The ADL Motto: If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it!
Letter to the NYtimes
As is to expected, Abe Foxman just flipped logic and reality on its head! Take a look:Israeli concessions do not produce greater moderation on the other side but rather greater extremism.
Anti-Defamation League
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times March 6, 2009
To the Editor:
Re "Fresh Start in the Middle East," (editorial, March 6).
You miss the most critical point in assessing Secretary of State Clinton's trip to the region. Yes, Israel needs to take steps to help Palestinian President Authority Mahmoud Abbas, including curtailing settlements and removing obstacles to travel in the West Bank.
Focusing on these steps, however necessary, ignores the reality that led to right-wing gains in Israel's election and that pervades the country: that Israeli concessions do not produce greater moderation on the other side but rather greater extremism.
Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, its offer of an independent Palestinian state at Camp David in 2000, and its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 led to terrorism, hostage taking, war and the strengthening of the extremists, Hezbollah and Hamas, not peace and security.
Ultimately, both sides have to make difficult decisions for peace. However, your failure to focus primarily on the need for Palestinians to show Israelis that future Israeli concessions will produce a different result is unhelpful. Going your way will only lead to more of the same.
Sincerely,
The Anti-Defamation League