Postcard From the Westwood Protest

On the day the war in Iraq began, I endured a
migraine-inducing traffic jam on Wilshire Boulevard. As I inhaled car fumes for
nearly an hour, my frustration grew. It reached the boiling point when I
learned the cause behind the gridlock: antiwar protesters. The blocking of
traffic by the No-War-In-Iraq protesters not only had no impact on the events
unfolding abroad, but they diverted valuable police resources from fighting
crime and preventing terrorism. They also made me late for dinner at my
parents’ house.

So it was with scant enthusiasm that I went to the Federal Building
in Westwood a few days later to cover the antiwar marches for The Journal. On
my way to the rally, I walked by a hippie with a stringy gray ponytail.
Shouting “Bush is a fascist” in a stentorian voice, he gave the Nazi salute to
shocked motorists, presumably an expression of his anger toward the
administration.

His antics failed to move me. Neither did the opinions of
the first protester with whom I chatted. After accusing the United States of
going to war for oil, he said America was “killing innocent Iranians for no
reason.”

Call me uninformed, but I thought the America was fighting
in Iraq.

I then spoke to a Muslim of a mixed Persian-Bangladashi
heritage named Said. His voice rising in anger and his forefinger thrust in my
face, he began cataloguing the alleged motives that led Bush to war. They
ranged from a push for global hegemony to “wanting to protect the honor of his
daddy, who Saddam Hussein tried to kill.” Just as I was about to tune Said out
(actually, an elderly woman banging a drum made it nearly impossible to hear
him), he started to make sense. Lots of it.

He said the United States could have avoided bloodshed by
simply keeping its troops in the Persian Gulf and letting U.N. inspections
proceed. With the world united against Saddam Hussein and pressure mounting,
the Iraqi dictator would have likely turned over his illicit arsenal. By
attacking him, the United States has only increased the likelihood that Hussein
will unleash the chemical and biological weapons that America so fears.

There were a handful of Jews among the diverse crowd of
about 100. Given the strong anti-Israel speeches and placards that have
recently appeared at some antiwar demonstration, I was especially curious to
hear their thoughts.

Elizabeth Kaye Sortun, holding a sign that said, “War Is Not
The Answer,” repeatedly flashed the peace sign at passing cars. Dressed in
black to show solidarity with “all the victims,” the 46-year-old daughter of a
Holocaust survivors said protesting an unjust war upheld the Jewish tradition
of social activism.

“I think Saddam is bad, but the United States shouldn’t
unilaterally invade another country. The U.N. said no, and yet this
administration is behaving like a cowboy,” said Kaye Sortun. “The U.S. isn’t
the boss of the world.”

Although the Los Feliz landscaper has seen the occasional
anti-Israel sign at antiwar rallies, Kaye Sortun said fellow protesters have
made her and others feel welcome, whether Jew, Muslim or Christian. To make the
world a safer place for her 10-year-old daughter Ava, Kaye Sortun said she
planned to march as long as the bombs dropped in Baghdad.

Nearby, Carol Honigman waved a sign that said “No War.” The
64-year-old therapist said she worried about a backlash if the conflict goes
badly, including increased terrorism in Israel.

“Jews are always the scapegoats. It’s always our fault,”
Honigman said. “This could worsen everything.”

Her niece Melanie Weiner, 36, shared her antiwar sentiments.
Weiner, who had lived in Israel for seven years as a child, said the United
States was behaving hypocritically. She asked what right did America have
telling Iraq to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction when the United
States has a huge stockpile of nuclear bombs?

Weiner, a therapist, said countries should initiate military
action only as a last resort to prevent genocide and other crimes against
humanity. America’s war against Iraq falls far short of that standard.

After 2 1¼2 hours, the rally began to wind down as
protesters headed home and the banners came down. Weiner, who came to the event
after a busy day at work, had a parting thought explaining her willingness to
the verbal abuse heaped on her and other demonstrators by some passersby.

“I need to do what I can, even if my voice is drowned out,”
she said. “Otherwise, there’s too much despair, too much depression for those
of us on the left. It doesn’t matter if we succeed. We have to keep fighting
the good fight.”