Bob Kunst stood by a large handwritten placard proclaiming “F.U.-E.U.” for all to see. Placed in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue directly in front of the White House on Tuesday, Kunst drew no small notice from the tourists and others wandering down the street, even among other sometimes far more established protest acts. Kunst is from the Miami Beach area but had decided to stop in Washington, D.C., on a drive to Toronto to protest the European Union’s latest condemnation of Israel and the just begun new Israeli-Arab peace talks.
“It’s an absolute disgrace and totally disgusting,” said Kunst, who, as part of pro-Israel group Shalom International, protests regularly at the Federal Building in Fort Lauderdale against any sort of concessions by Israel to the Palestinians and advocates for a united Jerusalem under Jewish control.
“Jerusalem doesn’t belong to Israel, it belongs to every Jew and every Jew murdered for being a Jew,” he said.
This particular protest, which Kunst said was his 630th in the six years he’s been doing them, came together rather hastily, combining his already planned trip with the news he learned on Friday about the renewed peace talks, which began with a dinner in D.C. Monday night.
“It’s not necessary to have them at all,” he said, explaining that the time of unrest in the Arab world is not when Israel should be seeking peace and that with groups like Hezbollah holding leverage over any decisions made there shouldn’t be any negotiating anyway.
Bob Kunst is right to do this. I’m glad to see not all Foridians go along with Deborah’s very leftist ideas about Israel. I’m in Oregon but back Florida’s Shalom International.