While violent anti-Israel protests often turning anti-Semitic are being staged in several European cities, thousands of people rallied in London and New York on Sunday in support of Israel and the operation against Hamas in Gaza, and to protest rocket fire at Israel.
In London, the crowd waved Israeli flags and sang Israeli songs as varied as ‘’Hallelujah","Abanibi" and "Am Yisrael Chai".
Some protesters waved signs reading "Make love, not war" and "Yes to hummus, no to Hamas".
At 3 pm local time, a siren sounded on Kensington High Street, so show passers-by how it feels for Israelis within range of Hamas' rocket. Some car drivers honked in solidarity, and the crowd replied with shouts of encouragement and appreciative applause.
"We prefer peace," said one of the organizers of the support rally, and the audience responded with applause.
Organized by the Zionist Federation, the event was mostly peaceful, although as the rally dispersed, one man was assaulted by participants in a counter-demonstration that had been held nearby. He did not require hospital treatment, and no arrests were made.
"This is a peaceful demonstration - understated, but powerful. It is precisely the calm, the order and the number of people show that Israel does not want war, do not want to chaos," one of the participants said.
Zionist Federation Chairman Paul Charney, who read a tehillim prayer for the fallen IDF soldiers, said: “The whole of Israel is looking at the UK and saying we have friends. The road to peace does not run through Hamas.If these so called pro-Palestinian demonstrators really cared about the Palestinians they would be standing alongside us here today.”
Louise Ellman, a member of the British Parliament, said she had come to the rally to “show my support for people of Israel as they defend themselves”.
“This is about peace and security,” said the prsident of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Vivian Wineman. "It is important for us as Jews to demonstrate our support for Israel, for the sake of peace. It is vital that the leadership of the community says to the community, this is what we should be doing,’’ she said.
She added: "Showing the wider community that the Jews are in solidarity with Israel and with peace. Above all showing people in Israel that we are with them. At the end of the day, we just want peace, we want a ceasefire."
In New York’s Times Square Manhattan thousands rallied Sunday, chanting pro-Israel slogans and waving Israeli flags and signs supporting the Golani Brigade, which earlier in the day suffered the loss of 13 of its soldiers.
Among them was a Palestinian, wrapped in an Israeli flag, blowing a shofar and carrying a sign reading, "I am a Palestinian Christian who loves Israel".
“As Israel continues its ground campaign of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, it is clearer now than ever that there is no room for moral equivalency in this conflict,” Eve Stieglitz, one of the rally’s organizers, said.
“There is no symmetry between a murderous terrorist organization and a moral and democratic state that is under attack by missiles and tunnels,” she added.
“We mourn casualties on all sides, but the blame for this cycle of violence must be clearly placed on Hamas. If Hamas cared more about their people than their rockets, there would be peace in Israel today.”