The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has issued a statement regarding the cancellation of their event hosting Pam Geller in Los Angeles on June 24th, which was to be held at the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles Hqs. On the very morning that Geller was scheduled to speak on the topic of Islamic anti-Semitism, the Federation cowardly cancelled the event. The reason was obvious. Since CAIR and other organizations were publicly complaining about the event and criticizing the Federation for hosting Geller, the Federation was afraid of a Muslim protest.
Media Promotes False Message About
ZOA-LA Federation Episode
The media and blogosphere’s extensive coverage and description of an episode concerning the L.A. Jewish Federation and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) were shockingly false, inaccurate and truly shameful.
From the Jewish papers to the secular media to the Israeli press, to radical Muslim and anti-Israel blogs, the false and inaccurate story given was that the L.A. Federation cancelled a ZOA hosted lecture as a result of the lecture’s message being beyond the bounds of acceptable public discourse. This is false. Although the L.A. Federation may or may not agree with the substance of this lecture – that had nothing to do with their cancellation. It was due to the apparent threat of radical Muslim violence – not as a Jewish repudiation of any criticism or honest discussion of the topic of Islamist anti-Semitism.
Here’s what really happened. On Sunday, June 24th, ZOA’s Los Angeles/Western Region scheduled a speaker to discuss whether extremist Islamist Jew hatred is a primary factor in the inability for Israel to reach a real peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). In fact, in the past, ZOA has gone further and said this may well be the reason the so-called “peace” between Egypt and the Jewish state of Israel is a very cold one with virtually no commerce or trade or any real normal relations between Israel and Egypt. Furthermore, the Egyptian lawyers group and medical and journalism and entertainment groups essentially forbade their members from participating in conferences with Israel. Although many Israelis travel to Egypt as tourists, very few Egyptians travel to Israel. Even in Jordan the majority of their Parliament members issue anti-Israel calumnies regularly, and Jordan’s media frequently runs anti-Semitic columns and cartoons.
We understand that everyone may not agree with this assessment but it is certainly a legitimate topic to discuss.
On the very morning that ZOA’s speaker was scheduled to speak, the L.A. Jewish Federation, (in whose building the lecture was to take place), called the ZOA and cancelled the lecture asking us to find a different venue. ZOA did. The reason given was that there were some rumors and/or information that there may be a substantial radical Muslim protest and those radical Muslims may charge the building. A leader of the L.A. ZOA offered to pay for additional police protection in order to secure greater safety. The Federation rejected this offer expressing fear that the numerous children and adults who would be in the building attending programs and other events could be endangered.
Nevertheless, as painful as it is, the topic of Islamist Jew-hatred should be discussed. Since the Arab world has rejected a two-state solution, creating both a Jewish and an Arab state, in 1937 and in 1948, and ignoring the possibility of creating an Arab state in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and Gaza where the Arabs controlled all of that land from 1948 to 1967; questions have arisen as to why the Arabs seem to reject a Jewish state within any borders, even at the expense of not establishing a Palestinian Arab state. And because the Arab world rejected the offer to create a Palestinian state in 2000 (Ehud Barak) and 2008 (Ehud Olmert) on over 90% of Judea and Samaria and parts of eastern Jerusalem, it is understandable that reasonable people would search for a more clear basis for these perplexing rejections of the very generous offers made by the Jewish state. It is also disturbing to learn that speeches made by PA President Mahmoud Abbas; Saeb Erekat, former PA Foreign Minister; Abu Alla, former PA Prime Minister; Sari Nusseibah, President of Al Quds University, and other PA leaders openly state that Israelis and Jews will not be allowed to live in a future state of Palestine. And what are we to make of the promotion of hatred and violence against Jews and Israel in the PA’s media, schools, speeches, sermons and children’s camps. Why does the PA name dozens of streets, schools and sports teams after Jew-killing terrorists – glorifying them, not to mention that the PA demands all Jew-killers be released from Israeli prisons. The PA also celebrates days of glory honoring terrorists when they die. And not a single map in the Arab world shows Israel even within the 1967 lines. In fact, the PA emblem shows all of Israel covered by an Arab Kaffiyeh next to a Kalyshnakov rifle next to a picture of arch terrorist Jew-killer Yasser Arafat. The PA themselves rarely arrest terrorists, and don’t outlaw terrorist groups as required by Oslo. Their leaders regularly and publicly state that Israel must disappear and will.
We must also never forget that radical Arab/Muslims have destroyed the holy Jewish Tomb of Joseph and many synagogues throughout the Arab world and Europe – not to mention radical Muslim attacks against Jews in the United States and elsewhere.
Only last week the Vice President of Iran, Mohammed Rey Rahimi, stated in a speech before a U.N. forum on fighting drug addiction that the Jews control the illegal drug trade and the proof is that there are no Jewish drug addicts! Iran’s supreme leader Khameni said the “Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed.” As distinguished journalist Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post wrote,”…If Rahimi’s hatred had been directed against any other people, race, creed, state or color, no one would support cooperation with ‘these people.’ No one would support the Palestinian national movement if its inherent, overwhelming hatred was directed at say against the black state rather than the Jewish state.”
