Joe Klein wrote in a TIME blog stated an obvious fact in a June 24th blog entry:
The fact that a great many Jewish neoconservatives--people like Joe Lieberman and the crowd over at Commentary--plumped for this [Iraq] war, and now for an even more foolish assault on Iran, raised the question of divided loyalties: using U.S. military power, U.S. lives and money, to make the world safe for Israel.
Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League accused him of anti-Semitism (surprised?) for stating this obvious fact (and implicitly accused Jimmy Carter and Walt + Mearsheimer of antiSemitism too, for good measure):
The notion that Jews with "divided loyalties" were behind the decision to go to war is reminiscent of age-old anti-Semitic canards about a Jewish conspiracy to control and manipulate government, which has unfortunately gained new currency of late with public figures such as Jimmy Carter and professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt suggesting that American Jews are disloyal and that pro-Israel groups have undue influence over American foreign policy.
To his credit, Klein didn't take this lying down and responded to Foxman:
I am disappointed, but not surprised, by your claim of anti-Semitism. But that’s what you do for a living, isn’t it? I find your ‘outrage’ particularly galling because the people you defend are constantly spewing canards against those who favor talking to the Palestinians, or who don’t favor witless bellicosity when it comes to Iran. Their campaign of defamation has cost people jobs, damaged reputations and careers. I am very tired of having reasonable people accused of being ’soft on terrorism’ or ‘unpatriotic’ or favoring ’surrender’–Joe Lieberman’s favorite-by Jewish neoconservatives who seem to have a neurotic need to prove their toughness.
To this, Foxman replied:
Contrary to your assertion, ADL is extremely careful in making accusations about anti-Semitism and we spend every day in our work all over the country assessing the validity -- or lack thereof -- of such accusations. The notion you posited that ADL is looking to find anti-Semites everywhere in no way reflects the reality.
Well, except that it does in fact reflect reality - the ADL does go around acccusing everyone of anti-Semtism. After all, this is the same Foxman at the same ADL which claimed that a "New Anti-Semitism" was sweeping the world. ADL defines "New Anti-Semitism" essentially as any sort of cogent criticism of Zionism, even by liberal Jews. As explained by Foxman himself:
"The harsh but un- deniable truth is this: what some like to call anti-Zionism is, in reality, anti-Semitism--always, everywhere, and for all time ...Therefore, anti-Zionism is not a politically legitimate point of view but rather an expression of bigotry and hatred."
ADL even tried to force Webster's dictionary to adopt their definition of anti-Semtism to include anti-Zionism:
Ken Jacobson, the associate national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said defining anti-Semitism as ''opposition to Zionism'' was ''close enough to be a legitimate definition.'' ''Zionism is the national expression of the Jewish people,'' he said, ''and to deny that, it seems to me, most often reflects anti-Semitic views.''
Foxman's assertion, therefore, that Neoconservatives “have the right to make their case without having their religion brought up” is particularly ridiculous when it is Foxman himself who insists on conflating Jewishness with Israel.
Furthermore, the fact that Israel and the pro-Israeli lobby pushed hard for the war on Iraq, and is now pushing hard for a war on Iran, is simply undeniable fact, going as far as to warmly embrace an apocalypse-spewing hate-monger Evangelical preacher like Reverend Hagee.
So why does the ADL and the Pro-Israeli lobby insist so hard on denying their role in pushing the US into war?
They're playing down their unmitigated desire for an US attack on Iran, so as to avoid responsibility for the consequences -- even while their agents in Washington continue to push for an attack on Iran instead.
Writing in the Forward, Ori Nir reported that Jewish community leaders have urged the White House to refrain from publicly pledging to defend Israel against Iran:
"Jewish activists are concerned that 'there would be [a scenario] just like with Iraq: the idea that somehow the Jewish community and the neoconservatives have dragged the United States into a conflict with Iran,' said Martin Raffel, associate executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs...'And if things go badly and our people are killed, then who is to blame?'' " (emphasis mine)
Yeah, "somehow" the pro-Israeli lobbyists and NeoCons, who made it their single-minded obsession to push the US into invading Iraq, were accused of dragging the US into that war. God forbid that the same people somehow be accused of the doing the same thing with respect to Iran, even when they're pushing for a war on Iran with similar maniacal vehemenc, because naturally that would be an "anti-Semitic" thing so say...but in the meantime, they'll keep campaiging for a war on Iran anyway.
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