ADL's Dubious Survey

Since its release earlier in May, the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) preposterously named "The Global 100: An Index of Anti-Semitism" has drawn ridicule from a variety of sources for being unscientific and thus invalid.

The jazzy-sounding "Global 100", which claimed that more than a quarter of the world's population is anti-Semitic, has been found wanting in proper methodology and on political grounds. Among the critics are author Norman Finkelstein (a child of Holocaust survivors) and Amira Haas, a leading columnist of the Israeli "Haaretz" newspaper. It has been also criticized as skewed to portray and to enforce Zionist ideology and agenda. Least of the survey's problem is that by interviewing just over 50,000 adults (102 countries in 96 languages), it claims there are more than one billion anti-Semites among us.

The survey says 0.2% (!) of Laotians are anti-Semitic while that country's next-door neighbor (Vietnam) is 6% anti-Semitic. In the land of "Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite" some 37% of Frenchmen are anti-Semitic compared to a mere 21% in Portugal, a country with a long history of anti-Semitism. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the tiny island of Hispaniola. While 26% of Haiti's population is anti-Semitic, that number amazingly balloons to 41% in next-door Dominican Republic, says the survey. For some mysterious reason, fully 33% of the citizens of Botswana, in the middle of nowhere, are anti-Semitic. Malaysia's percentage is 61%, compared to its neighbor Singapore's 16%. Greece is far more (69%) anti-Semitic than Israel's sworn enemy Iran (56%).

In the Caucasus, Armenia gets the gold medal in the anti-Semitism (58%) competition, according to the inane survey. Azerbaijan's and Georgia's numbers are 37% and 32%. Thus Armenia is almost twice as anti-Semitic as Georgia, says Genocide-denying Abe Foxman's ADL. Extrapolated into population figures, there are 1,300,000 (count them) anti-Semites in Armenia. Who knew?

In an scathing attack on the ADL, Finkelstein wrote: "Most every sane person has come to take anything the Anti-Defamation League utters with a dozen boulders of salt," adding that the organization is trying to cash in on the "ever-burgeoning anti-Semitism industry and still hopes to immunize Israel by labeling legitimate criticism of its policies as motivated by an irrational animus towards Jews."

Peter Lyukimson's below article, which appeared in "Vestnik Kavkaza" (May 27) (*), attacks the Armenian Cultural Society of Israel for accusing the Israeli government of inability to fight anti-Armenian sentiment in the country. Mr. Lyukimson also takes the ADL survey at face value. Despite residing in Israel, he doesn't seem to know that all Christian minorities of the Holy Land--including Armenians--have a very difficult time under Israeli Occupation.

In YNETnews.com (May 30), Palestinian Farid Jubran addressed the difficulties Christians in Israel face. "A minority of a minority, [it is] exposed to waves of hatred," he said and cited an Israeli member of the Knesset who tore the New Testament in the Knesset while uttering words of incitement. The firing of gunshots inside churches, the setting of fire in monasteries, the spray-painting of malicious graffiti on monastery walls, the slashing of Christians' car tires were other examples of anti-Christian acts in Israel, said Mr. Jubran.

He also mentioned religious Jews spitting on monks, Jews shattering Christian gravestones, and death threats to bishops and to Christian community leaders. "The government stands by idly and utters a few words of condemnation... restricts the Churches' activities immensely by imposing a strict and discriminating regime of visas for Christian clerics. A priest who wishes to stay in Israel in order to serve in one of the Christians communities will be forced to undergo a humiliating via dolorosa on the part of the authorities until he receives the stay permit, if at all," wrote Mr. Jubran and pointed out that the nature, identity and autonomy of Christian schools are constantly undermined by the Israeli authorities.

To neutralize the criticism of the Armenian Cultural Society's accusations against the Israeli authorities, Mr. Lyukimson luxuriates in spreading the anti-Armenian misinformation of the ADL survey. While it's irrational to claim that there's no anti-Semitism in Armenia, what little that exists is surely a result of Israel's execrable policies towards the Armenian people, rather than a racial or religious hostility.

For years Israel has been selling sophisticated weapons and electronic gadgetry to Azerbaijan. The latter not only threatens Armenia on a regular basis but it frequently sends soldiers across the border to kill Armenians. Israeli soldiers also train the Azeri military.

Israel refuses to recognize the Genocide of Armenians, although it should have been the first state to have recognized the vast tragedy which preceded the Holocaust by 25 year. Israel, through its lobby in the US, regularly throttles the passing of resolutions recognizing the Genocide. Putting politics ahead of morality, a state which was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust does Turkey's dirty work in Washington with offensive eagerness and alacrity.

Despite ADL's assertion that 37% of Azerbaijan is anti-Semitic, a few days ago Arye Gut, board member of the Azerbaijan-Israel International Association, said to the "Baku Post": "Azerbaijan is the most tolerant country in the world and a true model of intercivilizational and interreligious dialogue." And back in November, Gut said: "There has never been anti-Semitism in Azerbaijan." Whew.

ADL mouthpiece Mr. Lyukimson should read about Russian Jews who, for decades, sought sanctuary from Soviet anti-Semitism in tolerant Armenia. He should also read about the frequent intermarriage between Soviet Armenians and Soviet Jews. The two nations found each other sympathetic. Meanwhile a discredited lobbying organization, with the misnomer that it fights defamation, is trying to sow hostility between the two nations.

The ADL and Mr. Lyukimson are barking at the wrong tree.

"Keghart,com" (www.keghart.com), June 1, 2014 (editorial)


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(*) Here is the article by Peter Lyukimson, "Armenians Accuse Israeli Government of Xenophobia" ("Armeniaca"):

The Armenian Cultural Society in Israel has accused the government of inability to fight anti-Armenian sentiment. The press secretary of the Society, Mendel Korsunsky, recalled an incident that happened in 2008 when a young religious Jew spat on Armenian seminarian Oganes Martirosyan. The latter had beaten up the spitter.

Members of the Armenian community could not recall any other case of “anti-Armenian sentiment in Israel,” apart from this case, which happened six years ago. They seem to be forgetting the fact that the Jew was sentenced for what he had done and Oganes Martirosyan was not punished. If anything similar had happened between two Jews, both would have been sentenced and the one fighting would have been punished a lot more severely for the inappropriate reaction and injuries.

Such a peculiar declaration by the Armenian Cultural Society in Israel has a simple explanation: its authorities were outraged by the latest report by the Anti-Defamation League (a human rights organization preventing anti-Semitism and other intolerance forms). The document puts Armenia at the top of the list of the most anti-Semitic countries of the world. According to the report, 58% of the modern Armenian population express anti-Semitism, considering that there are no more than 1,000 Jews living in Armenia, according to official data.

Attempting to alter the report, Armenian activists living in Israel accused Rabbi Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, of Armenophobia. Calling Foxman “a pro-Turkish lobbyist of the U.S.,” the Armenian Cultural Society reminds that in 2007 he was one of the most fierce opponents of the 106th resolution of the U.S. Congress on recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. He was accused by Shavo Melkonyan, the head of the Armenian National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts, of denying the Armenian Genocide.

Korsunsky assures that Armenia has no anti-Semitic sentiment, it only has “anti-Israeli” sentiment provoked by the refusal of Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide and its military support of Azerbaijan. However, he forgets that, according to all experts, modern anti-Semitism is most often used to hide “disagreement with the policy of modern Israel.” The word “Jews” is then replaced with “Israelis”, “Israeli Jews” or “Zionists.” So the declaration of the Armenian Cultural Society has basically reconfirmed the report of the Anti-Defamation League instead of proving it wrong.