More
on how the Anti-Defamation League secretly
works [original
link]  Irish
best-selling author Gordon Thomas
discovers the ADL is preventing his books
from being sold at bookstores
By Gordon
Thomas THE paragraph was short
and based on information from NASA and the
Israeli's Space Agency. It dealt with the
role of Israeli astronaut, Ilon
Ramon, one of the crew of the
ill-fated Columbia shuttle. This is what I wrote in that
paragraph: "Astronaut Ilon Ramon was
conducting secret experiments on the
Columbia to discover new ways to beat
Saddam's threat to use
biological and chemical weapons against
Israel. For most of his 16 days on
board the Columbia, he had been using
cameras linked directly to the Israeli
Space Agency to study desert dust and
wind-drifts emanating from the deserts
of Iraq." In a splurge of rage, the New York
based Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith, through its
"Anti-Semitism-International" -- a
newsletter rant on the Internet -- accused
me of being an "anti-Israel author", and
one of those who used "the Space Shuttle
Columbia disaster for their own purposes,
anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers and Israel
bashers promoting warped conspiracy
theories". Abraham H Foxman, the
Anti-Defamation League's National Director
even managed to include me in his
all-sweeping diatribe that "even in times
of tragedy for the American people, the
anti-Semites and hatemongers never let
up". There is much, much more, of this
demented hysteria in
Anti-Semitism-International.  IN
OVER 50 years of being a published writer,
I have never met such a vicious smear.
It's all the more incredible for when I
first reported from Israel, since the Suez
Crisis of 1956, I have been repeatedly
praised for my balanced reporting about
that country.
I co-authored the Academy Award
multi-nominated "Voyage
of the Damned", a saga of Jewish
courage. I arranged for the Holocaust
Museum in Washington DC to receive all the
research material on this saga. I have
lectured widely to Israeli congregations
about the pernicious anti-Semitism now
rife. I write for a UK newspaper, the
Sunday Express, owned by a powerful
Jew. I have a huge network of Jewish
correspondents and contacts, many of them
highly placed in Israel. Would all these
good people continue to help me if they
thought I was "anti-Israel" or
anti-Semitic? That is what makes outlandish, vicious
and dangerous labelling by the League so
serious, because if they can label me an
anti-Semite, then who else can they damage
at the whim of the likes of Mr Foxman?
People who cannot reply to their
ridiculous accusations.  | Website
note: Abraham Foxman,
wealthy and controversial chief
of the Anti Defamation League,
likes to refer to himself as a
"Holocaust survivor." As a
biography
on this website shows, he was not
even born when Hitler invaded his
native Poland, and he was looked
after by Polish Catholics
throughout the war; his parents
also "survived". |
The reality is that, what it espouses to
defend -- free speech -- the League sets
out to stifle it. I had asked them to
print a simple apology. My request was
ignored. Hence this article. It will, as
usual, be widely circulated.It is time that somebody stood up to
the bully-boy tactics of the
Anti-Defamation League. It is rich and
powerful and operates from its exclusive
address at 823 United Nations Plaza
[New York, NY
10017, USA]. It has been around
a long time, since 1913. Its stated aim is
"fighting anti-Semitism through programs
and services that counteract hatred,
prejudices and bigotry". Noble aims. No
one can criticise them. But even so
much as dare to ask for the right of
reply in their "Anti-Semitism
International" -- as I did over its
offensive linking of my name with
anti-Semitism -- and you are brushed
aside. When I protested, I received a somewhat
bizarre email from the League's "Corporate
Counsel", Jill Kahn Meltzer. She is, of course, a lawyer. And the
truth does not always sit easy with
attorneys -- whoever they are. She
writes: "ADL has not accused you of
anti-Semitism. As the press release and
the story notes, the conspiracy theories
about the shuttle have been circulated by
anti-Semites." I wrote the story, and it has been
clearly linked as part of the League's
attack on anti-Semites. The truth is that
in doing so the League has defamed me --
because there's nothing in my story that
can be remotely called anti-Semitic or
anti-Israeli. But there is more from Ms Meltzer. "While you are within your
rights to criticise Israel and theorise
about nefarious missions and practices
it engages in, it is ADL's right to
comment on those writings." Hold it right there, Ms Meltzer. Where
is there any criticism about "nefarious
missions and practices" in the paragraphs
used in Anti-Semitism-International to
brand me as an "anti-Semite" and
"anti-Israel"?  Comment
is fair. But to use the language your
organisation chose is -- dare I say it --
more in keeping with the smear tactics we
all abhorred: those of Joseph
Goebbels (left) and his fellow
Nazis.
