We The Terrorists

The Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald have decidely different coverage of the Lebanon demonstration held yesterday at Bay Front in Miami. So what happened at the rally? Was it really a distant cry for peace or something less benign?

But the rally talk quickly moved beyond Lebanon. Speakers touched on the plight of the Palestinians and Iraqis, condemned Israel and criticized America's role in the Middle East.

Joe Badran, a Deerfield Beach resident and vice president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in South Florida, said those matters are too intertwined to separate.

"This community is hurting because our family and loved ones are being murdered almost daily with U.S. arms," he said.

As the rally wore on, passions flared. Antiwar speakers decried the United States as a modern-day colonizer. Others criticized Israel as an oppressive force.

"I am Jewish and proud of it," said Paul Lefrak, a founding member of the Broward Anti-War Coalition, but "a people who have been historically oppressed are now oppressing others."

A few at the rally said they want to dissolve Israel permanently.

"That's always one of the themes of these rallies," Badran said. "If this was a just world, that would happen."

Badran was one of the more passionate at the rally. Speaking personally and not on behalf of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, he condemned the killing of civilians by Israelis, but not Palestinian and Lebanese groups considered terrorists by the U.S. government.

"Hamas and Hezbollah are committing acts of defense against the acts of the Israelis," Badran said. "The only weapons that we have are to strap bombs on our bodies and do whatever damage and destruction we can."

It's going to be hard for the ADC to combat negative stereotyping of Arab-Americans when it has as an officer the embodiment of the stereotype.

You'll just have to try to remember that this guy's a "peace activist."

(Herald login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice)