Israel Matzav

Chickensh*t Obama can't even own his own comments

Yellow-bellied Barack Hussein Obama cannot even own the comments that were attributed to an anonymous official by his designated mouthpiece. This is from the first link.

The White House has issued a cautious criticism of the anonymous Obama administration official who called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “chickenshit” in an interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, but stopped well short of an outright apology.

“Certainly, that’s not the administration’s view, and we think such comments are inappropriate and counter-productive,” National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey told The Hill. “Prime Minister Netanyahu and the president have forged an effective partnership, and consult closely and frequently, including earlier this month when the president hosted the prime minister in the Oval Office.”

There was no indication that the White House would either name the official who made the remark, nor issue a full apology to Netanyahu for insulting him with various epithets, including the word “coward.”

Unfortunately, much of the mainstream American Jewish 'leadership' thinks this ought to be enough to bring the controversy to an end. It's not. And they're cowards for saying that it is or ought to be. I'm sure they're laughing all the way to the bank about this in Tehran.

Read the whole thing. 

Labels: Abe Foxman, Anti-Defamation League, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Malcolm Hoenlein

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:19 PM 2 comments

Foxman: State Department 'hypocritical, almost irrational'

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, ADL National Director Abe Foxman decried the State Department's denial of visas to Israelis, and US intelligence agencies' refusal to allow Israel to join the visa waiver program, as 'hypocritical, almost irrational.'

The Anti-Defamation League has reacted harshly to reports that several members of US Congress and representatives of the country’s intelligence community have cautioned against admitting Israel into the State Department’s visa waiver program due to concerns over espionage.

During an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said he could not square such worries with the “special relationship” and high level of intelligence cooperation between the two nations.

“Is there a certain amount of hypocrisy? Sure,” Foxman told the Post, referring to recent revelations of widespread American spying on close allies. “Every couple of years something publicly surfaces, focusing the light on Israelis or Israel spying…. It is inordinate and inappropriate and inaccurate. This is the most recent example of it.”

...

Foxman said he continued to be “disturbed at the level of preoccupation, primarily in the American government, not just now but going back for years” in relation to alleged Israeli spying.

“I have a file of people who applied for [a security] clearance, American Jews who had difficulty getting it and didn’t get it because of questions which were inappropriate,” the ADL head stated.

“But none of these people wanted to take the case public because they were afraid it was going to destroy their employment opportunities.”

Foxman alluded to what he believes is an inbuilt institutional bias connected to a widespread belief that American Jews hold dual loyalties.

“One out of three Americans believe that they [US Jews] are not loyal,” and the current allegation of Israeli spying “enhances the stereotype and it fuels it,” he said. “This is endemic in our political system out of Washington.”

A 2013 poll by the ADL found that 30% of Americans believe Jews are “more loyal to Israel” than to the United States, a number that remains unchanged from a previous poll taken in 1964.

Such attitudes predate the arrest of Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish-American intelligence analyst convicted of passing information to Israel. The Pollard case, Foxman averred, gave those concerned with Israeli spying “legitimacy” but did not create such worries.

“The exchange of information and data and specific research on technology is very high, and so at the same time to say we have to be careful of Israelis who come here on tourist visas because they can spy on us is almost irrational,” he said. “But if we are talking about being motivated in part by stereotypes, stereotypes are not rational. It’s a prejudice.”

That should make all you American Jews feel warm and cozy as you head back to work on the morning after the Passover holiday, no? 

Labels: Abe Foxman, anti-Semitism, hypocrisy, intelligence, spying, travel visas, US State Department

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:17 AM 0 comments

ADL slams Obama for tying Pollard release to 'peace talks'

It was not the first time that Anti-Defamation League national director Abe Foxman has spoken out against the injustice being perpetrated on Jonathan Pollard. And while I wish that today's statement would be the final time that Foxman has to speak on the issue, it likely won't be.

Well, yeah. But the odds of Obama listening are somewhere between slim and none. They're willing to do ANYTHING to save these meaningless talks. They're even willing to give up their hostage.

Labels: Abe Foxman, Barack Hussein Obama, Jonathan Pollard, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorists

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:16 AM 0 comments

In all fairness....

Reader Rob M has gotten on my case with some justification for some of the things I posted about Abe Foxman lately (particularly the Mark Steyn piece I posted on Tuesday night). So for some fairness and balance, here's a story from the Detroit Jewish News, which is pictured above. The older man in the picture is Rabbi Leo Goldman zt"l of Detroit, the  younger man is Foxman.

One incident just after World War II ended had a profound effect on Rabbi Goldman’s life.
On Sept. 30, 1945, inside the near-ruin that once was the Great Shul of Vilna, Lithuania, Rabbi Goldman, then a Russian army officer in his 20s, approached a father holding his 5-year-old son.

It was Simchat Torah and, in a city that once called itself home to 100,000 Jews, of which 3,000 survived, the shul has been stripped of almost everything, including the Torahs.

Rabbi Goldman asked if the boy were Jewish, then said, “During the war, I traveled many kilometers as a soldier, and I did not see many Jewish children alive. May I take him as my Sefer Torah?”

