" We’ve learned enough about the ADL in this process to know Watertown and no other municipality of good will should have anything to do with them. The denial of Armenian Genocide was just a catalyst for others to speak up about the litany of injustices perpetrated by this agenda driven lobby; masquerading as human rights advocates."

As someone who has condemned the ADL stance on the Armenian Genocide, but has been supportive of their positions in the past, I am a tad curious what your incendiary comment is implying.

We have learned that the ADL actively lobbies on behalf of the Turkish government to prevent US recognition of the Armenian genocide.

We have learned that the ADL is first to decry any person or government who would deny the Jewish Holocaust.

Kudos should also be extended to the two members of the New England regional chapter of the ADL who resigned in protest over the Tarsy firing:

From the AP:  "Stewart Cohen, former chairman of the Polaroid Corporation, and Boston City Council member Mike Ross tell the Boston Sunday Globe say they could no longer be part of an organization that doesn't recognize the Armenian genocide."

I'm glad the ADL is decrying those who deny the holocaust as I'm sure you are.

They shouldn't of course be supporting the Turkish government in there denial of the Armenian genocide.

Decrying holocaust deniers should not be undertaken by holocaust deniers. Leave that job to those with moral standing.

Dear Anon,

Here is an excerpt from a statement made by Merri Najimi (Arab American civil rights activist) at the August 14th Watertown Town Council Metting:
_____________
"It is intolerable for a national organization, that claims to stand in solidarity will all people's struggles for justice, to refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide, or any other catastrophe of any other people. And there is more to this story.

SPY CASE The ADL prides itself on fighting hate. However, ADL makes no distinction between legitimate activist and organizations whose political positions they disagree with, and real hate groups, like the Klan and skinheads. The ADL has a well-documented track record of conducting illegal surveillance.

In the 1980's and 1990's, the ADL paid an investigator to conducted illegal surveillance of over 950 groups and nearly 10,000 activists.

Targeted groups included

NAACP, Asian American Law Caucus, Artists Against Apartheid, Farm Workers Union, ACLU, Mother Jones magazine, National Lawyers Guild, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Greenpeace, Act Up, United Auto Workers, the American Indian Movement.

ADL operatives shared information on anti-apartheid organizing in the U.S. with South Africa's Afrikaner government.

In 1993 a class action lawsuit was filed in SF. In 1999 Federal Judge Richard Paez issued an injunction permanently enjoining ADL from engaging in further illegal spying on Arab-American, anti-apartheid and civil rights activists. As under the terms of the settlement, the ADL was required provide evidence of adherence to this injunction. Since the 1990's, several other cases against ADL have made or are making their way through the courts.

Not only does the ADL not recognize the Armenian Genocide, nor respect the civil rights of individuals and organizations that differ with their position on Israel, they actively violate those civil rights. We must ask ourselves whether the ADL is an appropriate sponsor of such a program and do we as a town, want to be affiliated with an organization which behaves in this way."

Please take a step back for a moment from your over eager tirade about how hypocritical the ADL is and try and educate yourself a bit further about all that ADL has done in this community in bridging the gaps for far more than those who are in line with their position on Israel. The ADL is a group that takes action to fight bigotry and hatred in all forms, to provide anti-prejudice education to communities, to support comprehensive immigration reform and to ensure humane treatment of all immigrants. If the “No Place for Hate” program for Watertown had existed, it wouldn't need ADL to create it and that goes for all of the towns in this region that didn't have the initiative to implement these programs prior. It is not right for the national ADL to not recognize an intolerable act as Genocide, and it should be pushed to recognize its error in judgment, however, they are not denying that it happened and that it was an awful event in the history of the Armenian people. Furthermore, the regional branch of the ADL is the jewel in the crown of the ADL as the Zakim Bridge is named after an extraordinary fellow who once held the same title as Andy Tarsy before passing away at an early age. This bridge serves as a representation of the effect and reach the ADL has had on "bridging" the gaps between communities in this town. It wasn’t but 6 months ago; the ADL was responsible for bringing together a crowd of over 900 people from diverse communities throughout Massachusetts to share in a “Nation of Immigrants Community Seder.” So I ask you to do your due diligence about all of the good that the ADL brings to the community beyond the Jewish people, before you call for "no other municipality of good will should have anything to do with them." The ADL is a group that brings groups from all backgrounds together, develops programs for kids to understand diversity, trains police to recognize intolerance and above all acts as a voice in response to all bigotry and hate that unfortunately encompasses the world we live in.

