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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Time to Censure the ADL

Time to Censure the ADL

by John Cole|  March 19, 20108:51 am| 28 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Politics

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Who will be the first to draft resolution to handle this:

The Anti-Defamation League takes the unexpected step of criticizing Gen. David Petraeus, the widely respected commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East and South Asia, for his recent comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee that lack of progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace sets the “strategic context” for U.S. security fortunes in the region. “Gen. Petraeus has simply erred in linking the challenges faced by the U.S. and coalition forces in the region to a solution of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and blaming extremist activities on the absence of peace and the perceived U.S. favoritism for Israel,” the ADL’s Abraham Foxman says in a just-released statement. “This linkage is dangerous and counterproductive.”

Not quite a General Betray-Us ad, but this is the first time a lobby group has gone after Petraeus since MoveOn attacked his integrity during the 2007 Iraq debate. All Petraeus did was acknowledge the uncontroversial truth that “conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in [the Middle East and South Asia] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaida and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas.” For this, Foxman labels Petraeus’ views “dangerous” while taking care to call him a “patriot and hero.”

Just kidding.

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Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    Redshirt

    March 19, 2010 at 8:55 am

    Betrayus indeed. I’m sure the RNC will be outraged and demand a resolution be passed in the Senate condemning these traitorous remarks from the ADL….

    Riiiiight!

  2. 2.

    cleek

    March 19, 2010 at 8:56 am

    fuck the ADL.

  3. 3.

    Cat Lady

    March 19, 2010 at 8:57 am

    **..crickets..**

    Another good question – which one of our journamilists will ask Joe Lieberman what he thinks about this?

  4. 4.

    Brian J

    March 19, 2010 at 9:02 am

    In unrelated-and-unsurprising-but-still-amusing-in-a-sick-way news, Sarah Palin is asking for $1-1.5 million per episode for her Alaska-themed reality show. Because if there’s one thing that proves you’re an average American, it’s having cameras follow your family for millions. (Via THR.)

  5. 5.

    4tehlulz

    March 19, 2010 at 9:03 am

    Israel hates Jews.

  6. 6.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    March 19, 2010 at 9:03 am

    So he hates Jews and loves gays. How long before he’s accused of being a closet liberal? (AND he has gummint run health care!)

  7. 7.

    beltane

    March 19, 2010 at 9:04 am

    And yet the ADL is always strangely silent when it comes to actual antisemitism on the right. Perhaps this organization exists to prevent the defamation of right-wingers, not Jews.

  8. 8.

    beltane

    March 19, 2010 at 9:05 am

    @Brian J: Yesterday I read somewhere that neither Fox nor anyone else is interested in producing her show. She needs to pull another stunt to get attention like Balloon Dad.

  9. 9.

    Thomas

    March 19, 2010 at 9:08 am

    People always want to bring up that Israel is our friend as if that should give them free rein to do whatever they want without our saying anything. But what is this idea that you can never be critical of a friend’s actions no matter what they do. If you had a friend who had been heading out to bars every night getting drunk and then driving him or herself home, would you not be okay to be critical of that? Would it be wrong to say to that person ‘Hey you’re endangering a lot of innocent people and yourself. As if that isn’t bad enough I’m tired of having to defend your character to everyone we know. You need to stop this bullshit.’

  10. 10.

    HRA

    March 19, 2010 at 9:12 am

    @beltane:

    This

    I know I had my mouth open and wondering why when they showed pictures of Palin with the Israeli flag pin. Somewhere in these threads someone explained the purpose and it still amazes me.
    Yes, I do understand taking a trip to the holy land. This rapture business evades me as to why it is being done and what result do they expect from it.

  11. 11.

    Brian J

    March 19, 2010 at 9:12 am

    @beltane:

    It actually makes sense that she’d go to a cable channel like Lifetime or A&E. There are enough people in this country who adore her, for whatever reasons, that might flock to a cable network and make it a massive success. After all, while 3 million viewers might be awful on ABC, it’d be awesome on A&E.

  12. 12.

    cleek

    March 19, 2010 at 9:12 am

    cut.
    Israel.
    loose.

  13. 13.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 19, 2010 at 9:12 am

    Good morning, guys.

    Taking on the ADL so early in the day. My, my.

    I understand that some members of the ADL are reacting to centuries of blame-the-Jews for everthing from the plague to capitalism itself. But I don’t think that is what Petraeus was doing. Petraeus said that the Arab-Israeli conflict is a factor in the ongoing conflict between Muslim activists and the US. And it is a factor, although not the only one. We are quite capable of making people angry without the help of Israel or any other country.

    I also understand that some members of the ADL might be frightened by the recent spat between Israel and the US. They fear abandonment and are desperately looking for the cause of the rift. If we can shut Petraeus up maybe we can all get along.

