The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is having an anti-Iran rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in NYC on Monday. The executive director, Malcolm Hoenlein, invited Hillary Clinton, Elie Weisel and Sarah Palin to speak, presumably because of Palin's foreign policy credentials. Or maybe to paste some on.
Hillary spokesman Phillippe Reines said Tuesday night that Hillary was "blindsided by the decision to include Palin at the rally."
Quote from dailynews.com 9/17/08 (sorry don't have entire URL):
"Her attendance was news to us," said Reines. "Cleawrly there was some miscommunication because this was never billed to us as a partisan political event. Sen. Clinton will therefore not be attending this event."
So the Manchurian-Alaskan candidate shot back in a manner worthy of her Rovian forebearers:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's team accused Hillary Clinton of putting partisan politics above an important cause for dropping out of a pro-Israeli, anti-Iran rally in New York next week after learning that the hockey mom-turned-GOP phenom was also attending.
"Governor Palin believes that the danger of a nuclear Iran is greater than party or politics. She hopes that all parties can rally together in opposition to this grave threat," said Tracey Schmitt, a spokesperson with the Bush-McCain-Palin campaign."
Even though I vowed not to mention Palin and continue this Goebbels-style propaganda, I was peeved. Miffed. X#@%ing angry. So I dashed off this email to Malcolm Hoenlein, above exec direct:
I called your office this morning. When I asked to speak with Mr. Hoenlein, get his email or leave a voice mail, I was told by the young lady who answered the phone that "she was his voice mail." I read a statement to her and am sending it by this email address, which is very general.
Malcolm Hoenlein
Executive Director
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations:
Dear Mr. Hoenlein:
As a female Jewish person, I am ashamed to be a supporter of your organization. It is a shanda that you should invite Ms. Palin to speak at your anti-Iran protest on Monday. At the very least, she believes that rape and incest victims have no choice but to bear the child that issues from that devastating crime, something you would not visit on your own daughters.
To invite both Ms. Palin and my senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, an experienced and time-tested individual to the rally you are sponsoring, to give Ms. Palin the unearned credibility she eagerly steals from Ms. Clinton, is appalling. This is particularly so in the face of such critical, historically unprecedented global financial events.
We need highly qualified, intelligent leadership such as embodied in Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister who may become Prime Minister. Ms. Livni is not afraid to be questioned. She does not impose a media blackout. She can look Putin in the eye, much less a network anchorman, without intensive preparation.
It is very cynical to traffic in the Palin idolatry. How is this different from providing credibility at any other rally, perhaps comparable to Nuremberg? I know that is an extreme analogy but these are extreme times and call for careful judgments.
I am sorely disappointed in your organization.