Opinion Editorials, May 2011

Heckling Inside AIPAC Conference Will Sabotage Free Speech

By Rev Ted Pike

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, May 23, 2011

On Friday, May 20, 100 liberal American anti-Zionist organizations protested in New York City during Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit. (Hosted by moveoveraipac.org) (Unfortunately, 90-year-old Helen Thomas, who was scheduled to speak, has cancelled, preferring to report on the event.)

This week a video was posted on YouTube of the kind of behavior I hope does not occur tomorrow. (Watch video on Youtube) It shows anti-Zionists, strategically placed in a Christian’s United for Israel meeting, repeatedly disrupting Pastor John Hagee’s speech. Such disruption, which amounts to communication terrorism, is viewed by the protestors as a triumph. It is not. The whole idea of civilization is that opposing opinions, right or wrong, can at least be expressed publicly without interruption. If supplied with accurate representations of such ideas, individuals, endowed with reason by their Creator, are given at least a fighting chance to determine whether such concepts are true or false. Yet, if a speaker’s very sentences are sabotaged through heckling, it is not their ideas that are weakened but 5000 years of civilization.

Although it is primarily liberals who will be protesting tomorrow (not my primary audience), it is crucial that all in the burgeoning anti-Zionist movement insist that the lines of communication be kept open for foe as well as friend.

In Canada, under B’nai B’rith’s hate law, Gestapo-like, pro-Jewish anarchists immediately appear in any province to abusively disrupt any anti-Zionist meeting, completely shutting down free speech. As a result, it is now impossible in Canada to hold any public meeting critical of matters Jewish.

In America, the Jewish ADL must still largely confine itself to predictable efforts (almost always successful) to persuade hotels and convention halls to cancel meetings critical of Zionism or Holocaust mythology. ADL also works closely with Jewish "cyber warriors" to knock down anti-Zionist web sites. (See Israeli Cyber-Warriors "Crash" Internet).  It effectively frightens advertisers away from support of venues that host the anti-Zionist message.

If anti-Zionists indulge in disruption of Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to AIPAC, they may bring attention to their message. But they will also invite Zionists to reply in kind, eventually making disruption of public education against Zionism an accepted tactic in America, as in Canada.

Let the AIPAC protestors vent their righteous indignation on the streets of New York City this week. Let them do so graphically, loudly, even raucously and vulgarly, if they deem necessary. But hired halls, convention centers, Chambers of Congress, and the internet should remain hallowed ground for the necessary communication of ideas. If such places of intellectual expression are violated, those who espouse the truth are no longer the defenders of freedom but its destroyers. 

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Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization.

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