Since the main organizers of the anti-AIPAC rally in DC last weekend are ardent Assadists & members of the hate-mongering Hands Off Syria Coalition, it was a given that some of the participants would carry Syrian flags in support of Assad & Russian intervention in Syria. It was a given that this would cause conflict with Palestinian supporters who oppose Assad’s dictatorship, oppose Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians, & understand that the fate of Palestinian self-determination is directly tied to the fate of the Syrian revolution.

Those who don’t understand the destructive, divisive character of Assadist influence & support for counter-revolution in Syria among Palestinian solidarity activists just want a harmonious, united movement back so they dummy up & refuse to inform themselves of the issues at stake. The life & death issues for Syrians, Palestinians, Iraqis who are all being bombed to smithereens.

Assadism is a poison to Palestinian solidarity & has brought the antiwar movement to a dead-end. The fracturing of these movements is a wrenching process to go through but it is a necessary one to throw off those whose activism is based on a profound phobia & hatred of Muslims, i.e., those whose politics have the depth & malignancy of US Pentagon war propaganda, & those whose solidarity with Palestinians is based more on a hatred for Jews than respect for Palestinian justice.

No one has to like this situation but the days of dummying up, hoping the conflict will just go away, are over. We need to inform ourselves about the Syrian revolution & either stand with it or against it. There is no neutral way. Not if you give a damn about justice, including for Palestinians.