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Aug. 12, 2004 23:48 | Updated Aug. 12, 2004 23:51
Nader defends Israel 'puppeteer' comments
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader stood by his characterization of the White House and Congress as "puppets" of the Israeli government, in a letter sent to Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman this week.
In early July, after Nader made the "puppet" comment, Foxman and Barbara Balser, ADL's national chairman, wrote to Nader, saying, "the image of the Jewish State as a 'puppeteer,' controlling the powerful US Congress feeds into many age-old stereotypes which have no place in legitimate public discourse."
In a three-page letter dated August 5, Nader responded to Foxman by noting, "The Israelis have a joke for the obvious – that the United States is the second state of Israel." "How often, if ever, has the United States – either the Congress of the White House – pursued a course of action, since 1956, that contradicted the Israeli government's position?"
Nader lamented what he described as the lack of freedom in the US to debate and discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and he attacked the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby, for its influence on Capitol Hill.
"Citizen groups are in awe of AIPAC's ditto machine on Capitol Hill as are many members of Congress who, against their private judgment, resign themselves to sign on the dotted line," he wrote.
Attached to Nader's letter were copies of an article that appeared in the Nation magazine about pro-peace movements in the US, and a letter signed by hundreds of IDF reservists who refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Foxman said Nader was continuing to spread a "canard" about the Jews. "He fuels the conspiracy theory that the Jews control the White House and the Congress. And it's a lot more sinister after Iraq," Foxman said, adding that Nader's comments "border on anti-Semtism." |
