I have never felt more proud or more alone (pro-Israel demonstrator gets spat on......BY ANTI NAZIS)

In 2002, 60 years after the Holocaust, a Jewish girl cannot go out to an anti-neo-Nazi rally and hold up the Israeli flag.

The past two years have been a perplexing time to be a young "liberal" Jew in America. As an Israeli American, I have often been required to defend Israel from her liberal detractors. An epidemic is crossing our nation's campuses, as confused college kids are lumping together the American civil rights movement with the anti-apartheid movement with the Palestinian independence movement.

Encouraged by groups like the Nation of Islam, black pride slogans have been appropriated for Palestinian protests and the language of Malcolm X has been subverted to serve the adherents of Yasser Arafat.

This has been particularly disturbing to me, as I have been extensively involved with attempts to heal the breach between the Jewish and African American communities.

During these troubling times, I remain proud of my Jewish heritage. During a mission trip to Israel with the International Hillel Organization, I learned that there are no absolutes in politics just as there are no absolutes in life. My sense of Israeli and Jewish identity was rekindled as I began to realize, together with my Jewish brethren in our homeland, that no matter how I or anyone else feels about the current actions of the Israeli government, the Israeli nation has the right to exist in its current form, as a homeland for Jews. I rediscovered that as an Israeli American, I could always hold my head up high. And I do.

Today I sojourned to the U.S. Capitol to join the counter-rally against a neo-Nazi demonstration. As I watched the neo-Nazis approach the south Capitol lawn, my ears were pelted with offensive slogans and vile rhetoric.

How can I describe my feelings as I watched them pass, with their swastikas, Aryan banners, anti-Israel posters and crossed out stars of David?

To these Nazi sympathizers, who applaud the victimization of minorities, of Jews, who extol the brutal slaughter of 12 million people including whole branches of my family tree, to them I wanted to sing out, "I AM A JEW! I AM AN ISRAELI AMERICAN! NOW IT IS YOU THAT ARE IN THE MINORITY. WE ARE STRONG AND WE ARE HERE FOREVER!"

Unfurling a blue and white Israeli flag, I walked briskly and purposefully toward the gathering of anti-Nazi protesters. Watching 300 neo-Nazis with their strident rhetoric, I felt small, isolated and helpless.

As I walked toward my compatriots, my fellow protesters, I felt more empowered with each step. These were people who believed as I did, rational tolerant people whose personal morality impelled them to stand together and denunciate hatred and intolerance. They would stand with me, protest with me, and perhaps attempt to educate -- with me.

As I walked deeper and deeper through the crowd of protesters, waving the Israeli flag high and proud above my head, I began to feel less and less welcome. I marched on, waving the flag even higher so each and every neo-Nazi could see the flag of the Jewish people.

Suddenly I realized that the cries and jeers at the sight of the flag, originated not from the neo-Nazis, but from the anti-Nazi protesters.

I continued through the crowd and tried hard to ignore the glares. Inevitably, I was confronted. Abusive, although not unfamiliar words assaulted me at first: "Israel is fascist!" "Zionism is racism!" An old woman with a sweet face screamed at me, "You are a Nazi!" she cried. What had started out as a protest against racism quickly turned into a forum of hatred and fanaticism. I and the flag I held were their targets.

What could I do? Would I turn around? Could I let them disrespect this symbol of my people, and retreat in fear? I held my flag even higher. And I attempted, among the threats, the jostling and chaotic vehemence, to reason.

"I am not the enemy! The enemy is right across the street. Please, let's share this common ground and fight together!"

Despite my intense rage, I stayed true to my nonviolent beliefs and fought her and the crowd that had begun to form around me, with my words.

The crowd of anti-Nazi protesters did not have the same nonviolent ideology. I was spat upon. I was physically and verbally threatened. Grown men accosted me and tried to rip the Israeli flag out of my hands. Several were very close to actually assaulting me. Police intervened and blocked the anti-Nazi protesters from approaching me. These were supposed to be the good guys, and yet the hatred they exuded was just as potent as that of the Nazis themselves.

