"I wouldn’t be so quick to blame CAIR or other American Islamists. Any way you slice it or dice it, at the bottom of this you’ll find one or more cringing liberal Jewish “leaders” reprising the role their fathers took during WWII and the Holocaust."
- Dan Friedman, NYC
Source: The Alegmeiner
At the last minute, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles canceled a Sunday morning event where Pamela Geller was scheduled to speak on the issues of war in the Middle East and the historical hatred of Jews in the Muslim world.
Citing security concerns that the building might be stormed by Muslim activists, the Federation informed the Zionist Organization of America – which was hosting the event – that the speech would be called off.
“We said, ‘we will pay for additional security so there will be no problems,’” Morton Klein, President of the ZOA, told The Algemeiner. “They rejected that, saying ‘we’re not going to let Pam Geller or any of your people in the building.’”
Klein says the event was posted for weeks on the Federation’s website and that everything was done transparently throughout the process of scheduling Geller to speak, and that the timing of the cancellation was upsetting.
“If there was a problem, we should have discussed it earlier, but we shouldn’t cancel a talk because of threats and condemnations from radical Muslim groups or other anti-Semites,” Klein said.
The Jewish Federation of Greater LA has not returned requests for comment on this story.
Geller, who is a controversial author and activist criticized by some for her beliefs towards Islam, says the Jewish Federation in LA has set a dangerous precedent.
“I think it was a disaster. Zionism is not welcome at the LA Jewish Federation,” she said in an interview with The Algemeiner. “It was almost a historical moment where they would cave to a group who is affiliated with Hamas,” she said, referring to reports that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has been linked to the terrorist group by the U.S. Congress, was responsible for the event’s cancellation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, CAIR representative Hussam Ayloush says his group will not be affected by people like Geller.
“We will not be affected by the noise of people who hopefully become more and more irrelevant,” Ayloush said. “Unfortunately, outrageous rhetoric gets attention because it’s outrageous, and Pamela Geller knows that very well.”
Suggestions that the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles may have made their decision based on threats from “left-wing” donors, and not Muslim activists, were made to The Algemeiner by numerous sources.
And according to Klein, officials from the Federation have acknowledged the late cancellation to the ZOA.
“They called and told us they made a mistake by waiting to the last minute to discuss the issue” he said.
“We have nothing against the Federation. They do important work and they help Israel,” Klein added.
UPDATE: Following clarification from the Zionist Organization of America of comments made by Mr. Klein, the following amendments have been added to this article.
1. The event featuring Ms. Geller was posted on the Federation website for three weeks preceding the event as opposed to “months” as reported originally.
2. Mr. Klein’s reference to threats and condemnations from “the Muslim world” was clarified as threats and condemnations from “radical Muslim groups or other anti-Semites.”
3. Mr. Klein’s mention of an apology from the Federation as previously reported was clarified to be in actuality only an acknowledgment of their mistake in waiting to discuss and cancel the event at the last minute.
___________________________
Proud Zionists Defeat The Jewish Federation
Pamela Geller
We live in times when those who control the establishment media and mainstream organizations are increasingly afraid of confronting the true evils of our day, and cowed by the forces of Islamic supremacism and oppression. It saddens me to number the Los Angeles Jewish Federation among these compromised elites, but it cannot be denied in light of their cancellation of my planned address there this morning. LA's failed Jewish leadership follows in the rich tradition of its forbears who worshipped the golden calf. Imagine: Zionists are not welcome at the LA Jewish Federation.
I am extremely happy to report, however, that the proud Jews of the ZOA Western Region, led by the indefatigable Orit Arfa, were not willing to go quietly into the night. Within half an hour of when the event was supposed to take place, they swiftly organized a protest outside the Jewish Federation building, and called out the Federation leaders for capitulating to the Islamic supremacist Jew-haters of Hamas-CAIR. Scores protested in defense of free speech. They also quickly found an alternative venue, The Mark, where an enthusiastic crowd gathered to hear the address that the Jewish Federation was too frightened to allow to be heard. Mention must be made of Steve Goldberg, who went toe-to-toe with the craven Jay Sanderson of the Federation, who actually claimed that he was afraid that Muslim protestors would storm the building -- when we all know it wasn't that at all.
Of course, I had to speak about what had happened, and about how the Jewish community's acquiescence to the marginalization of freedom fighters is ultimately self-defeating to the point of suicide -- and above all, about how we have to challenge the left's control of the narrative. We take for granted as acceptable what a sane society would identify as monstrous evils: the "Palestinian" genocidal jihad against the Jews, and the jihad against the West and against civilization in general. We tolerate Islamic honor killing, female genital mutilation, polygamy, cultural annihilation, enslavement, and so much more -- for fear of being accused of "Islamophobia." We have to challenge all this and call evil what it is. If we don't, history shows us where all this leads.
The LA Times was at the protest. Of course, we know the spin they'll put on it.
Photo: Geller second from left, joins protesters.
Video hat tip Luke Ford, who has comprehensive coverage of the event and video here.
The Jewish press is cowed as well, as evidenced by the headline and this sneering article. "Conservative blogger Pamela Geller says L.A. federation nixed her speech" -- as if I were making an unsubstantiated claim. In reality, people who showed up at the Federation for the event were turned away. The Federation didn't even have the decency to redirect them to the new venue. But the JTA apparently thinks this is all in my head.
Conservative blogger Pamela Geller says L.A. federation nixed her speech JTA June 24, 2012
(JTA) -- Conservative blogger Pamela Geller is lashing out at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for what she says was its decision to cancel her Sunday appearance.
Geller, a fiery critic of Muslims, liberals and mainstream Jewish organizations, took to her blog, Atlas Shrugs, to blast the L.A. federation, comparing modern-day Jewish leaders to those who did not do enough to protest the Nazis in the years leading up to the Holocaust.
“This is tragic. Imagine, without so much as firing a shot, they're caving in to a Hamas front group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations,” Geller wrote.
CAIR had issued its own statement criticizing the L.A. federation for agreeing to allow its space to be used for Geller’s appearance, which was sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America. The scheduled talk was titled "Islamic Jew-Hatred: The Root Cause of the Failure to Achieve Peace."
Geller gained national attention by leading the efforts to stop the development of an Islamic community center near Ground Zero and has been a leading voice in warning against what she describes as a campaign to impose Islamic law on the United States. She is the author of "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance" and "The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America."
The Anti-Defamation League, which also opposed the Islamic community center, has accused Geller of promoting “a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of fighting radical Islam” and seeking “to rouse public fears by consistently vilifying the Islamic faith."
Geller has lashed out at the ADL and other mainstream Jewish organizations. She sounded a similar note in attacking the L.A. federation.
“Shame on our cowardly leadership for throwing one of our own under the bus,” Geller wrote Sunday. “We expect that from kapos, not from proud Jews who should hold the freedom of speech as a fundamental Jewish value.”
As of press time, the L.A. federation could not be reached for comment.
In its own statement, the ZOA said the L.A. federation cited security concerns in cancelling the event.
“We believe that the Jewish Federation has succumbed to political pressure by Muslim and Left-wing Jewish groups not to let a rational voice of criticism of Islam and its war against Israel be heard on its premises,” the ZOA said in a statement, as cited on Geller’s website. “These Muslim and Jewish groups have blown up the blogosphere with lies about Ms. Geller and harsh criticism of the ZOA for hosting her at the Jewish Federation.”
ZOA said that such an approach “effectively shuts down free speech.”
Supporters of ZOA have faced similar criticism for their efforts to block communal organizations from providing space to the liberal group J Street and speakers critical of Israeli policy.
