The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published a thinly veiled attack on the latest “study” by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.
It begins with the words “A survey by the ADL indicates that about a quarter of the world is anti-Semitic” then asks its readers “If you would like to know how much of a Jew-hater you are, here is the list of statements compiled by the ADL that will show whether you are anti-Semitic.”
It also points out that the ADL used what it calls “almost leading questions”.
Feel free to check out the ADL’s dedicated anti-Semitic survey website where you can see for yourself if you are one of the not less than 1.09 billion souls on this planet for whom anti-Semitism is a way of life.
The only thing wrong with these kinds of “surveys” is everything. The good news is that whereas thirty or even twenty years ago they were taken seriously, now people are increasingly learning to see through the contrived statistics of agenda-driven special interest groups like the ADL.
A similar “survey” published last year suggested that one Asian man in four was a rapist; other “surveys” and “studies” have been carried out in both Europe and especially the US where the mythical rape culture so beloved of feminists would have us believe the American campus is a more dangerous environment for women than the back streets of New Dehli where in December 2012 a young woman was literally raped to death by a gang of sickos in an incident that became an international cause célèbre.
Surveys about all manner of social attitudes from sexual mores to drug use, from crime to religion exhibit similar flaws, and are by and large equally worthless.
So what does the ADL survey say? Pretty much as this organisation has been saying for the past half century and more. Certainly its “surveys” of American “anti-Semitism” in the 1960s showed much the same result.
The questions asked are interesting, to put it mildly. In an agree or disagree format, number 8 reads: “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind” and number 11: “People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave”.
Presumably if you answer yes to either of those questions, you too are an anti-Semite. The reality is that this same question could be fielded with regard to any racial/religious or ethnic group, and probably a good many others.
And is it really anti-Semitic or anti-anything to answer yes? If you were to ask the mother of a Palestinian child who had been murdered by the IDF, she might just answer yes to both those questions. Similarly, if they were rephrased you might find an Afghan said similar things about Americans, a Tibetan about the Chinese, or even a rape victim about men. Questions of this nature are not simply loaded, they are inherently dishonest.
Five years ago, the Israeli director Yoav Shamir released an excellent film about the vacuous work of the ADL. You can find Defamation on YouTube; it gives an excellent insight into the mentality of those who run this organisation.
In the wake of the notorious Flotilla Massacre of May 2010, the ADL called on “the U.S. Department of State to designate two of the principal organizers and funders of the ‘Free Gaza’ flotilla as Foreign Terrorist Organizations [continuing]‘After their pre-planned and violent assault against Israeli soldiers on the high seas, the flotilla organizers can no longer hide behind the notion that their only objective is to provide humanitarian services’.
The Gaza Massacre saw nine men – one of them an American citizen – murdered in cold blood by the Israeli Defense Forces. The incident caused international outrage. It is not difficult to understand why any Arab indeed any neutral party hearing such a pronouncement might indeed conclude that some Jews – including those who run the ADL – really don’t care about what happens to anyone but their own kind.
[The above article was originally published May 14, 2014.]
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