I attended the annual protest organized by Jewish groups in the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations building in New York last year.  I had a great time, met many people and finally was able to meet the most impressive Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs.  I made 2 call-in reports to Ed Hendee on KSEV that morning and filed these reports on LoneStarTimes that afternoon - here, here, here and here.

This rally and protest is held each year the day before the opening of the yearly opening session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.  Leaders from around the world attend, endless speeches are given, hotels and restaurants are jammed, traffic gridlocks from 100+ police escorted-limousine caravans roaming the streets, NYPD overtime reaches the stratosphere and is matched only by the enormous revenues generated by Gotham’s bountiful call girls.

A sequence of events took place this year to bring disgrace on the entire proceedings and serve proof that no corner of American society is immune to the infectious hatred of partisanship at any cost, even if that cost is the security of the United States and Israel.  Organizers invited Hillary Clinton last summer to give a speech, as they have in the past.  She accepted and was scheduled in the event long before John McCain announced his choice for Vice-Presidential running mate.  Sarah Palin was invited after the announcement as were numerous other area members of Congress. 

Hillary Clinton immediately bolted at the idea of sharing a stage with her newly crowned female rival on the American political stage.  It is my opinion Clinton’s cancellation of her attendance was calculated to avoid humiliation in public at a gathering attended heavily by Orthodox and politically conservative Jews who are extremely enthusiastic about Sarah Palin.  Hillary understandably does not want to be upstaged in public by Sarah Palin who undoubtedly would have completely stolen the show today.  Pundits in the media have speculated Obama pressured Clinton to rescind, but don’t believe it for a minute.  A residual benefit for Hillary was her move looked as if she were doing Obama a favor, but there should be no doubt she had her own, and only her own, interests in mind here.

Malcolm Hoenlein is the long serving executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a rally sponsor, and is a prominent conservative voice among Jewish organizations in America.  Hoenlein eventually caved to pressure, forcefully applied by George Soros’ new group, J Street, and withdrew Palin’s invitation.  The liberal and highly politically aggressive J Street is Soros’ conception of an organization to counteract activities by Jewish organizations and American supporters of Israel.  EDb commented over at Pajamas Media and summed it up well:

The strategy and its implementation was Obama, Biden and the Dems with J-Street as their beard. This is J-Streets raison d’etre. They were formed in order to have a group of Jews who would challenge and undermine Jewish interests in the name of Jews. Jews who would rail against the so-called Jewish lobby, Jews who would undermine support for Israel and especially support for Israel as a Jewish state. It was to have a group of Jews who would sit comfortably, not talk too loudly and nod their heads in agreement when told to by the various Protestant churches and Democratic left groups. It was to have a Jewish group that would remain their allies as they promote their agendas for various boycotts and the divestment of Israeli assets. It was to have a Jewish group that would overtly reject the support of people actually wishing to support the Jews and the State of Israel. It was to have a Jewish group to openly make war on the evangelicals.

In the no doubt intensive negotiations of the last few days among event sponsors, Hoenlein and his allies attempted to assuage their enemies by inviting VP candidate Joe Biden, but of course, Joe has a long standing commitment to deliver a speech to a National Guard convention elsewhere.  There was no way the Obama campaign was not going to let Hoenlein and his allies continue to twist in the wind.  The final and fatal blow was the letters, each sent to the various sponsoring Jewish groups of the UN protest rally by attorneys affliated with the Washington-based J Street threatening to file formal complaints with the IRS challenging their exempt status as apolitical non-profit organizations.  The basis of the complaints would be their alleged promotion of a vice-presidential candidate and ticket by having Palin as the only one to show up and speak.  Unfortunately, Hoenlein and his allies did not choose this hill to die on and decided not to make a stand.  It was, in my opinion, a serious mistake. 

I am not there today and many people who intended to show up are not going.  One of the major sponsors, Zionists of America, withdrew from the rally and numerous bloggers like Pam Geller and Yid With Lid are boycotting the rally today.  There is an alternative protest occurring Thursday, September 25th at the Hyatt Regency - Grand Central Station where a number American religious groups such as the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker United Nations Office, Religions for Peace and the World Council of Churches–United Nations Liaison Office are hosting a dinner in honor of Ahmadinejad.  I expect the crowd will be large and enthusiastic there and I plan to attend.

The New York Sun has published a copy of the speech Governor Sarah Palin was to have delivered today in the Plaza in front of the UN.  You can find it here.  It is a shame and a disgrace, and yet not unsurprising, the Left in this nation continues to drive an ever deeper wedge into American unity on matters of security and safety.  This is where we have arrived after a 40 year slide into a primordial swamp of selfishness exemplified by this crass and and crude behavior of Clinton, Barack Obama, Democrats and the Democratic Party leadership.