ADL unconcerned by persecution of Jews

11Feb10

“I had hoped we could finally put the depressing events of 2009 behind us. Yet, just one month into the New Year, our hope that history would not repeat itself, that anti-Semitism would not again rear its ugly head, has been tempered by the realities of our times.

January brought new and shocking manifestations of anti-Semitism — once again in places where we least expected to see it, in locales where Jews had otherwise felt safe, in nations and democracies we have become accustomed to calling our allies and friends…

What is different now from the 1930s and 1940s is that we have people who can, and do, speak out [...and that, unlike in the '30s and '4os, antisemitism in the US and Western Europe today is confined to the nutty fringe, with Jews constituting the most successful ethnic minority group by some margin, rendering any comparison between the two periods absurd? No? Oh, alright then]. We can take comfort that the U.S. and many of its allies abroad take seriously the fight against anti-Semitism. It is our hope that those nations, and all world leaders of good conscience, will stand up and speak out against this enduring, age-old hatred.”

Sobering words – though coming as they do from a man who generally appears somewhat less than sober, one may be tempted to dismiss them as standard ADL theatrics. To do so would be a mistake. Over the past few weeks alone I have encountered many vicious, often unhinged attacks on Jews by prominent figures in mainstream outlets, often unchallenged by anyone outside the liberal-left. See below for a sample:

• Obama’s chief-of-staff attacked as a “traitor”:

“You are like the Hellenists who acted against the Israeli nation. You advise President Obama against Israel, and incite and instigate against us. You are a traitor against the entire Jewish people”.

• Top Jewish judge attacked as a “monster” and an “evil man” who uses his Jewishness to commit treachery:

‘Instead, Dershowitz claims that he thought he was telling his interviewer that the South African jurist was “absolutely” a “monster.”

Dershowitz’s harsh criticisms of former South African Supreme Court Justice Richard Goldstone made news in Israel after selections of the interview were aired on the popular morning news program “Ma Boer” (“What’s Burning?”) on January 31. After calling Goldstone “an evil, evil man” and “an absolute traitor” for his role in a United Nations report charging that Israel’s military deliberately targeted civilians, Dershowitz now claims to have stepped back from some of those comments.

“I wrote to the broadcaster, retracting my word ‘traitor,’” Dershowitz told the Forward. “But if you’re asking me deep in my heart and soul do I believe that the word fairly characterizes him, in light of the way he’s used his Jewishness, both as a shield and a sword? You know, if the shoe fits.”’

and again:

“I believed that Goldstone had exploited his Jewishness to lend illegitimate credibility to a false report. In this respect, he had betrayed his people”.

and again:

“[Goldstone] is only one example of prominent Jews who exploit their origins as a way to defame their people. In fact, until recently, Goldstone was considered a respectable Jew, even a Zionist. He was blinded by hubris and ego, and allowed himself to be seduced by the bitterest enemies of his people into providing legitimization for a blood libel against the Jewish state”.

• Poster released as part of a right-wing Israeli campaign (supported by the state) of intimidation and hate against US-Israeli peace group the New Israel Fund. The woman being caricatured Der Sturmer-style is Prof. Naomi Chazan, an Israeli Jewish academic and director of the NIF:

  

• A prominent antisemite is openly funding attacks on Israeli Jews with the support of much of the media and political class:

“The antisemite who finances Zionist self-righteousness

The Im Tirtzu movement accuses the New Israel Fund of financing anti-Zionist organizations, but all the while enjoys donations from an evangelist preacher who believes “Hitler was carrying out God’s will” …

In the last days various media have been running a campaign against the New Israel Fund, which defines itself as a venture capital fund for social initiatives. Behind the campaign are activists for the Im Tirtzu movement, which defines itself as an extra-parliamentary movement to strengthen Zionist values in Israel…

Donors to the movement include the Christian American lobby CUFI – Christians United for Israel, headed by evangelist preacher John Hagee. The organization’s website specifies the sum it gave Im Tirtzu — $100,000…

About the economic crisis that hit the US and the world in 2008, Hagee said that “the U.S. Federal Reserve is under the control of a few shareholders, including the Jewish Rothschild family.” He added that “the Rothschild family is part of an extensive economic conspiracy by strong shareholders who reside in Europe.”’

• Group of peaceful Jewish demonstrators in New York come under vicious verbal assault, including calls for them to be killed:

[via]

All of which, of course, begs the question: why is this vicious anti-Jewish persecution being ignored by the ADL, whose director does find the time to condemn the desecration of public menorahs?

