by Jerry Gordon, The Iconoclast
Amid the storm of controversy over Seattle Metro anti-Israel bus ads, accusing the US of supporting ‘war crimes’ in Gaza during the IDF Operationa cast Lead two years ago, came this announcement by Christians United for Israel (CUFI); the King County Commissioners pulled the controversial Metro bus ads due to roll out on Monday, December 27th.
According to Arutz-Sheva Israel National News a strong counter protest was launched by several Zionist groups . Representatives of the Northwest region StandWithUs, the ADL and the Seattle Jewish Federation had met with King County Commissioners raising objections to the ad program sponsored by the Seattle Middle East Awareness Campaign (SMEC). The SMEC group has leaders connected to the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement. The Zionist groups, including CUFI, had sent action alerts to members who inundated the King Commissioners with protest emails, phone calls and faxes. According to a KING-TV report, “Israeli, Palestinian Bus Ads won’t run, Metro says” the David Horowitz Freedom Center was prepared to run counter ads on 25 buses withe the message: “Palestinian War Crimes Your Tax Dollars at work”. The KING-TV report noted the Commissioners judgement call:
According to Metro officials, non-commercial advertising will temporarily be added to the list of currently restricted ad campaigns, except for certain government ads. Non-commercial ads that had already been cleared with Metro prior to the halt will not be affected.
By the end of January, Executive Constantine said further work will be done to determine a sound policy that abides by First Amendment rights and protects Metro passenger safety.
We posted on the Seattle anti-Israel bus ad controversy coming as it did amidst escalation of new Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket and mortar attacks threatening Southern Israel cities that gave rise to IDF air strike retailiations resulting in casulaties on both sides.
Doubtless, the ACLU will file an immediate law suit on behalf of the SMEA on grounds that the latter’s free expression rights under the First Amendment were violated. If that occurs, will the david Horowitz freedom center counter with its own legal action concerning its opposite views? Perhaps, the ACLU might consider the sensitivites of the victims and their fanilies of the mass shooting by a lone Pakistani American Jihadi, Naveed Haq, who perpetrated on the Seattle Jewish Federation (SJFed) in July 2006. Haq got a life sentence for his heinous actions in a second trial in 2009. Somehow, we don’t see the ACLU doing that, despite the fears of the SJFED executive director Richard Fruchter that the ads might lead to another example by homegrown Muslim terrorists violence against the Seattle Jewish community.
Note this CUFI alert about the rapid response of their members and this afternoon’s decision by the King County Commissioners to remove the anti-Israel bus ads.
Action Alert New
Dear Jerry,
At 2:00 EST today, we issued an action alert asking all of our members to e-mail officials in King County, Washington, with an urgent request to block the following inciteful ad from appearing on Seattle buses:
Your response was overwhelming. In the week leading up to our action alert, King county officials had received 2,000 e-mails to asking them to reject this ad. Within five hours — by 7:00 pm EST — our action alert had generated three times as many e-mails — almost 6,000 — to these same government officials.
We are thrilled to report that your voices have been heard and that your efforts have paid off. At 7:00 p.m. EST today, King County Executive Dow Constatine announced a new policy governing advertising on buses that, among other things, will block the proposed anti-Israel ad from appearing on city buses. Now that the anti-Israel ad will not run, we no longer see the need to respond with our own ad telling the truth about Israel.
This is a great victory. We are thankful to our friends in the pro-Israel community who called our attention to this issue and began the campaign against these dangerous ads. And we are thankful to all of you who responded with enough speed and determination to accomplish the mission so quickly. Your efforts were especially meaningful on a day when so many of us are so very busy with travel and shopping before the approaching Christmas holiday.
We wish you all a blessed Christmas,
Pastor Hagee David Brog
National Chairman Executive Director
Christians United for Israel Christians United for Israel
LakeLink: Thank God, they had enough good sense to listen to our outrage over this issue.
Thank God, they had enough sense to listen to our outrage.
Great news!