    I don’t blame members of the ADL for being upset. I do think they would be better served by meditating on all the facts a bit more before they try to find a scapegoat.

  14. 14.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 19, 2010 at 9:14 am

    OT
    Ernest Ranglin
    “Stop That Train”

    Maybe I have been wrong. Maybe there is a God, after all.

  15. 15.

    beltane

    March 19, 2010 at 9:15 am

    @Brian J: But what is a reality show without a humiliation of its characters. In order for the show to have any chance of success, it will have to show Palin and her family in unflattering circumstances (admittedly not a hard task to accomplish).

  16. 16.

    Napoleon

    March 19, 2010 at 9:16 am

    I wonder what would happen if we had a USS Liberty incident today. I could see the ADL criticizing the US Navy for putting their ship in the way of Israeli missiles.

  17. 17.

    cat48

    March 19, 2010 at 9:21 am

    ADL might want to look at Rasmussen’s polling too:

    Israel’s insistence on building new settlements in disputed Palestinian territory has heightened tensions with the United States. Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters think Israel should be required to stop those settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.
    A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of voters disagree and believe Israel should not be required to stop building those settlements. Another 29% are not sure.

    Looks like the public might have agreed with that Arab president we have and Gen. Petraeus.

  18. 18.

    Tzal

    March 19, 2010 at 9:29 am

    !!!!MSITIMESITNA RUOY ROF NHOJ UOY ERUSNEC OT EMIT EKIL EROM

  19. 19.

    JMC in the ATL

    March 19, 2010 at 9:34 am

    I’m embarrassed that I wasted a minute of my life translating the foolishness above me. To spare others the pain and wasted time: “More like time to censure you John for your antisemitism!”

    Blah blah blah fishcakes…

  20. 20.

    BH

    March 19, 2010 at 9:38 am

    Just kidding? Why?

    It’s time to start viewing the Israeli-Palestinian issue as a rational foreign policy issue. Removing the ethnic and religious distractions will allow us to focus on behaviors and outcomes, not sensitivities and historical grudges.

  21. 21.

    Bob In Pacifica

    March 19, 2010 at 9:56 am

    The ADL ran a spy ring (really, probably a cover for a govt ops) in the late 80s, early 90s in the SF Bay Area. They spied on politicians (Barbara Boxer, for ex), TV stations, bookstores, unions (including my letter carriers’ union), peace groups, anti-apartheid groups, etc. One of their operatives was an FBI informant, another was an SFPD intelligence officer who apparently had worked for someone in places around the world where you tie people to chairs and put hoods over their heads (he left pictures in his police locker when he took off for the Philippines).

    The ADL refused to explain why they ran the spy ring, what exact information they had gathered and where the information went. There were lawsuits against the ADL to reveal this, even for people to see the information that the ADL had gathered on them. They managed to beat back the lawsuits.

    Abe Foxman was running the ADL back then. He is the dangerous man.

  22. 22.

    El Cid

    March 19, 2010 at 10:12 am

    But… but… there was an ad by MoveOn.org! This is different!

  23. 23.

    El Cid

    March 19, 2010 at 10:14 am

    @Bob In Pacifica: You know, it’s funny how so much brute skullduggery and death-squad association from the late-1970s through the early 1990s was just vanished from political memory.

  24. 24.

    lacp

    March 19, 2010 at 10:20 am

    This is all good news for John McCain

  25. 25.

    Gregory

    March 19, 2010 at 10:37 am

    @Linda Featheringill:

    They fear abandonment and are desperately looking for trying to avoid addressing the cause of the rift.

    Fixed.

  26. 26.

    charles

    March 19, 2010 at 10:45 am

    While it’s true that Israel’s genocidal policies toward the Palestinians are damaging to US interests, is that really the main reason we should be opposing them?

    Even if genocide were in our “best interests” shouldn’t we still be against it?

    Let’s focus on that, rather than getting side-tracked with irrelevant arguments about who is more patriotic.

  27. 27.

    sparky

    March 19, 2010 at 10:49 am

    @El Cid: interesting observation but isn’t that probably true of all such dirty work, unless there’s a trail of physical evidence?

    Nixon, LBJ, Rove, Robert Moses (can you tell Caro is my hero?): gifts that keep on giving. the one good thing is that Rove’s strategy that all you need to do is get a vote within the margin of error is now public knowledge.

  28. 28.

    batgirl

    March 19, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    I’ve been trying to email the ADL through the contact form on their website all morning and have had no luck so I’ve found their phone and fax numbers.

    For the main NY office:
    phone: 212-692-3900
    fax: 212-867-0779

    As an American Jew, this current response by Jewish “advocacy” organizations like AIPAC and ADL have completely disgusted me, and I want to make it clear to them that they do not speak for me.

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