Case History: 2004 Duke University Palestine Solidarity Conference
The Anti‑Defamation League is one of the most aggressive protectors of Jewish and Israeli interests. Its name is an oxymoron, for the ADL does its work almost exclusively through the practice of defamation and intimidation. Oddly, its seems bent on protecting tens of millions of professing Christians from finding out that they are actually practicing secular Judaism, or Pharisaism, as Christ called it. They irrationally support Israel’s occupation and prison wall agenda in Palestine.
We Hold These Truths and this writer have recently found ourselves a front row center target of an Anti-Defamation League attack.(1) It defamed us to obscure our message from the students, why Judaized Christians are IsraelТs most radical cheerleaders.
“Christian Zionism” (Judaized Christianity) was to be one of the workshop offerings at the Palestine Solidarity Movement Conference at Duke University, and this writer was asked to be a primary presenter. But a week before the conference was to take place, the ADL became involved, whereupon the student leaders removed “Christian Zionism” from the agenda and withdrew their invitation for Carlson to participate in the conference.
There is evidence that the ADL manipulated and probably intimidated the student committees through the Anti-Racist-Action Network (ARA) to remove the one topic that would expose Judaized Christianity, the ADL’s primary sacred cow, and the handmaiden of world Zionism. WHTTТ’s program reveals how self-defeating it is for professing Christians to carry out world Zionist aims. This is a good reason for the ADL not to like it.
The purpose of this paper is to help our friends learn how to identify their allies and keep others at arms length. It is an object lesson for Palestinians and indeed for all Muslims, and for anyone else who considers it a moral imperative to save the lives of the remaining Philistines, and tear down the obscene wall, paid for with our own money. Your author is a friend of the Philistines, the truly pro-Palestine students, and Duke University, because all are the underdogs, and all need our support. This paper is not a criticism of any of these parties or their efforts.
In order to remove Christian Zionism as a workshop topic, the ADL chose to defame We Hold These Truths and its founder. It is no surprise to be targeted by the Anti‑Defamation League; in fact, were surprised it took them so long to put WHTT on their front page.
The ADL has mentioned us on its website from time to time; the last time was when we wrote in support of Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion.” ADL President Abe Foxman used to be on our weekly mailing list (we do not know how he got there), but he removed himself some months ago, we are sorry to say.
This writers first experience with the ADL came almost six years ago. It proved to be a height of arrogance I had not seen before in my years.
I was seated at the head table at a small luncheon and could not help but notice a man across from me, who, during most of the speech, ignored the speaker and even his own lunch, while reading from one of several Journals I had written. He read intently with undisguised signs of agitation. I learned from others he was a local lawyer who had signed in under the name of Jim Friedman.
A few nights later, to my surprise, the same Friedman called me at home and introduced himself, explaining he was a volunteer for a national organization whose task it was to watch over the actions of a list of organizations that included newly formed We Hold These Truths.
Friedman identified Grand Canyon University as another of the organizations he monitored, and over which he said, proudly, he had considerable influence, even though he was a Jew and they were a Baptist college. Friedman then referred to my various articles featured in the Journals he had digested and made this amazing statement that I could never forget:
“We can not allow you to continue to print this kind of thing.”
Friedman was talking about hard copy articles, all of which are still available today on our website. In them, I had written critically about those who are now called “Christian Zionists” (a term that did not exist then), and U S Foreign aid to Israel. One was entitled Using Christians to Make War. Another was The Warmaker’s Attack on Religious Fundamentalism (“Warmaker’s” being a synonym then for what are today’s Neo‑Cons). Others were Americas First War of Aggression (Iraq 1991), Missionaries, Mercenaries, Missiles and Money, the Untold Story of the War on the Children of Sudan, and One Nation Under Israel, an expose of Israeli influence over our Congress.
Friedman’s words made it clear that by “we,” he meant the unnamed organization that I learned the next day was the Anti‑Defamation League, and that his manner meant he considered it within his power to prevent me from writing, though he never suggested how. He seemed to fully expect me to comply with his suggestion, and repeated more than once, “We can not allow you to continue to print this kind of thing.”
