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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Head of Jewish Anti-Defamation League tries to raise money by attacking Israel's best friend in Congress

Abe Foxman, the head of the anti-Defamation League, which invents more cases of "anti-Semitism" than Jerry Seinfeld's Uncle Leo, has sent out a fundraising letter with a veiled attack against Congressman Allen West.

"If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine," West told reporters in Washington on December 15, by way of trying to explain Republican unpopularity in some districts "Let’s be honest, you know, some of the people in the media are complicit with this and enabling them to get that type of message out."

It should not require an explanation to understand that when talking about propaganda, even in a hyperbolic, politicized context, it isn't trivializing the Holocaust or anti-Semitic to comparatively invoke the most infamous propagandist in history.

West put it correctly when he responded, “What I'm talking about is a person that was the minister of propaganda. And I'm talking about propaganda. So please."

Hearing the name of a Nazi uttered by a US Congressman evidently got Foxman salivating at the prospect of raking in some extra donations, so he promptly put out a fundraising letter to try to exploit  the situation. Perhaps Foxman was so blinded by little dollar signs floating in front of his eyes that he didn't quite realize who he was vilifying in his money-grubbing scheme.

There is no member of Congress more supportive of Israel and Jews than Allen West. But some of the self-appointed spokesmen for American Jewry and their organizations seem more concerned with their political allegiances and the fat salaries they draw than the actual interests of the people they claim to represent.

Foxman's cowardly attack, in which he didn't even have the guts to name West, went out in an email saying:
Just this past week, a Member of Congress was quoted referencing Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels when discussing communication techniques of the Democratic Party.

We are truly living in troubled times when politicians feel they can benefit the national discourse with such vitriolic comparisons which insult the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.

This was not the first time this has happened in this political season and I fear it will not be the last time we hear such ignorant and spiteful discourse between now and next November.
If he's going to suggest that every reference to a Nazi is the same thing as an insult to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust,  Foxman should refrain from painting other people as "ignorant."

Encouraged by the idiocy of statements like Foxman's, the Democrats launched a failed motion to censure West.

Foxman has disgraced his organization by showing himself as willing to exploit a friend as a foe in pursuit of self-interest.

But the remaining question is, when is Foxman planning to make a few bucks by asking Jerry Seinfeld to apologize for his frivolous Goebbels reference?

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