In place of dancing while holding the Torah, the soldier danced while hoisting the boy who, to everyone in the sanctuary, represented the rebirth of the Jewish people.

Although they parted ways after that day, the experience had a huge impact on both their lives.

Rabbi Goldman would devote his life to teaching and comforting the Jewish people. And the boy, who had been hidden by a Polish nanny and raised Catholic until the end of the war, began his return to Yiddishkeit that day. Today, he is well-known as Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League in New York City, who serves as a protector of the Jewish people and fighter against bigotry.

Although he never heard what happened to the boy, Rabbi Goldman’s memory of the story became the subject of a song, “The Man From Vilna,” which was written in 2004 after he met a Toronto songwriter on an airplane. The song turned out to be pivotal in reuniting the two survivors.

In 2007, Foxman shared his story with a group of Israeli soldiers and Birthright Israel participants at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel. Someone asked him if the soldier were still alive.

A woman who worked at Yad Vashem said she would do some research and find out. She found a story about the song in a Chabad-Lubavitch newspaper. Connections were made and, in January 2010, Foxman met Rabbi Goldman’s daughter Vivian Aronson in Indianapolis.

When she showed him a 1945 photo of her father as a Russian soldier, Foxman was overwhelmed.

On April 8, 2010, Foxman walked into Rabbi Goldman’s Oak Park home. The little boy and the Jewish soldier would be able to hold each other again.

“I’ve been waiting a long time,” Foxman said at the time. “It’s so emotional.”

Said the rabbi’s grandson David Brystowski, then 15, “It was an emotional and inspirational moment, like long-lost family members reconnecting. It is a feeling and a moment that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.”

Nice story, no? It's a shame they were apart for so long.

Labels: Abe Foxman, Holocaust

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:12 PM 1 comments

Blind to the elephant in the room?

Mark Steyn writes that Abe Foxman is right that anti-Semitism is worse than ever. But Foxman is blind to the elephant in the room that's the cause of that anti-Semitism (Hat Tip: Alex G).

I would like Foxman to go to Toulouse, a city the size of Jacksonville, Florida, where in recent years one synagogue has been firebombed, another set alight when two burning cars were driven into it, a third burgled and "Dirty Jews" scrawled on the ark housing the Torah, where a kosher butcher's was strafed with gunfire, and a Jewish sports association attacked with Molotov cocktails, and three Jewish children murdered outside their grade school, I would like Foxman to go to Toulouse and tell any Jew he finds there (they are advised by their rabbis not to wear identifying marks of their faith) that it's all the work of "anti-government people".

I would like him to go to Malmö - once the first Christian city in Norway and soon to be the first Muslim city in Sweden - and tell such Jews as he can find (they are abandoning the city) that the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and the ugly reinforced steel doors at the Jewish kindergarten and the rocket-proof glass in the windows of the synagogue are all the fault of "neo-Nazis". Sweden is renowned for its neo-Nazis, isn't it? Doubtless they were the reason why a year or two back at the Davis Cup the Israeli tennis players had to play their match behind closed doors, in a Baltiska Hallen stadium without a single spectator. For had they opened the doors, the seats would have filled up with Swedish "nationalists" and Swedish "neo-fascists" and all hell would have broken loose.

I would like Abe Foxman to go to Tower Hamlets in London's East End, where on Holocaust Memorial Day a couple of years ago a visiting New Yorker had to be taken to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel after a Jewish tour group was pelted with stones by a group jeering "If you go any further, you'll die." I would like Foxman to tell those Jews that their attackers were an "anti-immigration" group.

I would like him to go to Villiers-le-Bel, where a Jewish girl was brutally attacked by a gang shouting "Jews must die!", or to Odense, where the headmaster says his school can no longer take Jewish pupils for security reasons, and tell them it's the fault of Danish "nationalists" and French "neo-Nazis".

But I don't suppose Abe Foxman will go anywhere outside his bubble, will he? Is it really too much to expect him somewhere in that long laundry list of antiquated irrelevances to utter the "M" word? As Laura Rosen Cohen writes of this contemptible nothing of a man:

Shame on you, Abraham Foxman. Shame on you.
These Jews are a danger to the Jewish people.
Their denial is so thick and so amoral that it is difficult sometimes to find the words to express my utter disgust and contempt.
By fighting the last war against the German Nazis over and over in their heads, they endanger living Jews. But they will never learn.
It's so cozy to be a professional Jew, fighting the ghosts of WW2 over and over and never facing the real threats to the Jewish people.

Jewish groups missed the threat 80 years ago, too. But why wouldn't they? There'd always been anti-Semitism in Europe: You can't buy property here, you can't stand for parliament there, and everywhere always a certain sliver of people who just don't want to be around Jews. But it didn't turn genocidal until the 1930s, and, after a millennium of low-level Jew hate, you can understand why nobody saw it coming.

But the violent, murderous phase of the new Jew-hatred is already here - in the emergency ward of the Royal London Hospital; in the corpse-strewn schoolyard of Toulouse; in the synagogue in Brussels set alight by Molotov cocktails; in a pleasant Jewish home in Antwerp, where burning rags were pushed through the mail flap; at the RER train station in Auber, where a commuter was savagely assaulted by a mob taunting, "Palestine will kill the Jews"; in the suburban home where a young Frenchman was tortured to death over three weeks while his family listened via phone to his howls of agony as his captors chanted from the Koran; in the stairwell of the apartment house where a Paris disc-jockey had his throat slit, his eyes gouged out, and his face ripped off by a neighbor who crowed, "I have killed my Jew!"

