Posts
since Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:04:17.
Supporting the two-state solution seems to drive Arabs mad!
Karin and I tried to learn more about the American Task Force for Palestine (ATFP).
The ATFP to have split from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in order to focus on the foreign policy objective of supporting the two-state solution. Somewhere in the organizations development, it began to focus on policing Arab and Muslim thought more or less like Israel advocacy organizations.
While I have some qualms about throwing rocks at an organization that at least initially was sincerely pro-Palestinian, Kabobfest has published several interesting articles on this organization and its staff:
Despite this rather disturbing information, Karin wrote to the ATFP to request
- that it provide a link to Chop Shop Economic and Stealth Zionism so that readers could determine for themselves whether the article was anti-Semitic and
- that it clearly identify her as the author to prevent readers from believing that her opinion and that of the publishers were identical.
Dear ATFP,
In addition to attributing my article to my name, I also must insist that you link to my original article in the Khaleej Times. The url is:
It is unethical to make sweeping libelous statements without allowing the reader to see the context of the subject being discussed. In this case, the reader would then be able to see that Ibish was being dishonest in characterizing an emotionless and well-substantiated opinion editoral as "hate." Because Ibish's commentary omits the reference it constitutes a level of trickery that is probably illegal.
I will be checking back to make sure you added my name and link to my article.
Karin Friedemann
Ibish replied:
I responded to ATFP President Ziad Asali with an email entitled Newspaper Etiquette, Accusations of Anti-Semitism.April 29, 2009
Subj: Reply to your e-mail entitled "Unethical use of my article" Date: 04/29/2009 09:16:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: mailto:hussein.ibish@gmail.com To: Karin Friedemann
CC: mailto:zasali@atfp.net, mailto:hussein.ibish@gmail.com
via e-mail
Ms. Friedemann:
Your e-mail to ATFP entitled "Unethical use of my article" asserts that in my recent letter to the Khaleej Times regarding one of your articles, I "engage in unprofessional slandering of an Arab newspaper while hiding the fact that the author was clearly not an Arab." In fact, the letter I sent did not hide your authorship, but discussed it in detail and cited some of your other writings to establish what I consider to be a clear pattern of anti-Semitic rhetoric on your part. Please find the original text of my letter as delivered to the Khaleej Times reproduced in full and unedited at the end of this message. If you have a problem with the version that was printed because it does not mention your authorship by name, you must take it up with the Khaleej Times, as it was their decision alone to exclude that aspect of my letter.
You further accuse me of supposedly working "hard to shield Jewish criminals from prosecution" and to working with "Israel Lobbyists like the ADL." Needless to say, you do not provide any evidence to support this allegation, since I have never shielded any Jewish or any other criminals from any form of prosecution, nor have I ever worked with the ADL in any capacity. As a matter of fact, only a few days ago in Dallas I had a rather contentious debate on Middle East peace with the Dallas director of the ADL. Your capacity for making up false allegations and slandering people with whom you disagree appears to be boundless. If you have a problem with the fact that the letter as printed does not mention your authorship, I advise you to take this up with the Khaleej Times, as I would have greatly preferred my letter to have been printed in its entirety, including the direct attribution of your authorship of this appalling article, and the frankly bigoted quote from your blog that I cited as further proof of your overtly anti-Semitic attitudes.
I would strongly urge you to abandon prejudicial comments that unfairly stigmatized an entire ethnic and religious community, and, at the very least, stop attempting to export your bigoted viewpoints to an Arab audience that deserves better from its newspapers. The last thing the Arab world needs is encouragement from prejudiced Americans such as yourself in harboring irrational and unfairly negative opinions about Jews in general and American Jews in particular.
Sincerely, Hussein Ibish
--
Hussein Ibish, PhD
Senior Fellow, American Task Force on Palestine
815 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20006
hussein.ibish@gmail.com
ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE LETTER AS ORIGINALLY SUBMITTED:
Letters to the editor
The Khaleej Times
Via email
April 14, 2009
To the Editor:
The Khaleej Times has, in recent editions, made a habit of printing commentaries by Karin Friedemann who describes herself as “a Boston-based writer on the Middle East affairs and US politics.” The most recent example of this, “Chop Shop Economics and Stealth Zionism” (April 14), casts the economic recovery program in the United States being led by the Obama administration as “premeditated attempt to loot and destroy the US financial system,” and lays the blame for this conspiracy squarely at the feet of what she calls a “corrupt network” of Jewish and Zionist Americans. This poisonous nonsense seeks to exploit the current financial crisis facing the American and global economies and link it to traditional themes of anti-Semitism in a transparent effort to promote fear and hatred of Jews. In case anyone has any doubts about the thinly veiled anti-Semitic sentiments behind Ms. Friedemann’s article, in a recent blog posting on her website she asserts that, “…American Jews are actually being trained since childhood to interact with non-Jews in a deceitful and arrogant manner, in coordination with each other, to emotionally destroy Gentiles and Israel critics, in addition to wrecking their careers and interfering with their social relationships…” (“The Emotional Violence of Jewish Advocacy,” February 2, 2009, http://karinfriedemann.blogspot.com/).