I offered to make factual corrections of any untrue statements Mr. Friedman or his organization could find but told him I did not feel like giving up my work, as he suggested. Mr. Friedman responded that they had no interest in editing my work. He even called a second time, again at night, to see if I had changed my mind. This is terrorism, ADL style. Surveillance and confrontation followed by veiled intimidation, is how it starts.
The ADL’s audacious demand elevated the value of my work in my own eyes, and Mr. Friedman’s arrogance convinced me I would need a new media to distribute any ideas worth their salt. Our Board decided a printed journal could not go far enough, due to established censors like the ADL and the controlled press. Instead, WHTT began to reach out on the infant Internet, which we have used ever since.
Looking back at my first writings, I can see why the ADL operative might want to censor titles like The Warmakers Attack on Religious Fundamentalism and Attacking Islam. While these said little directly about Israel or Jews or Zionists, much was said about Judaized Christians. These articles began an exposure of Israel’s surrogate Enablers‑‑the Judaized Christian Church‑‑who supported and made possible the implementation of Israel’s entire public policy.
Sadly, the students at Duke allowed their program to be diluted. This became inevitable when they first allowed Jewish anti‑Zionist members into their decision‑making committees; no doubt they did so to avoid the label “anti‑Semitic” and to add respectability. It is a formula that usually backfires.
The ADL has also defamed the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) members, whom it manipulated into transforming their conference into a seminar on “divesture.” In a future issue we will discuss divesture as a winning or losing tactic.
However, divesture is a financial solution to a moral problem, therefore it has limited value. Not everyone with moral values has money to withdraw from Israel. Israel will obtain its entire budget to build a $9 billion prison wall around the West Bank Palestinians from the American taxpayer, via the Bush Administration in just one year. This is the money that must be divested, and everyone has an interest in it.
The Judaized Christian vote keeps Israel afloat.
We applaud and support the few mainline churches including the Presbyterians (PCUSA) who have denounced Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. Theirs is a giant and courageous step forward in the name of Christian values. The Anti Defamation League is cranking up the pressure on the PCUSA in response. National Director Abraham Foxman went into orbit when on October 21, 2004, when the Presbyterian leaders listened to Hizbullah’s side of the story in Palestine. This is exactly what Christians should do, seek the truth and hear all sides. But The ADL is attempting to paint the PCUSA as “terrorist sympathizers” because they talked to Palestinian resistance leaders. Again, we see the ADL tactics repeated.(2)
The ADL used its well‑known system of observe, infiltrate, and intimidate, and finally divide and control. The students yielded to the ADL’s smear of Carlson. PSM affiliates were also responding to pressure from a second radical “anti-racist” group known for its violence: Anti-Racist Action (ARA) (3), a member of the PSM The ARA repeated almost the exact words the ADL used in denouncing this writer, and the students accepted its judgment.
When one considers Mr. Friedman’s boldness and understands that intimidation and defamation are the ADL’s methods of preventing any speech that is negative toward Jews, Israel, or Zionism, or any of their allies, however truthful it might be, then it is not hard to see why 21‑year old students‑‑especially Arab students, might yield to pressure from the likes of Mr. Friedman and his Anti‑Defamation League. These students are already profiled as likely or potential terrorists and have reason to fear based on what they have seen and heard.
Not only did the Palestine Solidarity Movement withdraw their invitation to Carlson… they removed entirely the most important agenda item on their schedule‑‑Christian Zionism. Unless one understands Christian Zionism, there is no way to understand the power structure that has made and will continue to make life and peace for the Palestinians impossible. Without understanding it, it will not be changed, which is what the ADL wants.
STUDENTS ARE DISCREDITED BY ADL
As soon as the student leaders helped discredit Carlson they found themselves examined by the ADL for signs of “terrorists”. In an article entitled “Duke University: Next Target of Anti‑Israel Activists,”(1) the ADL profiled each Arab leader of PSM, quoting minutiae from their own writings, shaded in terrorist tones. Groping for anything, they even quoted from letters to the editor. One dangerous “anti‑Zionist” Jewish student gained his stripes by throwing a pie at an Israeli leader.
