NADER VS. THE ADL
By Brian Faler - The Washington Post -
Thursday, August 12, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58007-2004Aug11.html

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.

"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."

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.

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.