The Ahmadinejad/Clinton Outrage,Editorial Board

Something very important happened during the run-up to Monday's anti-Ahmadinejad rally and it behooves the Jewish community to pay close attention. The already infamous decision by rally organizers to rescind the invitation to Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee - a decision apparently made under extreme pressure from Senator Hillary Clinton, the Obama campaign and some Jewish Democratic groups - marked the end of the time-honored tradition of bipartisanship on the issue of Israel.

That those who torpedoed Gov. Palin's appearance let politics get in the way of demonstrating across-the-board opposition to someone who regularly and publicly calls for the destruction of Israel is as shocking as it is unacceptable.

Various reasons have been advanced for Sen. Clinton's reneging on her long-standing commitment to participate. She said she felt disrespected by the rally's sponsors for their having failed to notify her, after she'd agreed to participate, that Gov. Palin had also been invited to speak. As a corollary, she added that the Palin invitation turned the event into one of a partisan nature. This is both bizarre and puzzling, since on the one hand she suggests she would not have changed her mind about attending had she been properly apprised of Gov. Palin's invitation and on the other she implies she would have withdrawn no matter how she found out.

At any rate, it is hard to understand how inviting a Republican vice-presidential candidate to appear together with a U.S. senator closely identified with the Democratic presidential campaign could be anything but bipartisan. The real problem seems to have been Sen. Clinton's reluctance to share a stage with the hottest personality on the political scene.

Unfortunately for Sen. Clinton, she comes out of this looking like a small-minded operator concerned more about politics than principle. And after having put to rest the ill feelings generated by her notorious embrace of Suha Arafat several years back, she has now reignited all the old questions about her by allowing petty political maneuvering to trump an issue as central to Israel and the Jewish community - and the United States, for that matter - as the ambitions of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not only the world's most outspoken anti-Semite but a man determined to acquire nuclear weapons for Iran and use them against Israel.

Seizing upon this opening, diehard supporters of Barack Obama who are central to the financial upkeep of many Jewish organizations mounted a full-court press to force the rally's sponsors to dump Gov. Palin and accept no prominent Democratic substitute for Sen. Clinton. "No Palin, No Way" became the war cry.

Threats were made that unless Gov. Palin were dropped, complaints would be lodged with the Internal Revenue Service against the organizational participants for allegedly promoting partisan political activity in violation of their status as tax-exempt charities. There were also threats about ending financial support to the organizations.

To widespread dismay, the rally sponsors withdrew their invitation to Gov. Palin. The George Soros-funded advocacy group J Street issued a public statement boasting, "We did it."

Organizational sponsors of the rally such as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and New York's Jewish Community Relations Council had from the beginning intended a bipartisan denunciation of Mr. Ahmadinejad; instead they were forced to publicly insult Gov. Palin, who had jumped at the opportunity to express her solidarity with the Jewish community.

It may not be of much interest to the Soros crowd, but mesirah is not the Jewish way of doing things, and the threat of concocting stories to tax authorities is a damnable tactic. Also, the famous Talmudic account (Gittin 55b-56a) of the mistaken identity episode involving Kamtza and Bar Kamtza (the lesson of which is that one must be mindful of the possibly tragic consequences of selfish and unnecessary slights to others) comes to mind.

Jerusalem was destroyed, the Talmud says, after the innocent Bar Kamtza, who had received an invitation to a reception intended for Kamtza, was humiliatingly ejected from the affair by the haughty and unfeeling host.

Read Comments (8)

The Ahmadinejad/Clinton Outrage , Editorial Board

"The Ahmadinejad/Clinton Outrage"
Date 02:09, 09-24, 08

What an excellent article - I'm 100% in agreement with its author -

The behavior of these organizations is absolutely appalling - illustrating zero integrity as individuals, or as credible organizations -

This entire situation saddens me greatly -

sephrena

Self-Appointed Jewish Leaders to More Assimilation and Intermarriage
Date 02:09, 09-24, 08

Dis-inviting Governor Palin is disgusting. The next time that I receive a request for a cash donation to 1 of these purported Jewish groups, I am going to refuse and tell why.
It seems that abortion "rights" and cross-dressing are more important to the Democrats than Israel's security.
Silcon Valley, California, subscriber

"Solidarity with the Jewish Community"
Date 02:09, 09-24, 08

You hit the nail on the head. This was not an exclusively Jewish rally. this was first a foremost a rally against Ahmedinejad and a dangerous Iran.
Indeed Sarah Palin jumped at the chance to pander for jewish votes - which is eaxcatly how the presidents conference themselves made it political by stupidly inviting her over anyone else of equal standing to seantor clinton.

