I could hardly believe that this article made it past the SF Chronicle editors. Perhaps they consider these people to be admirable? First, the scene:

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators - including several Jews - protested outside of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco for the fourth time this week, venting anger over Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Then the players, all emphasis added:

“I’m descended from Holocaust victims, and we need to identify with the oppressed - not imitate the oppressors,” said protester Jack Fertig, an astrologer by profession and known to San Franciscans a generation ago as Sister Boom Boom…

Yep, I always go to astrologers for advice!

And you know without even reading this post who they blame:

Protesters on Friday called Israel the main aggressor.

“If you are strangled, you have to fight back,” said Buthina Rashid of Concord, who stood in the throng of protesters blocking Montgomery Street between Sacramento and California streets for two hours as police looked on.

With Rashid were her 4-year-old niece, Rawan, and her 2-year-old nephew, Nezar, who each astonished the crowd by taking a megaphone and leading the crowd in a chant: “Free, free Palestine!”

Now you KNOW that if those were young Christian children leading the crowd in “Jesus saves!” these same people would call them brainwashed.

But, in case there was any doubt in your mind about who the REAL aggressors are, the protesters demonstrated:

The demonstrators remained peaceful until around 5 p.m., when a small group carrying Israel flags gathered across from the consulate. Suddenly, anti-Israel protesters screamed, “Murderers!” and tried to push them.

Did you catch the part above about what the police were doing during the entire protest?

…throng of protesters blocking Montgomery Street between Sacramento and California streets for two hours as police looked on.

However, they finally saw the error of their ways and jumped into action!

Police hustled the pro-Israeli group into the nearest open building.

Is there any hope for San Francisco?

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SAMEER N. YACOUB

Iraq’s presidential council on Thursday approved a security pact that sets out a three-year timeframe for U.S. troops to leave, a spokesman said, the final step for the agreement to replace a U.N. mandate that expires Dec. 31.

As the final legal hurdle to the deal was cleared, American soldiers and Iraqi civlians alike faced another round of deadly bombings by insurgents trying to chip away at recent security gains.

Two suicide bombers in explosives-laden trucks took aim at police stations in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 100, Iraqi officials said.

By VIJAY JOSHI

Thailand’s leader attended a Buddhist ritual Monday, seemingly indifferent to a deepening political crisis that has paralyzed his government, shut down two main airports and stranded 300,000 foreigners in the country.

The crisis is draining millions of dollars from the country’s economy even as Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat appears powerless to remove radical anti-government protesters who have occupied the airports for the past week. He has refused to send in police to evict them for fear of bloodshed, instead making weak pleas for the protesters to go home.

The protesters have vowed to stay until Somchai steps down but he has refused.

Color me shocked:

Björling called the snus export ban “one of the clearest infringements on free trade within the EU” and vowed to step up her efforts to overturn the measure.

“This unilateral and clearly specially formulated legislation which prohibits ‘the release on the market of tobacco not intended for smoking or chewing’ cannot under the best intentions in the world be seen as anything other than discriminatory. And it’s only Swedish snus which is affected,” writes Björling in an article published in the Aftonbladet newspaper.

The poll attached to the article is interesting in its own way.

Q: What do you think about the EU ban on Swedish snus exports?
A’s:
Outrageous, a flagrant violation of the free movement of goods within the EU: 37%

The ban is justified on public health grounds and ought to be extended to other tobacco products: 31%

I don’t care: 32%

Heh