that are later dropped due to political pressure, which prevents all of the people from ever finding out what happened in a court of law…" MY CONTRIBUTION – Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis elaborated in Olmstead v. United States (1928): "In a government of law, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." In 1913 Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, a forceful proponent for open government, stated "Sunlight is the best disinfectant; electric light the most efficient policeman".
the anti-Israel posters here don't give a hoot if Israel is nuked…
Who took that picture? It's fantastic.
I just laughed my arse off and didn't bother with the rest after I read your first line, Harry. CODEPINK RULE!
"Just ponder the depths of irrationality and pathological persecution complex — the desperate need to self-victimize — necessary to claim that AIPAC, of all entities, is "demonized" and treated unfairly by the U.S. Government" Ain't nothin'! Just a couple of snorts of good ziocaine, and off they go!
"the anti-Israel posters here don't give a hoot if Israel is nuked…" Have you thought about reporting them to the Attouney General and indicting them for hate speech? Maybe if Israel did comething nice for a change not quite so many people would dislike it. But of course, they could never do that.
Lord Awmitey, is there anyone who complains like Zio-trolls? "Everybody hates me, nobody likes me. Waaaah Everybody wants to hurt me" Kvetching has replaced burnt-offerings. Maybe that's progress.
Bollocks. No one wants the Palestinians' homeland nuked.
I didn't have to even read further than your first sentence Harry, before I recognized the fantasy and dishonesty of your post. Shimon Peres is the "firmest supporter of peace…"? I have only been at my computer for 10 minutes and I've already read two of the most ridiculous quotes I've read all month. Tel Aviv Jane's claim that she is a 'supporter of the constitution' and now Shimon Peres is the prince of peace… LMAOOTFR!
Read this… "Shimon Peres: Murderer, Liar and Hypocrite" http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/shimon-peres-mu... which is written by Khalid Amayreh, a journalist living in Palestine .
Oslo was a joke, Israel didn't commit to anything it hadn't done already and forced the Palestinians to make loads of concessions. Ahmedinajad, in his speech, did not call for the destruction of Israel or any other country but that didn't stop people walking out, did it? Ahmedinajad has never called for the destruction of any country.
Interesting but why are you spelling out the names of each code-pink member that protested that time?
The anti-Israel trolls won't stop salivating until Israel goes the way of Europe….. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm...
it seems the pro-Israel trolls will keep salivating until everyone falsely conflates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. It's also funny how you link an article by a rapid Islamophobe who thinks that Europe is going to be Islamified in a couple of decades.
Juvenile livers elicit salivation as an example of classic learning.
Brandeis is the best.
Codepink is a stupid organization that has not and will not ever accomplish anything.
I have at least heard of Coke Pink. So they must be accomplishing something on some level. On the other hand, who's Eli Kashi? Never heard of you. So you are the one, it seems to me, who hasn't accomplished anything on any significant level. Perhaps if you start a club of "Code Pink is a Studpid Organization," you will perhpas draw some attention, for like 15 minutes or so.
Code Stink is the loony left and they just make reasonable progressives look dumb + dumber
You may consider CodePink to be the lonny (whatever that is) left, I consider them to be strong brave women willing to stand up for their beliefs. Thank goodness for the 1st ammendment! Street theater makes the point even more real (bloody hands in Condi's face). Nobody forgets their actions!