Those "anti-government people" get around, don't they? The groups who perpetrate this violence come from a minority community - larger than the Jews but not yet larger than everyone else. They are telling you what they will do when they have the numbers to do it.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Abe Foxman, anti-Semitism, European anti-Semitism, Islamic anti-Semitism, Mark Steyn

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:16 AM 0 comments

American Jewish 'leaders' circle the wagons for Kerry

Greetings from... Chicago.

152 American Jewish 'leaders' are circling the wagons for US Secretary of State John FN Kerry's 'peace efforts' writing a letter of support for the 'peace efforts' to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

“As American advocates for a strong, Jewish and democratic Israel, we have been heartened by Secretary of State John Kerry’s extraordinary resolve to advance this process consistent with America’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” said the letter sent Wednesday and initiated by the Israel Policy Forum.

“We believe Secretary Kerry’s determined diplomatic effort offers an unprecedented opportunity to ensure Israel’s security, to enhance its prosperity, and to avoid the existential threat to the Jewish state posed by bi-nationalism.”

There's that demographic demon again. It's a lie.

Among the letter’s signatories are Jewish leaders who are noted for their outspoken defense of Israel and at times of Netanyahu’s government, among them Alan Dershowitz, the legal expert and author; Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust scholar; Mel Levine, a former Democratic congressman; Michael and Susie Gelman, major philanthropists and leaders in the Washington community; Rabbi Steve Gutow, the president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism; and major fundraisers for Democratic political campaigns, including Marvin Lender, Alan Solow and Alan Solomont.

I'm not going there....

But could someone please explain to me why for American Jewish 'leaders' it seems to be the Democratic party uber alles? Or perhaps this is just another manifestation of the poritz syndrome. Funny, I don't see Abe Foxman on the list. Perhaps that's why he announced his retirement this week (or why he felt free to speak out last week).

Labels: Abe Foxman, Alan Dershowitz, Alan Solomont, Binyamin Netanyahu, demography, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, rabbi Rick Jacobs

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:02 AM 1 comments

America's modern Orthodox Jewish leadership afflicted with the poritz syndrome?

Is America's modern Orthodox Jewish leadership infected by the poritz syndrome?

Please recall what the poritz syndrome is:

Poritz (in Yiddish )was the ruler back in old eastern Europe who could make or break the lives of the Jews living in his shmate kingdom.

The Jews developed a behavior that was all about pleasing the Poritz.

They did not know it but they were dhimmis just like their brothers in the Arab countries.

Sadly , this behavior was not fool proof and when the need for money or property or blood came up - the Jews got their pogrom.

The CZAR USED TO SEND THE KASAKS to burn houses and rape Jewish women so that their terrible poverty and anger over it will not make them do this to him.

Some Jews seem to suffer from the Poritz syndrome even though they really should not.

There have been some voices in Israel this week - like the Dry Bones cartoon above - that hint at ulterior  motives of US Secretary of State John FN Kerry in pursuing a 'two-state solution' between Israel and the 'Palestinians.'

Even Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League - about as mainstream as you can get among the American secular Jewish leadership, but someone who sees anti-Semitism in every corner - blasted Kerry earlier this week. 

Describing the potential for expanded boycotts of Israel makes it more, not less, likely that the talks will not succeed; makes it more, not less, likely that Israel will be blamed if the talks fail; and more, not less, likely that boycotts will ensue. Your comments, irrespective of your intentions, will inevitably be seen by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists as an incentive not to reach an agreement; as an indicator that if things fall apart, Israel will be blamed; and as legitimizing boycott activity.

...

But the core of the conflict was and remains Palestinian unwillingness to accept Israel's legitimacy and permanence as a Jewish state. That is why the Palestinians rejected the 1947 partition, that is why they rejected recognizing Israel after the 1967 war, and that is why Israeli offers at Camp David in 2000 and Annapolis in 2008 were rejected or allowed to go unanswered.  It is Palestinians who must hear the message that not only has their rejectionism been the major obstacle to peace, but it has also been the main source of their suffering and misery over the years. It is time for them to make the qualitative leap toward peace and acceptance of the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

On Thursday, a group of Israeli rabbis calling themselves the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel, published a letter that accused Kerry of declaring war against God. 

“Your incessant efforts to expropriate integral parts of our Holy Land and hand them over to Abbas’s terrorist gang, amount to a declaration of war against the Creator and Ruler of the universe! For G-d awarded the entire Land of Israel to our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in order that they bequeath it, as an everlasting inheritance, to their descendants, the Jewish people, until the end of all time,” the Rabbis wrote.

“If you continue on this destructive path, you will ensure your everlasting disgrace in Jewish history for bringing calamity upon the Jewish people,” the letter continued, invoking the specter “heavenly punishment for everyone involved.”

On Thursday afternoon, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, the two most prominent voices of modern Orthodox Jewry in the United States, blasted the aforementioned committee.

