Palin plays the fear card on Iran

Mario Tama/Getty Images Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was slated to give a speech at today’s rally sponsored by New York Jewish groups protesting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly. The organizers of the event canceled her appearance to avoid the appearance of partisanship. (New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was also ...

By , an editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.
592456_080922_palin5.jpg
592456_080922_palin5.jpg
NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 22: A woman holds a "Where is Sarah?" sign at an anti-Iran rally outside United Nations headquarters during the 63rd General Assembly, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is addressing, September 22, 2008 in New York City. Organizers of the rally dropped Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from the event after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) withdrew over Palin's presence. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was slated to give a speech at today’s rally sponsored by New York Jewish groups protesting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly. The organizers of the event canceled her appearance to avoid the appearance of partisanship. (New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was also scheduled to talk but backed out last week after learning Palin had been added to the line of speakers.)

Palin’s scheduled remarks, published today in the New York Sun, are in some ways fairly predictable. Yet in addition to the standard calls to support Israel and stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the vice presidential nominee’s speech is peppered with phrases guaranteed to hit the fear button in the Jewish community — “Final Solution”, “Never Again,” and “Holocaust.” The close of Palin’s speech offered this:

Senator McCain has made a solemn commitment that I strongly endorse: Never again will we risk another Holocaust. And this is not a wish, a request, or a plea to Israel’s enemies. This is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us. It is John McCain’s promise and it is my promise.”

As, I said last week, I don’t think for a second that Iran is experiencing, or will experience, a change of heart when it comes to Israel or the United States. But anytime a politician uses the vocabulary of fear in this manner to incite solidarity, I get extremely wary.

Rebecca Frankel was an editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.