When a police officer told me that I should leave for my own safety, I staunchly refused. With every shout, hiss, slur and threat, the Israeli flag stood higher in my hands. Blocking out all the defamatory statements about Israel, I stood at the forefront of the protesters and held up that flag as much for them to see as for the neo-Nazis.

Eventually, I was made to relinquish the flag to its owner, who wanted to leave.

I didn't want to go and give them the satisfaction of my defeat, but I have never been so disgusted with humanity, and wanted to be as far away from these "champions of humanitarianism" as possible.

I wanted to show them the hypocrisy of fighting fascism by tearing down a flag and telling someone she does not have the right to be there because of her heritage. I wanted to give them glasses that would correct the myopic vision with which they saw as complex a situation as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one so clear cut and categorically absolute.

But all I could do was ask them, "Why are you doing this?" "Why are you doing this?" With all of the research I've done on the conflict, for all my convictions, all I could say was "Why are you doing this?"

I must admit that I, like many young Jews and Zionists my age, feel betrayed by American liberals. With regards to the Middle East, there seems to be no appreciation of the moral ambiguity, the political nuances, the multiple layers of media spin. Faced with such a complex situation, young people too often ask others to chew it, swallow it and digest it for them, and then tell them in absolute terms which side is most appropriate to their general belief structure.

Are you in favor of affirmative action? Are you for civil liberties and women's rights? Why, then, you must be pro-Palestinian! Anti-Globalization? Humanitarian? Pro- Palestinian! Ever voted Democratic/ Libertarian/Socialist or even abstained from voting for a Republican? Then Palestine is the side for you!

Strongly held political views in no way justify acting in such a callous and hateful way toward a fellow human being. With their blind hatred of Israel, these anti-Nazi protesters treated me as roughly as the neo-Nazis on the other side of the partition would have, had they but had the opportunity.

Today, I held my head -- and the Israeli flag -- up high; not in Israel, but in what I had previously considered to be a safe environment. For what better place to applaud the existence of a state for Jews than at a Neo-Nazi counter-rally on Capitol Hill?

I was sadly mistaken. As I went out to face the neo-Nazi demonstration, I found myself hated, both by the neo-Nazis and by those who were there to protest against them. I found myself alone in the middle. And for the first time in my life as an American, I truly understood the crushing impact of anti-Semitism.

In a very palpable way, I was an outsider, hated by everyone. With rabid anti-Semites on one side and anti-Israel fomenters on the other, surrounded by bystanders willing to do nothing as I suffered horrid abuse, I wept É and as Jews must do in this post-Holocaust world, I stood my ground. Truth.

A District resident, Sarah Kopelovich, 21, is a senior at George Washington University.

Parley, the fact that she said she feels alone, reflects exactly what you said. She seems to lump people into two groups--neo nazis and now liberal nazis without seeing the wide middle ground of conservatives who support Israel. Hopefully with the eye opening, she will be willing to educate herself so she will see she is not really all that alone after all.

From what I understand the Arab countries discriminate against the Palestinians and consider Palestinians inferior. Doesn't America give more money to the Palestinians than Saudia Arabia? Saudia Arabia is a very rich country.What about all the money Arafat has?Hasn't Arafat been intrusted with funds to help the Palestinians?
Where has that money gone?

I think the number 10 was used metaphorically, so to speak.
I believe as apparently does the poster who introduced that number above me, that the neo-Nazi threat is, has been exaggerated in order to divert attention from the actual creeping threat of Communism. As I stated above, whatever their actual number, the neo-Nazis have in their entire history achieved less in terms of influence and results than the Moonies or Lyndon LaRouche or Deepak Chopra for that matter, and I think the New Age movements, such as they, are should be of some concern to us even if they aren't overtly political. I may be wrong, but I see the neo-Nazis as harmless laughable clowns, living and acting on the very margins that can be and should be safely ignored. Because while we were watching them, the Stalinists have taken over our universities and the university towns to boot.

Do me a favor and send this to her address above. This is the kind of post she needs to see for even more clarity. Liberals are always talking about the roots of a problem so this should be of interest to her where the roots of liberal hatred of Jews came from(partly thier own making).