In a joint release, the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America, which together represent a large plurality of modern orthodox Jews in the United States, repudiated the nationalist Rabbis’ words, which they defined as “extreme and offensive rhetoric.”

The Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel seemed to “arrogate to themselves unusual insight into the desires of the Almighty,” the American Jewish groups noted mockingly.

While world Jewry and especially those living in Israel have “ serious concerns” regarding Kerry’s proposals, “such concerns must only be expressed with civility and on the substance of the issues, not degenerating into personal venom and threats,” the organizations asserted.

While OU and RCA have aired their own objections with the Obama administration, they stated, “we have found no reason to question their intentions in pursuing this effort.”

"The letter of the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel may represent the views of its signators; it does not represent ours."

I'm not a big fan of people deciding for themselves that they know God's desires. Still, I have to wonder: Why did the OU and the RCA get involved? Are they afraid of what the Obama administration might do to the American (Orthodox) Jewish community if they remain silent? Is this another manifestation of the poritz syndrome? 

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, American Jewish leadership, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Modern Orthodox, Orthodox Jews, poritz syndrome

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:21 AM 0 comments

Wow! Abe Foxman blasts Kerry

Abe Foxman, the Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League and a symbol of mainstream American Jewish leadership has blasted US Secretary of State John FN Kerry for his threats against Israel.

The full text reads:
Dear Mr. Secretary:

We are writing to you at this moment with great respect for the exemplary and devoted efforts you are putting in to try to move peace forward between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

We have all witnessed the suffering and loss on all sides as the conflict continues year after year, decade after decade. We welcome your perseverance and optimism in trying to accomplish something that has eluded others time and again.

It is with this perspective in mind that we regretfully read of your comments this past weekend in Munich. In speaking about the price Israel will pay if the peace talks break down and Israel is blamed, you may have thought you were merely describing reality. But as the key player in the process, the impact of your comments was to create a reality of its own.

Describing the potential for expanded boycotts of Israel makes it more, not less, likely that the talks will not succeed; makes it more, not less, likely that Israel will be blamed if the talks fail; and more, not less, likely that boycotts will ensue. Your comments, irrespective of your intentions, will inevitably be seen by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists as an incentive not to reach an agreement; as an indicator that if things fall apart, Israel will be blamed; and as legitimizing boycott activity.

What is particularly troubling about your comments is the absence of similar tough talk about the consequences for Palestinians should the talks fail. We make this comment not in search of some theoretical balance. Rather, its absence suggests a historical amnesia about why there has been no peace and no solution all these years. Israel always must be willing to compromise for peace and at different times it is not unreasonable to ask Israel to do more.

But the core of the conflict was and remains Palestinian unwillingness to accept Israel's legitimacy and permanence as a Jewish state. That is why the Palestinians rejected the 1947 partition, that is why they rejected recognizing Israel after the 1967 war, and that is why Israeli offers at Camp David in 2000 and Annapolis in 2008 were rejected or allowed to go unanswered.  It is Palestinians who must hear the message that not only has their rejectionism been the major obstacle to peace, but it has also been the main source of their suffering and misery over the years. It is time for them to make the qualitative leap toward peace and acceptance of the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

It is encouraging that reportedly in the talks you are raising these matters with the Palestinians. Your comments in Munich, however, threaten to undo all this by ignoring the historic compulsion of the Palestinians to look for ever new reasons and incentives to reject the Jewish state. Concerns of the kind you expressed therefore would have been better left unsaid or at most discussed in private conversations with Israeli representatives.

We wish you continued success in moving this process forward. We urge you to understand, however, that those who are most against peace are the ones who will benefit the most from the unintended encouragement in the comments you expressed in Munich.
Abraham D. Foxman, ADL National Director.

By the way, there is only one Israeli politician who is defending Kerry. Can you guess who she is?

Read the whole thing. This is a serious setback for the Obama administration. It's likely to make even the Democratic party suck-ups among American Jewry wonder what's going on.

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, boycott Israel, John Kerry

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:38 PM 1 comments

American Jewish leadership recognizing Pollard injustice?

Is the mainstream American Jewish leadership finally recognizing that an injustice has been and is being done to Jonathan Pollard and that the cause is plain old anti-Semitism? Consider this from Tablet Magazine.

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said he had come to conclude—after years of thinking otherwise—that Pollard’s continued imprisonment does imply prejudice at work:

When the Jonathan Pollard affair surfaced 28 years ago, there were claims by some that the sentencing of Pollard, life imprisonment, was tinged with anti-Semitism. We at the Anti-Defamation League took that charge seriously, made our own investigation, and concluded there was no basis for such an accusation.

I bring that up now because as the years pass and the world has changed many times over, and with more and more prominent Americans, including individuals from the intelligence community, saying “enough already,” Pollard remains in prison.

Pleas for his parole are raised on a regular basis, but go unheeded. The whole thing at this late date makes no sense. There surely is no information that Pollard possesses after all these years that can be harmful to American interests. The fact that Pollard shared information with an ally—Israel—was no reason for him not to be punished. But after this long imprisonment, the fact that it was such a close ally who received his information should have influenced a positive response when the subject of parole arose.

