Opinion
The Stench of Hypocrisy
Los Angeles
y
ou would think the U.S. Social
Forum [USSF] June conference
in Detroit, dedicated to helping
oppressed people, would have wanted to
have a workshop about one of the Middle
East's most persecuted minorities: the gay
community. Yet, in an act of shameless
hypocrisy, the USSF suddenly cancelled a
workshop on the plight of Middle Eastern
gays and silenced their voices.
Why did the USSF cancel this work-
shop?
USSF organizers claim it was because
the workshop speaker had not been
"transparent" and "misrepresented" his
organization, StandWithUs. This is false.
He had supplied all requested information
weeks before the event and his session was
scheduled without further questions.
USSF organizers also charge that
StandWithUs violates their "anti-rac-
ist" principles; and some claimed that
StandWithUs obstructs pro-Palestinian
events. Again, this is false.
StandWithUs is committed to education
on the road to peace in the Middle East,
and to exposing the human rights record
in the region. StandWithUs only protests
events that promote misinformation and
anti-Semitic claims whose purpose is to
incite hatred against Israel, its supporters
and Jews.
But dislike for StandWithUs can't be the
reason for the cancellation. Silencing the
voices of oppressed Middle Eastern gays
would surely be too high a price
Even worse, when questions
to pay given that the USSF's
were raised about what Middle
mission is promoting human
Eastern country treats gays as
rights. And no other workshop
equals, strictly outlaws per-
even alluded to the persecution,
secution and discrimination
torture, honor killings and exe-
against gays, allows boisterous
cution of gays across the Middle
gay pride parades, has gays
East, including in Palestinian
participate fully and openly
communities.
in the government, military,
One likely reason for the
schools and other institutions,
Roz Ro thstein
cancellation is that anti-Israel
the unequivocal answer would
Spe cial
Palestinian groups hijacked the
have been Israel.
Comm entary
USSF agenda. In a June 23 press
The indisputable facts about
release, they boasted that they
gays in the Middle East would
had formed a "solid coalition" against the
have posed troubling dilemmas that the
workshop and that the cancellation was an organizers could not face, let alone resolve.
"historic accomplishment." Their accom-
They would have had to acknowledge
plishment was using a forum against
that Israel shares many of their progres-
social injustice to cancel a discussion
sive values. But this recognition would
about social injustice.
have contradicted their anti-Israel preju-
Just as Arab and Muslim coalitions have dices, producing cognitive dissonance or
hijacked the United Nations and perverted anxiety about a firmly held belief system.
its ideals in order to carry on their war
They would have been forced to take a
against the Jewish state; so this coalition
hard look at themselves and reassess their
of radical anti-Israel groups like Al-Awda
belief system and self-image.
hijacked the USSF 2010 conference.
If any positive light were shed on Israel
But a more pressing reason this coali-
about its progressive values, multicultural-
tion and the USSF cancelled was very
ism and work toward peaceful coexistence,
likely that they feared the facts that would
then how could the USSF and its organiz-
have come to light. The progressive audi-
ers continue to demonize it? How could
ence would have concluded that Middle
they justify their "Palestinian Solidarity"
East governments are among the world's
workshop that focused on how to create
worst perpetrators of crimes against
a Palestinian state "from the River to the
gays. Yet they didn't want to criticize the
Sea"— code words for destroying Israel
very governments that are standard bear-
— while ignoring the lack of rights for
ers and allies in their anti-Israel cam-
Palestinian women, gays, and non-Muslim
paign.
minorities? How could they have approved
their "Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions"
workshop, which called for illegally
"de-shelving" Israeli cheeses and other
products so they will rot in grocery store
aisles? How could they continue to seek
support for labeling Israel an "apartheid
state"? How could they motivate confer-
ence attendees to continue calling for
Israel's destruction and support the hate-
filled anti-Israel campaigns?
Simply put, the anti-Israel coalition
and the USSF organizers didn't want any
exposure of their own hypocrisy. They
didn't want any chinks in their anti-Israel
armor for it would undermine the self-
righteous purity of their hatred for the
Jewish State.
So the USSF conference, allegedly com-
mitted to fighting oppression, ended up
supporting the world's worst oppressors
by ignoring the suffering they inflict on
Middle Eastern gays. Their anti-Israel
obsession trumped all their other human
rights values. As has happened so fre-
quently in the history of anti-Semitism,
hatred of Jews distorts and destroys all
other values.
Sadly, like the "de-shelved" Israeli
products that the USSF hopes will rot on
grocery store aisles, the USSF itself was
dominated by the rotten stench of bigotry
and ignorance.
❑
Roz Rothstein is StandWithUs co-founder and
CEO. Roberta Seid, Ph.D., StandWithUs director
of education-research, contributed to this com-
mentary. Website: www.standwithus.com .
Turkey-Israel Relationship
New York
T
hese are sad times indeed for
those with a strong attachment
to Israel, and with an equal and
longstanding respect for Turkey. The
unique relationship shared by these two
countries, down through history and into
the present, is being undermined in a
stormy environment of disagreement and
charged rhetoric.
We need not go into a rehash of the
much-discussed events and the diplo-
matic rows that brought us to this pass.
The strongly critical remarks by Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
first at Davos in response to Israel's
December 2008 invasion of Gaza, and
more recently over the flotilla episode
and the deaths of nine Turkish activists
aboard the Mavi Marmara, have cast
42
July 22 • 2010
a deep pall over the Israeli-
Turkish relationship.
The echoes of Davos and
the flotilla affair seem to be
prevailing over calm heads
and good will, and we can only
wonder, why?
1949, Turkey became the first
Muslim state to recognize
Israel; and in 1958, Turkish
Prime Minister Adnan
Menderes and Israeli Prime
Minister David Ben-Gurion
met in secret to sign a military
and intelligence cooperation
Storied Past
agreement. Ben-Gurion later
Sadly, an historic era of coop-
wrote to President Dwight D.
Abraham H.
eration may be slipping away as
Eisenhower that Israel's "links
Foxman
Turkey appears on the verge of
with the Government of Turkey
Special
abandoning a role it so proudly
have grown more intimate in
Commentary
played as a bridge between the
secret channels!'
Muslim world and the West.
Turkish-Israeli relations
The inter-governmental and people-to-
have always had ups and downs. Yet, until
people relationships are fraying and the
recently, the unmistakable trend for the
tangible benefits they have brought to
prior two decades was growing trade and
both sides are at serious risk.
investment, more cultural exchanges,
This is a shared history based on
increased tourism, ever greater military
mutual interests and concerns. In March
and intelligence cooperation and more
frequent political meetings.
The relationship was much more
than strategic. Both Israeli and Turkish
societies benefited from close ties that
transcended the politics of the moment.
Israelis found in Turkey a beautiful coun-
try for vacations and struck up close
friendships in Turkey.
After a disastrous earthquake struck
Turkey in 1999, Israel was one of the first
countries to extend emergency assistance
by sending sophisticated equipment and
search and rescue crews. The Israeli pub-
lic launched a spontaneous campaign to
assist the victims as thousands of Israelis
stood in line across the country to donate
more than 25 tons blankets, clothing and
food.
There was also the memory of history.
Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire that
preceded it, served as a safe haven for