The ADL Motto: If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it!
ADL Applauds President Peres for Principled Response to Turkish Prime Minister's Anti-Israel Remarks at Davos
And what was that 'principled response'? Peres did call the Turkish Prime Minister - crawling on his knees - and appologized for his childish and arrogant behaviour! That filthy arrogant behaviour made possible by the American taxpayers' extorted money - that is for sure! The Turkish Prime Minstere seems to have escaped being lashed with your 'anti-Semitic' whip! You seem to have settled for 'anti-Israel' for now! What a bunch of creepy, tracherous and self-loving people at the expense of humanity!
ADL Applauds President Peres for Principled Response to Turkish Prime Minister's Anti-Israel Remarks at Davos
New York, NY, January 31, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) applauded Israeli President Shimon Peres for his "reasoned and principled response" to the strident denunciation of Israel delivered by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a panel discussion on Gaza at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
After sitting through a fifteen-minute diatribe against Israel, President Peres offered a reasoned and principled response to Prime Minister Erdogan's vitriolic condemnation of Israel and unqualified embrace of Hamas, which he cynically couched in terms of humanitarian concern.
Despite the affront to an Israeli head of state, President Peres vigorously rebutted each of the outrageous charges leveled against Israel. He appropriately pointed out to the prestigious international audience that the terrorist organization Hamas had left Israel with no choice but to act to defend its citizens after enduring eight years of indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks, and that no other country, including Turkey, would have acted differently.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, Prime Minister Erdogan has engaged in angry tirades against Israel. His harshest statements have been used by some in Turkey to justify vicious anti-Semitic rhetoric and acts of intimidation targeting Jews. We are concerned his angry outburst in Davos will only add to the already tense atmosphere.
We were pleased to learn that, in an act of statesmanship, President Peres reached out to Prime Minister Erdogan by telephone immediately after the event to clear the air and calm the situation. We welcome Prime Minister Erdogan's comment upon returning to Istanbul that his criticism was not directed toward the Israeli people or Jews. We believe that a more moderate tone in the prime minister's criticism of Israel would help to tamp down the recent outpouring of anti-Semitism in Turkey.
Anti-Semitism Must Be Denounced Worldwide
Anti Semitism - Global
By Abraham H. Foxman
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League
This article originally appeared in South Florida Sun-Sentinel on January 29, 2009 RULE
Israel's operation to defend its people from Hamas rockets is having an impact far beyond Gaza and Israel's besieged southern cities. Its repercussions are being felt by Jewish communities around the world, particularly the Jews of Western Europe and Latin America.
Assaults against Jews are on the rise. In Europe, Jews have been beaten on the street and synagogues have been firebombed. "Jews to the gas chambers" has been chanted at anti-Israel demonstrations in Europe and similar calls for death to Jews have been heard across the Arab and Muslim world. Sadly, such hatred still hasn't been fully shamed into silence in our country. At a Dec. 30 anti-Israel demonstration in Fort Lauderdale , a woman was heard shouting, "Go back to the oven, you need a big oven! That's what you need!"
The terrorists of Hamas and the leader of their main supporter, Iran, endorse such incitement. One of the top Hamas leaders, Mahmoud Zahar, recently called for Jewish children to be attacked around the world, and Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran said he would confer the status of "martyr" on "anyone who dies in this holy struggle against World Zionism," by which he means Jews anywhere.
Even with a cease-fire in place, attacks against Israeli soldiers continued this week along the Gaza-Israel border. One soldier on patrol on the Israeli side of the border was killed by an explosive device near a crossing point into Gaza, showing once again that Hamas has no intention of stopping the bloodshed or honoring the cease-fire.
A loud voice must be heard from political, religious and community leaders that attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions have no justification, no excuse, and will not be tolerated, whether in Belgium, Greece, Turkey, Uruguay, Chile or Venezuela.
America, obviously, is different, but not unaffected. Nazi imagery and Holocaust comparisons have surfaced at anti-Israel demonstrations and are now appearing on campuses across the country. While the protests so far have been largely nonviolent, there have been attacks against Jewish institutions, such as the vandalism of Jewish community institutions in Chicago.
Leaders, abroad and at home, must speak out against anti-Semitism and make clear that it cannot be justified and is unacceptable. If they allow the violence, the threats, the hate speech, and the bigotry to go unchallenged, they will have failed an important political and moral test.