The weather was perfect — 72 degrees and sunny — for the "One Nation Working Together" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Oct. 2. I was determined to go with an open mind because I wanted to try to understand what would motivate someone to attend an event sponsored by unions and self-proclaimed socialist and communist groups.Although many news agencies and networks claim that the picture below is of the 10/2 rally, in reality it is of the 8/28 rally. The left is losing on all fronts and can only produce lies to feed the people.
The first time I heard about the rally the thought crossed my mind how embarrassing it was that union bosses and their counterparts in a wide variety of extremist, left-wing organizations would put on an event to counter one sponsored by a television commentator, Glenn Beck. It was like a third-grader trying to one-up a popular rival on the playground.
Of course, the organizers would now deny they were responding to Beck’s 8/28 Restoring Honor event, but that in itself would be embarrassing given that they’ve been talking about it being their answer to his hugely successful rally since they first came up with the idea. On Saturday, I only heard bits and pieces of a few speeches, but at least one of the speakers shouted, "Somebody tell Glenn Beck there are more people here than at his event."
The rally started at noon and, as planned, I arrived in Washington just before 2:00 p.m. As I entered D.C. from the Virginia side, the first thing I noticed was that people were walking away from the rally site in droves. Not a good sign for an event that was scheduled to last until 4:00 p.m.
As I stopped at the first light after coming across the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge, I glanced to my left and was surprised to see a number of vacant parking spaces on 23rd Street — something unheard of in a city where you can drive around for an hour in search of a parking spot. I did a quick left onto 23rd and promptly backed into one of the available spaces.
My wife and I then started walking toward the Lincoln Memorial, an easy trek compared to the exhausting walk we had endured for the 8/28 Restoring Honor rally when the closest parking we could find was at the Willard Hotel on 14th Street. As we walked toward the Lincoln Memorial, people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with logos and wording in keeping with the theme of the rally continued streaming by us in the opposite direction.
On arriving at the site the first thing I did was try to estimate the crowd size, which I’ve become pretty adept at. This particular case, however, was unusually difficult because of the nonstop flow of people leaving the event early. At any given time, however, I estimated that the density of the crowd ranged from one-fifth to one-tenth that of the Restoring Honor gathering.
At the Beck rally it was strictly shoulder-to-shoulder, virtually impossible to walk in most places. That crowd was no less than 500,000 — and perhaps as high as 750,000. But one of the many differences with the 8/28 event was that virtually everyone stayed until the rally was officially over. They were there by choice.
To be as fair as possible, I generously factored in the large number of people who had departed two hours or more before I arrived at the One Nation rally and came up with a crowd estimate of between 75,000 to 150,000 — far more than the 30,000 to 50,000 I had guessed might show up. Clearly, I had underestimated the power of union bosses handing down mandates to their rank and file to attend.
But to me the crowd size didn’t really matter, because they were two totally different events. Beck is just one individual — a radio and television personality — who produced a rally (primarily using his own money) with a theme of restoring honor to America and to honor fallen U.S. soldiers. By contrast, the 10/2 event was a political rally sponsored by a wide array of well-funded, far-left organizations.
The big question is not who had the largest crowd; that wasn’t even close. The more important question is why rally organizers like Al Sharpton would be so focused on trying to show the public they could outdraw a media personality.
To the crowd’s credit, though the signs and rhetoric were brazenly anti-freedom and anti-free market, people were generally well behaved, though clearly lacking in enthusiasm. To their discredit, however, trash was everywhere, which I have found to be a trademark of those on the left — especially the environmental crowd.
Again, by contrast, it was hard to find any trash on the ground at Beck’s 8/28 event. There are many conjectures I could draw from this observation, but due to space limitations, I’ll leave that psychological endeavor up to you.
Tabloid-size "newspapers" were all over the place. One was called The Militant, which featured the headline: "Public education is a birth right, not a corporate profit."
Another one, Challenge: The Revolutionary Communist Newspaper of Progressive Labor Party, sported a logo that read "Fight for Communism." Mind you, this was a rally called "One Nation Working Together" — in the capital city of the United States of America!
