New York, NY, February 28, 2015 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly criticized an ad in today’s New York Times calling National Security Advisor Susan Rice “blind” to genocide.
The full page ad, placed by This World: The Values Network run by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, runs through a litany of personal attacks on Ambassador Rice’s character and asserts that her criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu merits special condemnation because of “her pattern of callous disregard for genocide.”
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
Whatever concerns one may have about disagreements between the United States and Israel or about the Iran negotiations, there is no justification for this incendiary personal attack.
The spurious and perverse association of criticism of Israel’s prime minister with ignoring genocide not only poisons the discourse on a vital global security issue, it trivializes the horrific nature of genocide and the memory of its victims.
Neither the security of Israel, nor the debate on Iran, are served by this ad on the eve of Ambassador Rice’s address to AIPAC. It is not only an ugly distraction from the real issue, it is reckless.