It is a Prerequisite

I used to think that being both an idiot and a die-hard leftist was just coincidence.

Not after this weekend report from Siun of the Israel-hating FireDogLake blog

Reminding us that “in 1984, a picket line and refusal to unload cargo of a ship carrying South African cargo was a key event in mobilizing the anti-apartheid movement worldwide,” more than 500 activists (with some estimates of 1,000) blocked the unloading of an Israeli flagged ship yesterday in Oakland harbor.

Answering a call from the Palestinian Trade Union Movement for “dockworkers’ unions worldwide to block Israeli maritime trade in response to Israel’s massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla, until Israel complies with international law and ends its illegal blockade of Gaza,” California activists picketed the berth of the Israeli ship.

Actually not so much.

You see, the Israeli ship arrived 12 hours later. They were actually blockading a Chinese cargo ship.

Some 500 anti-Israel protesters arrived at the Oakland, California port early Sunday morning, hoping to block an Israeli ship from unloading its cargo. However, the ship did not arrive, and the crowd prevented workers from unloading a Chinese ship instead.
The protesters say they were protesting the recent Israel-Turkey flotilla incident, though they displayed great ignorance about what actually happened; one of them even compared barely armed Israeli Defense Forces troops with Somali pirates.

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‘); sZones+=”,17″;sIDs+=”,InContentAd”}Being ones to not really care if they work or not, because they get paid anyway, the Oakland Longshoreman’s union decided to not work while the protesters were there.

As workers refused to cross their picket line, an arbitrator was called in to decide whether work would go on or not – and citing possible safety concerns, the unloading of the ZIM was halted for the morning shifts and then again for the afternoon shifts. This allowed the activists to block the unloading for 24 hours – their goal – and deliver the message that Israel will face growing difficulties internationally – including in the US – if it does not end its blockade.

Back in the real world, they still actually only blocked the unloading of the Chinese ship. As the Israeli ship docked too late to get unloaded.

The Israeli ship arrived only at 6 PM, more than 12 hours after the protesters, but by that time most of the latter had left. The local union decided not to order night shift workers to unload the Israeli ship, and it will be unloaded sometime on Monday.

If you’re too stupid to notice the difference between Chinese characters and Hebrew, congratulations! You’re dumb enough to hate Israel!