Then there were the signs:
* "Wages that are rightfully ours."* "We demand $$$ for jobs and education."* "The American Dream promises a free education."* "Black Is Back."* "Capitalism is failing. Socialism is the answer."
At one of the many tables where books were being sold I wrote down such titles as Bolshevism, What Is Marxism, The Communist Manifesto, Four Marxist Classics and Black Liberation and Socialism. Quite an array of reading material for an event titled "One Nation Working Together."
Then there were the pamphlets, with such patriotic verbiage as:
* "Fight for a Two-Year National Moratorium to Halt All Foreclosures and Evictions."* "Jobs for All! Public-Works Program Now!"* "Make the bosses pay for their crisis!"
I could fill a book with what I saw at the rally, but to me the bottom line is this: The Oct. 2 "One Nation Working Together" event was simply a celebration of that age-old disease, class warfare. Unwittingly, the hate peddlers who promoted it provided a public-service by letting us know they are still out there, alive and well. And they are poised and ready to bring down the American way of life — especially freedom and the free-market system.
As I walked back up 23rd Street after my short stay at the rally, the little security guard inside my brain whispered to me, "This was a reminder that America is irrevocably split into those who want to put a stop to the government’s policy of redistributing wealth and those who demand that the government use force to give them even more of other people’s wealth.
The latter group (which I estimate at nearly one-third of the current U.S. population) is fully prepared to sell their souls to a totalitarian regime in exchange for the "stuff" they think they deserve. I’m not sure how they define deserve, but it matters not. What does matter, sadly, is that they are nothing more than pawns in a power game that has existed probably since the Neolithic Age.
These pawns have long been referred to — by everyone from George Orwell to Alvin Toffler to Saul Alinsky — as the Have-Nots. This is what the "One Nation Working Together" rally was all about, nothing more and nothing less. It’s an old theme that will continue to be with us until the last breath of humankind has been extinguished.
And the truth that many people do not want to believe is that there is no solution to the problem. The only hope is containment. Right now, a majority of Americans are poised to push back and try to contain the radical left from bringing down the curtain on capitalism and individual sovereignty. But no matter what happens on Nov. 2, no one should be deluded into believing the war is over. The war will never be over.
Start preparing your mind now for what’s coming after Nov. 2, and teach your children what Ronald Reagan said back in 1964:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."After what I saw and heard in D.C. on Oct. 2, I can vouch for the Dutchman’s words.
Turkey is a member of NATO, and is openly asking NATO to help themGaza Freedom Flotilla Organizers Linked To Worldwide Terrorism
Jerusalem ---- May 29, 2010 …. The "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", a group of ships carrying up to 800 people and 10,000 tons of supplies destined for the Gaza Strip has the alledged aim of stirring international debate regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza. However, questions have been raised as to their motives especially given evidence of the organizer's direct ties to international terrorist organizations including al Qaida and Hamas.
Israel security sources have told the Israel News Agency that the main organization behind the "freedom" flotilla that is now sailing towards the Gaza Strip is called The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a so-called "relief" organization from Turkey.
This is an organization unabashedly proud of its close ties to Hamas, a terror organization as recognized by the United States, Israel and the European Union (EU).
The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation is openly supportive of Hamas, an organization that is widely seen as the one of the largest perpetrators of human rights violations, having violently seized control of the Gaza Strip, and committed immeasurable human rights violations against its own people, not to mention hundreds of terror attacks initiated targeting the citizens of Israel.
These aren't the only roles the IHH has played to support Islamic terror, as if this wasn't enough. In fact, not only is IHH linked to global Islamic terror organizations, but it is the direct supporter of not only terrorism against Israel, but a primary backer of world-wide terrorism against nations which practice democracy.
At the heart of many terrorist networks are so-called Islamic "relief" organizations have proven invaluable as sources of cash, weapons, and recruitment of terror operatives. So effective is their role in covering up terrorist activity from the international intelligence community under the guise of promoting humanitarian aid, that Osama bin Laden has admitted that these NGO "charities" have been al-Qaida primary source of funding and have enabled the build-up of his organization to fly under the radar.
