Tea Partying Israeli Style

Right wing Israelis recently launched its own version of the Tea Party movement. With 'Saying no to Obama' as its organizing slogan, its main goals appear to be the destruction of the peace process, more building on the West Bank, and a more muscular response to Iran.

You say the Tea Party is a purely American phenomenon? You say it wouldn't translate well to other countries? Well think again my friends. If a group of right wingers have their way, a homegrown version of America's Tea Party movement will be taking root in Israel; hitching itself to the slogan, "Saying no to Obama."

After all, how can you have a tea party without slamming President Obama!

But "saying no to Obama," appears to be merely an entrée point for Israeli Tea Party organizers. The nascent movement appears to be equally about protesting the continuation of a moratorium on construction in the West Bank, thoroughly destroying the severely wounded peace process, and angling for a more muscular response to Iran.

A new unabashedly conservative effort

In a story headlined "Israel to get its own 'Tea Party' movement," the Jerusalem Post reported that "A new grassroots effort ... that is modeled after the American conservative social movement ... . promises to be just as patriotic, just as provocative and just as antagonistic to US President Barack Obama."

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/11/1/112220/541

Daniel Hannan, our resident RW Tory nutcase, actually launched a 'Brighton Tea Party' for anti-tax, anti-welfare-state activists in the UK - despite the fact that the whole point of the Boston Tea Party was to be anti-British!

There are nutters everywhere. Maybe we should call these events 'Mad Hatters Tea Parties' - in honour of one of the most famous tea parties in fiction.

A "Say No to Obama" event in Israel drew only 100 supporters on Sunday as the Likud Party launched its own version of the Tea Party movement that is challenging the U.S. President in Tuesday's mid-term elections.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-tea-party-draws-few-supporters-to-say-no-to-obama-event-1.322182