"Cold outside"?? Man! My arms were falling off!
And it was Chamsin in Tel Aviv!

This will take some adjustment!

Great shots! 10F? Boston is a chilly place.

Oh, wait a minute, it's 9F in New York. Nevermind

Dexter Van Zile AKBAR!!!

Did you stop to realize that, being as many of those in attendance were Cambridge/Boston Jews, you were probably surrounded there by--gasp!--liberals?

I think I've figured you out. You don't really hate real liberals at all. You hate phonies--hypocrites--who claim to be liberals, who self-identify as liberals, but who are really hiding a deeply illiberal streak. Maybe they're leftists, but, in any event, these phony liberals are people who sympathize with the most illiberal radicals and terrorist groups in the world. Radical Marxism is leftist, but decidedly illiberal. You're problem is that you lump these fools in with real liberals, smearing us with their filth.

You're not against people with empathy, just people who only seem to have empathy for the bad guys. You're not against people who hate war, just people who hate when the good guys fight necessary wars against the bad guys, and who cheer for the bad guys when the bad guys are the ones starting the fighting.

True liberals are on Israel's side--the side of the liberal, peace-seeking, tolerant, pluralistic, women's-rights, gays-in-the-military, multi-ethnic, open-minded, educated, empathetic, secular, supreme-court-ruled, free democracy--in this war against Hamas. After all, you can't find a more illiberal organization than Hamas, or a more liberal state in the region than Israel.

I just wish you'd stop alienating real liberals--potential allies--by frequently throwing around the word "liberal" on your blog like it were some kind of nasty epithet. Is that really necessary? Do you really want to drive away us Hadassah, ADL, Conservative-Movement, Alan-Dershowitz types?

Bravo for braving the cold!

10*F. I sounded a high note I ain't never heard before.

Theses images bring joy to my heart. Pro Israel supporters are beautiful. We need more protests like this one, more pro-Israel signs and marches. The evil of the Islamic terrorists is spreading across America, starting in the Muslim enclaves that we have allowed to grow.

Thank you for the mention. Michael Travis deserves credit for all he does. The man is a guitar playing superman.

Matt:

The portion of the text speech that you heard might give the impression I was overly rough on "liberals." But the entire text of the speech (posted below) should give you a sense of what I was saying. I had to cut out the middle third because of the cold, but here is the text as I wrote it:

One of the most important heirlooms in my family’s home growing up was the Bronze Star posthumously awarded to my uncle Edward Bulkeley Van Zile, a US Marine who was killed on Iwo Jima in February 1945.

Teddy, as he was called, was an artillery man in the Fourth Marine Division.

He was killed by a Japanese mortar round.

That medal served as a reminder to me and my brother that standing up to authoritarian regimes and movements is part of what America was about.

To be sure, American history and identity are too complex and tragic to be encapsulated in a military medal.

There have been long stretches of history when the American people have, as a nation, sinned against our fellow humans, its higher angels and against our Sovereign Creator who is the ultimate source of human dignity.

Looking at Uncle Teddy’s medal will tell you nothing about the witch trials in Salem, the sin of slavery, the decimation of the American Indian population and the all-too-slow death of Jim Crow in the United States.

Uncle Teddy’s medal will only remind you of the courage and death of an American serviceman fighting in to defend an imperfect democracy and to protect a people in constant need of admonition, repentance, restraint and self-correction.

But Teddy’s death, along with the losses Americans have suffered at places like Antietam, Gettysburg, Belleau Wood, Normandy, Danang and – more recently Faluja, Tikrit, and Mosul – demonstrate an American willingness to bear the burden of our sins, the cost of our freedom and a willingness to stand between innocent people and tyrants who would kill them.

Americans have traditionally opposed tyrants because we believe that other nations are entitled to walk the road of history as free peoples – provided they are willing to live with the consequences – both moral and strategic – of self-determination.

When leaders make mistakes, their people pay for them, one way or another. This is true for every national movement. Americans know this. Israelis know this. It is a lesson that Arab leaders and their followers need to learn and accept.

The American belief in freedom and self-determination was one of the reasons why my father became angry when the UN passed the Zionism is Racism is resolution 1975. He saw that for what it was – a sop to authoritarian regimes intent on erasing an imperfect, but self-correcting democracy from the map of the Middle East and an attempt to drive the Jewish people underground. Sadly, this impulse is still alive in the hearts of the leaders of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

To be sure Americans need to be reminded that there are limits to what we can accomplish in our efforts to confront tyranny. Many American soldiers have died in battles that many well-meaning and thoughtful Americans honestly believe should never have been fought – in wars that some regard as tragic misadventures.

Despite all of this, the American people, covered as they are with the blood and blood mud of our history have struggled to hold on to their seat in the assembly of the righteous.

As imperfect as we are, the American people have found themselves on the right side – not just the winning side – but on the correct side of the great issues facing humanity.

Walking on the high wire of history over the perilous consequences of the world we live in – and under heaven’s judgment – we have tried to do the right thing, just as Israel has tried to do for the past 60 years.

Now when people across the street accuse Israel of acting in a disproportionate manner because more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed in the recent fighting, they are essentially demanding that Israeli leaders pay for the right to defend their country with the lives of men women in children. In other words, Israelis do not have the right to defend themselves until after they’ve been killed.

Would these peace activists be happier if more Israelis had been killed as a result of Hamas’s rocket attacks? Would it be “fairer” if more women and children had been killed in the streets of Sderot and Ashkelon?

Terrorists who attack civilians while hiding behind civilians guarantee civilian casualties.

The math is pretty simple: No rockets into Israel, no Israeli attacks on Gaza.

What Israelis regard as a tragedy that brings shame on the Jewish state – the death of innocent civilians – is the chosen and preferred strategy of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

These days, it appears progressive peace movement has gone on a tragic misadventure of its own.

The evidence of this misadventure can be seen in the streets of Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and yes, in the streets of Boston.

In the past few weeks we have seen so-called progressive peace activists share the sidewalk with racists who call on Jews to return to the oven, asserted Jews are the products of monkeys and pigs and who have falsely accused Israel of perpetrating “genocide” against the Palestinians, a people whose population has quadrupled over the past 60 years.

We’ve heard peace activists affirm Hamas’ genocidal goal with the chant “From the River to the Sea Palestine Shall Be Free.”

We have seen so-called progressives stand silent while extremists in their midst carry signs equating the Star of David with the Nazi Swastika.

This is incitement, pure and simple.

We have seen this incitement like this before.

We’ve seen it in the Middle East.

And the progressives remained silent.

We have seen incitement like this in Europe.

And the progressives have remained silent.

We have seen incitement like this in Canada.

And the progressives have remained silent.

Now this incitement has reached arrived in the public square of the United States.

We here today will not remain silent.