ADL: “Conspiracy Theorists Blame Jews for Events in Syria”

The “respected civil rights organization” is at it again. The ADL labels me a “conspiracy theorist” for documenting the wall-to-wall support of the organized Jewish community for a U.S. military strike on Syria (“ADL: Conspiracy Theorists Blame Jews for Events in Syria.”) There is also the claim that I am an “extremist”—which seems odd coming from an organization that favors the immigration to the U.S. of tens of millions of people from all over the world.

Kevin McDonald, an anti-Semitic professor of psychology at California State University at Long Beach wrote a September 2 article in The Occidental Observer stating that, “The delay [in military action in Syria] provides an opportunity for the Israel Lobby to get into high gear in order to bump up the poll numbers and exert its power over Congress.”

You’d think that after all this time with me being on their Most Wanted list, they could at least spell my name right. The article doesn’t have a link to the offending article by me, which would leave the reader stuck with only a misspelled name and the link to the article about me on the ADL’s website (where they do manage to spell my name right). Indeed, there are no links for any of the articles and videos by the “fringe extremists and anti-Semites” listed in the ADL press release — presumably because the ADL doesn’t want its readers to see what they actually wrote.

The ADL’s ire is directed at an article posted on September 1, “The Israel Lobby and the Organized Jewish Community Want Regime Change in Syria,” where I looked at all the Jewish and (what is more or less the same) neocon websites I could think of to see what they were saying about a war with Syria. This included the ADL, and I noted that the respected civil rights organization had engaged in double talk on Assad’s responsibility and had once again used the Holocaust to establish their moral authority in a morally dubious situation. The only conclusion possible was that the ADL wanted regime change. Since the ADL didn’t complain about that, I guess they agree with my assessment.

My article also included pro-war material from a wide range of Jewish websites, including the main pro-Israel lobbying organization, AIPAC. I couldn’t find any important Jewish organizations that were opposed to a military strike, so I concluded that a military option was a consensus attitude in the organized Jewish community, being careful, as always, to distinguish the organized Jewish community from all Jews.

The title of the ADL press release, on the other hand, implies that I think that “Jews” are responsible for “events in Syria” which is ridiculous. I was obviously writing about pressure by the organized Jewish community, including the Israel Lobby and the ADL, on the U.S. government for a military strike. And by the time I wrote my next article, “The Organized Jewish Community: Wall-to-Wall Support for a Strike on Syria” (Sept. 16), I was able to include a link to a Jerusalem Post article (a notorious conspiracy-mongering site) titled “Report: AIPAC to mount major lobbying blitz for Obama’s Syria strike plan.” The article notes that AIPAC was prepared to have 250 activists descend on Washington to twist arms on Capitol Hill.

So, yes, the organized Jewish community was doing exactly what I said they were doing—lobbying for a military strike in Washington. And it’s not exactly a stretch to suppose that they were also trying to change public opinion given the many mainstream media appearances and op-eds by representatives of organizations like the Washington Institute for Near East Policy which, amazingly, seems to be considered an unbiased media source by National Public Radio among others.

Fortunately, Vladimir Putin put a crimp in all this by proposing a peace plan. Obama, the reluctant warrior, was able to avoid a disastrous defeat in Congress, and the best laid plans of the Israel Lobby and the organized Jewish community fell apart. The Lobby is seething right now—furious not only that missiles haven’t been launched at Syria, but that peace may be breaking out with Iran.

But don’t count them out. They are nothing if not persistent. Indeed, M.J. Rosenberg notes that AIPAC is getting ready for “war with Obama“:

Why would anyone think the Senate will pass AIPAC’s war bills? The answer is simply that the midterm elections are coming up and that means Members of Congress need campaign cash. And AIPAC provides it.

Remember what AIPAC’s former #2 guy, Steve Rosen (later indicted under the Espionage Act) told New Yorker writer Jeff Goldberg in 2005. Goldberg asked Rosen just how powerful AIPAC is. Goldberg described Rosen’s response.

A half smile appeared on his face, and he pushed a napkin across the table. “You see this napkin?” he said. “In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin.”

Obama better be prepared. AIPAC has been pushing war with Iran for a decade. Its bills to achieve it won’t be written on napkins.