September/October 1994, Pages 63-64

Jews and Israel

By Sheldon Richman

The Christian Right and the ADL: A Controversial Relationship

The Anti-Defamation League's indictment of the "religious right" as intolerant and even anti-Semitic has in turn drawn criticism from Jewish Republicans and conservatives alike. According to Washington Jewish Week, some prominent Jewish Americans have been talking to the Christian Coalition, a prime ADL target headed by Rev. Pat Robertson, about how to respond to the attack. Among them are Marshall Breger of the Heritage Foundation, William Kristol of the Project for the Republican Future, and Matt Brooks of the Republican-affiliated National Jewish Coalition. Americans for a Safe Israel also has weighed in against ADL. Its chairman, Herbert Zweibon, said that "the greatest friends the state of Israel has in America are the Christian conservatives."

ADL got the controversy started with the release of its report The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance and Pluralism in America. The reaction from Jews involved in Republican and conservative politics was swift. Marshall Wittmann, the Christian Coalition's Jewish director of legislative affairs, said, "This was liberalism, not Judaism, speaking." He called the report "McCarthyite" and an indication of "incredible intolerance." He added, "It's quite ironic that the ADL, despite all the various anti-Semites out there, would go after people for their political views." He accused the report's authors of using Robertson quotations out of context.

According to a report in Forward, William Kristol, who was Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff, said, "It is so shortsighted and self-destructive for a Jewish organization like the ADL to unjustly and gratuitously alienate Christian conservatives." Kristol also said that the ADL is part of the Democratic Party's strategy to "demonize religious conservatives." A spokesman for Kristol, who is the son of Jewish intellectual Irving Kristol, said the Republican strategist frequently consults with Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition.

Breger, who was President Reagan's liaison to the Jewish-American community, commented that the ADL report "missed the forest for the trees. It inferred that the religious right is anti-Semitic, and I don't see how you can make that claim on the record." He said the criticism was political because it asserted that "if you hold certain positions on issues such as school choice, gay rights, or child pornography, that means you are intolerant." Zweibon, whose organization opposes the Arab-Israeli peace process, said the ADL report is a "slap in the face" to friends of Israel and indicated "that the ADL has veered off course and adopted a new ultra-liberal agenda that has nothing to do with ADL's stated purposes." He praised the Christian right for standing by Israel when others turned out to be "fair-weather friends."

Elliot Abrams, another former Reagan official, called the report "despicable." "I think that the problem today lies essentially with the Jewish community, because there is a deep-seated fear of Christian evangelical groups," Abrams said. "There is no question that there are people on the Christian right that have shrill tactics and with whom I disagree totally." But he added that the many Jewish Republicans involved with the Christian Coalition have more agreements than disagreements.

Abraham Foxman, ADL national director, stood by the report as "accurate and fair." He said that while "we are not attacking the Republican Party, [Republicans] are attacking us instead of the religious right. It's fascinating." He added that Christian rightist support for Israel does not require Jews to condone its religious intolerance. Foxman and Robertson spoke by telephone after the report was released. The two had a "friendly" debate, Foxman said.

Steve Gutow, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, declared the religious right "very, very dangerous." "When pluralism is challenged," he said, "most of us in the Jewish community are going to stand up and say 'no.'"

A co-author of the report explained that the reaction of Jewish Republicans indicated the GOP's need for fundamentalist support in the coming elections. "Most Republican leaders are starting to circle their wagons," said David Cantor, an ADL senior research analyst. "They can't possibly win without this huge bloc in the short-term." He asserted that Robertson "has clearly made a number of remarks in the last five years that are extremely insensitive or antagonistic toward Jews, and I don't see why people in the Republican Party need to be apologetic for that."

In his foreword to the report, Foxman wrote, "The problem with issuing a critique of the religious-right movement is that much of what this movement wants is right. Most of us value strong families, better schools, and a government that upholds its commitment to religious liberty." But he added that the Christian right has created a climate of fear. For example, doctors who perform abortions fear for their safety. "In this way," Foxman wrote, "we proceed down the road to the 'Christian nation,' trumpeted by these prophets of rage." The ADL report did acknowledge the religious right's vigorous support for Israel.

American-Jewish "Charity" vs. the Threat of Assimilation

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin's reiteration of his belief that American Jews should use their money to heal their own community rather than sending it to Israel has brought criticism from Jewish American leaders. Beilin more than once has told American Jews that Israel does not need their charity and that Jews in the United States are more threatened by assimilation and intermarriage than Israeli Jews are threatened by Arabs. He recently recommended that fund-raising in the Jewish Diaspora be halted. "There he goes again," said Seymour Reich, head of the American Zionist Movement. Reich told Forward that "what [Beilin] is proposing...is divisive, and if carried out, would separate Israel from the Diaspora." Brian Lurie, executive vice president of the United Jewish Appeal, called Beilin "ignorant," but agreed that Israel does not need charity from America.

Beilin recommended the creation of Beit Yisrael, an organization that would promote the Diaspora's connection with Israel and work against assimilation. The organization, he said, should offer every Jewish 17- and 18-year-old a voucher for a trip to Israel. Under Beilin's plan, Beit Yisrael would replace the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. That plan is opposed by officials of those organizations and is criticized by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. "I regret to say," Rabin said, "that there is a man, a deputy minister, who has seen fit to say things that do not represent the Israeli government."

Sheldon Richman is a Washington, DC-based contributor to the Washington Report.