[ April 20, 2024 ]
The LA Times weighs in on the craven cancellation by the LA Jewish Federation of my talk, in its predictable heavy-handed fashion. It gave more ink to three freakish Chomskyites who came to disrupt our protest than it did to the protesters themselves, who were far more numerous. There was no comment from the scores who came out to denounce the Federation's cowardice. And they gave ink to the lie of the Southern Poverty Law Center, without doing any research on whether I really ever said that Malcolm X was Obama's father, which I did not. This is journalism in 2012.
But that's irrelevant. The LA Jewish Federation should be ashamed of itself: look how it's making news — by providing fodder for Hamas-CAIR. Hamas-CAIR spokesman Hussam Ayloush, lovingly quoted in this piece, has repeatedly refused to condemn Hamas and Hizballah. Rojas also makes no mention of CAIR's ties to Hamas, the terror convictions of many of its leaders, or the uninidicted co-conspirator status the DoJ gave it during the largest terror funding trial in our nation's history. This is the Federation's ally. Several people have told me that they will not be donating another dime to the Jewish Federation. Perhaps the Federation can look for a big check from Hamas-CAIR or its Saudi bankrollers.
Notice he never goes near the principal point of my talk: that Jew-hatred is rooted in Islamic texts and teachings. Nor does he quote me, as does this article, about the subject matter of my talk. What a hack job. Contact the editor at [email protected] or post to website using this URL.
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Jewish group cancels speech by controversial author Pamela Geller Rick Rojas LA Times June 25, 2012
Pamela Geller, the controversial author and activist, was set to deliver a lecture Sunday morning to the Zionist Organization of America that she had given many times before, billed by organizers as a revelation of the "root cause of war in the Middle East."
But instead of taking her place before the few dozen people inside the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Geller and those who had come to see her milled around the sidewalk on Wilshire Boulevard. The Jewish Federation, just hours earlier, canceled the event.
Cancellations, just like death threats — "I have a huge file of death threats," Geller says — are something of an occupational hazard, particularly after the Southern Poverty Law Center deemed her organization a hate group. Both Jewish and Islamic associations have condemned her as a "fear-monger."
But in this instance, she said, the Jewish Federation "cravenly submitted to Islamic supremacists who wanted to suppress free speech."
Officials with the federation declined to comment Sunday.
Geller came to prominence as a dogged and sharp-tongued critic of what she sees as the encroachment of Islamic law in the United States and the threat of radical Islam. She was also a fierce opponent of the Muslim community center that was to be built blocks from the World Trade Center.
The host of Sunday's event, the Western Region Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America, said she would "discuss the motive behind Islam's war on the Jews, the war against Israel, and the 1,400-year-old hatred of Jews living in Muslim lands."
She hasn't always been an activist. "I assumed my freedom," she said. But that assumption was changed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"I was shocked to my core," Geller said. "My basic premise was shattered: Freedom is not free; America is not forever. I felt guilty."
And while she says she became a defender of freedom, the Southern Poverty Law Center calls her "relentlessly shrill and coarse in her broad-brush denouncements of Islam and makes preposterous claims." Among the latter, the center cites her claims of President Obama being the son of Malcolm X and a supporter of jihad.
An interfaith coalition of Jewish, Islamic and Christian groups expressed outrage Saturday over the federation allowing her to speak. "We are extremely shocked and alarmed to see a mainstream Jewish organization associating itself with one of the nation's leading Islamophobes," the statement said.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Greater Los Angeles, said he hoped that Geller's message as a "fringe speaker" would not distract from progress being made in Jewish and Islamic relations.
What progress? Until Muslims denounce and expunge from the Koran and Hadith the passages that call for the hatred of Jews and annihilation of the Jewish people, what progress can there be? Where are the Muslim groups that support Israel? Is there even one?
"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."
Geller was quick to fire back at her critics: The Southern Poverty Law Center is a "notoriously left-wing communist organization." And the interfaith coalition? "It's not an interfaith coalition," she said. "It's a mob."
On the sidewalk in Beverly Grove, the small group protesting Geller were not Muslims, but fellow Jews.
Lauren Steiner, Dorothy Reik and Linda Milazzo hadn't planned on protesting outside. They had come to hear Geller speak, and were planning on confronting her with tough questions during the question-and-answer session.
The discourse quickly devolved into name-calling. Milazzo got into it with one of Geller's supporters. She called him "paranoid." He retorted that she and her cohorts were "disgusting."
It ended with members of the Zionist organization taking away Milazzo's sign, which said: "Pamela Geller's hate speech is not welcome in Los Angeles." Milazzo had used their paper and markers to make it, they said.
"I'm ashamed to be in the same religion as these people," Steiner said.
The crowd soon dissipated. Geller and her supporters moved to an event hall a few miles away. There, organizers said, Geller was able to give her speech without interruption.
