Jewish Exponent: “Conservative Activist Rouses Local Crowd”

If you missed my speech on Islamic Jew-hatred to the ZOA, now's the time to watch it: video here.

Conservative Activist Rouses Local Crowd

March 21, 2012 – Bryan Schwartzman, Jewish Exponent

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Firebrand conservative blogger and activist Pamela Geller told a Philadelphia audience that the majority of Jews have "their heads in the sand" regarding the threat Islam poses to America and Israel.

"The existence of Israel is an insult to practicing and devout Muslims. Whether you like that or not, that is the way it is," Geller, the New York-based founder of Stop Islamization of America, told the enthusiastic audience of more than 100 at the Center City program sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America.

Pamela Geller

"Why are we caving to the most racist and radical ideology on the planet?" Geller said. "Now, you can say that I am exaggerating. No! You don't know" what is really going on.

The event was held at the Jewish Community Services Building, which is owned by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Geller said she was shocked Federation was allowing her to speak in this space and that she is usually shunned by Jewish groups.

(Left-leaning speakers have spoken in the building, including Rachel Liel of the New Israel Fund.)

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Geller, who also writes the blog atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com, gained notoriety in 2010 for calling attention to a proposed Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan. Along with the lawyer David Yerushalmi, Geller is one of the leading Jewish voices warning about Muslim efforts to impose Islamic law on the American workplace, legal system and cultural sphere.

According to material circulated by the Anti-Defamation League, Geller "promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of fighting radical Islam. The group seeks to rouse public fears by consistently vilifying the Islamic faith."

Tanned, sporting plenty of makeup and speaking with a pronounced New York accent, Geller rarely paused during her 45-minute talk. During that time, the onetime associate publisher of The New York Observer blasted the ADL and other mainstream targets, including The New York Times, which she called part of the "ene-media." Those organizations deliberately minimize the threat posed by Islam and refuse to offend Muslims, she said

Geller's latest spat with The New York Times came to light last week when it was reported by several news outlets that the paper decided to delay indefinitely an advertisement Geller's group purchased that called on Muslims to leave Islam. It came after the paper ran a similar advertisement urging Catholics to abandon the faith.

According to published reports, the paper said that it feared running the ad might put American troops at risk. Geller said it was a hypocritical stance coming from the same news organization that exposed the National Security Agency's wiretapping surveillance program.

"They gave all our secrets away and they are telling me about saving the troops' lives. They have no shame," she said.

Though ZOA is a non-partisan group, it was clearly a GOP-leaning crowd. Geller said that the "disaster of Obama" won't be felt for decades and that Americans should prepare themselves for an inevitable second term. Later, during a question-and-answer session, she recalibrated a bit and said the chances for unseating the president were closer to fifty-fifty.

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Though she indicated she prefers former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as a candidate — and publicly thanked him for his controversial comments that the Palestinians are an "invented people" — she said the party's best chance is to unite behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

She said that GOP candidate Ron Paul, who opposes aid to Israel, would be worse than Obama, describing him as "nuts."

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