Pro Israel U.S. Marine Attacked At Protest [Video]

A man identified as pro-Israel U.S. Marine Manny Vega was physically assaulted at a protest in Washington, D.C., outside the White House.

Iraq War veteran Vega, who was holding American and Israeli flags in the proximity of a large group of pro-Palestine demonstrators, told police that “They spit on me, they kicked me, they punched me.” See embed below. Apparently one of the protesters tried to set the Israeli flag on fire.

It’s not clear if the cops made any arrests.

Under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the American people, which would include attendees at both pro-Israel and anti-Israel rallies, have the right to peacefully assemble.

Describing what happened last Saturday, the Opposing Views website explains that “In video footage of the attack, angry pro-Palestine protesters surround Vega. They kick, spit and punch him before police arrive a few minutes later to break up the situation. Some pro-Palestinian protesters can be seen trying to guard Vega from the impending mob, and others later apologize for the attack. However, the majority of the protesters continue to chant and scream at Vega, and have to be blocked by the police while Vega makes a statement.”

Vega told Breitbart News that “What brought me out here is this sort of anti-Israel atmosphere that this administration is holding over the United States. I want to show the Israeli people there are American people in our nation that support the state of Israel… And that is why am standing here with an American flag on my right hand, and Israeli flag on my left hand, in a show of solidarity with the Israeli people… This is America, and I have every right to be here with the American flag, and the Israeli flag as a counter protest to the ‘Free Gaza, Anti-Occupation’ protest here. And pro-Hamas.”

Anti-Israel protests on both sides of the Atlantic, including in Paris and Berlin, and around the world as a result of the Gaza invasion have sometimes turned into anti-Semitic, Nazi-like mob violence.

The Daily Beast reports that “‘Gas the Jews’ and ‘Death to the Jews’ have been heard at some rallies. Firebombs have been thrown at synagogues in France and Germany, and Jewish-owned businesses in Paris have been vandalized.”

According to historian Victor Davis Hanson, “… Europeans simply mask with trendy ideology the more materialistic assessment that demography, oil, and the fear of terrorism weigh in favor of allying with the Palestinians. Either way, European anti-Semitism is a bankrupt ideology, one that manifests itself in sympathy for an undemocratic, misogynistic, homophobic, and religiously intolerant Hamas, along with selective unconcern with the many occupations, refugees, divided cities, and walled borders that exist in the wide world outside the Middle East.”

In Calgary, Alberta, pro-Palestinian marchers even shouted “Heil Hitler” at counter protesters.

In Australia, an anti-Semitic gang reportedly rushed a school bus shouting Nazi slogans and threatening to murder every Jewish child on board.

Regardless of the merits of Operation Protective Edge, only a virulent racist would hold innocent citizens of country A responsible for the actions of country B. Moreover, there are wars and territorial disputes going on all over the world, but it seems the international community is obsessed with the alleged human rights violations of just one tiny country. Although it has its flaws and corrupt practices just like the U.S., that state happens to be the only multicultural Western-style democracy in the Middle East, a country that also goes to unprecedented lengths to try to minimize civilian casualties.

That being said, the generally one-sided, gullible media reporting of the Gaza conflict may have contributed to these incidents. As The Inquisitr previously reported, Hamas gunmen threatened and intimidated Western journalists from reporting on the full extent to which Hamas sacrifices innocent Palestinians as human shields for propaganda purposes, “PR fodder” as Prime Minister Netanyahu called it. Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Trendy leftists on America’s college campuses with a tenuous grasp of the history of the Middle East region have increasingly and disturbingly become anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.

As FrontPage Magazine explained,

… Activists on and off U.S. campuses, who never have to face a physical threat more serious than getting jostled while waiting in line for a latte at Starbucks, are quick to denounce Israel’s very real existential threats and the necessity of the Jewish state to take counter measures to thwart terrorism. And quick to label the killing of Hamas terrorists by the IDF as ‘genocide,’ these well-meaning but morally-blind individuals see no contradiction in their calls for the renewed murder of Jews for their own sanctimonious cause.”

What do you think of Marine vet Manny Vega’s counter protest?