We came, we saw, we did what we needed to do.

In their eternal quest to prove themselves slightly relevant, the Boston-based chapter of the "I Hate Israel" club (this year under the direction of those logistic geniuses of Code Pink) decided to picket the Israeli Consulate yesterday afternoon.

And some of us, who decided at the last minute that the "-ish State"/Magic Marker crew of the Gaza Freedom Mishuggah shouldn't get the mistake impression that the streets of Boston belong to them decided to show up and exercise a little of our free speech rights on their sorry behinds.

While the results wouldn't easily be mistaken for the Dialogues of Socrates (unless those Dialogues consisted of two groups of people shouting across the streets at each other with bullhorns), it was interesting to see this "debate" play out in the lightly trafficked street across from the Consulate. For within these narrow confines, the only audience were cab drives (who, being Russian, were universally on our side) and the cops (who were thrilled with the Gaza Freedom crew marched off in a huff to Copley Square - "not our jurisdiction" noted one bemused officer). In other words, the real audience for yesterday's protest was one another.

Actually, that's not entirely correct. True, our side had a statement to make (which we made), but at the end of the day we really had nothing to prove to ourselves, other than perhaps our ability to pull together a counter-protest when necessary. But can the same be said of the "Gaza Freedom" cru? Why did they instigate their plan to spend 1-2 hours in the freezing cold of January shouting and megaphoning ten stories below an Israeli Consulate office which probably didn't even know they were there?

No doubt they would claim that their protest was motivated by their own staggering virtue, expressed as deep and unyielding passion for the Palestinian people. But as I've noted before, everything the Israel loathers do - from demanding recognition and support of the Palestinians most murderous and repressive leaders (Arafat, Hamas) to condemning anyone (Palestinian or otherwise) who truly works for peace as a traitor - has contributed more to Palestinians suffering than anything the people on our side of the street could ever do (even if our goal was something other than seeing Israel at peace with its neighbors).

Truly, I've seen a number of these same people at these same pickets for over 20 years (many of them not aging all that well), and nothing will get them spinning on their heels or screaming in your face faster than pointing out the contribution these "Friends of Palestine" have made to the intensification of suffering of those very Palestinians they claim as their moral loadstone.

So some of the shouting taking place across the street from the Israeli Consulate was an attempt to drown out whatever tiny voices of conscience that may still reside in the head of a Gaza Freedom Marcher, reminding them of what their behavior hath wrought. Alerting them to what we all know to be true: that even if it could be unquestionably demonstrated that the actions of the Code Pink/GFM/whatever-they're-calling-themselves-these-days would lead to the death of millions (or, using their own moral arithmetic, millions of Palestinian Arabs) they would still have been out there doing their thing.

Which leaves open the question of "Why" they do what they do (at least until tomorrow).

To be continued...

[Update: Photos of the day, by Hillel Stavis, added by Solomon:]

The good:

The bad:

The ugly:

Marching morons: