Occupy Israel?

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Ira Stoll:

I can already hear the Occupy Boston people saying the small splinter group that went to the Israeli consulate building doesn’t represent all of Occupy Boston, and the Occupy Wall Street people saying that Occupy Boston doesn’t represent all of the Occupy movement, and the anti-Israel protesters saying they aren’t anti-Semites, they are just anti-Zionist or critical of the policies of the current Israeli government. And some of the rest of them saying that the anti-Israel protesters don’t represent all of Occupy any more than Patrick Buchanan represents the entire Republican Party. But at a certain point, one has to wonder why these people are protesting Israel and not some far more abusive government like that of China, Iran, or Syria. I can already hear them saying that America doesn’t give billions a year in aid to China, Iran, or Syria.

Still, the whole event illustrates the way the Occupy movement has become a forum for people to air whatever pre-existing grievance or agenda they have, even if it has nothing to do with Wall Street. And how readily a protest against bankers can elide into one against the Jewish state.

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This is not a thread about Israel/Palestine. I don’t want to discuss who is right and who is wrong or who started it. I am not in the mood to referee an I/P pie fight.

This post is about OWS.

What does “Occupy Wall Street” have to do with the conflict in the Middle East?

BTW – Do those protesters realize that foreign embassies and consulates are not subject to US law? We have no constitutional rights inside those patches of diplomatic immunity. If the Israeli guards beat the OWSers or even shot them the police could not even detain any of the guards for questioning.

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