Examples of Islamic organizations funneling funds to terror organizations masked as NGOs include: the Benevolence International Foundation, Global Relief Foundation, Taibah International Aid Association, all of whom and countless other have been shut down, banned and its leaders arrested by the US government.
The IHH is one of such organizations, a primary example of an NGO that functions as a "charitable" organization in order to divert resources to terror activity.
In a working paper for The Danish Institute for International Studies, an independent international affairs research institution of Denmark, terrorism analyst and expert witness for the prosecution in U.S. terrorism trials, Evan Kohlmann details IHH's extensive affiliation with the Islamic terror network, including: explicit ties to Hamas, al-Qaida, as well other militant Islamic organizations based in Algeria, Libya, Turkey.
Even in Turkey there have been hostile exchanges between the IHH and the Turkish government, who had previously made efforts to combat home-grown terrorism. In December 1997, Turkey authorities began a criminal investigation into IHH when sources revealed to them that the IHH had purchased semi-automatic weapons from Islamic terror groups. Their Istanbul bureau was thoroughly searched and the local leaders arrested. Inside the bureau an array of items were found: "firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions and a jihadi flag." After analyzing seized IHH documents, the Turkish authorities determined that the arrested leaders had been on their way to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.
During the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, the IHH was banned from providing relief aid efforts because the organization was deemed by the government as a fundamentalist organization and would not provide transparency of their bank accounts to Turkish officials.
It is odd that today Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports the IHH in their attempt to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip, and ranks the IHH's efforts as his "top priority" for the country.
The IHH has also provided aid to insurgents seeking to kill American troops in Iraq. In his working paper, Kohlmann notes that the IHH played a large role in providing "charitable donations" to insurgent rich areas in central Iraq such as Fallujah and that the current president of IHH and organizer of the "Freedom Flotilla", Bulent Yildrim, had galvanized anti-America sentiment and incitement in these areas against U.S. troops during the Iraqi War.
Not only have the IHH stirred trouble in Turkey for supporting terror, but their aims to promote terror activity have reached a worldwide level.
In 1996, phone records of the IHH showed calls to an Al Qaida guesthouse in Milan and to Algerian terror cells throughout Europe.
Kohlmann also cited that famed counter-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere found that in the mid 1990's Bulent Yildrim also conspired to recruit members in anticipation for a coming jihad, and sent IHH members to war zones in Muslim countries in order for them to gain combatant experience. He sought to obtain support by these Muslim countries for the IHH by transferring weapon and explosives caches to these countries.
Jean-Louis Bruguiere has also testified to a U.S. Court in 2003 that the IHH played a "central role" in the attempted al-Qaida Millenium bomb plot targeting Los Angeles International Airport, among other areas of the world. Bruguiere added that the IHH is a "cover-up" NGO which had served to recruit, forge documents and traffic weapons for the terrorists involved in the terror attack attempt.
Read it all here.
Obama pals, flotilla backers: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn
The group behind the Gaza flotilla that engaged in deadly clashes with Israeli commandos today counts among its top supporters the friends and associates of President Barack Obama, namely the founders of the Weather Underground terrorist organization, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, as well as Jodie Evans, the leader of the radical activist organization Code Pink.
Earlier today, Israeli navy commandos raided the six-ship flotilla, encountering heavy resistance and live fire from the activists. Several activists were killed and dozens of others were reportedly injured, as were several of the Israeli commandos.
The flotilla was organized by the Free Gaza Movement, a coalition of leftist human rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups engaged in attempts to break a blockade imposed by Israel on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Ayers, Dohrn and Evans' Code Pink have led several recent Free Gaza Movement initiatives, including attempted marches into the Gaza Strip. Dorhn was in the Middle East just last month on behalf of the movement.
Ayers and Dohrn were close associates for years with President Obama, while Evans was a fundraiser and financial bundler for Obama's presidential campaign.
