ADL IN FATAHLAND
A delegation from the ADL called upon Arafat in JudeaSamaria.
He warmly shook each member's hand (Jewish Week,
12/11, p.35). The PA is the world's most virulent center for antisemitism.
By what conceit does ADL imagine that it can deal with Arafat
or that he will stop working to destroy Israel? Has ADL insufficient
sense to realize that it is pronouncing him kosher?
While ADL delegates were shaking Arafat's hand, Arafat's henchmen
were stoning or shooting Jews. In my time I have shoveled cow
dung; I sooner would handle honest manure than shake Arafat's
hand. But it would not be a phony hanging back such as Ariel Sharon's,
when he refused to touch the hand into which he was pouring our
patrimony at Wye.
ADL IN S. ARABIA
For the fist time in three years, a Jewish delegation visited
S. Arabia. ADL national director Abe Foxman returned with the
message that the kingdom supports the "peace process"
and would like to play a role in negotiations (Jewish Press,
12/11, p.70). There's Abe Foxman, again, associating with the
most rabid antisemites, the Saudi financiers of untold killings
of Jews. One wonders whether the Saudis presented Haj. Foxman
with "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,"
as they have done with other prominent visitors, including Henry
Kissinger. The British once made the mistake of letting S. Arabia
serve as a facilitator in the Palestine Mandate's internal affairs.
The Saudis riled the Arabs and roiled the Mandate.
As a supporter of the Oslo process, Foxman thinks he has accomplished
something or at least is reporting something favorable to Israel,
in relaying Saudi support for the Oslo process. Let Foxman study
the ZOA compendium, "Five Years of Palestinian Arab
Violation of the Oslo Accords." From it, he could
infer that Oslo is the Arabs' prelude to war.
Oslo meshes with Arafat's phased plan for the conquest of
Israel. It's is an odd 'peace process" in which Israel keeps
talking about ending violence and the Arabs keep accelerating
violence.
The Saudis never veered from supporting Muslim insurgents throughout
the world, particularly foes of Israel. What is Foxman dong with
those enemies of our people?
ZOA VS US MUSLIM RACISTS AND ADL
The Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Islamic Center of Southern
California have drafted a joint statement with the L.A. division
of ADL and the L.A. Jewish Federation Council. The statement suggests
how to conduct public discussions on the MidEast. They plan to
send the statement to national Jewish organizations for endorsement.
ZOA urges Jewish organizations to refrain from signing it. Reason:
Both US Muslim organizations demonize Israel, support violence
against Israel, and publicly defended a Holocaustdenier, Roger
Garaudy. ZOA Pres. Morton A. Klein said that both support Hizbullah.
Hizbullah is on the official US State Dept. list of terrorist
organizations for its activity in Lebanon (Jewish Press,
12/11, p.28).
Why is ZOA's reason germane? First, joint work would help the
Muslim organizations into legitimate circles and get favorable
publicity. Second, when ADL has to oppose those organizations
as antisemitic or as unfairly antiZionist, the organizations
would feign indignation and protest that the ADL had just worked
together with them in recognition of their being acceptable. They
would argue, "Surely the ADL wouldn't associate with antisemitic
organizations!" It is a persuasive argument.
Foxman's recent outbursts against dissenting Jews and his
antiPollard and other antiIsraeli idiosyncrasies are becoming
more than embarrassments. They are ruining the once stalwart defender
of Jewish rights, the AntiDefamation League.
ABE FOXMAN AND THE HOLOCAUST
The Holocaust is only tangentially related to the ArabIsrael
conflict. However, Mr. Foxman revealed the same psychological
outlook over the Holocaust as over the ArabIsrael conflict. His
recent reaction on "60 Minutes" to the controversy over
compensation for Holocaust survivors, therefore, was most instructive.
It is true, as he testified, that monetary negotiations are preoccupying
discussion of the Holocaust, now. (I think that is temporary.)
Foxman objected that antisemites describe that as mercenary. He
denied that one can compensate monetarily anyone who suffered
through the Holocaust. I rue a certain Jewish organization's arrogating
to itself the recovered inheritances of Holocaust survivors and
their heirs.
On "60 Minutes," someone refuted Foxman's view of the
money. It is not compensation but reparation. It is not to undo
the crimes but to recover what was stolen from our people. Therefore
it is a measure of justice whose neglect would compound the original
crime. There should be some penalty exacted from those institutions
which profited from our people's discomfit and even pried loose
their savings. We cannot let them get away with those thefts.
In my opinion, justice requires that reparations should be not
the current value of the Jews' inheritances but a punitive value.
Of course, there is no chance of imposing punitive damages.
It was wrong of the world to keep silent during the original crimes.
It would be wrong to keep silent during this opportunity for reparations.
It would be wrong to forego this deterrent effect of pursuing
the thieves and making them disgorge their loot. Silence now would
forfeit the opportunity to teach how pervasive was the evil then.
Such lessons might give people an inkling that this evil has not
been eradicated, not from Russia, not from the State Dept., and
not from jihad.
Does it have to be from the AntiDefamation League, of all
authoritative voices, that one is told that Jews should conduct
themselves to please anti-Semites? Note that the same thread of
appeasement runs through the relations of ADL and of many other
prominent Jews with our Arab enemies!
To summarize, one wonders if Foxman's "ADL" stands
for Arab Defamation League.