I suppose saying that makes me pro-Nazi
in the eyes of the League! For some time now I have been aware of
the ways the League pounced on those less
rich and powerful. It has its followers in
all levels of the media: in publishing, in
radio and in television. Others who work in those areas have
told me of their fear of the League. How
it can black-list a book, mobilise an
onslaught against a columnist, use its
powerful connections in Washington to
crush opposition. But until recently, I had no idea just
how powerful it could be. The first hint
came when I published "Seeds of
Fire" (Dandelion Books), a non-fiction
book which dealt with the relationship
between Israel and China and the role of
Mossad in the United States. The book drew
favourable reviews from distinguished
critics. Carol Adler, my feisty
publisher based in Phoenix Arizona, felt
optimistic that the book would continue to
sell in big numbers. But suddenly,
though she could not prove it, she felt
the heat. Barnes & Noble, America's
largest bookseller, withdrew its
support for the book. Why? Because it
had just announced it was going to
collaborate with the stated aims of the
League. Seeds of Fire became among the
first victims of what I regard as a pogrom
against the truth. Carol Adler had lined
up a major promotion to build upon the
reviews. Suddenly she found that radio and
TV appearances were cancelled on national
shows. Now what makes this doubly disturbing
is that Seeds
of Fire was preceded by another book
of mine, "Gideon's Spies". Published by St
Martin's Press (New York), it is a
detailed account of Mossad
[the Israeli
secret service] It became a
successful documentary for Britain's
Channel-4. It has been published, so far,
in 55 countries. It is a book that carries
the imprimatur of Meir Amit, the
former director-general of Mossad. He
states: "Thomas tells it like it was --
like it is". The book's jacket is peppered
with similar accolades. I do not know at what stage the League
became aware of it, but aware they did
become. And, despite Mr Amit's unstinted
praise, League hatchetmen in the media set
to work. The normal standards of reviewing
were shunted aside; the charge was that I
was an anti-Semite for daring to have
shown that Mossad was less than
infallible! So the way was paved for the assault on
Seeds
of Fire. It is still selling on the
Internet -- though Carol Adler has
indicated she is still having difficulties
in collecting my royalties! But still the League was not satisfied.
Last year, I co-published (with Martin
Dillon) "Robert Maxwell: Israel's
Super Spy" (Carroll & Graf, New
York). Maxwell, a media tycoon and crook on a
grand scale, as well as being a Mossad
"asset" was a staunch supporter of the
League. The result was that the League mounted
a disgraceful attempt to bury the
book. Newspapers that support the League --
The New York Times among them --
either refused to review the book or used
it, yes, you've got it, to accuse Dillon
and myself of anti-Semitism. When we
protested about one such scabrous attack
in The Washington Post, it refused
to publish our letter. When we challenged
Alan Dershowitz -- the lawyer who
helped to defend O J Simpson -- on
misreporting the facts in his "review", we
were again refused the right of reply. That said, I must also add that The
Times of London, Britain's Daily
Mail and Daily Mirror showed
they will stand up to the League by
devoting considerable space to the book.
So far, the book is in its sixth UK
printing and doing well in the US. But what I complain of about the League
is this. No matter how favourably I have
handled Israel in the past, the slightest
criticism brings down a garbage-can of
attacks in its newsletter. In these dangerous times, their
Anti-Semitism-International commits what
Jews call a blood libel by linking my name
and writings with the foul words of Abu
Hamza al-Masri, an Islamic
Fundamentalist. If it is to continue to make such
irresponsible links, then it will demean
its aims even further. There is only one way to make the
League know how my hundreds of thousands
of readers feel about their baseless
accusations. It is to make your view known. Why not
spare a moment and sent an email to
jill.meltzer@adl.org
and tell us if she responds. If you feel
like calling her, here is the number in
the USA: (212) 885 7734. Of if you care to
fax her, the number is (212) 953 9691. But
try and spare the time to express your
feelings. It will be another step in stopping the
smears and misrepresentations that are not
needed in these troubled times. 
on this
website... 
How
the ADL stopped St Martins Press from
publishing David Irving's "Goebbels.
Mastermind of the Third Reich" (which
was also listed as Doubleday's "book of
the month")-
Muslim
group files move to disbar Alan
Dershowitz for advocating Mossad
torture
Dossier on the
Anti-Defamation League
Dossier
on the origins of global
anti-Semitism
| 
write to David
Irving