Israel Matzav: McCain campaign statement on disinviting of Sarah Palin from anti-Ahmadinejad rally; UPDATE: It wasn't the Conference's idea

Friday, September 19, 2008

McCain campaign statement on disinviting of Sarah Palin from anti-Ahmadinejad rally; UPDATE: It wasn't the Conference's idea

On Monday, there is a rally in New York City against the appearance of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations. New York Senator Hillary Clinton was scheduled to appear at the rally as was Republican Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a show of bipartisan opposition to Ahmadinejad. But Clinton refused to appear with Palin and canceled her appearance. Now the moonbats at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations have disinvited Palin as well. The following statement was issued in response by the McCain-Palin campaign:

For Immediate Release
September 18, 2008 Contact: Press Office

Statement by John McCain on the "Stop Iran" Rally
ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, U.S. Senator John McCain issued the following statement on the "Stop Iran" rally:

"Throughout my political career, I have sought to rise above partisanship on critical national issues. Nowhere is this more true than on important matters of national security. Earlier this year, Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and I issued a joint statement on the genocide in Darfur and pledged to support efforts to bring it to an end. Earlier this month, Senator Obama and I put the campaign aside to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on our country and talk about the importance of national service.

"Next Monday, the day before Iranian President Ahmadinejad is to speak before the United Nations General Assembly, several organizations will sponsor an event to draw attention to the importance of halting Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Governor Palin and I share a strong belief that a nuclear armed Iran poses a grave threat to the security of Americans and to our allies. Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. The risk that Iran would provide terrorists with a nuclear weapon is too great for the world to ignore. Iranian President Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust occurred and called Israel a 'stinking corpse.' A nuclear-armed Iran would destabilize the entire region. Preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons should be a shared goal of every American, not another occasion for partisan posturing.

"Governor Palin was pleased to accept an invitation to address this rally and show her resolve on this grave national security issue, regrettably that invitation has since been withdrawn under pressure from Democratic partisans. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Republicans, Democrats and independents alike to oppose Ahmadinejad's goal of a nuclear armed Iran. Senator Obama's campaign had the opportunity to join us. Senator Obama chose politics rather than the national interest."

Was it Senator Obama who made that choice or was it the Conference of Presidents and its over-zealous knee-jerk support of a Democratic candidate? Either way, the Conference has abandoned the interest of the Jewish community for that of the Democratic party and the odds of Obama ever unifying the American people have now declined to about zero (if they were ever above that).

And either way, the winner is the guy pictured at the top of this post.

UPDATE 1:28 PM BOSTON TIME

A reminder that I'm in Boston and not Jerusalem, and therefore it is not Sabbath for me yet.

I have been forwarded a series of emails from Malcolm Honelein, the President of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, indicating that the Conference didn't make the decision to 'disinvite' Sarah Palin from the rally (Hat Tip: Red Tulips).

From: Malcolm Hoenlein
Date: Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Subject: RE: Please re-invite Sarah Palin to the Stop Ahmadinejad rally
To:

we did not make the decision to disinvite Palin and i understand and share your feelings.

From:
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 11:48 AM
To: Malcolm Hoenlein
Subject: Re: Please re-invite Sarah Palin to the Stop Ahmadinejad rally

To Mr. Hoenlein,

Who made the decision to disinvite Sarah Palin, if it did not come from your organization? Your organization is being labeled as the one that made this decision, so you might want to issue a statement of clarification to the public.

Sincerely,

From: Malcolm Hoenlein
Date: Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Subject: RE: Please re-invite Sarah Palin to the Stop Ahmadinejad rally
To:

thank you for the suggstion and i willsoon publish the full truth but did not want to have more divisiveness before the rally.. we are always attacked because the others hide and are not willing to stand up and say what happened. I can only assure you it was not the Conference and certainly not my preference.

The leftist 'pro-Israel' lobby J-Street apparently had a lot to do with Palin being 'disinvited.'

More on this story here.

10 Comments:

At 5:42 PM, Anonymous said...: glad someone is covering this and bringing it to the attention of jewish voters. it is disconcerting to me that politics have so permeated our worldview that we are incapable, seemingly, of seeing the big picture.
At 6:29 PM, Red Tulips said...: I was so outraged, I wrote a letter to Malcolm Hoenlein, the President of the Conference of Presidents.

