A group of bloggers affiliated with the Center for American Progress think tank
has sparked sharp criticism because of an anti- Israel agenda that spilled over
into modern anti-Semitism, according to NGOs in Israel and the US.
The
Washington-based CAP seeks to inform the direction of the Democratic Party’s
policies with progressive ideas, and advocates for its congressional
candidates.
RELATED:Editorial: The New anti-SemitismJosh Block, a former spokesman for the Clinton administration
and a former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, first
brought attention to the anti-Israel writings of the ThinkProgress
bloggers.
“Israel Firsters fighting each other over whose position on the
Middle East conflict is more unreasonable,” and, “... Obama is still beloved by
Israel-firsters and getting lots of their $$,” CAP blogger Zaid Jilani
tweeted.
In an e-mail to
The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, Prof. Gerald
Steinberg, president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, wrote, “Invoking the
term ‘Israel firsters’ and claiming that Jews are war-mongers is precisely the
embodiment of new anti-Semitism. The Center for American Progress (CAP) ignored
vitriolic and highly offensive rhetoric of the ThinkProgress reporter and
bloggers. As we see in Israel, individuals on the far Left that consider
themselves ‘enlightened progressives’ resort to personal attacks and
misinformation when criticized. ThinkProgress should have stopped the offensive
rhetoric rather than distorting Josh Block’s statements.”
Another CAP
blogger, Eli Clifton, cast doubt on the accuracy of a Quinnipiac University poll
that referred to the existence of Iran’s “nuclear program.” Clifton also wrote
that AIPAC “is now using the same escalating measures against Iran that were
used before the invasion of Iraq.”
CAP’s director of Middle East
Progress, Matt Duss, has compared Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza to racial
discrimination. “Like segregation in the American South, the siege of Gaza (and
the entire Israeli occupation, for that matter) is a moral abomination that
should be intolerable to anyone claiming progressive values,” Duss
wrote.
Steinberg said, “It follows from classical anti-Semitism, with
inferences of dual loyalty and foreign policy control, and should have no place
in American political discourse. This is part of a continuing pattern at
ThinkProgress. Two of its reporters, Eli Clifton and Ali Gharib, have blogged
for the Electronic Intifada, a highly influential anti-peace and anti-Israel
organization. Clifton’s doubts about an Iranian nuclear program are further
evidence of his fringe ideological views.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, wrote that the “bloggers are guilty of
dangerous political libels resonating with historic and toxic anti-Jewish
prejudices.”
Jennifer Rubin, a prominent
Washington Post blogger, termed
the ThinkProgress bloggers’ language “not merely anti-Israel, they are
anti-Semitic.”
CAP spokeswoman Andrea Purse wrote the
Jerusalem Post by
e-mail on Tuesday, “The allegations against CAP of ‘vitriolic and highly
offensive rhetoric’ are based on blatant misinformation. Eli Clifton and Ali
Gharib have never written for the website ‘The Electronic Intifada.’ They wrote
for a global newswire called IPS and some of their writings were republished by
The Electronic Intifada website without permission. The term ‘Israel First’ has
never been used on CAP’s blogs, other than to criticize it. Nor have CAP
bloggers ever asserted that ‘Jews are war-mongers’ or anything
similar.”
Purse continued, “The Center for American Progress favors a
two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict [that] is the consensus
view of administrations of both parties dating back to president Clinton. Our
position is based on our strong belief that it is in the national security
interests of the United States to achieve a resolution to this
conflict. We categorically reject and are offended by the idea that any
of our work is anti-Semitic, unless one believes the Middle East peace plan
itself and ensuring Israel’s long-term security by securing its neighborhood is
anti- Semitic. We welcome a discussion of these ideas on the merits."
Steinberg
told the
Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, “If CAP wants to disassociate itself from
Electronic Intifada, it should demand that Clifton and Gharib’s blogs be
removed.”
Purse declined to say whether CAP would ask EI to remove the
CAP bloggers’ posts from its website. When asked if CAP disagreed with Duss’s
characterization of Israel as racist, she declined to provide a specific answer.
Critics argue that singling out Israel as a racist endeavor meets the criteria
of the European Union’s working definition of anti- Semitism.
Steinberg
told the
Jerusalem Post that “Matt Duss, CAP’s director of Middle East Progress,
should serve as an example by retracting his claim – published on
Thinkprogress.org – that equates Israeli policy with ‘segregation in the
American South.’ This absurd and inflammatory statement certainly will not help
promote peace.”
In a telephone conversation with the
Jerusalem Post on
Tuesday, University of Maryland historian Jeffrey Herf, who has authored books
on anti-Semitism, said the phrase “Israel firsters” is “dangerous.” The notion
of “Israel firsters” “delegitimizes support for Israel” and stokes the
“dual-loyalty” charge against American Jews, he said.
The dual-loyalty
conspiracy theory existed on “the far Left and far Right of American politics
but has not yet seeped into the center of American politics,” Herf said.
Repeated efforts to
reach John Podesta, the president of CAP and White House chief of staff under
Bill Clinton, were not immediately returned.
Responding to
Commentary
magazine writer Alana Goodman’s query about “Israel firsters,” Jilani, the CAP
blogger, wrote that he “deleted the tweets to avoid offending any more people. I
apologize deeply to those who saw the phrase in the timeline of my personal
Twitter account and was [sic] offended. Bigotry and anti-Semitism are against my
values.”
Goodman wrote that “CAP’s Ali Gharib, Eli Clifton, Matt Duss
have views on Israel that are far to the left of mainstream
Democrats....”
Gharib wrote that Senator “... Mark Kirk (RAIPAC) should
care about *anyone* other than Israel.”
When asked about Gharib’s
statement that the senator from Illinois represents AIPAC, Purse declined to
comment.
Steinberg said, “And Gharib’s inference that Senator Kirk is
controlled by AIPAC because he supports tough Iran sanctions is equally absurd
and sadly reminiscent of campaigns that allege that Jews control American
foreign policy. Gharib’s statement also should be publicly condemned by
CAP.”
A Democratic congressional staffer told the
Jerusalem Post via
telephone on Tuesday that “I think it is important for voices in the Democratic
to speak out against anti-Semitism wherever they see it. It is better to err on
the side of being against any anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
[anti-Israel blogger] M.J. Rosenberg has gone too far and should not be
welcomed in either party.”
He added that the term “Israel Firsters is
dangerous, and plays into an anti-Semitic narrative that has led to some of the
worst atrocities against Jews. Once you pick the Jews as the ‘other’ it gets
dangerous.”
Rosenberg frequently invokes the phrase “Israel Firsters” to
describe Americans who are pro-Israel.
When asked if CAP should retain
the faction of anti-Israeli bloggers, the Democratic congressional staffer said,
“So long as CAP puts forth this kind of rhetoric, it will be difficult for
them to be taken seriously.”