Two winners:
Rep. Emanuel blasts Israel for turning away Darfur refugees
A top Jewish Democrat in Congress wrote Israel’s ambassador to express his “disappointment” in Israel for turning away Sudanese refugees. “I am writing today to express my disappointment that Israel would turn away any person fleeing from persecution,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the fourth ranked Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives said in his letter sent Monday to Ambassador Sallai Meridor. Go ahead Rep Emanual. Someone needs to tell ‘em and use their representative power to call it out, seeing as how one of the main arguments as for why it’s important the state exists is because of Jews know what it is to face persecution. So what say you now Israeli government? You turn your back? And this isn’t the first time. Times do need to change.
ADL recognizes Armenian killings as genocide
In a dramatic reversal, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director has issued a statement describing the massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as “tantamount to genocide.” The ADL and its national director, Abraham Foxman, have faced mounting criticism in recent weeks for refusing to use the genocide label and for firing Andrew Tarsy, the head of the organization’s Boston office, who publicly challenged that policy. The ADL, or should I say Foxman specifically, should be embarrassed by themselves and their actions. This was just a travesty in the worst kind of way. I’m glad the pressure changed their tune, but damn, if this were a ball the ADL wouldn’t have even made it down the runway without getting booed off. So bad.
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rozele
August 31st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
sorry, “tantamount” doesn’t count as a reversal. it’s still a denial that what the armenians experienced was ACTUALLY genocide.
which no one disputes except the turkish government which carried it out. oh, and the israeli government, which is closely allied with turkey. oh, and parts of the u.s. government, ditto.
it’s kinda fascinating how foxman and the ADL decide what’s problematic and what’s not. when a government allied with the israeli state is accused of genocide, it’s never true (turkey); when christian rightwingers who’re zionists say anti-jewish things, they get awards (robertson, falwell, etc); when christian righwingers who aren’t zionists say anti-jewish things they get attacked (gibson); when governments hostile to the israeli state are accused of genocide it’s unquestionable (sudan).
somehow it doesn’t seem to take a lot of complicated analysis to explain why some genocides and anti-jewish rants count at the ADL and some are just fine… i, for one, would be perfectly happy if they’d just change their name to AIPAC’s Designated Lecturers.