I am not one to equate what Pollard did, to betray his country, to the recent revelations that the United States has been spying on top Israeli leaders. Here too, however, these revelations add further context to the absurdity of the ongoing vendetta against this one man.

Yes, I use that word because that’s what it seems like at this point. If it were only a vendetta against one individual it would be bad enough. But it has now become one against the American Jewish community.

In effect, the continuing imprisonment of this person long after he should have been paroled on humanitarian grounds can only be read as an effort to intimidate American Jews. And, it is an intimidation that can only be based on an anti-Semitic stereotype about the Jewish community, one that we have seen confirmed in our public opinion polls over the years, the belief that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their own country, the United States.

In other words, the underlying concept which fuels the ongoing Pollard incarceration is the notion that he is only the tip of the iceberg in the community. So Pollard stays in prison as a message to American Jews: don’t even think about doing what he did.

I come to this conclusion with much sorrow and, as noted, as someone who resisted efforts early on to connect the Pollard affair to anti-Semitism. It is harder and harder to do so any longer.

I don't think Foxman could have written that even a year ago. And I don't think he has ever written anything truer. If only his fellow mainstream leaders - who were invited to but did not respond to Tablet's editorial calling for Pollard's release - would follow his lead.

Labels: Abe Foxman, American Jewish leadership, anti-Semitism, dual loyalty, Jonathan Pollard

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:23 PM 0 comments

If he's lost Abe Foxman....

ADL director Abe Foxman slammed President Hussein Obama Congress on Thursday, claiming that the United States under Obama is seen as 'weak and retreating' and that perception could (could?!?) harm US efforts (such as they are) to prevent Iran from going nuclear.

“Make no mistake about it. If what we are seeing now is the beginning of a deep change in American foreign policy, it will be bad for the Jews,” said Foxman, the ADL’s national director, at a conference Thursday marking the group’s 100th anniversary in New York.

“The combination of America’s unsatisfactory involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the financial crisis at home, have generated a broader opposition to American military involvement overseas,” he said.

Citing among other things the recent congressional resistance to authorizing a strike on Syria, Foxman said: “America is being seen as weak and retreating.”

“The world looks at our choices, looks at our public opinion polls, looks at congressional reactions, looks at the paralysis in Washington on budgeting matters and wonders,” he said.

The perception of weakness could harm US efforts to get Iran to end its nuclear push, Foxman warned.

“I hope that we get our act together,” he said. “I hope Congress starts to think of the bigger picture. I hope we are truly able to keep all options on the table, whether vis-à-vis Iran or Syria, without rushing to military action.”

Hey Abe - who's behind that? Who took authorization for a strike on Syria to Congress in the first place? Who has weakened America's military capabilities like no previous President? Who has destroyed America's economy and denied its exceptionalism? Who would be happy to 'contain' a nuclear Iran? Congress? Really?

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, Barack Hussein Obama

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:59 PM 1 comments

The ADL gets one right, blasts new EU sanctions on Israel

The Anti-Defamation League gets a lot wrong on Israel, particularly when it comes to the threat that Islam represents to us. But they have gotten the Europeans' new sanctions right.

In a letter to Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, stated: "President [Mahmoud] Abbas has blocked the process with his pre-conditions, so who does the EU pressure?  Israel.  Who gets a free pass?  The Palestinians."

Foxman called on the EU to end its "long-standing habit of not holding the Palestinian Authority responsible for its actions and inactions that are unequivocally obstacles to peace."

Commenting on the directives target, ADL stated settlements should not be considered an obstacle to peace.

"Successive Israeli governments from the start of the peace process, including the current one, have maintained that construction beyond the 'Green Line'does not contradict the Israeli commitment to a negotiated resolution of all the core issues," ADL stated in the letter to the EU foreign policy chief.

Wow. Maybe they got religion or something. 

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, BDS, Catherine Ashton, European Union, Judea and Samaria

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:12 AM 0 comments

Foxman giving up on stopping Hagel?

An op-ed by Anti-Defamation League chief Abe Foxman in Wednesday's Haaretz makes it sound like he's given up on stopping the Hagel nomination.

Considering precedent, whereby very few nominated cabinet members who were formerly members of the Senate had been rejected by that body, there is little reason to believe that the Hagel nomination will not pass muster.

Ever since word got out that the president was intending to appoint Hagel, a lot of newspaper and online space, together with TV airtime, have been devoted to critiques of him, particularly regarding his views on Israel and Iran-related matters.

Now that it looks as if his appointment is going forward, it is reasonable to consider what the consequences for Israel may be with a Pentagon led by Hagel.

...

Let’s begin with a broad consensus on Obama Administration policy: No matter what one believes overall about the president’s record on Israel, there is wide agreement that the military and security relationship between the two countries is as strong, if not stronger, than ever. 

I don't believe that and neither should any of you. With Obama, the only part of the relationship that has remained undisturbed is the provision of military equipment to Israel - precisely the place where an anti-Israel loon in the Defense Department could have the most effect. 

There is little reason to assume that these relations will be diminished under a Hagel tenure at the Department of Defense. Just yesterday, Hagel talked about Israel living in a tough neighborhood and that it must have the means to protect itself. He seems to be beginning to correct his spotty, tepid support for Israel; in September 2012, he co-authored an op-ed closer to President Obama’s stand on Iran and sanctions. 

