Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Shonda Watch: The Return of Foxman

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After the predictable and justified backlash, Mr. Foxman sought to explain. He claimed: (1) that the ADL’s position was all about sensitivity to the families of the 9/11 victims (let’s leave to the side the fact that a mosque in the WTC was destroyed on 9/11 and that dozens of Muslims were killed in the attack); (2) that the ADL has often protected the civil rights of Muslims (which is true); and (3) that the ADL “supports the building of mosques, like churches and synagogues, just about anywhere in the country”. Just about anywhere!

Nonsense! Why would should a mosque or an Islamic Community Center near the site of 9/11 threaten the sensitivities of the victims’ families, unless we blame Muslims as Muslims for 9/11? And we don’t, do we, Mr. Foxman? Right? (An article in Salon makes a similar point).

Contrast Mr. Foxman’s un-American and frankly un-Jewish stance with the approach of Mayor Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg, remember, grew up in Medford, and in order to buy their home, the Bloombergs had to use a straw man to make the purchase, because as Jews they could not buy in the neighborhood. Mayor Bloomberg knows the feelings of the stranger. He gave an emotional speech standing up for the rights of New York’s Muslims, over fierce and misguided political opposition.

What makes this whole mess worse, for us in New England, is that the ADL’s new regional director, Derrek Shulman, lacks the courage of his predecessor, Mr. Tarsy, to do what’s right in the face of Abe Foxman’s misguided ineptitude. In the Globe, Mr. Shulman more or less toed the party line.

Attention ADL! You are alienating your base! During the Armenian afair, Mr. Foxman candidly admitted, in response to criticism from an Israeli questioner: “I don’t represent you nor the Jewish community! I represent the donors.” Better start paying attention to what Jewish Americans actually think instead of catering to the major donors of the last generation.

TedF

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Comments

  1. a fading generation of Jews that think a right-wing response to the Palestinian problem will make things better. Secular or religious, their version of zionism is a form of fundamentalism.

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    p>As the J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami stated:

    The principle at stake in the Cordoba House controversy goes to the heart of American democracy and the value we place on freedom of religion. Should one religious group in this country be treated differently than another? We believe the answer is no.

    As Mayor Bloomberg has said, proposing a church or a synagogue for that site would raise no questions. The Muslim community has an equal right to build a community center wherever it is legal to do so. We would hope the American Jewish community would be at the forefront of standing up for the freedom and equality of a religious minority looking to exercise its legal rights in the United States, rather than casting aspersions on its funders and giving in to the fear-mongerers and pandering politicians urging it to relocate.

    What better ammunition to feed the Osama bin Ladens of the world and their claim of anti-Muslim bias in the United States as they seek to whip up global jihad than to hold this proposal for a Muslim religious center to a different and tougher standard than other religious institutions would be.

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    • I don’t see much connection between the NYC issue and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. I think that moderates, left-wingers, and right-wingers on the Palestinian issue should all agree that Foxman is in the wrong here.

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      p>TedF

      • Yes, of course, everyone on the Palestinian issue is wrong.
        And they haven’t. And they won’t.

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        p>Ground Zero and the Palestinian issue aren’t apples and oranges. Here’s Peter Beinart:

        the ADL has… become, in essence, two organizations. In the United States, it still links the struggle against anti-Semitism to the struggle against bigotry against non-Jews. In Israel, by contrast, it largely pretends that government-sponsored bigotry against non-Jews does not exist. When Arizona passes a law that encourages police to harass Latinos, the ADL expresses outrage. But when Israel builds 170 kilometers of roads in the West Bank for the convenience of Jewish settlers, from which Palestinians are wholly or partially banned, the ADL takes out advertisements declaring, “The Problem Isn’t Settlements.”

        For a long time now, the ADL seems to have assumed that it could exempt Israel from the principles in its charter and yet remain just as faithful to that charter inside the United States. But now the chickens are coming back home to America to roost. The ADL’s rationale for opposing the Ground Zero mosque is that “building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain-unnecessarily-and that is not right.” Huh? What if white victims of African-American crime protested the building of a black church in their neighborhood? Or gentile victims of Bernie Madoff protested the building of a synagogue? Would the ADL for one second suggest that sensitivity toward people victimized by members of a certain religion or race justifies discriminating against other, completely innocent, members of that religion or race? Of course not. But when it comes to Muslims, the standards are different. They are different in Israel, and now, it is clear, they are different in the United States, too.

        Indifference to the rights and dignity of Palestinians is a cancer eating away at the moral pretensions of the American Jewish establishment. Last Friday, in the case of the ADL, we learned just how far that cancer has spread.

  2. They should be able to build a mosque there, under existing laws.

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    p>Nobody should harass or insult them over this.

