An international "gay pride" parade scheduled for next month in Jerusalem has been called off due to Israel's war with Hezbollah.

As WorldNetDaily reported, some rabbis who have urged that the World Pride parade to be cancelled see the war as God's judgment for the Israeli government's tacit support of the homosexual-activist celebration.

Jerusalem Open House, the main organizer, announced today the cancellation of the Aug. 10 parade but said other related events will take place as planned, YnetNews.com reported.

"We are determined to fight for our right to march in Jerusalem this year," said the organization’s director, Hagai El-Ad.

El-Ad said now is "not the time for celebrations."

But the organization said the parade will be held with the improvement of the security situation in the country.

"We are determined to fight for our right to march in Jerusalem this year; we will not succumb to the violent incitement against our community and against all the proponents of democracy in Jerusalem," El-Ad said.

Some of the opposition has come from rabbis who believe Israel's troubles in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and the Hezbollah rockets slamming daily into major Israeli population centers are a result of the Jewish state's tacit support for the parade.

Pinchas Winston, a noted author, rabbi and lecturer based in Jerusalem told WND, "Why does this war break out this week, all of sudden with little warning? Because this is the exact week the Jewish people are trying to decide whether the gay pride parade should take place in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv."

The weeklong celebration, Aug. 6-12, also includes a beach party, health conference and a "Youth Day" to take place in the Knesset, Israel's main legislative government building.

Winston calls the parade "an attack against God himself."

"God has told the Jewish people, 'If you are not going to fight for my honor, you will be forced to fight for your own honor.'"

Lazer Brody, an author and dean of the Breslov Rabbinical College in Ashdod, Israel, concurred with Winston.

"When God’s presence is in the camp, nothing can happen to the Jewish people," Brody stated. "But If the Jewish people bring impurity into the camp of Israel, this chases away God's presence."

The World Pride event previously was held in 2000 in Rome, where it attracted about a quarter of a million participants. Images of the Rome festivities, featured on various homosexual websites, show throngs of shirtless men in shorts and bikini briefs congregated on the streets, some of them holding hands.

Earlier this year, the Israeli Supreme Court granted tacit support for the event. But a recent poll shows nearly 70 percent of all Jerusalemites oppose the march. Mayor Uri Lupolianski, an orthodox Jew, filed a petition to prevent the event from taking place. About half of the Knesset's 120 legislatures signed a petition against holding a homosexual parade in Jerusalem.

Activists from World Pride, nevertheless, have claimed the event will "bring a new inner-faith message of equality and tolerance" to Israel's populace. Event organizers say the parade in Jerusalem was suited to the city's nature in respect to the local religious population.

Organizer El-Ad has complained an "orchestrated campaign to sabotage Jerusalem World Pride has been launched by those who propagate the fallacy that only they have a right to claim faith as their mantle."

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