And you don't think that might - just might - have something to do with a desire not to be opposed by pro-Israel groups? Come on Abe, you weren't born yesterday.

And his history in the Senate showed a recognition of Israel’s security needs and a record of support for U.S. defense aid to Israel. 

It did? Are we reading the same record?

Regarding American policy toward Iran and the role of supporters of Israel, the president’s views should be determinative. Mr. Obama has publicly and repeatedly committed to preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear bomb and, if necessary, to use military force to achieve that goal if nothing else works.

And no one this side of Anne Marie Slaughter believes him. I wonder why. 

Therefore, with the prospect looming of another round of negotiations with Iran, it will be critically important in the days and weeks ahead that the president reiterates his prior commitment to the military option. Indeed, if Hagel should reassert his views on Iran, it may even be necessary for President Obama to find a moment to make clear that Hagel’s position opposing U.S. military action against Iran does not represent U.S. policy which he, the president, decides upon. This, of course, would be awkward and one hopes things won’t have to come to that.

I would say that we have to hold out for a pronouncement by Obama regardless of what Hagel says. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.

All in all, I repeat what I've said elsewhere. Hagel would not have been our choice, but it is the president who has the prerogative to select his Secretary of Defense. 

No, it's not just the President's prerogative. The Senate has the power to advise and consent - or to withhold consent. We should be encouraging the Senate to take that action and not just leave the field to Hussein Obama.

By the way, I am having technical problems today. It took about an hour and a half to do this post - the previous one took 45 minutes but was half done when I walked in the door. Firefox - which I use to blog - keeps crashing. If this continues, I may have to take a little time off today.

UPDATE 12:56 PM

From a friend via email: Hagel may rhyme with bagel, but Chuck rhymes with schmuck.

Labels: Abe Foxman, Barack Hussein Obama, Chuck Hagel, Iranian nuclear threat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM 4 comments

Iran holds 'International Wall Street Downfall Cartoon Festival,' anti-Semitic cartoon wins

Iran has held an 'International Wall Street Downfall Cartoon Festival' (referred to in some places as the 'Occupy Wall Street' cartoon festival) and the anti-Semitic cartoon at top left won.

The anti-Semitic cartoon was declared the winner of Iran’s first annual "International Wall Street Downfall Cartoon Festival," co-sponsored by the Iranian media outlet Fars News. According to reports, the contest’s jury consisted of seven judges from Iran, Turkey, Poland and Romania who judged more than 1,600 cartoons. The winning artist, Mohammad Tabrizi, was awarded 5,000 euros for his image of Jews praying in front of "Wall Street."

The ADL's Abe Foxman blasted the contest.

"Once again, Iran takes the prize for promoting anti-Semitism," Anti-Defamation League (ADL) director Abraham H. Foxman said in response to the results of an Iranian cartoon contest, in which the winning entry depicts three religious Jews praying in front of a representation of the Western Wall in Jerusalem labeled "New York Wall Street."

"The winning cartoon takes the most sacred site in Judaism and perverts it into a shrine of greed. It is offensive on so many levels," he said.

...

"Here is a trifecta of anti-Semitic notions – of Jews worshipping money, the canard that Jews ‘control’ Wall Street, and a cynical perversion of the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism," Foxman added.

"This contest not only puts virulent anti-Semitism on a pedestal, but in posting the images online and involving judges from other countries, helps promote classical anti-Semitic notions before a global audience of potentially millions," he argued.

So does this mean that the ADL will start spending more of its budget fighting Islamic extremism and Muslim anti-Semitism? We can only hope.

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, Iran, Islamic anti-Semitism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:30 PM 2 comments

Food fight among the American Jewish 'leadership'

In an earlier post, I reported that Jewish liberal icon Alan Dershowitz has gone after the National Jewish Democratic Council for its attack on Sheldon Adelson. Now, so has the Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman.

“I think it’s inappropriate and a rush to judgement,” Foxman told The Times of Israel, “and it’s taking politics to a level that’s inappropriate.”

Foxman noted that when financier George Soros’s character was under attack, notably from some on the American political right in 2010, the ADL “stood up and said it was inappropriate.” The current attacks on Adelson, he said, should not be immune from criticism simply because they were coming from Jewish sources.

Foxman was speaking days after David Harris, the president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, urged Republicans not to take Adelson’s “tainted” money.

...

Foxman also protested the “selective” nature of the criticism. “Is the money tainted only when it is given to a political party?” he asked, noting that Adelson has made philanthropic contributions, too, to causes including Taglit-Birthright, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum, and the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby.

Matt Brooks, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, earlier said the NJDC call was “disgusting” because it was based on allegations in a lawsuit filed by Steven Jacobs, a casino executive who was fired by Adelson in 2010.

“Setting aside their partisan agenda, the NJDC should be ashamed of itself for attacking someone who has done more for the Jewish community and Jewish philanthropy than anyone in recent history,” Brooks said, also citing Adelson’s major contributions to Birthright and to Yad Vashem.

“If this is proven to be nothing more than rantings of an employee in legal battle, NJDC is going to have a lot of egg on its face,” Brooks said. “If they were truly mensches about it, they would wait until it is adjudicated.”

