ADL DIRECTOR COUNTERS SOME OF THE ‘DEADLIEST LIES’ MAKING THE ROUNDS
Bryan Schwartzman, Staff Writer

Jewish Exponent, PA
Oct 18 2007

When it comes to the bitter dispute over whether the deaths of more
than a million Armenians at the hands of the Turks was, in fact,
an act of genocide, Abraham Foxman has a simple message for American
Jews: Butt out.

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League gave an Oct. 11
talk at Temple Sholom in Broomall that dealt primarily with the
arguments he advances in his new book, The Deadliest Lies: The Israel
Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control.

He barely touched on the Turkish issue in his lecture, but it’s
a matter with which he’s become identified. His Delaware County
appearance happened to fall on the same day that Turkey recalled its
ambassador to the United States after the U.S. House moved one step
closer to passing a resolution labeling the deaths as a genocide,
which Turkey has long denied.

"I think that, as painful as the Armenian experience was in 1915, the
way to reconcile it is not with a resolution in Congress," said Foxman
in an interview after his presentation. "I hope the American Jewish
community will also understand that it is not only counterproductive
to America’s best interests and to Israel’s best interests, but also
the best interests of Turkey’s Jewish community."

The ADL has faced heavy criticism from the Armenian-American community
for publicly opposing the proposed congressional resolution and
equivocating on whether or not the killing constituted a genocide.

Nearly two months ago, Watertown, Mass. — which has a large Armenian
population — severed ties with the ADL and its "No Place for Hate"
Program, protesting the ADL’s stance vis-a-vis Turkey. Foxman even
had a public spat with the head of ADL’s New England office, Andrew
Tarsy — who was fired soon afterward, but later rehired — over the
ADL position on the Armenian genocide.

Foxman added that representatives of the Turkish Jewish community
have lobbied U.S. Jewish organizations to stay out of the fray,
fearing that their own positions could be compromised. According
to news reports, Turkish officials have denied that Jews need fear
reprisals. For their part, other American Jewish groups have come
down on both sides concerning the congressional resolution.

Foxman spent most of his speech addressing worldwide anti-Semitism,
as well as explaining why he felt compelled to write his latest book,
The Deadliest Lies — essentially a response to the polemics of
former President Jimmy Carter, as well as authors and academicians
John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.

The ADL director said that, while worldwide anti-Semitism is not as
rampant as it was leading up to World War II, things remain as bad
as they’ve been since that time.

Foxman cited everything from the statements of Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the murders of Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl and French Jew Ilan Halimi as evidence that anti-Semitism
not only simmers on the back burner, but can boil over in a deadly way.

"Daniel Pearl was kidnapped as a journalist, but slaughtered as a
Jew," declared Foxman. "If you ignore anti-Semitism, if you deny it,
you give it credibility, you give it life."

Citing an internal ADL poll, Foxman told the audience that one in
three Americans believes that Jews are more loyal to Israel than
they are to the United States. He used statistics as a segue into
his rebuttal to Walt and Mearsheimer’s contentions about "The Israel
Lobby," as well as Carter’s use of the term "apartheid" to describe
the current situation in the West Bank.

"There’s a legitimate debate now, if you will, about a classic
anti-Semitic canard" — namely, the extent of Jewish power, said
Foxman.

He noted that, in response to Walt and Mearsheimer’s book, The Israel
Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, he’s been asked to respond to questions
about how loyal American Jews really are.

"How powerful are they? Do they control Washington, the Congress,
the media? Did they lead us to war in Iraq?" he said he’s been asked.

One audience member inquired about whether former Pentagon officials
Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle — who both pushed for invading Iraq
— somehow need to apologize for, in essence, giving Jews a bad name.

And did they add fuel to the fire of conspiracy theorists who felt
the United States went to war to protect Israel, largely on the advice
of Jewish officials?

"That’s nonsense. Don’t fall for it," he admonished. "You either
agree with their advice or you don’t.

"But to say we went to war because of the Jews … they did a job
and what they believed was in the best interests of the United States.

They are loyal American citizens."

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