Controversial leftist delegation marches despite protests, which NIF leader describes as 'louder and meaner.'
By Chemi Shalev
Close to 40,000 marchers walked up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in sweltering heat, Mayor Bill de Blasio danced with Hassidim,
the controversial left-wing delegation was only sporadically heckled, the mock ultra-Orthodox anti-gay protestors showed up, as expected, and finally the rains came down, as they usually do, propelling the meeker to seek shelter and the bolder to dance and get wet, 1960’s Woodstock style.
If you’re a leftie in search of some Schadenfreude, you might find solace in the fact that the heavy rains forced the police to put a stop to the mostly right-wing/Orthodox Israel Day Concert, in which Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was to appear. Otherwise, the annual Celebrate Israel Parade went off without a hitch, much to the relief and to the credit of its main organizer, Michael Miller of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
The real news – perhaps a small bit of history, even – was being made across town, in Piers 92-94 on Manhattan’s West Side, on the Hudson River. In an impressive show of financial prowess and organizational strength, the recently enlarged Israeli American Council (IAC), whose main funder is casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, hosted close to 10,000 mostly former Israelis and their American friends and family at what may very well be the biggest expat Israeli bash ever held in the city.
“The Israeli community has never been organized in such numbers,” according to Sagi Balasha, the Los Angeles based CEO of IAC. Balasha said the New York party is one of five similar events held in recent weeks across the United States: the biggest was in L.A., with 14,000 participants, as well as Miami (9,000), Boston (6,000) and Las Vegas, where Adelson lives, in which 4,000 people participated. Balasha said that the five events cost about $2.5 million altogether, covered by ticket sales and concession fees, local funding by Israeli businessmen and subsidies handed out by the group’s national headquarters, based in L.A.
Things were just a bit tenser, but only sporadically, for the “progressive delegation” that marched in the parade, that has been the object of an intense lobbying campaign by increasingly virulent elements on the right wing fringe, including famous Islamophobe Pamela Geller: they have been have been pressing Miller as well as other sponsors of the parade, including the Israeli government and the UJA, to eject the group – that also includes Americans for Peace Now, Partners for Progressive Israel and T’ruah – for what they claim is NIF support for BDS. The right-wingers were unimpressed by the fact that the NIF and others had signed the mandatory JCRC form that states that all participants in the parade “must identify with Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish People and must oppose, not fund, nor advocate for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel” and so on.
NIF’s New York director Stephanie Ives, who marched with her family, said that she and her co-marchers were “extremely grateful for the unwavering stand” of the parade’s organizers, “who are our partners in making sure that there is a big Jewish tent that remains open.” She denied that protest against NIF participation had gotten larger, saying it was “still on the fringes,” but had gotten “louder” and seemed to be better funded than before.
“They’ve gotten a lot meaner, that’s for sure,” she said.
Continued @ :
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/.premium-1.659048
= new reply since forum marked as read