What these guys apparently don't get is that unlike most of the mainstream Jewish leadership - who are Jews who happen to be Democrats - organizations like NJDC and J Street are Democrats who happen to be Jews. It's long past time for the American Jewish 'leadership' to get out of bed with the groups like that.

Labels: Abe Foxman, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Mitt Romney, Sheldon Adelson

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:11 PM 0 comments

Obama makes no apologies for meeting with anti-Semite Serge Duss

On Friday, I blogged an article by Benny Weinthal in which it was reported that President Obama had met four times with extreme anti-Israel preacher Serge Duss, who excuses his anti-Semitism by claiming that modern Israelis are not descended from Biblical Jews.

There's an update from Benny:

In an email to the Post on Friday, Matt Lehrich, a White House spokesman, wrote the"White House staff meets with thousands of people each month. We don't apologize to anybody for the President's unshakeable commitment to Israel's security - a commitment he reiterated twice in the past two weeks at meetings with Conservative and Orthodox Jewish leaders."

In other words, they think it's okay to meet with anti-Semites like Duss. You think Abe Foxman will notice?

Labels: Abe Foxman, anti-Semitism, Barack Hussein Obama

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:57 AM 0 comments

The Forward publishes a cartoon that even Abe Foxman doesn't like

A guy gets on a plane for a few hours and things continue to happen. The 'cartoonist in residence' of the radical leftist 'Jewish' Daily Forward has decided that President Obama's support for gay marriage merits making him a victim of gay rape... by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (of course). Except that the Forward didn't dare to publish it. That was left to the even more radical +972 Magazine, which is financed by the New Israel Fund. Adam Kredo puts the scorecard together.

In the cartoon, cartoonist Eli Valley portrays the two leaders alone in space, and depicts Netanyahu forcing himself on the president.

The Forward, which has come under fire from Jewish insiders for shirking its journalistic responsibilities to promote a far left agenda, has decried what it claims are unfair conservative political attacks.

However, it has remained mum thus far regarding Valley’s latest offering.

Valley is also a contributor to a Jewish-themed blog operated by the liberal author Peter Beinart on the Daily Beast’s website.

This one has even upset Abe Foxman. I guess because it wasn't done by a Muslim.

In an interview with The Algemeiner, Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League criticized cartoonist Eli Valley’s newest creation which depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raping President Obama and eating his limbs as he forces him to implement his demands, which include the deployment of an American built “intergalactic robot ray gun” to protect Israel from “possible meteor showers”. “Its offensive and obnoxious and crosses the line,” Foxman said.

“Cartoonists usually have much greater leeway of criticism because they are cartoonists, but even within that framework it crosses the line,” he told the Algemeiner.

Ah, but Foxman doesn't recognize it as anti-Semitic. Hmmm.

Fresno Zionism has a sampling of Valley's work here. This isn't the first time that Valley has stepped 'over the line.' But here's the curious part: Valley has a 'day job' and it might surprise some of you.

Ironically, in addition to his gig at the Forward, Valley has a day job as a writer and editor for The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, an organization created by hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt, one of the founders of Birthright Israel. And another major contributor to Birthright ($100 million) is none other than “casino mogul” Sheldon Adelson!

But there’s more. One of the projects of the Steinhardt Foundation is called the Steinhardt Social Research Institute, which engages in exactly the same kind of research as Bucky Shvitz. And Steinhardt-funded research just happens to show that Jewish identity is positively related to support for to Israel. These findings directly contradict the argument of Peter Beinart that young American Jews are repelled by the reality of today’s Jewish state.

In other words, the same organized Jewish community that Valley attacks in his cartoons as corrupt, the very community that does see identification with Israel as the path to preserving Jewish identity, is Valley’s meal ticket!

And Valley’s cartoons not only attack the research funded by his employer, but even suggest that researchers have been bribed to reach pro-Israel conclusions!

Maybe this will be enough to get Valley fired. Of course, that would just give him more material, wouldn't it?

Labels: Abe Foxman, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jewish anti-Semitism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:56 AM 0 comments

The ADL continues to fight the old anti-Semitism

I have reported in the past that the ADL is spending money chasing old ideas of anti-Semitism, while systematically ignoring the Islamist threat. This weekend, they did it again, attacking Rick Santorum - one of the most pro-Israel candidates in the race - for mentioning Jesus.

Jewish groups slammed Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Friday for telling listeners of a Boston radio show that “we always need a Jesus guy” in the campaign.

Santorum, formerly a Pennsylvania senator and the second-place winner of the Iowa caucus, made the remark Thursday after being asked about a listener’s comment that “we don’t need a Jesus guy this election. We need an economics guy this election.”

Santorum continued, “Do you stand up and say, ‘God bless America?’ Do you mean it? Are you just saying it? The idea that we don’t need someone with a moral compass, is that what we’ve come to? Is that what the Republican party is? No, it isn’t.”

The candidate, who then went on to campaign in New Hampshire, which will hold its first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday, reportedly repeated the conversation later in the day, relating that he had said, “We always need a Jesus candidate.”

Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman told The Jerusalem Post that Santorum’s remarks were “totally inappropriate. It’s crossing the line.”

