In the end, isn't antisemitism another form of fear mongering WRT "the other"?

Isn't that what B'nai Brith was supposed to be all about? That it's not just that Jews might be defamed, but some other group might be substituted for the Jews and suffer that fate? To prevent it from ever happening again, to anybody?

Unfortunately, the ADL now seems to be firmly in another camp than the one they purport to be in.

@W.E.S

We could kill 6 million Iranians in the next 60 minutes and the ADL would be silent.

Kudos for cutting to the chase.

I'll just cheer on Glenn's efforts to get an honest answer. I doubt that he will, but that in itself speaks volumes.

Mr. Foxman wrote:

As a Holocaust survivor, saved in my childhood by a courageous Polish Catholic woman who hid me from the Nazis, and as one who lost nearly all of his family to the Nazi gas chambers, the suggestion that I or ADL would suddenly hold back such criticism due to political or other considerations is personally hurtful and deeply offensive.

As the son of a late Holocaust survivor who saved himself by his own courageous actions, and who lost nearly all of his family to the Nazi gas chambers, the ADL's failure to speak out against abuses of the memory of the victims of the Holocaust due to political or other considerations is personally hurtful and deeply offensive.

Glenn, I agree with the goal of this post: to discourage the use of Hitler/Nazi references in political discourse. However, I have a problem with the Disavow/Condemn Craze that has swept through the media. Let's be real: various governmental and non-governmental groups could spend a great deeal of time Disavowing and Condemning. Just two weeks ago, I witnessed the sorry spectacle of the Senate tabling important business to waste time in disavowing the MoveOn ad.

Besides, Disavow/Condemn is the favorite rhetorical tactic of Sean Hannity, who I despise beyond words. It's a tool he uses to prevent any real discussion of issues; before any discussion can take place, Hannity demands that all Disavows and Condemns are cleared. By the time he's through with that, it's "That's all the time we have, folks".

Again: I agree with your basic premise, but Disavow/Condemn........eh, not so much.

Glenn, I agree with the goal of this post: to discourage the use of Hitler/Nazi references in political discourse.

That's not the goal of my post. The goal of my post, as I indicated, is to ask why the ADL's condemnation standards are not applied equally.

They read the comments section...who knew? LOL

Watch what you say we don't want Glenn excoriated for something said in comments.

Remember KOS got there Nazi rep from diary commentary not anything KOS said.

In the mid 70's one of my jobs while I was a student was filing ADL pamphlets and flyers-- along with lots of others. They were filled with stories and pictures of the happy Arabs of Israel and occupied territories (not Palestinians mind you, to call them that would suggest they had rights other than those the Jewish state decided they had-- or even worse that they had a right to decide themselves who they were or what their identity might be). I remember one picture of a happy Arab sitting on a tractor particularly well. I kept starring at his smiling face. Wondering what expression was on the face of person taking the picture .... a knowing smile, a smirk, quiet satisfaction. It reminded me of worst sort Soviet and Maoist propaganda images.

The ADL may have gotten more intellectually corrupt under Flaxman, more extreme, but it's spent decades using cries of anti-semitism to intimidate critics of Israel. Someone needs to do a full scale study of the organization.

Glenn, for writing these posts exposing Foxman and his ADL for the Bush/GOP-worshiping neocons that they are, and Pantanal, for giving some personal experience of the group.

Glenn...come on, I admire your trying to hold Foxman and the ADL's feet to the fire, but groups like this just LOVE this sort of exchange. Because you're either with them, or you're out to persecute them.

Now they can add Salon to the long list of everyone out to persecute them, and use it to raise more funds that they can turn around and use to intimidate our politicians and the few media left who are willing to speak honestly about the incestuous and suicidal U.S. - Israeli relationship.

In the end, "...the question of whether the ADL is applying its outrage practices selectively and politically..." has the same answer as whether Joe Lieberman applies his "liberal" practices selectively and politically.

ADL, AIPAC, Foxman, Lieberman, et. al. are now and forever Zionists first, Americans later.

That is why they are aligned firmly with the neocon warmongers who want to blow Iran off the map. Because, it's golden to scream "Ahmedinijad is the new Hitler" 24-7. And a few utterances by O'Reilly that "MoveOn.org and DailyKos are Nazis" are a miniscule and easily overlooked price to pay to pay in exchange for having one major media outlet beating the drum for war.

Zionists and the Christian right have long been strange bedfellows, and now we have Zionists and the Neo-con Media in bed together.

Kudos for trying to get them to own up to their hypocrisy, but they won't, Glenn. Zionists NEVER do.

I'm pursuing it because -- particularly as the "debate" over whether we ought to have a new war against Iran heats up -- accusing political opponents of "anti-semitism" and freely insinuating similarities between mainstream liberal and anti-war groups with Nazis has become the standard rhetorical tactic of the war-hungry Right.

Glenn,

In your last "Various Items" post, you touched on the topic of war with Iran, making the claim that Ahmadinejad's call that "Israel should be wiped off the map" was actually a "manipulative [mis-translation] [sic] by neoconservatives". But this is -- or was -- clearly a fringe position, easily debunked by reviewing the Bronner article you cited in support of your claim, copy on Ahmadinejad's own web site, the similarity of the alternate translation -- "The regime currently occupying Jerusalem must be wiped from the pages of time" -- and making a simple appeal to common sense.

I'm curious: do you think minimizing or falsifying Ahmadinejad's genocidal anti-Semitism has become a standard rhetorical tactic of the war-chary Left? If so, what, if anything, should be done about that?