It didn't occur to Rojas to actually attend the speech and see for himself whether or not it was "hateful." There's no journalism, no research. He just picked through the available leftist and Islamic supremacist talking points and ran a few of his favorites.
UPDATE: Other news coverage: The Jewish Forward buries the lede. No mention of J Fed in the headline.
Anti-Islamic Activist Blocked From LA Speech Forward
Protest prompts cancellation of anti-Muslim lecture in LA Contra Costa Times
Conservative blogger Pamela Geller says LA federation nixed her … Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Haaretz
all 28 news articles »
UPDATE: Marty sent this in: "Here is a picture of ALL the CAIR "protestors" – not a single one – that was the reason the Federation cancelled the event."
UPDATE: Orit Arfa of ZOA has a well reasoned and paasionate argument here.
They call us haters—but read between the lines of what the Muslim Brotherhood backed groups say (CAIR, ICNA, etc). They don’t really act to thwart Islamic terrorists. They don’t really care if Jews are massacred. They’ll say Palestinians have no choice in their fake fight against the “The Occupation.” They have a choice. We ALL have choices. That’s how God created us. But they pose as civil rights activists.
If you are pro-civil rights, then the only rational choice you have is to be pro-Israel, the only country that respects individual rights in the Middle East.
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16 Comments
11 years ago
Just called the Jewish Federation of Cowards. Donor services is #2 on their menu…would’nt want potential donors($) to wait too long.The woman who answered also seemed outraged by this. Please CALL and forward to your email lists for others to call also.
11 years ago
What’s also appallingly bad journalism is that the LA Times makes no mention of the fact that you were in town to host the “Summer Nights for Human Rights Conference” in honor of Pastor Youcef Naderkhani and all apostates living under death threats.
Ironically, “Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Greater Los Angeles, said he hoped that Geller’s message as a “fringe speaker” would not distract from progress being made in Jewish and Islamic relations.” I notice there is no comment from CAIR condemning the treatment of converts from Islam, so why does anyone think they are sincere about interfaith relations??? Clearly they are not.
Are Jews not supposed to speak up about Islamic injustice and brutality for the sake of good relations with Muslims? Is this not a relationship built on deception and fraud?
11 years ago
Pamela, I just looked at the comments on the LAT blog post … wow! It looks like people are getting wise to the pro-jihadi leftist media – and they’re getting sick of it.
11 years ago
It’s hilarious how asshats talk about vilifying islam. Gee, what’s there to like about islam? Maybe the rabid, pervasive antisemitism? The genocidal antisemitism of the hadiths? The xenophobia? The explicit Christian bigotry? Maybe the actions of the their most holey prophet in slaughtering, enslaving or expelling all the Jewish tribes of Saudi Barbaria? Most the asshats are self-proclaimed lieberals as well, who embrace divershity even when that divershity includes ideologies no less bigoted, antisemitic and totalitarian than that found in Mein Kampf.
11 years ago
While the lack of protestors makes the case even more start and absurd, the lack of protestors is not the ultimate point. Even if there were protestors, would that be reason to shut you down? No, of course not! We must stand up to every threat and every expression of hatred against Jews even if we have to face down a street full of lunatics.
11 years ago
Put on hold over at the Jewish Federation and could not help but appreciate the irony of the outgoing message:
“Now more than ever we need your generous support in order to care for Jews in need. Engage with the greater community and guarantee that our children and grandchildren will enjoy the kind of rich and vibrant life we love in Los Angeles, Israel, and worldwide. The gift you make to the Jewish Federation today ensures the Jewish future.”
I let them know that Pamela is on the front lines doing what they claim to be doing: Helping to ensure that Jews have a future! The only difference is that Pam is out there on the front lines, while the JF apparently has lofty verbiage on their web page but ultimately lacks any true spine in the face of intimidation.
11 years ago
This phrase made me laugh . . . CAIR hopes “Geller’s message as a “fringe speaker” would not distract from progress being made in Jewish and Islamic relations”. Islam has had over 1500 years to amend Jewish/Islamic relations. Today Israel is still alone in the Middle East. How foolhardy to believe that Islam is going to change. Would anyone (especially a Jew) dare trust a Muslim?
11 years ago
The LA Times is no more relevant than the New York Times when it comes to printing the truth & will always be leftist rags only be useful for bird cages & even the birds resent that.The La Jewish Federationshould be ashamed of themselves for canceling this event.I’m sure most of them are in the tank for Obamahammed.
11 years ago
They refuse to listen to fresh first hand accounts of victims of Jihad. They sing — LA LA LA LA LA.
Documenting the Nazis slaughter of Jews, under this regime, would also be disgusting and hateful. Would they ban the movie Schindler’s List as being too provocative of the sensibilities of genocidal maniacs?