To Mr. Hoenlein,

I am writing this email to express my total outrage that you would disinvite Sarah Palin to the Stop Ahmadinejad rally to take place next to the UN on September 22, simply for political purposes. In these perilous times, we need to be united against the existential threat that Iran poses. By disinviting Sarah Palin to the Stop Ahmadinejad rally, you are politicizing this event, which does nothing but aid and abet Ahmadinejad. While it may be that you might personally disapprove of Sarah Palin's politics, she is running to be vice president of the United States, and it is logical that Israel supporters would want her to be as aware as is possible to the threat that Iran poses. It also is imperative to ensure that all politicians will openly voice their concern about the threat from Iran in as many fora as is possible. Disinviting Sarah Palin does nothing but further divide the Jewish community, at a time when it needs to be united more than ever before.

I urge you to reconsider your disinvitation, admit you were wrong, and reinvite Sarah Palin to the Stop Ahmadinejad rally.

Sincerely,

Red Tulips
At 6:33 PM, NormanF said...: Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs calls them Jewicidals - what a stupid decision since if American Jews can't stand up to America's Jew-hating left-wing moonbats, they're unlikely to stand up to the genocidal Ahmedinejad who has called for Israel to become extinct. The stupidity of the American Jewish leadership to put partisan politics ahead of Jewish survival just infuriates me to no end! Yes, I'm angry an you don't want to how angry I am now!!!
At 6:51 PM, Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.
At 6:54 PM, Unknown said...: I guess we also need a rally against the radical Democrats, especially one particular candidate who has been cozy with radical leftists and radical Muslims his whole life.
At 2:56 AM, Unknown said...: I eagerly await Mr. Hoenlein's "full truth," because this is unconscionable.
At 3:48 AM, muman613 said...: Shame on these left-leaning so-called Jews. I really wonder what makes these imbeciles tick. It is sad to think that these people are causing such unrest in the Jewish people who deserve to be united in a goal of establishing the Third Temple.
At 11:13 PM, Asher said...: Unfortunately, the "Jewish" leaders who are part of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations seem to have as much to do with Judaism as the Kennedy clan has to teetotaling.
At 7:51 PM, Udiyah said...: I wrote a letter to JStreet:

You have disgraced yourselves by your petty political partisanship and consequently threatened your credibility. Is it beyond your narrow comprehension that Ahmadinejad is a threat not just to DEMOCRAT Jews but ALL Jews and Americans? Is this how you would have protested Hitler during the Holocaust? Please get over yourselves and refrain from acting like hateful children, mad at the pretty new girl at school.

A Jew

When I sent the letter I was re-directed to this announcement:

http://www.jstreet.org/

We Won! Palin Not Speaking at Iran Rally. We collected over 20,000 signatures in 24 hours asking Iran Unity rally organizer Malcolm Hoenlein to take Sarah Palin off the schedule for Monday's rally, and he caved to our pressure on Thursday afternoon citing the fact that the rally had become too partisan.

This is the right decision. A unity rally to express communal solidarity is no place for partisan politics. And to give such prominence to Sarah Palin alone would have spoken neither to, nor for, the American Jewish community.

This is a victory not just for the 20,188 others who signed J Street's petition. It's a victory for the broader community. And we're pleased the rally's organizers came to their senses so quickly.

Victories like these don't come easily - or often. But when they do, we should savor them, at least briefly.

We'll be back at it tomorrow, because our next task is making sure that the messages at the rally reflect the view of a majority of Americans - Jewish and otherwise - that the best way to deal with Iran is through tough, smart diplomacy - not saber rattling and threats of force.

http://www.jstreet.org/
At 1:03 AM, Eileen said...: I can not believe the response of jstreet.org! To be so gleeful at losing a supporter at such an important rally. Americans can't even stand united against Ahmadinejad, what a message that must send to him! Why would they seek to embolden him? It doesn't make sense. I really don't know the Jewish community at all, but whoever organized this fiasco doesn't seem to have a brain in their head. Two things these past few weeks have me shaking my head in disbelief, the first was the uninviting of Governor Palin to this protest (I've read she's an avid supporter of Israel along with John McCain, the Governer has an Israeli flag hanging in her office), it makes no sense that the fact that Hillary Clinton didn't want to share the limelight with Palin would cause this stupid move. The second thing that I find so mind-boggling is the Washington DC Jewish Community Center endorsement of a 'comedy' routine that Sandra Bernhard has where she warns Governor Palin not to come to New York or Bernhard will get her big black brothers to gang-rape the Governor. The Jewish Community Center found this hateful remark among other anti-Christian and racist remarks to be edgy, they said they were 'very happy' with the show and 'very happy' with Sandra Bernhard.
So the Jewish community is very happy that they got a supporter uninvited to an important protest against the man that wants Israel blown off the face of the earth, and they are very happy that hateful remarks are being touted as a joke about that same supporter. What a crazy world we live in.