Who she really is
Date 05:09, 09-25, 08

It's now known, Senator Clinton is more in interested in party politics than stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Also, she had no problem hugging Arafat's wife, however, she can't stand on the same speaking platform as Governor Palin.

Great Editorial! - jews4palin.blogspot.com
Date 10:09, 09-25, 08

Great editorial. It is truly a shame that the rally sponsors insulted Gov. Palin by disinviting her. The speech she would have given was published in the New York Sun. She praised Senator Clinton and Senator McCain and said nothing derrogatory about Senator Obama. You can find a link to that speech from my blog. Howard Richman

Jewish voters should fear Obamas natural instincts.
Date 02:09, 09-25, 08

Jewish voters should fear Obama's natural instincts.

Obama has a natural instinct that sometimes gets him into trouble. For example, the "bitter" remark originated from Obama's natural instinct. He has for years and years drank coffee and wine with fellow liberal thinkers and I am sure that they have ingrained into his brain that philosophic view that some voters, especially non-liberal voters, are dumb and ill-informed. So he made the "bitter" remark from his sub-conscious without thinking about it. When Obama does not have a teleprompter in his face then he seems to stutter in his speech with many pauses. He is fighting his natural instinct and trying to generate a political statement instead of his natural response statement.

For years, Obama has hanged around anti-Israel ranting haters. His spiritual mentor obviously has a low regard for the state of Israel. Also, obviously Obama has heard anti-Israel remarks often from that spiritual mentor. Obama's church has Hamas anti-Israel material in the church lobby. There is picture of Obama and his wife sitting with extreme anti-Israel Professor Said at Said's keynote speech. There is a poll that says over 70% of blacks are either anti-Semitic or somewhat anti-Semitic. I am sure many people have heard from their black friends the unpleasant words that they speak about Israel. One should assume that Obama's natural instinct is to have a dim view of Israel, too.

An example of this natural instinct is his speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2008 Policy Conference where he says, "The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper." I hope he did not mean that for how can a Palestine state be contiguous without making Israel non-contiguous. Could this be something that he has heard in his years of anti-Israel indoctrination? Did his natural instinct trigger him to make this mistake?

Another example is that he put down the Likud Party. Why would he offend potential Jewish voters in the USA by that remark? Again, I believe that is coming from his natural instinct that comes from years of hearing anti-Israel rants.

I understand why Jewish voters traditionally vote for Democrats. The Jewish religions tend to believe in that the community is supposed to take care of the community. Unfortunately, many Jewish people might think the government instead of private entities, like churches, should do that work. Therefore, they tend to vote for Democrats.

Also for survival reasons, I understand why Jewish voters need to have a leadership role in the Democratic Party. With a large portion of the black Democrats not giving full support to Israel must be troubling to Jewish voters. They need to keep the Jewish leadership in the Democratic Party strong to counteract that strong anti-Israel tendency in the Democratic Party's rank and file.

Yes, the Jewish voter still needs to have a significant role in the Democratic Party but this year the Jewish voter should at least ponder Obama's anti-Israel roots and his natural instincts. What will be his natural instinct when is confronted with an Israeli request to bomb Iranian nuclear sites? Is that a risk worth taking as a Jewish voter?

The issue is not Mesira from our enemies, it''s betrayal from our ''friends''
Date 01:09, 09-28, 08

The issue is the political stupidity and moral cowardice of the Conference. We listen to these machers because we think they really know something. Now we know they dn't. They spend their days playing games; praising this, defending that, condemning this, deploring that. They spend their nights at dinners receiving awards for their courage, as if the Iranian secret service is out there gunning for them.

IRS action was far fetched to begin with, defensible in the second place, and should have been defied in the third place. The one and only function of the Conference is for access and influence, and now they will get neither, not here nor in Israel. The Jerusalem Post editorialized "Whose side are they on?" and opined that these bodies are obsolete and worse then useless.

Jews Might be Immigrating to Israel On Mass, Once Obama Gets Elected.
Date 09:10, 10-5, 08

In 2007, Hamas spokesmen said that they support Barak Obama. "Barak vision will change America". He was right. I don't understand how any jew today can vote for this man who for 20 years did not object to anti-American, anti-white, anti-semitic bigotry from his spiritual advisor.

Dear Haverim, Wake Up. Obama is running on platform of Change, so did communists in Russia, so did Hitler.