CLEVELAND (RNS) Violence in the Middle East and worldwide economic distress have combined to produce “the biggest explosion of anti-Semitism globally that we have witnessed since World War II,”
according to the national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Abraham Foxman, who has led the New York-based ADL since 1987, told an audience at the City Club of Cleveland on Friday (April 24) that he wants to know where the outrage is over this bigotry against Jews.
“I don’t hear it,” he said.
Foxman, a Holocaust survivor recognized for his leadership combating bigotry, said the absence of outrage echoes a question he has about the Holocaust.
“Why was the world silent? The world knew what was happening. To know that they (world leaders) knew is a very haunting fact. Wherever people stood up to say `no,’ people lived,” he said.
Foxman, 69, said he was speaking partly to counter recent remarks by U.N. relief director John Ging, who spoke in the same venue and criticized Israel for last year’s offensive into Gaza aimed at the Islamic Hamas movement.
Foxman said the Gaza assault was a response to Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel. He said the offensive was “as close to a just war as you can possibly have.”
While Foxman said any violence in the Middle East is normally accompanied by a rise in anti-Semitism, the economic crisis stirred a separate strain of hatred. A scapegoat was needed, and “very quickly it was the Jews,” Foxman observed.
He said the scapegoating draws on a belief that Jews control world finances, an idea so old and pervasive that former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson thought it was a compliment when he told a rabbinic group during his presidential campaign that “earning money” is “sort of part of the Jewish tradition.”
By Tom Feran
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted April 27, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Hopefully this is going to the well too often for Foxman.
One of the better writers on Middle Eastern affairs is Roger Cohen who writes for the NYT. Here’s his latest column.
He suggests that Obama and SoS Clinton get it that Israel has been using us and we need to look out for American interests, which can be accomplished by getting a fair settlement for the Palestinians, something the Israeli leaders clearly have no interest in doing.
What a relief it is to have thinking people in the administration, not calculating people.
posted April 27, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Don’t you have to be a thinking person in order to be a calculating one?
posted April 27, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Wouldn’t one think after centuries of blaming the Jews for almost everything that the folks would GET OVER IT! The complicated situation between Israel and the Palestinians needs to be resolved …and so far…no one seems to be able to do that. It’s 2009, but humans continue to act like….humans?
posted April 28, 2009 at 8:29 am
“Don’t you have to be a thinking person in order to be a calculating one?”
At least a little. I could have phrased that better and made my point more completely.
My point was that till now the US’s Middle East policy has been calculated based on the effect of it on the political support of the Israeli lobby here, not on the value of that policy for us, let alone the Palestinians or even, in the long run, the Israelis. If an action would cause the very powerful Israeli lobby displeasure it wouldn’t be carried through, probably wouldn’t even be considered.
Now it seems we have an administration that’s trying to put the US first in US Middle Eastern policy, thinking about what would be actually good for the area and therefore for us.
As to Foxman, he’s complaining about the results of what Israel has done. Israel and the Israeli lobby has for decades conflated Israel and Jews, to the benefit of the politicians running Israel. Now some of that may be coming home to roost. It’s not surprising though it’s a shame for the individual Jews who suffer for it. But the blame goes to Israel for its a-thousand-eyes-for-an-eye policies and its unwillingness to let things settle down, and to people like Foxman for making opposition to Israel seem equivalent to bigotry against Jews.
posted April 28, 2009 at 10:22 am
I think Gaza is less a concern than Madoff, who has to bear a lot of this blame. He not only ripped off many prominant people for more money than most country’s gnp. He also tore the fabric of respect and acceptance that many Jews work so hard to fashion. They will have a lot of work to do to shed his “Shylock” image and restore the honor they deserve. That Madoff stole from many of his own people does nothing to diminish the overall smear that has happened. I have heard many comments like this from conservative neighbors and family members.
posted April 28, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Any criticism about Israel’s actions and behavior is automatically Antisemitism, and they should get a free pass to respond to by killing 400 to 1.
How long will they hide behind what happened long ago.
posted April 28, 2009 at 3:47 pm
People hate America too and sometimes for good reason but I guess we just don’t have a Antisemitism card to pull out.
We (the world) should pay attention to the genocides in Africa and if Israel was genuinely sensitive to that type of thing we could
posted April 28, 2009 at 7:28 pm
j, it is a shame if people blame Jews for what Madoff did. There are plenty of famous Christian criminals but those same people probably don’t blame Christians. That’s just real bad thinking.
cknuck I don’t think we’ll ever have an “Antisemitism card”. First I hope we never ever have anything like the Holocaust happen to us and second we’ve had power like the Jews never had and sometimes we’ve abused it to the detriment of lots of other people.
But let’s face it, events have expiration dates and any leeway for Israel due to the Holocaust is gone. It explains very well fears some Jews have but does not give any excuse for the kind of misbehavior Israel has become famous for. Famous, at least, in many parts of the world but not so much in the US because it seems to be Journalistically Incorrect to report such things objectively, though that may be changing.