WHAT TO MAKE OF THE ADL?
Atlantic Online
ish/2007/08/what-to-make-of.html
Aug 28 2007
In the past, I’ve defended Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation
League, for what I considered to be unfair attacks on his character
and methods. But his behavior in recent weeks–refusing to acknowledge
the Armenian genocide, firing his organization’s New England head
for calling the national ADL’s policy "morally indefensible," and
then lamely stating that the events which took place during World
War I were "tantamount to genocide"–has been unconscionable. Michael
Crowley of TNR has been doing some excellent reported work about the
cash and influence nexus of the Turkish lobby on Capitol Hill.
For pragmatic reasons, a sense of the Congress resolution acknowledging
the Armenian genocide may not be such a great idea.
Turkey is an important ally in the Muslim world. Would it really be
worth hurting that relationship over a resolution that, however morally
just, bears no force? A few weeks ago, however, a legislator told me
that if such a resolution really did offend the Turks to the point
that they would hamper American military maneuvers out of Incirlik Air
Base or by fooling around in Kurdistan, then maybe our relationship
with Turkey is not all it’s cracked up to be in the first place.
But at the end of the day, these realpolitik considerations should have
no bearing on a civic organization committed to humanitarian goals,
which is what the ADL claims to be. Yes, it is part of the ADL’s
mission to defend Israel (and, it bears noting, to debunk Holocaust
deniers)–but the ADL is not a mere extension of the Israeli Foreign
Ministry. Pussyfooting on the existence of the Armenian genocide
works against everything for which the ADL claims to stand.
Jewcy, which called for Foxman’s dismissal last month, has published a
withering cartoon imagining what would happen if a 92-year-old survivor
of the Armenian genocide managed to raise $500 million for the ADL.
From: Baghdasarian