Ms. Friedemann is entitled to her views, no matter how bigoted and preposterous, but it is mystifying why the Khaleej Times would choose to print this kind of blatant anti-Semitism. Arab readers deserve serious and thoughtful analysis about American society, politics and economics, and not vapid hate speech that can only inflame prejudices and promote the most distorted perceptions. Just as Israel and the West cannot afford to indulge in Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, Arab media including the Khaleej Times should scrupulously avoid giving a platform to this kind of crude and false defamation of Jews. Responsible media in all societies have an obligation not only to avoid promoting gratuitous hatred, especially that which exacerbates the most dangerous divisions, but also to maintain basic and universally applicable standards of accuracy and decency. Commentaries such as these not only encourage bigoted viewpoints among the Khaleej Times readership, they play into the parallel and extremely damaging stereotype of the Arab press as anti-Semitic.
Sincerely yours,
Hussein Ibish, PhD
Senior Fellow, American Task Force on Palestine
815 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20006
hussein.ibish@gmail.com
Dear Mr. Ziad Asali:
I am Karin Friedemann's husband. I am a former faculty member at MIT. I have been studying Judaica for 40 years, have been doing economic modeling for 30 years, and worked as a journalist during the 70s.
I am disturbed by accusations that the ATFP website makes against an op-ed article written by my wife for the Khaleej Times.
As a matter of simple etiquette, your website should not cite an op-ed without the by-line because it makes the column appear to be an editorial that represents the opinion of the publisher.
When I was seriously studying the Talmud 25 years or so ago, I found a passage promising the coming of the Messiah when all authors cited their sources properly.
Because proper citation is also a virtue for Muslims, studying isnad became an important science early in Islam.
I googled Mr. Hussein Ibish and find that I have in the past agreed with a lot of his material.
Unfortunately, since he became a proponent of the two-state solution, sometimes he seems shrill and intolerant. (Your organization should probably consider a reevaluation of its position in the light of developments described by Meron Benvenisti in Haaretz.)
In addition, he simply does not know enough about Jewish studies to police Arabs and Muslims with respect to anti-Semitism.
My wife grew up in a very Jewish neighborhood, and she is completely fair when she states:
…American Jews are actually being trained since childhood to interact with non-Jews in a deceitful and arrogant manner, in coordination with each other, to emotionally destroy Gentiles and Israel critics, in addition to wrecking their careers and interfering with their social relationships…
Because I take part in Interfaith activities, I frequently have to deal the consequences of the upbringing she describes.
Mr. Ibish writes:
Arab readers deserve serious and thoughtful analysis about American society, politics and economics, and not hate speech that can only inflame prejudices and promote the most distorted perceptions.
Because he is correct, I have created a website for Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel. It documents modern Jewish history and ancient Judaism in detail so that Jews and non-Jews have a resource that can help them respond to Zionist intimidation and propaganda.
Mr. Ibish adds:
Responsible media in all societies have an obligation not only to avoid promoting hatred, especially that which exacerbates the most dangerous divisions, but also to maintain basic and universally applicable standards of accuracy and decency. Commentaries such as these not only encourage bigoted viewpoints among the readership, but they also play into the parallel and extremely damaging stereotype of the Arab press as anti-Semitic.
Responsible journalists have an obligation to report the facts objectively even when those facts pertain to Jews. For decades the US news industry has been failing in this duty. There is no reason for Arabs, Arab Americans, or Arab news organizations to take part in this misbehavior.
Maybe Mr. Ibish is trying to score brownie points by pandering liberal Jewish Zionists [e.g., Rejecting Hate Speech Deserves Praise], but he does neither Palestinians nor Americans any favors by denying the facts and flinging accusations of anti-Semitism like some crude Zionist.
Karin's opinion piece simply describes the interesting business or social relationships of the main developers of the Geithner Plan. In addition she quotes the opinions of important Jewish Americans about the Plan, which is widely perceived as inadequate and potentially dangerous.
We argued for days about the last line of the op-ed in order to sum up in the simplest way possible what the Geithner plan means and the nature of the threat it represents.
I discuss the Geithner Plan further on my blog for Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel in my commentary on Chop Shop Economics and Stealth Zionism.
I address the Jabotinskian (Revisionist Zionist) concept of ethnonational financial warfare in Jewish Financial Aggression and Worldwide Economic Nakba.
The Jewish working class has a tradition both of talking frankly about avaricious Jewish proprietors and also of standing up to Jewish plutocrats.
Mr. Ibish would do well to learn something about Central and Eastern European Jewish political economic history before criticizing my wife for stating some easily verifiable facts and for drawing some perfectly reasonable conclusions.
If the Israel Lobby is able practically to dictate US ME policy and if some Zionist groups have the ability to distort US media coverage of Palestine, why couldn't other Zionist groups engage in large scale financial manipulation?
As far as I can tell, the ATFP has neither mission to identify or to attack anti-Semitism qua Judeophobia, nor does the organization have anyone on its staff qualified to discuss the subject rationally.
Because Mr. Ibish' complete letter to The Khaleej Times looks like an attempt to get her fired and therefore constitutes interference with business relations, Karin has a legitimate grievance for which ATFP can make amends by modifying its online article about her op-ed both to identify her as the author and also to include a link to the online version so that readers will be able to make up their own mind about the question of anti-Semitism.
Sincerely yours,
Joachim Martillo
President