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    p>The Treaty of Tripoli, from 1796, says in article 11:

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    p>   Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

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    p>The 14th amendment makes this binding on the state and local governments.

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    p>This is an explicit rejection of anti-Muslim “Crusading” by the government.

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    p>There are some political money-men who have 1 issue:

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    p>Taking land from the Palestinians and giving it to Israeli settlers.

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    p>They will ignore EVERYTHING ELSE for that.

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    p>And that’s what’s behind ADL’s stand on this.

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    p>I do believe, however, that is not prudent to build a mosque there.

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    p>The money for this mosque may come from the Saudis.

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    p>You do know that a Saudi prince owns part of Fox, right?

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    p>And Saudi Arabia favors REPUBLICANS, not DEMOCRATS.

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    p>Building a mosque at Ground Zero will get votes for GOP hardliners from certain people.

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    p>And that’s probably what is behind this.

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  3. He is destroying the moral credibility of a once proud and noble civil rights group. It is moral cowardice to deny the Armenian genocide, as Hitler said when justifying the Shoah “no one remembers the Armenians do they?” Well apparently neither does Abe Foxman for self-confessed selfish reasons, which is the mark of a moral coward.

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    p>Similarly in a nation where Catholic churches, synagogues, and other non-Protestant houses of worship were historically attacked and vandalized at various points in history, why not side with the oppressed minority against the majority?

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    p>Shame on the ADL. Shame on every GOP candidate who opposes religious freedom. Next time you hear a Republican complain about liberals taking religion out of the public square, remind them of this incident, remind them that they cared even less for the Constitution.

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    p>As for the notion this is insensitive or offensive, I would agree with a lead spokesperson for a families group that stated that the real insensitive and offensive thing would be to deny this mosque in their name, considering that all 3,000 died as a consequence of our American freedoms. There are crescents alongside crosses and stars at Arlington National Cemetary, never forget that. This is shameful bigotry and it will be used by our enemies to show that we are an enemy of Islam and Muslims, and it will hurt the troops. It will help push moderate Muslims into the arms of extremists. Just a bad, digusting blemish all around. Someday Foxman will be viewed in history as a McCarthy, a racist spouting unjustified fears of a ‘fifth column’. Its shameful he has wrecked the moral legitimacy of the ADL, and they should seriously oust and repudiate him.

    • …but I wonder why you’ve been quite so harsh in rating comments from “ms” who IMO has made a few good points as well.

      • You really think his borederline anti-semitic rants and conspiracy theories about fox news and the saudis are relevant points and not wild conspiracy theories?

    1.  The 9/11 attackers also attacked the Pentagon.  There are prayer facilities (not technically a mosque) for Muslims inside the Pentagon, and rebuilt/refurbished as recently as 2006.

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    p>2.  A Christian blew up the Oklahoma City Murrah Building.  Nobody seems to have any beef with the First United Methodist Church or St. Joseph’s Old Cathedral, both located closer to Murrah than the proposed Islamic Community Center would be to Ground Zero.

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    p>This Islamaphobia is dangerous, irrational, and unhelpful to both American Muslims and to American soldiers overseas.  The 9/11 bombers represent Muslims exactly as much as Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael & Lori Fortier represent Christians.

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    p>Fortunately, New York City government officials get it — NYC has a long tradition of accepting folks from around the world as New Yorkers, including any Muslims from the Middle East, SW Asia, SE Asia, Africa, or even from Harlem đŸ™‚

  5. Build the mosque.

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    p>Just do it.

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    p>The publicity from the proposal to build it, which is used to rally hard-liners to elect Republicans, has already happened.

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    p>The damage is done.

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    p>If the place is built, it will be useless to al-Qaeda for propaganda overseas.

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    p>If it is not built, al-Qaeda will use it to recruit terrorists, saying that the “Christian Crusader USA” has oppressed the Muslims.

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    p>But don’t think that people wouldn’t manipulate people’s feelings about religion and military alliances for electoral advantage.

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    p>You have to ask, what do they want? And who benefits?
    Another question to ask: Why is the economy so bad that that area is not going to be FILLED with businesses looking for office space?  

  6. It was inspirational to see Andy Tarsy and many of us in New England (and others across the country) involved with ADL reject the national position of denial of the Armenian genocide.

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    p>It is right to call Foxman-out on the cowardice as well as the negative impacts of ADL and other Americans rejecting the building of the mosque.  How soon we forget that African Americans, Japanese Americans, Catholics, Jews, Homosexuals (the whole list of newer Americans as well as native Americans) have all been persecuted (and too frequently still are) within the boundaries of the, “land of the free”.

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    p>It’s not grocery shopping, we don’t get to choose pseudo-racism on week and grapes the next.  Take a good look in the mirror ADL and get your thinking on a higher path.

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    p>No Place For Hate is an ADL program Mr. Foxman should take time to learn about.

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