The anti-Israel demonstrations revisited

Yesterday afternoon Pysäyttäkää Sota organized the fifth demonstration demanding immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The fact that such ceasefire had already started yesterday morning certainly did not stand in the way of organizing the demonstration.

In their own report they say that this is the fifth demonstration that they have organized on the subject and that the demonstrations have been attended by 2500 people. This seems to be a strange way to put it, since even their own numbers of attendance for each demonstration do not quite come up to 2500 when added together (although since they were described as "more that 300", this can stretch), and also, obviously, because this implies that people who have once attended one of their demonstration do not participate in any of the subsequent ones.

The new feature of yesterday's demonstration were signs saying "Emme halua lisää muureja" ("We don't want any more walls").

Now, for the record and if anyone hasn't figured it out yet: I am not for peace in this particular case. The peace that they had for the last 6 years was not working very well, and Israel decided to give war a chance, and I support their decision. I support Israel. I also think that it's perfectly fine for people to support Lebanon if they are so inclined.

What I am annoyed with here are people who pretend to be for peace when they are in fact supporting one side in a war. The pictures on their own site feature a Hezbollah flag, portraits of Nasrallah, various flags of Arabic countries, people wearing kaffiyehs (whose appearance suggests that they do not normally wear one), a sign saying "Voitto on meidän" ("victory is ours"), a sign claiming that Hezbollah attacks military targets and Israel civilian ones, a sign and a number of signs equating David's star with swastika. Does this sound like a demonstration for peace, or does this sound like a demonstration for "argh, now that those other fuckers are shooting back it's time to pretend that we want peace?"

And, again, I am not surprised that they are doing it. If I were participating in a war that was going badly I would be all for peace myself, and would probably do a better job of it, too, or at least a less obvious one. What surprises me is that some people can look at all that and believe them.

BTW, I wonder what would have happened if I came out there with a sign that equates crescent with swastika. I think this question will remain strictly theoretical for now.