I call bullshit. The ADL's "work" on behalf of diversity is a feel-good nostrum of no discernible benefit. As useless as the addle-headed "D.A.R.E." anti-drug program, whose graduates are exactly as likely to use drugs as are those fortunate adolescents who've been spared its finger-wagging, ADL's "No Place for Hate" allows the enlightened to congratulate themselves while meaning less than nothing to the racist or depraved.

Worse than being an empty chorale of platitudes, though, is the fact that "NPFH" allows the ADL to burnish its image as humane while it ceaselessly whitewashes the odious actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces in Palestine.

I entirely support the move to recognize the genocide against Armenians for what it was, but I wish the ADL's role in supporting a current, ongoing sociocide were more on people's minds.

Re: "Take a Step Back" and "The ADL is a group that takes action to fight bigotry and hatred in all forms." Unless it comes from the left wing of the Democratic Party, in which case ADL is the first to whitewash it.  ADL's opposition to hate speech ends where the left wing of the Democratic Party begins, noting ADL's whitewash of anti-Semitic hate speech at MoveOn.org's Action Forum last year.

That pales, however, in comparison to actions only one step less reprehensible than outright Holocaust denial (noting that ADL does not contest the fact that Armenians were in fact murdered by Turks).

Google on site:stormfront.org, "foxman," and "armenians" to see who is now using ADL's actions to attack all Jews. For the record, I am a Jew, and I condemn ADL's actions without reservation and qualification.

For ADL to attempt to even downplay what happened to the Armenians is so reprehensible as to defy belief, noting that Hitler said "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" when plotting the extermination of the Polish people (and, by logical extension, the Jews).

http://www.armenian-genocide.org/hitler.html
"I have issued the command — and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Bill, I just saw that stormfront website. Good Lord, now skinheads are using the Armenian Genocide to further their racist agenda against Jews. Meanwhile, something like 30 Armenians have been killed in Russia by Russian skinheads during the past year. Stomach turning!

His qualifications include proven character and integrity, for acknowledging the Armenian genocide. Abraham Foxman comes across to me as a political pimp who sells the ADL's virtue, credibility, prestige, and good name the way a real pimp sells a woman's body. It will take a lot of work to undo the damage this has caused, and maybe Tarsy is the right man to do it.

 Re: Anonymous' "So I ask you to do your due diligence about all of the good that the ADL brings to the community beyond the Jewish people, before you call for "no other municipality of good will should have anything to do with them." "

Adolf Hitler was kind to animals, John Wayne Gacy was a talented artist who drew pictures of clowns, and the Inquisition's Tomas Torquemada was a devout Catholic who prayed to God every day before he burned Jews, Moors, and heretics at the stake. Maybe the Grand Wizard of the KKK coached Little League, and went to church every Sunday, when he wasn't out lynching Black people. Nonetheless, I do not think any person of good will would want to have anything to do with any of these individuals.

I am glad people are in an outrage over the ADL. The ADL has been shameful during the last few years with regards to the illegal immigration issue. They, along with the SPLC, have tried to smear anybody, or group, who wants the U.S. immigration laws enforced, as white supremists. They are anti-Christian, anti-white, race baitors, and they are exposing themselves as the frauds that they are. The reason they do not want people digging into this issue, besides the fact that they are anti-Christian, is because many of the young turk leadership responsible for the Armenian-Christian genocide were Doenmeh jews, such as Talaat Pasha, and Attaturk. Also the reason they shared information on anti-apartheid groups organizing in the U.S. with South Africa's Afrikaner government, is because apartheid was propped up by jewish Diamond money from the Oppenheimers (owned De Beers), and many of the largest farms were owned by jews. Google - The jewish geonicide of Armenian Christians. By Christopher Jon Bjerknes. You can D.L. a PDF Online.

I am glad people are in an outrage over the ADL. The ADL has been shameful during the last few years with regards to the illegal immigration issue. They, along with the SPLC, have tried to smear anybody, or group, who wants the U.S. immigration laws enforced, as white supremists. They are anti-Christian, anti-white, race baitors, and they are exposing themselves as the frauds that they are. The reason they do not want people digging into this issue, besides the fact that they are anti-Christian, is because many of the young turk leadership responsible for the Armenian-Christian genocide were Doenmeh jews, such as Talaat Pasha, and Attaturk. Also the reason they shared information on anti-apartheid groups organizing in the U.S. with South Africa's Afrikaner government, is because apartheid was propped up by jewish Diamond money from the Oppenheimers (owned De Beers), and many of the largest farms were owned by jews. Google - The jewish geonicide of Armenian Christians. By Christopher Jon Bjerknes. You can D.L. a PDF Online.

The goyim are figuring out that they vastly outnumber us. I dont know if we will be able to make them feel like dirty anti semites anymore for standing up to us, or for being racially aware, and ethno centric. What if they figure out that most of us are not even semetic, but are caucasian? What if they realize the hoardes of yiddish settlers, squatting in Palistine, are not at all related to the Isrealites of the bible, torah, or talmud. What if they start to question the validity our racially based, theocratic regime, used as an organized crime base, and a place for shysters to flee justice when there accused of insider trading, and espionage? What if the figure out that Iran is no threat to the goyim, just us? Will the nice young healthy gentiles go to Iran an lose limbs for us.

You can't be serious with this comment “They are anti-Christian, anti-white, race baiters, and they are exposing themselves as the frauds that they are.”

You must be an avid Rush Limbaugh listener to actually regurgitate this BS.

In response to Zippy the anonymous poster who admonishes me to “take a step back”

Watertown didn't have a "No Place For Hate" program, because we didn't need one. We are one of the most diverse communities in the Commonwealth of Mass.

We didn't need social engineers to teach us how to get along. We just settled here and learned how to respect one another.

The politically correct mentality that drives NPFH borders on Orwellianism.

The sign and the program was an insult to the good people of Watertown.

It's gotten so bad, that a citizen of the Town was ruled out of order for daring to use the term: Illegal Immigrant. Heaven forbid we use a pejorative nomenclature to describe lawbreakers. I suppose we shouldn’t refer those who drive under the influence of alcohol as drunk drivers. Perhaps we use a less judgmental phrase like “attitude enhanced motorist”!

Give me a bloody break! This is nothing but mind control by those that fancy themselves as the “new thought police”.

The commonsense majority in Watertown rejects this twaddle. We got along just fine. We know the meaning of respect. And we want kids in school to learn how to read, write, add and subtract. Human decency is taught in our homes. We don't want social engineers indoctrinating our kids with an agenda
driven brand of quote –tolerance- end quote.

You want to know what tolerance is? Allow me to use someone else’s words.

Aaron Sorkin wrote these words for Michael Douglas’s character in “The American President”:  “America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say,"You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center-stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”

Translation:

The price we pay for freedom is recognizing the right of your neighbor to be freaken jerk. And the price he pays is your right to call him one. Moreover, freedom means we don’t need to accept ivory-tower inquisitors purging out those they consider heretical threats to their political correct cabal. (And for the record Zippy, that wasn’t an anti-Semitic slur. It’s a literary devise known as alliteration)

But let’s get back to the Anti-Defamation League. It has become apparent that NPFH is public relations scam for the ADL. Look at the people they’ve conducted illegal surveillances on: the NAACP -- Act Up, -- to name just 2. These groups represent the very minorities NPFH is claiming to protect.

No it’s more than hypocrisy. It’s an outright scam.

Finally: As for Watertown, I suppose at some point some of the well-intentioned people that were involved with NPFH will regroup and put together a program designed to celebrate the NATURAL diversity that exists in our wonderful community. I am hopeful that  a new program will address the concerns of those, who for the aforementioned good reason, rejected NPFH;
long before the Armenian Genocide was part of the discussion.

We certainly want to continue our tradition of celebrating diversity and genuine tolerance. We want to pass down those values and fight actual bigotry. But we’ll will resist any return of the “sensitivity Stasi”. And yes Zippy, that’s more alliteration.