“It says to Jews, to Muslims, to Buddhists, to non-believers, you’re not part of this country,” he added.

What Santorum was saying was that we always need candidates who have a moral compass of belief in a God, but I suspect that if Santorum had put it that way, Foxman would have ripped him for that too.

For those of you who still donate money to this neanderthal, aren't you glad that Foxman is defending Muslims and Buddhists? Find me one Muslim or Buddhist organization that defends Jews.... Yes, I know, there isn't one.

No, I'm not bothered by Santorum's statement, and I wouldn't be if I lived in the US either.

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, Campaign 2012, RIck Santorum

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:46 AM 0 comments

Burning bridges with Obama?

In the Jewish Week, Gary Rosenblatt writes about the aborted attempt by the ADL's Abe Foxman and the AJC's David Harris to sign a 'unity pledge' on Israel, which included a commitment not to criticize the incumbent's policies (something Rosenberg glosses over).

What Harris and Foxman didn’t say, but what is surely on the mind of mainstream pro-Israel groups, is that if Obama is re-elected next year, he will be free to carry out foreign policy initiatives in a second term, without political constraints. So it behooves the American Jewish community to be on good terms with him rather than burn its bridges in seeking his defeat.

Harris correctly observes that “the partisans are playing with long-term fire for short-term political gains.” That’s why the rest of us should realize that the more our political interests and favors are spread out, the more broad-based American support for Israel will be.

The fear of burning bridges with Obama might be on Foxman and Harris' minds, or they might just be looking for a way to support the Democratic party. But this President is by far the most hostile President ever to Israel, and if God forbid he is reelected, it won't matter for Israel whether the Jewish community burned its bridges with him. That's why I believe that it's important that we go all out to defeat him.

Moreover, Rosenberg is correct that we should realize that our political interests and favors should be spread out. The last thing about which I am worried is that American Jews will give too much support to the Republicans. It has never happened before and it won't happen now.

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, American Jewish Committee, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, David Harris

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:39 PM 5 comments

What the ADL does with your money

Do you contribute money to the ADL or to your local federation, which gives the ADL money? Do you know what the ADL does with that money? You may be in for a surprise....

Only 3 percent of ADL’s press releases focus on Islamic extremism and Arab anti-Semitism. Only another 5 percent deal with domestic and international terrorism. By contrast, fighting for causes unrelated to Jewish defense accounts for 31 percent of ADL’s press release output.

If you follow that link, you will find only the paragraph I quoted above. But with the author's permission, I have uploaded the article to ScribD and it is embedded below. Here's the key passage:

Only 3 percent of ADL’s press releases focus on Islamic extremism and Arab anti-Semitism.

Only another 5 percent deal with domestic and international terrorism. By contrast, fighting for causes unrelated to Jewish defense accounts for 31 percent of ADL’s press release output. Instead of warning the Jews about Islamic anti- Semitism, these days, the ADL is often warning us about the dangers of “Islamophobia,” a term created and employed by radical Islamists to block and stain with the racist label, any public concern about Islamist beliefs and conduct.

Read the whole thing below.

ADL Should Do Its Job - With Pie Chart 11-2-11

What could go wrong?

Labels: Abe Foxman, ADL, Muslim anti-Semitism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:32 PM 0 comments

Abe Foxman falls asleep on the job

Given all the reports of anti-Semitism at #Occupy Wall Street, you would think that Anti-Semite buster Abe Foxman would be at the forefront of the people protesting. You'd be wrong. Former Congressional candidate Joel Pollak (R-Il-9) compares Foxman's reaction to the Tea Party with his reaction to Occupy and asks why (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

In May 2009, shortly after the first Tea Party rallies in April, the ADL warned: “White Supremacists and Anti-Semites Plan to Recruit at July 4 Tea Parties.”

In November, the ADL issued a “special report” on the Tea Party and “anti-government conspiracies.” The ADL noted that “extremists were a tiny minority of Tea Party protesters,” but claimed Tea Party members were filled with “rage” and held ideas that “fall outside the mainstream.”

As of this writing, the ADL has said nothing about the “rage” and bigotry on display at several “Occupy” rallies. Instead, it is minimizing the antisemitism on display, effectively helping “Occupy” do damage control.

One ADL analyst told the Daily Caller:

“We have seen instances of individuals promoting these [antisemitic] views. We do not think that it is or has been institutionalized in the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movements,” she said. “But I think the bigger issue is sort of that when there is a heightened focus economic strife and the financial industry it is not surprising to see these messages. Yet, we will continue to be diligent, looking for them and combating the promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories should they arise.”

Todd Gutnick, ADL’s media relations director, confirmed this morning: “Aside from the story in the Daily Caller in which we were quoted, ADL has made no statements on the Occupy movement.”

That is alarming, given the explicit anti-Jewish hatred on display at Occupy rallies across the country.

So why isn't the ADL speaking out? After all, Foxman often finds anti-Semites where the rest of us can't find them. Could it be that the ADL has joined the Red-Green alliance?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Abe Foxman, Anti-Defamation League, Joel Pollak, Occupy Wall Street, Red-Green alliance

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:20 AM 2 comments