How about the Arab countries welcoming back all the Jews they threw out in 1948? Number for number, it was about an even swap. The difference is that Israel absorbed the displaced Jews. The Arab countries made sure the displaced Arabs stayed displaced; hence the Palestinian issue was born and kept alive for the last 54 years.

Not only that, look at what the growing Muslim populations are doing to the electorate in Europe! They are afraid of their own immigrants. Soon Europe will be another Islamic region. And some think Israel should invite the viper into its bosom? Faintpraise should get real.

Europe won't let that happen. Mohammdans are less than 5% of the Continent, and not a majority in a single nation-state except for Albania. When they grow to about 15% of the population their aggression will exponentially increase. And, thus will the reaction. They will be deported in the long run, and rightfully so.

Sorry about the misplaced commas in # 63. The Communists commixed my commas!

LOL! They're just redistributing them, Comrade!

Re your 63- hey, that's fair enough and I would actually say I share your sentiment about the group's importance versus the Marxists in our country. I think the neo Nazis are slowly being marginalized- people just don't have the patience for that type of nonsense anymore. They're either falling all over themselves trying to get some "social justice" or they're just too fat and happy with life in our great nation to be bothered with it.

Still, racism is an ugly thing to run up against, no matter where it's coming from and I felt sorry for this young woman. I think she has much careful reflection ahead of her. She will probably find herself included in a growing number of Jewish conservatives in America as they finally wake up to the fact that the left is not on their side.

Cheers.

"I could accept Israel if it abandoned Jewish exclusivism and welcomed back returning Palestinian Arab refugees"

Would you then also give equal credence to this statement?:

"I could accept Palestine if it abandoned Palestinian exclusivism and welcomed back returning Jewish and Arab refugees"

The sword is sharpened on both sides of the blade.

That many paleos, Pat Buchanan NOT included, seem to go beyond desiring American non-involvement in the Middle East vis-a-vis Israel and Palestine, and actually shed crocodile tears for the 'poor, oppressed Palestinians' is ridiculous, and certainly does more harm than good.
Someone should remind Pat, Scott McConnel, Taki et all that the Southwest is being Palestined.

Like Europe, though, if the people therein don't start having more babies, they're going to lose it...which is another topic altogether, I suppose.
Were that Europeans and white Americans to have the birthrate of Israeli Jews: 2.5 .
Of course the absolute stat for Israeli Jews does not tell the whole story. Non-religious Ashkenazis (Eastern Europeans) have the same problem as Europeans in general. Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews tend to have more than 3 kids. Religious Jews take the commandment to be fruitful quite literally with about 5. Unfortunately Arab women have 6.
Pat's thesis in the "Death of the West" is quite valid.

The Arab countries made sure the displaced Arabs stayed displaced;

I read in the International edition of the Jerusalem Post a couple of weeks ago that Jordan has closed the border to Palestinian Arabs, even those with valid Jordanian passports. Says a lot about what they think of the Palestinian Arabs, don't it?

She will probably find herself included in a growing number of Jewish conservatives in America as they finally wake up to the fact that the left is not on their side.

That's me, right here! Jewish, ex-lefty---woke up big time after 9/11. This young woman is coming along. She's just beginning to figure it out, but I think she's on the right path. It's the same one I was on and I ended up here!

I could accept Israel if it abandoned Jewish exclusivism and welcomed back returning Palestinian Arab refugees as well as Jewish immigrants. However, I will oppose American support of Israel as long as it retains an undemocratic military occupation and discriminates against Palestinian Arabs.

Are you sure you weren't part of that attacking mob?

Liberals hate Israel because of the jealous God who protects her. Liberals hate the Christians for speaking that God's language and for professing His Son and His gospel. Liberals hate the Light and worship the Darkness. When the Lord's chosen people and their brethren in Christ are spoken of by the sons of perdition, their tounges burn in their heads and their hearts harden as that of Pharoah. They are doomed to make chase with their chariots of ideological schizophrenia and to drown in the great Red Sea of their own hypocrisy!

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