- Ralph Nader, that master of controversy, has a new bete
noire: the Anti-Defamation League. The independent presidential candidate
has become embroiled in an ugly exchange with the Jewish organization,
after he suggested that President Bush and Congress were "puppets"
of the Israeli government.
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- "The days when the chief Israeli puppeteer comes
to the United States and meets with the puppet in the White House and then
proceeds to Capitol Hill, where he meets with hundreds of other puppets,
should be replaced," Nader said earlier this summer. That prompted
an angry letter from the league, which complained that the "image
of the Jewish state as a 'puppeteer,' controlling the powerful US Congress
feeds into many age-old stereotypes which have no place in legitimate public
discourse."
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- Nader is not backing down. In a letter to the group that
will be released today, he reiterated his arguments, challenged the league
to cite a recent example of when American leaders have pursued a policy
opposed by the Israeli government and pointed to Israeli peace groups that
he said share his criticism of that country's leadership. "There is
far more freedom in the media, in town squares and among citizens, soldiers,
elected representatives and academicians in Israel to debate and discuss
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than there is in the United States,"
Nader wrote.
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- The longtime consumer advocate's willingness to criticize
Israel may win him some votes, since both Bush and Democratic nominee John
F. Kerry strongly support Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But not
if Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the league has anything
to say about it. "What he said smacks of bigotry," Foxman said.
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