When some scholars and analysts observed that the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, says that the Jews are “the most hostile of men to the believers” (5;82), and are under the curse of Allah (2:89, 9:30), questions arise as to what impact this has on Muslim relations with the Jewish state. In a holy Muslim commentary called the hadith, Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, says that “the last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” (Sahih Muslim 698.5) The terrorist group Hamas has made this phrase a clause in their charter. Another phrase in the Qur’an states, “O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends, they are friends of each other. Whosoever of you makes them his friends is one of them. God guides not the people of the evildoers.” (Qur’an 5;51). Remember thousands of Coptic Christians have been murdered by Muslim radicals in Egypt, in Ethiopia and elsewhere – often times while these Christians were praying in their churches. The Palestinians have driven out most of the Christians from eastern Jerusalem, when the Palestinian Authority-controlled it from 1948 to 1967. Now they have driven out most of the Christians from Bethlehem, after the Palestinian Arabs took control of the city because of Oslo.
Notably, present day Muslim sermons by prominent sheiks are frightening and chilling, including:
PA TV broadcast of a sermon from Nablus’s Bourin Mosque on January 29, in which Jews were declared “the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger…Enemies of humanity in general” and Muslims exhorted to murder them with the words “The Prophet says: ‘You shall fight the Jews and kill them…” (Palestine Media Watch)
Excerpts from the sermon broadcast on PA TV:
“The loathsome occupation in Palestine – its land and its holy places – by these new Mongols and what they are perpetrating upon this holy, blessed and pure land – killing, homeland – are clear proof of {unintelligible word – Ed.} hostility, of incomparable racism, and of Nazism of the 20th century. The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular – they wage war against us using all kinds of crimes, and as you see – even the mosques are not spared their racism…”
“The PA appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Hussein, spoke at an event celebrating the 47th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah terrorist organization saying that the Hour of Resurrection will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them:
“47 years ago the [Fatah] revolution started. Which revolution? The modern revolution of the Palestinian people’s history. In fact, Palestine in its entirety is a revolution, since {Caliph} Umar came {to conquer Jerusalem, 637 CE}, and continuing today, and until the End of Days. The reliable Hadith (tradition attributed to Muhammad), {found} in the two reliable collections, Bukhari and Muslim, says, “The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’” (PA’s highest religious authority, the Mufti, at Fatah event: ‘Muslims’ destiny is to kill Jews.’)
Allah has described them [the Jews] as “donkeys” and the Jews planned the Holocaust: In a sermon broadcast on PA TV on September 21, 2001, Sheikh Ibrahim Mahdi stated, “"Oh beloved of Allah… One of the Jews' evil deeds is what has come to be called 'the Holocaust,' that is, the slaughter of the Jews by Nazism. However, revisionist [historians] have proven that this crime, carried out against some of the Jews, was planned by the Jews' leaders, and was part of their policy… These are the Jews against whom we fight, oh beloved of Allah. On the other hand, [what is our belief] about the Jews? Allah has described them as donkeys who must carry the books of the Torah – but they have not carried them. Our belief, which is true, about the Jews is that Allah is angry at them. They are cursed with the curse of Allah in this world and in the hereafter.” (Middle East Media Research Institute, TV Monitor Project, September 25, 2001).
Other examples of incitement to hatred and murder by PA-salaried clerics:
“Jews are a virus resembling AIDS”: Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris delivered a Friday sermon that was aired on PA TV and which included the following: “... Allah warned His beloved Prophet Muhammad about the Jews, who had killed their prophets, forged their Torah, and sowed corruption throughout their history. With the establishment of the state of Israel, the entire Islamic nation was lost, because Israel is a cancer spreading through the body of the Islamic nation, and because the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS, from which the entire world suffers … It was the Jews who provoked Nazism to wage war against the entire world, when the Jews, using the Zionist movement, got other countries to wage an economic war on Germany and to boycott German merchandise. They provoked Russia, Britain, France, and Italy. This enraged the Germans toward the Jews, leading to the events of those days, which the Jews commemorate today. But they are committing worse deeds than those done to them in the Nazi war. Yes, perhaps some of them were killed and some burned, but they are inflating this in order to win over some of the media and to gain the world’s sympathy. The worst crimes in history were committed against the Jews, yet these crimes are no worse than what the Jews are doing in Palestine... We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world – except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.” (Al-Hayat (London), May 19, 2005, ‘Palestinian Friday Sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris: Muslims Will Rule America and Britain, Jews Are a Virus Resembling AIDS,’ Middle East Media Research Institute, TV Monitor Project, May 13, 2005).
These ugly anti-Semitic messages are surely a factor in promoting terrorism and suicide bombings against Jews. Shockingly, the parents and families of suicide bombers are proud and honored. In an interview with Joseph Lelyveld of the NY Times, who visited the family of suicide bomber Ismail al-Mosawili, was startled to hear the bomber’s mother declare: “I was very happy when I heard about his suicide bombing. To be a martyr, that’s something very few people can do it. I hope my other children do the same.” An Associated Press reporter who travelled to the Palestinian Arab town of Aboud to visit the home of suicide bomber Raed Barghouti described the festive atmosphere she found. The House was “filled with supportive neighbors bringing over steaming casseroles.” The bomber’s 11 year-old sister “basked in the sudden attention” of “classmates [who] have told her she is lucky to have a ‘shahid,’ a martyr, for a brother; the bomber’s mother speaks of the “72 virgins and the friends of the prophet Mohammed” supposedly awaiting her son in Paradise. The local elementary school has been renamed “Martyr Raed Barghouti School.” Should we be surprised that posters of the suicide bombers are posted all over Arab schools and universities.
