This was posted on National Review Online, but they seem to be the only people making an issue of it. A quick Google search and there are more comprehensive stories about the event. This one is representative.
Dueling protests between hundreds of supporters of Israel and the Palestinians briefly snarled downtown traffic Tuesday afternoon, while diplomats wrangled over the conflict in Gaza thousands of miles away.
A crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators, many toting the blue-and-white flag of the Jewish state, gathered in front of Chicago’s Israeli consulate on Madison Street for what organizers billed as a call for peace. A large group of supporters of Palestinians, with a public-address system and flags of their own, gathered on the next block just days after thousands marched downtown to protest Israeli military action.
The tense scene was observed by a phalanx of police personnel — uniformed and plainclothes, federal and local — who segregated the two sides with steel gates, bicycle-mounted officers and cruisers.
Officers searched the bags of pro-Israel demonstrators who entered that rally zone, while a string of equine patrol officers ringed part of the pro-Palestinian side. Police K-9 units moved through the protesters, amid the blare of sirens, chanting and hovering helicopters.
“I’m Israeli. I support my country, and I want to stop any aggression from Hamas,” said Chicago resident Alex Paz, who was among the many demonstrators calling for an end to the conflict.
“If I knew how to stop it, I would probably be prime minister,” Paz said. “My opinion is it should be stopped, instead of being scared of missiles at night.”
Alex Paz is probably a fine fellow, but what is he doing in Chicago? Why are we permitting a foreign national to make a nuisance of himself in one of our cities?
Meanwhile, across the street, suburban resident Qais Salah, 17, said much of his father’s family is trying to avoid airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
“My grandfather got sick because of how many times he’s got to run outside the house, because Israel calls him and tells him they’re about to bomb the house and he’s got three minutes to leave,” Salah said. “But where can they run? Gaza’s small, they’ve got nowhere to go and everywhere’s being bombed.”
Qais Salah is probably a wonderful young man too, but why is he here? Can anyone find a single citizen of Chicago who was demanding we import young men from Gaza, Israel and wherever? What possible reason could there be for our State Department to issue travel documents to a young man from Gaza? It’s not as if the region is know for its tranquility. Why are we importing these problems?
Look, you can be partial to Israel and wish her the best. of all the countries in that region, Israel is the most Western. Next would be the Lebanese and then maybe the Turks or possibly the Jordanians. Still, they are not Western and their issues are not our problem to solve. I the government wants to sell them guns so they can fight one another, that’s fine, but importing these people into this country is nothing more than national suicide. There’s no reason for it.
I listened to radio news the other day, something I rarely if ever do (listen to or watch “the news”), and a Palestinian lady was saying that there is a pact between the Israeli and Palestinian governments that Palestinian authorities such as cops must squash any Palestinian protestors (against Israel) and that this is exactly what they do. So Palestinians are not just protesting Israeli aggression but they’re protesting their own government as well for complying with Israel’s demands that their own people not be allowed to protest. And of course when they do, they get squashed, as per the political agreement.
I really feel for these people as they are stuck between a rock (Israel) and a hard place (their own government).
I always wondered why a bunch of Europeans wanted to live in the middle of a desert anyway. They are really out of place there. Jews do well wherever in the world they go. Why Israel?
Its not like the European Jews who move there are religious and want to spend all day at the wailing wall praying. The religious orthodox Jews do not comprise the majority of ex-pats there.
Its all so very strange.