YOU CAN BET THE HECKLERS WERE LIBERAL JEWS (2)

Looks like some of the less-liberal Jews roughed up some of the hecklers. Too bad they didn’t kick the supreme shit out of them!
　
Here is an account by the Jerusalem Post’s Gil Shefler of the heckling against Netanyahu at the New Orleans convention of the Jewish Federations of North America:
　
Any account of the conference without reference to the heckling by activists of Jewish Voices for Peace, a leftist group involved in attempts to break the blockade on Gaza and relocate the planned Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, would be incomplete. The incident in which they interrupted Netanyahu was very troubling to those who witnessed it. One by one, protesters stood up on chairs with pre-made signs. "The loyalty oath delegitimizes Israel," one shouted. "The occupation delegitimizes Israel," yelled another.

There were five in all. Two of them – a young female and an elderly man – were taken away quietly. Every time another protester appeared the crowd became less patient with the party crashers. Chants of "am Yisrael chai" and "Bibi, Bibi" started up spontaneously. In perhaps the ugliest incident, a protester resisted being carried out, jumping over rows of chairs trying to evade security. He was wrestled down by a combination of guards and vigilante members of the audience and carried out kicking and screaming.

"I saw him later, he was pretty roughed up," Ehud Hechtman, a security guard who witnessed the event, said.

JTA’s Jacob Berkman reported that he saw one audience member put a female protester in a nelson.

Amid the drama, only Netanyahu seemed unfazed.

"If they’re talking about delegitimization, they’ve got the wrong address," he said and received a tremendous round of applause from the delegates.

After the incident I decided to gauge whether the protest reflected a larger sentiment in the audience, especially among youth. I found a group of Orthodox college students who agreed to weigh in their opinion. There was no anger in their voices, but rather disappointment.

"If we allow five butt-heads to hijack the message here by standing on chairs with their homemade signs we’re failing our roles as ambassadors to Israel," Daniel Friedman, a student at the University of California at San Diego, said.

Later that day I spoke to left-leaning seculars, who said they felt ambivalence about the incident.

They oppose the occupation of the West Bank and the loyalty oath, and wished JFNA addressed such issues. Most of them, however, said that while they may agree with the issues raised, the form of the protest was misguided.