Another horrific and tragic proof of Jew hatred in the Arab/Muslim world is Holocaust denial which is prevalent. Mahmoud Abbas is a holocaust denier who wrote both a Ph.D. thesis and a book quoting “experts” and “Historians” to prove that the number of Jews murdered was “only a few hundred thousand,” that there were no gas chambers and that the “Zionists led a campaign of incitement against Jews to expand their mass extermination.” Abbas’ book was titled, The Other Side: The Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement. The book had a swastika over a Jewish star on its cover.
As recently as last year, both Hamas and Fatah have vehemently protested a proposal by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) to include a small unit on the Holocaust as part of the human rights curriculum in its schools in the West Bank and Gaza. Both Fatah and Hamas said the proposal to teach students about the Holocaust was a “provocative act”, with Fatah expressing its opposition to teaching the “enemy’s false claims and lies.” Hamas alleged it would amount to a “cultural crime” and would pave the way for normalization of ties with Israel, saying “they (UNRWA) want us to accept the tales and lies to win sympathy.”
Yet this issue of exploring Islamist Jew-hatred is generally ignored. Caroline Glick wrote recently in the Jerusalem Post, “From the New York Times to the BBC to the European media, Jew hatred is the most underreported – and arguably most important story – of our times...
“No issue unites the Muslim world more than venomous, murderous hatred of Jews. No single issue informs their foreign policies more than hatred of Jews. And yet, reporting – even biased, misleadingly understated reporting – of this massive, strategically pivotal phenomenon is almost non-existent in most major media outlets…
“The Western media has two basic approaches to their non-reporting of Islamic Jew hatred and its significance for international security. The first approach is to ignore the issue because it is ideologically inconvenient. The New York Times, like every other major Western media outlet except the Wall Street Journal is of the opinion that the Islamic world should be appeased. The Muslim Brotherhood and Iran should be accommodated. If they gave Islamic Jew hatred coverage commensurate with the actual significance, they would be undermining their ideological agenda. In light of their ubiquitous and vituperative obsession with Jewish people, it is obvious that it is impossible to appease the Muslim world…
“…It can be argued that the Western media’s willful blindness towards Islamic Jew hatred, and its influence on world affairs are part and parcel of the Western elite’s collective refusal to recognize and content with the implications of the phenomenon. But this is too forgiving…
“Policymakers who ignore Islamic Jew hatred are doing so because they are trying to sell their policies…institutional policy of denying, underreporting misleadingly reporting about the most important issue that shapes events in the Middle East today: Islamic hatred of Jews.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The substance of the lecture given that day in L.A. was an examination of Islamic Jew hatred as a primary factor governing political decisions made by Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and a primary reason as to why a real peace between Arabs and Jews has been so elusive despite extraordinary offers by the Jewish state.
“This discussion has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam bashing or hatred. When virtually all the terrorism in the world is perpetrated by radical Muslims in the name of Islam; when despite major Israeli concessions peace is rejected; when the Palestinians refuse to accept Israel as a Jewish state within any borders; and when the Palestinians won’t even come to the table to negotiate – a thorough investigation into why must be pursued. Few in the world are concerned with Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., because members of those groups are not murdering in the name of their religion. If they were, we’d be discussing their religion.
“The mainstream media and radical Muslim groups are trying to use the Federation’s cancellation of the ZOA event, which the Federation has said was because of the threat of extremist Muslim violence and nothing else, as a Jewish repudiation of any criticism or discussion of Islamic anti-Semitism. That is as unconscionable as it is false. Jews and all defenders of freedom must stand up and criticize and explore Islamic anti-Semitism without apology, and call upon Muslim groups and Imams and sheiks and leaders of Muslim countries to renounce and repudiate any Muslim Jew hatred and Christian hatred that foreclose any possibility of peace in the Middle East, and that foreclose the possibility of ending the scourge of Islamist terrorism in the name of Islam in the Mid-East and around the world, including the United States, as the Ft. Hood massacre so painfully demonstrated.”
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If the Jewish Federation was afraid of a protest or the possibility of violence, that's what the police are for. Instead, this sorry organization censored Geller's free speech and the right of her audience to hear her.
Instead of protesting Geller's appearance, CAIR would have done better to attend the event and discuss the issue openly and attempt find a solution, or if they prefer, to participate in the q and a, challenge Geller's assertions, and maintain that there is no anti-Semitism in Islam. Of course, if they pay any attention whatsoever to the Middle East (and Europe), they know better. As it turned out, they didn't have to do anything but scare the pants off the Jewish Federation merely by complaining.
Who needs anti-Semites when you have the Jewish Federation?
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