A large city such as Chicago offers numerous choices for visitors, such as museums, department stores, night clubs, and simultaneous street protests. Okay, I did not cut-and-paste that from the City of Chicago tourism web site, but there were a couple of protests within three blocks of each other yesterday afternoon. After the Anti-ShoreBank Tea Party, I walked south on LaSalle Street to the Northern Trust building, where Caterpillar, one of Illinois' largest private employers, was holding its annual shareholder meeting. That brought out the anti-Israel protesters. Why? 
In 2003, Rachel Corrie, a member of the radical International Solidarity Movement (which has nothing to do with Polish Solidarity), traveled to Gaza to protest Israeli occupation of the Strip. While there she burned an American flag. When a Caterpillar bulldozer operated by a member of the Israeli Defense Force was in the process of destroying a home that was connected to a weapons-smuggling tunnel, Corrie decided to act as a human-shield. Accounts widely vary on what happened next, but Corrie may have accidentally fell into the path of the bulldozer. She was run over and instantly killed.
Just as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, "Never waste a crisis," the radical left doesn't want to waste a flag-burning martyr (Corrie) or a corporate enemy (Caterpillar). The lefties want "Cat" to stop selling its earth-movers in Israel, the great majority of which are of course used for mundane construction activities. They haven't. Good for them. And even if they did, Israel would just buy their tractors from John Deere, Navistar, or Komatsu.
Never waste a crisis.
Two groups of about 50 each faced off on Adams Street while Cat's shareholders were were meeting. Tomorrow I will post photographs of pro-Israel demonstrators.
One of the chants from the ISM side was "Rachel Corrie is the story." Coincidentally, just a few days earlier, a Turkish-flagged blockade runner, the MV Rachel Corrie, was prevented by the IDF from reaching Gaza.
Never waste a martyr.
There was some back-and-forth between the factions, which were penned in by parallel roadblocks. Chicago Police officers, some in military garb, were there in case the partitions didn't do the job. During the exchanges, the Israeli side sang Our National Anthem. The radicals didn't sing along. They're on the side of the flag-burner.
Related post:
Anti-ShoreBank Tea Party
Technorati tags:
terrorism 
Rachel Corrie 
israel 
International Solidarity Movement 
Caterpillar 
Chicago 
Illinois 
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