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On a related note, Leon Wieseltier’s astonishing attack on Andrew Sullivan, accusing him of antisemitism, is an excellent illustration of how the overuse of “antisemitism” as a term of political abuse by apologists for Israel has stripped it of all power and meaning. As Glenn Greenwald comments,

“What’s most striking about this attack is how inconsequential it is.  It was once the case, not all that long ago, that an accusation of “anti-semitism” was the nuclear weapon of political debates, rendering most politicians and pundits (especially non-Jewish ones) petrified of being so accused.  A 4,300-word prosecution brief published by The New Republic, accusing a major political writer of being a Jew-hater, would have been taken quite seriously, generated all sorts of drama, introspection and debate, and seriously tarnished the reputation of the accused.

No longer.  Neoconservatives have so abused and cynically exploited the “anti-semitism” charge for rank political gain — to bully those who would dare criticize Israeli actions or question U.S. policy towards Israel  — that it has lost its impact.  Ironically, nobody has done more to trivialize and cheapen anti-semitism accusations than those who anointed themselves its guardians and arbiters.  As Charles Freeman can attest, frivolous anti-semitism accusations can still damage those seeking high-level political positions, but those accusations no longer pack any real punch in virtually any other realm.  As neoconservatives became discredited, so, too, did their central political weapon:  casually and promiscuously accusing political adversaries of anti-semitism.”

Greenwald further makes the observation that by their own standards, Israel’s apologists are as guilty of antisemitism as anyone (see, e.g., the examples above):

“An even more glaring double standard is evidenced by Wieseltier’s complaints about Sullivan’s supposed “assumption. . . . that every thought that a Jew thinks is a Jewish thought,” a belief he says “is an anti-Semitic assumption, and a rather classical one.”  Wieseltier specifically complains that, when criticizing Charles Krauthammer and Michael Goldfarb’s extremism, Sullivan notes that they belong to a small minority of American Jewish neocons who support such policies largely due to fealty to Israel.  Treating individual Jews as members of a group defined by their Jewishness is, Wieseltier argues, an “anti-semitic assumption.”

Yet this is precisely the assumption that drives the political worldview and arguments of many of Wieseltier’s political comrades.  As I’ve documented many times, neoconservatives constantly argue that American Jews should vote for Republicans rather than Democrats in American political elections because, as Jews, they should cast their votes based on what is best for Israel, and GOP policies, they claim, are better for Israel.  Joe Lieberman spent a substantial portion of 2008 running around to Jewish enclaves in key swing states telling Jewish voters to vote for McCain because he’d be better for Israel.  Large organizations exist to ostensibly represent the shared political interests of American Jews as Jews. Of course some American Jews form their political beliefs about the Middle East based on their relationship as Jews to Israel — just as some Cuban-Americans do with regard to Cuba, Mexican-Americans do with regard to Mexico, Irish-Americans do with regard to Ireland, etc.

You can’t run around making direct appeals to the Jewishness and Israel-affection of American-Jewish voters when you want to induce them to vote Republican, but then turn around and scream “anti-semite!” at your political opponents when they discuss the same issues in the same context or talk about the political beliefs of various Jewish factions.  At least you can’t do that without being guilty of hideous double standards and, worse, cheapening and trivializing “anti-semitism” to the point of irrelevance”.

For more in this vein, see Joe Klein, Phil Weiss and Daniel Luban.

Update: more vicious antisemitism, with Jews attacked as “stinking lowlifes”, “worms” and “Judenrats”:

“Funny, but only recently it was brought to my attention that I am listed in the Jewish “Shit List” (where “Shit” stands for Self-Hating and/or Israel-Threatening), by some wacky rightwing organisation (masada2000.org). I clicked on the site and found myself perversely fascinated by the world I entered…

But of course, the number one criterion for getting blacklisted is being a Jew. Scrolling up and down the endless list of “idiots”, “dumbbells”, “worms”, “stinking lowlifes”, “400-pound cows”, “a-holes”, “scumbags” and, most popularly, “Judenrats” and looking at the gallery of highly unflattering photos, with blurry faces, bloodshot eyes, and long noses, it finally dawned on me. This is more than just a childish and particularly distasteful under-the-belt sense of humour. This is antisemitism itself, the real shit.”

Abe? Hello?

Filed under: Israeli / Palestinian   |  2 Comments
Tags: Abraham Foxman, ADL, Andrew Sullivan, antisemitism, Leon Wieseltier, new-antisemitism, zionism