On Sunday night, December 8, 1996, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith held a black-tie dinner-dance at Los Angeles' Century Plaza Hotel to honor Thomas L. Friedman, anti-Israel author and newspaper reporter, and gave him a cash award of $25,000. When activists from the Jewish Defense League and Americans For a Safe Israel passed out flyers outside the event letting participants know to whom Jewish community money was going, they were escorted out by security guards by order of ADL officials.

Here's what the flyers said about Thomas L. Friedman:

Friedman called for the appointment of a James Baker-type Secretary of State.

Friedman urged the U.S. to return to the days of having a "[James] Bakeresque" Secretary of State, someone with a "taste for knuckle-breaking, strategic leaking and other diplomatic contact sports" in dealing with Israel (New York Times, Nov. 20, 1996).

Friedman derided Israel as "Yad Vashem with an Air Force."

In his 1989 book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, Friedman characterized Israel as "Yad Vashem with an Air Force" (p. 281); described Arab rioters, who attacked Israelis with rocks and firebombs as using "non-lethal civil disobedience" (p. 338); and wrote of Menachem Begin: "He loved the idea of Jewish power, Jewish generals, Jewish tanks, Jewish pride. They were his pornography (p. 144).

Friedman spoke at an anti-Israel conference on Jerusalem.

Friedman spoke -- and chaired a panel -- at a two-day Washington conference on June 4-5, 1996, sponsored by an Arab propaganda group called the "American Committee on Jerusalem," which declares that "Jerusalem is the historic capital of Arab Palestine."

Friedman accused Israel of "megalomania."

Friedman claimed that Israel's "megalomania" was partly to blame for the media's negative focus on the Jewish State (Detroit Jewish News, June 5, 1987). He said, "The Israelis are getting a bad press because they deserve it" (Jerusalem Post, March 1, 1988). He accused Israel of "demonizing" the Palestinian Arabs (Jerusalem Post, March 20, 1985).

Friedman has been publicly attacking Israel for more than 20 years.

As far back as his college days in 1974, Friedman was a leader of a pro-PLO student group at Brandeis University called the Mideast Peace Group, which attacked the Israeli government, then led by Yitzhak Rabin. Yet, in his 1989 autobiography, From Beirut to Jerusalem, Friedman claimed he was fervently pro-Israel until he became disenchanted after witnessing Israel's actions in Lebanon during the 1982 war. That prompted Dr. Daniel Pipes, editor of Middle East Quarterly, to write, "A rewriting of one's own biography has devastating implications for anyone's integrity. . . Take away the drama of this disenchantment and Friedman becomes just another writer with an anti-Israel bent. . . Readers are forced to reconsider Thomas Friedman's continued credibility as a correspondent (Commentary, January 1990).

Prime Minister Netanyahu's spokesman said that pro-Israel groups should not host Friedman.

David Bar Illan, official spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said this about the ADL's honoree: "I think Mr. Friedman. . . is completely lacking in consideration for Israel's security. I don't think there is any need for an organization that keeps saying it is Zionist to give him a platform" (Forward, Nov. 29, 1996).

 

We have a good idea: The next time the ADL solicits money for their organization, print out this web page and send it to them instead of sending them a check! That should get the message across that Jewish communal funds should never be used to honor such a hateful person.