In January, WND reported Ayers, Dohrn and Evans were involved in provoking chaos on the streets of Egypt in an attempt to enter Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement to join in solidarity with the territory's population and leadership.
The three helped to stir riots after the Egyptian government refused to allow a large number of protesters to enter neighboring Gaza. Eventually, the protesters accepted an Egyptian offer of allowing about 100 marchers into Gaza. Once in the territory, those marchers were reportedly met on the Gaza side by Hamas' former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
At the time of the march, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., wrote a letter in support of a "humanitarian delegation from Massachusetts" to Gaza. Members of Ayers', Dohrn and Evans' group documented on their blogs how Kerry's letter was used at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo while attempting to pressure Egypt to let their group into Gaza.
Images of the letter were also posted on the Electronic Intifada website run by Ali Abunimah, who was with Evans' group in Egypt and who, WND previously reported, spoke at pro-Palestinian events in the 1990s alongside Obama. In one such event, a 1999 fundraiser for Palestinian "refugees," Abunimah recalled introducing Obama on stage.
Kerry's office previously met with Code Pink members, WND has learned. Sarah Roche-Mahdi of Code Pink also is a member of the United for Peace and Justice Palestine Task Force, which met with Kerry's staffers.
Kerry last year became the most senior U.S. politician to visit the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, although at the time he did not meet with Hamas leaders.
Dohrn later wrote on a blog that she was briefly detained at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo following the January protests there by her group: "Bill and I went to the American Embassy at 10 a.m. and asked to see the ambassador. We were ushered into a holding pen a block away from the embassy building where we joined 35 people already there, surrounded by Egyptian soldiers," she wrote.
Israeli Naval Forces intercepted the flotilla today attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told WND commandos boarded the ships after numerous warnings from Israel requesting the ships redirect toward the Israeli port of Ashdod, where they would be able to unload their aid supplies, which could then be transferred to the Gaza Strip after undergoing security inspections.
During the boarding of one of the ships, the Marmara, activists onboard attacked IDF naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs, the IDF spokesperson said.
"The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose," said the spokesperson. "As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces first employed riot dispersal means, followed by live fire.
"IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack them," said the spokesperson.
The IDF released a YouTube video clearly showing activists attacking Israeli commandos, including attacks with live fire. Close Obama associates
Evans formed Code Pink, a far-left activist organization, in 2002 to protest America's war in Iraq. The group previously met with Hamas and with leaders of the Taliban. Evans was a fundraiser and financial bundler for Obama's presidential campaign.
Abunimah traveled in some of the same political circles as Obama in the 1990s. Abunimah previously described meeting with Obama at a fundraiser at the home of Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, reportedly a former PLO activist. Khalidi was also a close associate of Obama.
"[Obama] came with his wife. That's where I had a chance to really talk to him," Abunimah recalled. "It was an intimate setting. He convinced me he was very aware of the issues [and] critical of U.S. bias toward Israel and lack of sensitivity to Arabs. ... He was very supportive of U.S. pressure on Israel."
According to quotes obtained by Gulf News, Abunimah recalled a 2004 meeting in a Chicago neighborhood while Obama was running for his Senate seat. Abunimah quoted Obama telling him "warmly" he was sorry that "I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race.""I'm hoping when things calm down, I can be more up front," Abunimah
reportedly quoted the senator as saying.
Abunimah said Obama urged him to "keep up the good work" at the Chicago Tribune, where Abunimah contributed guest columns that were highly critical of Israel.
Ayers, meanwhile, became a name in last year's presidential campaign when it was disclosed the radical worked closely with Obama for years.
Ayers helped launch Obama's political career with a fundraiser in his home. Obama served on the board of a Chicago nonprofit alongside Ayers. The terrorist later hired Obama to serve as chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a job Obama later cited as experience that helped qualify him to run for public office.
While at the CAC, Obama and Ayers both granted funds to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
WND columnist Jack Cashill has produced a series of persuasive arguments that it was Ayers who ghostwrote Obama's award-winning autobiography, "Dreams from My Father."
