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Issues

ECI Letter to Senators Schumer and Levin

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 Issues: Press Release

Below is the letter sent by the directors of the Emergency Committee for Israel to Senators Charles Schumer and Carl Levin regarding their public call for AIPAC to support the New START treaty.

December 1, 2010

The Honorable Charles Schumer
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Carl Levin
269 Russell Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senators Schumer and Levin:

We write in response to your remarkable public letter to Howard Kohr, the Executive Director of AIPAC. His ongoing institutional responsibilities will probably prevent him from responding to you—two powerful Senators unafraid to use your power—as frankly as we can. But we will be frank.

Your letter—an effort to pressure an organization to lobby on a matter far outside its expertise and area of concern—is a disgrace. We’ve rarely seen Senators stoop to this kind of public bullying. AIPAC “cannot afford to stand on the sidelines?” What threat do you mean to convey by this statement?

It’s clear that defenders of the New START treaty (on which, needless to say, the Emergency Committee for Israel takes no position) are frantic to have it ratified in the lame duck session, and they apparently lack the votes to ram it through. But your desperation about New START does not justify behavior unworthy of Senators.

Furthermore: Is it your position that if the Senate does not ratify START in the lame duck session, Russia will be justified in violating UN sanctions against Iran, or in selling Iran air defense missiles? If not, why do you appear to give the Russian government such a justification? Is that the action of true friends of Israel, or true opponents of a nuclear Iran?

We urge you to withdraw the letter to which you have so unfortunately lent your name.

As ever,

William Kristol, Chairman
Rachel Abrams
Gary Bauer

Directors, Emergency Committee for Israel

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Rauf’s Double Standard on Terror

Monday, August 16th, 2010 Issues: Press Release

How do you know someone really isn’t a “moderate” on the question of Islamic radicalism? When he endorses a double standard for terrorism — appearing to condemn it when it is directed against Americans, refusing to condemn it when directed against Israelis.

Feisal Abdul Rauf, a self-styled champion of moderate Islam, was recently asked whether he thinks Hamas is a terrorist organization. “The issue of terrorism is a very complex question,” he replied. When pressed, he insisted that “I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy.”

But surely there should be no middle ground when it comes to Hamas, just as there can be no middle ground when it comes to Al-Qaeda.

Hamas is an Islamic supremacist group that has murdered dozens of Americans and hundreds of Israelis. Hamas leaders routinely call for genocide against Jews, refer to them as vermin and bacteria, and broadcast TV shows teaching their children that their highest ambition should be the slaughter of infidels. On September 11th, 2001, as Americans recoiled in horror at the murder of thousands, members of Hamas were throwing candy in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank to celebrate.

In light of this, it is especially worrisome that the State Department continues to employ Mr. Rauf as an emissary to the Middle East. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley calls him “a distinguished Muslim cleric,” and says, “His work on tolerance and religious diversity is well known, and he brings a moderate perspective to foreign audiences on what it’s like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States.”

The employment of Mr. Rauf by the State Department lends American credibility to a disturbing trend in the West: the idea that terrorism against Israelis falls into a different and less objectionable category from terrorism against other people. This may be fashionable in Europe, but the United States does not embrace an Israel exception to the unacceptability of suicide bombings.

One of the most important messages the United States can deliver to the Middle East is that there is never a justification for jihadist murder, whether in New York, Madrid, London — or Tel Aviv. It is clear from Mr. Rauf’s statements that when he travels abroad at U.S. taxpayers’ expense he is not delivering this message.

There are numerous Muslim leaders in America who are willing to speak the plain truth about Hamas. If the Obama administration and the State Department wish to deliver a clear and compelling message about American values to the Middle East, they can start by disassociating from Feisal Abdul Rauf.

– Noah Pollak

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