Center for American Progress, a Leftist think tank (oxymoron?) has some mighty big explaining to do after a few of their bloggers started passing around a Jew-hatred meme that pro-Israel Jews are ‘Israel-firsters’, as well as smearing Jewish state with the label of ‘apartheid state’. One of the bloggers in question apologized, but it highlights the current fight within the Democratic party over the direction of its pro-Israel alliance. KGS
NGOs slam ‘anti-Semitic’ US think tank comments
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
01/01/2012 03:14
The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League weighed in last week on the mushrooming anti-Israel scandal surrounding a group of bloggers working for the US think tank Center for American Progress (CAP).Jason Isaacson, the AJC’s director of government and international affairs, told The Jerusalem Post by e-mail on Friday that “think tanks are entitled to their political viewpoints – but they’re not free to slander with impunity. References to Israeli ‘apartheid’ or ‘Israel-firsters’ are so false and hateful they reveal an ugly bias no serious policy center can countenance.”
He called on CAP to “disavow them and put a stop to them.”
CAP, which has an estimated annual budget of $38 million, formulates policy suggestions about the Middle East for the Democratic party and politicians.