Thousands Protest in San Francisco For Lebanon and Palestine

Still, it was fewer - far fewer - people than normally come out for the big anti Iraq war protests. There were probably 5,000 people whereas the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war will easily bring out twice that if not more. The reason is, of course, Israel. It is a very sensitive subject among moderate liberals and even on the left. No one wants to seem sympathetic to terrorists or anti-Semitic. Plus elections are coming up in November and many on the left want to see Democrats (who appear to support Israel with even greater unquestioning force than Republicans) win a majority in the House - the policies those Democrats put into place once in power is of a secondary concern, whether such a victory would mean any lasting positive change for the bulk of Americans or people of the world is of a tertiary concern.

Still it does appear that Israel's latest upswing in military terrorism of Arab people was a defeat for hardcore Zionists and their American imperialist allies. While Israel's unequaled military might in the region certainly has had a devastating impact on Hezbollah and the people of Lebanon (Christian and secular Lebanon included), Hezbollah has shown that Israel is not invincible and the obvious disdain for human life by the IDF has made criticizing Israel a much less sensitive matter than it was a few weeks ago.

But there is no cease fire yet, and the arrogance of the Israeli state (note that there are many Jewish Israelis who criticize their government and the current terrorizing of Lebanon) might mean continuing violence in Lebanon beyond Monday morning.