Ayers and Dohrn were two of the main founders of the Weather Underground, which bombed the New York City Police headquarters in 1970, the Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. The group was responsible for some 30 bombings aimed at destroying the defense and security infrastructures of the U.S.
Characterizing the Weather Underground as "an American Red Army," Ayers summed up the organization's ideology: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents."
"Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon," Ayers recalled in his 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days." "The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them."
Ayers brandished his unrepentant radicalism for years later, as evidenced by his now notorious 2001 interview with the New York Times, published one day after the 9/11 attacks, in which he stated, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
Ayers posed for a photograph accompanying the New York Times piece that showed him stepping on an American flag. He said of the U.S.: "What a country. It makes me want to puke."
With additional research by Brenda J. Elliott
Dozens of women in bikinis protested Wednesday near Washington cosmetics stores against the purchase of Ahava beauty products, that are produced in the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank.Since when is beauty products covered by the Geneva Conventions of War? They aren't and this is just another attempt by the left to drive
The protest was initiated by the American Code Pink anti-war movement, and the demonstrators' bodies were streaked with mud, some featuring the words "Ahava is a dirty business".
Code Pink alleges that the Israeli cosmetics company that promises to share the "beauty secrets from the Dead Sea" is also "hiding the ugly truth—its products actually come from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the occupied territory of the Palestinian West Bank, and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem."Protest in Washington (Photo: Courtesy of Code Pink)
The movement launched its "Stolen Beauty" boycott campaign against international company, which exports to 25 countries around the world, last month.
"We are here to tell Ahava, which claims to be devoted to beauty and purity, that you cannot cover up occupation and violation of international law," said Paris Marron, CODEPINK's national online organizer. "We call on Ahava to come clean."
Rae Abileah, a member of the movement who took part in the protest, said they are leading an international campaign against the company's products, in protest of their production in the "occupied Palestinian territory".
She said they had entered cosmetics stores and handed the managers letters with factual information on Ahava's production process, and demanded they stop selling these products, since it is against the Geneva Convention.
(Photo: AFP)Mitzpe Shalem, situated in the northern area of the Dead Sea, was established in 1977 by a Nahal group. Mitzpe Shalem is located in the Judean Desert between the sea and the desert, and overlooks an enchanting view. Mitzpe Shalem is about a 45-minute drive from Jerusalem. It has a rural, desert character that fits in well with the natural environment.
Mitzpe Shalem is a “renewed kibbutz” which has undergone privatization and focuses its endeavor on building a healthy society and high quality community systems in education, culture, health, and community services.
Mitzpe Shalem is affiliated with the Dead Sea (Megilot) Regional Council consisting of, in addition to Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, also Kibbutz Almog, Kibbutz Kaliah, and Kibbutz Beit Ha’Aravah, the Vered Yeriho (Rose of Jericho) cooperative town and the Community Educational Institute Ovnat.
Mitzpe Shalem Community
Mitzpe Shalem is a young and vibrant community. The majority of the community has lived in the kibbutz since its beginning, and over the years many single people and families joined the kibbutz.
We have a very colorful community, that is open minded, well educated and creative.
The social make-up of the families in terms of age and culture make this community very active and caring. We try to live in harmony with each other and with the environment, and each individual is free to live his life the way he or she chooses.
Living in the desert brings us closer to each other, making us into one big family; we give one another caring and support in times of trouble and happiness alike. We celebrate bar-mitzvahs and holidays together and we have a monthly cultural activity.
The community is secular by nature but respects tradition and the holidays.
90% of the families speak English or at least understand it, and children learn English from the age of 7.
The Municipal Management and the Organizational Structure
All kibbutz members and all members who intend to build their private homes in the kibbutz will become members of the cooperative municipal society whose function is to manage the municipal life in the community. This includes setting up committees and electing directors, determining the budget and the level of taxation in the community, etc.
Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem is incorporated as a cooperative municipal society, and currently owns assets and production sectors. New members join the cooperative municipal society but do not share the kibbutz businesses.
Source: Jewish Agency for Israel
Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem
