Jewish Organizations Condemn Anti-Rice Ad

A broad range of Jewish organizations issued vehement condemnations of an ad attacking National Security Adviser Susan Rice of being blind to genocide and contemptuous of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The ad, which appeared in The New York Times, said that “Susan Rice has a blind spot: Genocide,” referring to her allegedly advising President Bill Clinton against branding the mass killings in Rwanda as “genocide.”

The ad linked that to her attitude toward Israel, saying: “Ms. Rice may be blind to the issue of genocide, but should treat our ally with at least as much diplomatic courtesy as she does the committed enemy of both our nations.”

Robert Sugarman, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that “we believe that personal or ad hominem attacks are unacceptable and only serve to demean meaningful discussion of the most vital issues of our time. The advertisement in yesterday’s New York Times attacking Susan Rice is inappropriate and harmful.

“We urge all those concerned about U.S.-Israel relations and the danger of a nuclear Iran to engage in constructive exchanges without resorting to offensive language or charges that raise tensions and obscure the very serious substantive issues.”

The Anti-Defamation League denounced it as “spurious and perverse.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said, “Ad hominem attacks should have no place in our discourse.”

Also weighing in against the ad were The Orthodox Union, the American Jewish Committee, and others.

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the March 2nd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.