Curiously, the same article failed to quote a single word from WHTT.org or Carlson. You would think we had never written anything! The WHTT website contains over 100 articles by Carlson, with no less than 21 specifically referencing the Anti‑Defamation League and many more making references to Israel and Zionism. There is even a four‑part series on the so‑called suicide bombings! Surely the ADL could have found something there to quote from the WHTT.org website. As Mr. Freidman let me know years before, the ADL does not want people to go there. Here are some of the ADL denunciations in its statements on October 5th:
“Charles E. Carlson, co‑founder of We Hold These Truths, an Arizona‑based, conspiracy‑oriented anti‑Semitic group”
“Carlson’s group also arranges anti‑Israel protests and demonstrations in the Southwest.”
[Project Strait Gate is a mission activity that holds vigils for peace at some of the largest Judaized Christian churches and meetings from coast to coast, which the ADL could have pointed out…but they didn’t even though well documented on the WHTT website.]
“[Carlson] has spoken at white supremacist gatherings organized by groups ranging from the neo‑Nazi National Alliance to the Holocaust‑denying Institute for Historical Review.”
The ADL made no mention of what Carlson said at these alleged gatherings. The Institute for Historical Review posted Carlson’s speech for anyone who wants to listen to it. Surely if this speech was such a crime, the ADL should have been able to find something juicy to quote from it. But no, they didn’t quote a phrase. That speech contains the same material to be presented at the Duke seminar.(4)
The students, especially the Palestinians probably knew enough not to be influenced by the ADL. I suspect they were influenced instead by the two Jewish “anti‑Zionists” on their Board. It is one thing for Jewish students to resist the wanton killing of Palestinians and it is another to defy the Rabbi or the ADL.
To further discredit the students and Duke University, on October 12 the Israeli “Hate BUS 19” (5) was driven onto the Duke campus and parked in front of the University Chapel. The purpose of this bombed‑out hideously decorated gift from Israel is to graphically portray every Palestinian who resists Israel as a maniacal advocate of child‑killing. Anti‑Palestinian organizers then brought on Neo‑Con Daniel Pipes to further discredit the Palestinians in a story entitled Duke University’s Weekend Hate Fest.(6)
LESSON FOR SURVIVAL
American Palestinians and all Muslims need to learn to identify their friends from their enemies based on logical objectives and moral values. Jesus was referring to Pharisee leaders when he warned, “be not unequally yoked with disbelievers.” Until Palestinians learn this lesson, their people will perish by American‑made weapons.
We remind anyone who is foolish enough to judge WHTT based on who we talk to instead of what we say, that Jesus was twice recorded giving major lectures to prostitutes. WHTT is a group of mostly Christ followers that has a message for everyone, especially non‑Christians. Time and money permitting, we talk to any organization that gives us a fair audience. The “notorious” Institute of Historical Review was quite constructive to this speaker, and most listeners seemed to absorb every word. Several ended up helping us. I am grateful that they recorded my speech because it exposes the ADL for what it is‑-a practicing word-terrorist group that resorts to lies and intimidation to advance its plot to liquidate Palestinians and any other group that stands in their way.
The students sadly have no idea what it means to allow the ADL axis to dictate who can and who cannot speak to their group. They fail to realize the anti-skinhead, Anti-Racist-Action Network, which talks and acts like Bolsheviks, is closer to the ADL than it is to themselves. The PSM has its “Mr. Friedman” inside their group, planted there to wreck its agenda. American Palestinians need to know this.
(links to articles)
(1) Duke University: Target of Anti-Israel Activists: http://archive.adl.org/israel/psm_duke.html#.Vac0A_lVjws
(2) Church group meets Hizbullah: http://archive.adl.org/presrele/chjew_31/4578_31.html#.VadHxPlVjws
(3) Anti-Racist-Action Network (ARA) http://antiracistaction.org/
(4) The Roots of Christian Zionism: How Scofield Sowed Seeds of Apostasy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO6VpMYAVms
(5) Israeli HateBus Tours Churches: https://whtt.org/hate-bus-tours-american-churches/
(6) “Duke University’s Weekend Hate Fest”: http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11021