Let them link to the video of the event, with a message “You decide if THIS is hate.”
11 years ago
It would be interesting to document how many Jews have been slaughtered by muslimes in the 20th and 21st century. It’s a figure no one seems to want to know, and I’m certain it’s minimally in the thousands — due mostly to the actions of muslimes in their three attempts (in ’48’, ’67’ and ’73’) to exterminate the Jewish people in Israel.
11 years ago
I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED THAT YOUR TALK WAS CANCELLED. I LEFT RIGHT AWAY AND WAS SORRY THAT I DIDN’T STAY FOR YOUR TALK AT THE NEW LOCATION. I WILL NEVER DONATE OR ATTEND ANYTHING AT THE JEWISH FEDERATION IN LA, THEY ARE SIDING WITH THE ENEMY.
PAMELA, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, IT’S PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. I ONLY WISH THE JEWISH LEFT WOULD COME TO THEIR SENSES. SOMEDAY THEY WILL WAKE UP, PROBABLY IT WILL BE TOO LATE
11 years ago
I tried to go to the “passionate response” by the ZOA spokeswoman and it has been taken down at Jewish World.
If we don’t heed what Pam says, and do our own research, we are all going to disappear just like this response.
I hope, this move by Federation, at least, begins to draw attention to what has been, and continues to be, the actions and
self-delusional , policies by the Federations. This is not the only one. If only a few of the largest donors could, finally, have
an ‘epiphany’ and influence others to design policies, strategies and tactics based on the hard realities of the Muslims
like CAIR, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood, enlist lawyers to aggressively defend victims and acts of anti-Semitism , especially, in the US, and support Israel , we may have a chance in securing the guarantees of Freedoms we do have in the Constitution. They just aren’t that bright. Wealth and high, intellectual ability do not necessarily go hand in hand, nor do Ethics, values, and morality, of course.
11 years ago
Jay Sanderson, the president of the LA Jewish Federation, is tap dancing as fast as he can. His last minute, weak kneed excuse of scary, very bad, naughty protestors from CAIR landed egg in his dishonest face since zero protestors appeared to frighten him into submission. Even if there were 1,000 protestors, there is no excuse. If a tiny lady like Pamela Geller isn’t afraid, why is a man so frightened by CAIR?
Now Orit Arfa of ZOA is not allowed to speak in defense of righteous people like Pam Geller and Robert Spencer? (Her article disappeared from JewishJournal.com) I wonder if JewishJournal.com is honest enough to say why they refuse to continue to make public Orit Arfa’s response? Is Jay Sanderson responsible for her article’s disappearance?
Jay Sanderson needs to apologize and make this right. Pamela Geller and Orit Arfa has bigger balls than Jay Sanderson ever will hope to possess.
11 years ago
The link to Orit Arfa’s argument is already gone, but they already have an article smearing Pamela up (“anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller…”) in which they make sure to mention that: “Stop the Islamization of America (SOIA), a group co-founded by Geller in 2010, has been branded a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Oren Segal, the director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center on Extremism, said in an interview on Friday that while his group and others have concerns about radical Muslim individuals and groups, Geller goes further, to the point of xenophobia.
“The difference between [Geller and] legitimate criticism about the very serious threat of radical Islam,” Segal said, “is that she vilifies the entire Islamic faith by making assertions that there are conspiracies against American values inherent in Islam.””
They go on to praise CAIR’s event extensively. Disgusting.
11 years ago
Pamela, you are getting free press now and more people may check out your wonderful blog Atlas Shrugs and see the truth for themselves that you are a kind freedom fighter and more people are starting to doubt Obama and the MSM.
11 years ago
Like a chorus of mindless robots – marching voluntarily and self-righteously to their own virtual death camps & gas ovens – all the Libturd blogs & “news sources” that reported on the cancelation of the ZOA event at the Jewish Fed’n office and the “extremist” Geller’s scheduled speech sound monotonously similar in their NON-reporting of the event. It’s a sad state of affairs, but no surprise to those of us on the Conservative side who’ve been watching this disgusting parade of muzzie butt-kissing Jews and Jewish organization (the Federations, the Forward, the ADL, etc.) for too many years already!
What will it take for these idiots to finally wake up? When will REAL self-interest – and self-preservation – finally take root in their empty minds, minds that refuse to take off those damn rose-colored glasses?
Thank God for clear-minded, passionate and articulate Defenders of Freedom like Pam Geller!! Without their ever-narrowing bases of operation, the shameless “judenrats” wouldn’t have a leg to stand on or a platform from which to spew their lies, distortions and sheer nonsense! Obviously, they simply don’t see how painfully similar their words & actions are to the disbelieving Jews & Christians of the early 1930s Germany…
