Foxman Full of Hot Air
I was deeply disappointed this week listening to Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, on NPR’s Fresh Air. He went on to the show to discuss the new book “The Israel Lobby” and as it turns out he ended up showing exactly the type of intolerance his organization was set up to eliminate. I disagree with many aspects of “The Israel Lobby,” especially its failure to fully credit Israel for the many times it has been a force for good. But here’s one thing I’m sure of: the authors of this book are not anti-Semitic and it’s reasonable for them to raise questions about the smartness of our foreign policy.
But rather than taking on “The Israel Lobby” on its merits, Foxman engaged in what was frankly one of the most outlandish attacks I have heard. The book recognizes that the Jewish community is a mosaic and that the pro-Israel lobby has a wide range of religious and political thinkers involved in it. Nevertheless, the book says that the pro-Israel lobby has disproportionate influence and it is supporting a policy toward Israel that is strategically negative for America. Here’s how Foxman tried to turn this argument into anti-Semitism. Foxman said that what the authors were saying is that some Jews are involved in a lobby that is against America’s interests. This means that the authors are claiming that American Jews are disloyal to their own country. Hitler claimed the Jews were disloyal in Germany and used that to commit genocide. Therefore, the authors are taking a cue right out of the Hitler playbook by saying that Jews are disloyal.
If at this point you think I’d have to be making this up, I invite you to click here to listen to the show. Here’s what is so wrong with this argument if it is not self-evident: questioning someone’s reasoning is entirely different than questioning someone’s intent. I can think that George Bush has the wrong policy agenda and has hurt American interests in the world, but I do not believe that George Bush hates America and wants to do us wrong. He’s not disloyal – he’s just dumb. So too can the authors of the Israel lobby believe that the pro-Israel lobby genuinely loves America but is supporting a policy agenda toward Israel that is substantively against our interests. Foxman can and indeed should disagree with aspects of the authors’ reasoning, but why question their intent? Foxman makes it wrongly appear that he has nothing substantive to say.
I say all this with a bit of self experience. I’ve been in the authors’ shoes. When I protested the Iraq war, I was called both anti-American and anti-Semitic. I remember going to synagogue around the time of the Iraq war and hearing a sermon on why Saddam was our generation’s Hitler and so we needed to invade. I went to the Rabbi to express my disagreement on the substantive merits of whether we could succeed in Iraq after Saddam was toppled. The Rabbi told me that I was not a loyal Jew. He chose not to engage me on the substance but instead to write me off entirely. When I then took the streets to demonstrate against the war while studying overseas, I was called anti-American.
The authors here deserve to be answered according to the substance of their argument. There are strong reasons to doubt their case. As the New Yorker points out, it’s one-sided in nature:
“It’s a narrative that recounts every lurid report of Israeli cruelty as indisputable fact but leaves out the rise of Fatah and Palestinian terrorism before 1967; the Munich Olympics; Black September; myriad cases of suicide bombings; and other spectaculars.”
It’s unfortunate Foxman failed to make these points during his interview and instead injected more unnecessary hot air into this already overheated debate.
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ADL’s Abe Foxman Picketed At The 92nd Street Y
September 7th, 2007 by The Stiletto
NEW YORK, September 6, 2007–Abe Foxman’s limo circled the 92nd Street Y warily a couple of times to give him a chance to survey the scene across the street. A group of 40 to 50 young Armenians and Jews were protesting the Anti-Defamation League’s continued lobbying to have HR/SR 106 (a symbolic Congressional resolution that recognizes the Armenian Genocide) die without a floor vote, at the behest of Turkey.
Finally, Foxman ducked into the building to participate in a panel discussion on “anti-Semitism in the modern world and its implications.” Ironically, the discussion was moderated by Fordham Law Professor Thane Rosenbaum, author of “The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What’s Right.” The event had been sold out for days, so The Stiletto does not know whether Rosenbaum asked Foxman why he failed to do the right thing in recognizing the Armenian Genocide until several communities in MA refused to accept the ADL’s tolerance promotion program, “No Place For Hate” in their schools.
Some protestors were holding handmade signs demanding that the ADL fire Foxman over his Armenian Genocide denial, others were holding signs demanding that Foxman support HR/SR 106. Among the slogans they chanted non-stop for more than an hour:
“Fox’s bargain is a shame!
No more denial in our name.”
“Gars, Auschwitz, Rwanda Sudan.
Many a murder, when will it end?”
“What did Hitler say?
Who remembers the Armenians?
We do. We do. We do.”
“ADL must support Resolution 106″
And the ever-popular:
“What do we want? Justice.
When do we want it? Now.”
The Stiletto caught up with a woman who gave her age as “60ish,” just as she was about to enter the Y to hear Foxman. She was interested in what Foxman had to say about “contemporary anti-Semitism.” Asked protesterswhat she thought about the crowd protesting the ADL’s Armenian Genocide denial, she mused, “Does ‘never again’ mean for everybody or just for Jews?” She answered her own question: “It is important for Jews to recognize the Genocide. We are conscious of other people’s oppression, not just our own.”
As it was nearly 8:15 pm and the rest of the ticket-holders were scurrying inside so they could take their seats before the evening’s program got under way, The Stiletto crossed the street to meet some of the protesters and find out why they opposed Foxman’s positions on the Armenian Genocide and on HR/SR 106.
“I am Jewish,” said documentary filmmaker Lauren Kesner, 30, “but I have very strong Armenian connections because I lived in Armenia for several years working on a film” about the 1994 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh region. That film, “A Story of People In War & Peace,” had its U.S. premiere (video link) at the Tribeca Film Festival a few weeks ago.
Kesner believes the ADL’s position on the Armenian Genocide is realpolitik, plain and simple: “Turkey is Israel’s most important ally in the Middle East. Because the Jewish community supports Israel, they don’t want to get on Turkey’s bad side.” Recognizing that the Armenian Genocide is “a sensitive issue” for supporters of Israel, she nevertheless insists that, “Jews – of all people – need to stand up to the injustice of genocide, because of how the Holocaust traumatized the Jewish community worldwide.”
The Armenians she lived amongst are still haunted by the Genocide, and “it rubs salt in the wounds to deny it.”
The anti-Foxman protest is the first of many that will bring Armenians and Jews together to fight for justice, said Doug Geogerian, 38, who sits on the board of the Eastern Region of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a grassroots lobby that promotes Armenian-American issues. He marvels at how Foxman “is using the ADL and its reputation of having fought the KKK and neo-Nazis, to collaborate with the Turkish government and deny the Armenian Genocide.”
Geogerian added, “Supporting Turkey benefits Israel. But there is also a cost – a cost in public integrity. Many Jews are starting to feel that the cost is too great.”
Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog.
Comment on September 8, 2007 @ 5:52 am