Hat tip to Glenn Greenwald.

The Anti Defamation League (ADL) once was a prominent force in fighting bigotry, yet that organization now has become one of the leading propagandists for anti-Arab bigotry and violence. This would be disturbing under any circumstances, but it is bizarre when one remembers that Arabs are a Semitic people and anti-Arab prejudice shares much of the same stereotyping with other forms of Antisemitism.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, wrote a letter attacking Joe Klein for saying that some Jewish neocons were more loyal to Isreal than to the US. A more accurate critique of these neocons would be to say that they are more loyal to Likud and the GOP than they are to the United States of America. Likud's policies are hurting Isreal terribly, as any rational observer can see. Also, it should be pointed out that all partisan Republicans are putting corporate interests, party loyalty, and petty prejudices ahead of their loyalty to America.

However, Foxman didn't just attack Klein, Foxman made the following sickening assertion:

There can be no question that in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, legitimate and serious American security and foreign policy interests played a critical role in President Bush's decision to attack Iraq. Moreover, many top decision-makers in the administration who advocated for war hardly fit the mold of a "Jewish Neocon" – Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell being the most prominent among them.

The first sentence here is shocking and horrifying. There were no "legitimate and serious American security and foreign policy interests" motivating the Bush regime's attack on the people of Iraq. It was motivated by venal political corruption and a desire to subjugate, rape, torture, and murder the Semitic people in Iraq. To put any kind of fig leaf on this is a shocking example of anti-Semitic prejudice against Arabs.

Equally repugnant are Foxman's efforts to associate 911 with the Iraq war. No Iraqis were even involved in 911. Iraq's Baathist government and Al Qaeda were mortal enemies. All efforts to associate Iraq with 911 are extreme examples of racial and ethnic profiling, in this case anti-Semitic profiling. This kind of deceptive rhetoric also is an insult to the memories of everyone killed in the 911 attacks.

The war on Iraq is literally a war of genocide, slaughtering over 1.2 million Semitic people. Condoning this war on any level is shockingly anti-Semitic, and nobody can honestly argue otherwise. Engaging in anti-Semitic profiling to condone the war is even more morally indefensible.

There is no way that people who are against bigotry can trust or respect the ADL as long as Abraham H. Foxman continues to work there. An apology should come from the organization after he is no longer employed there.