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1. This is a very strong and sound letter – everything is straight to the point. Perhaps, a petition in support of this letter would be appropriate – something like this one:
   http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/armenian-genocide-denialists-must-be-stopped.html

2. I am grateful that Berman lost.

3. Congratulations to Laura Boghosian for exposing the ADL, and Berman along with it.

4. If Mr.Berman is in busIness with the Turks or has some privat interest from the Turkish government,he cannot deny the truth(the Armenian genocide) I THINK Mr BERMAN IS AN UNFAIRE PERSON, AND HAS TO BE OUT OF ANY ORGANISATIONS.

5. My Grand parents were taken away one morning from their home, leaving behind 4 children under 12 years old–The story in the tqwn was —Armenians were forced digging TRECHES, lined at the borders, BAYOETED AND PUSHED IN–SOME STILL ALIVE, COVERED WITH DIRT. mR BERMAN SHOULD SEE/FEEL SIMILARITY TO AUCHWITZ !In COURT we need HUMANITY, CONSCIOUS…

6. I admit that my contact with Armenian people has been limited. However, many of the Armenian people that I have met over the years have been antisemetic. Is that perhaps a factor for the ADL?

   • The ADL has proved that it is an extremist, tantamount Neo-Nazi organization, expertly disguised as a hub for “human rights”. And besides, Armenians can’t really be antisemitic, because we get along just fine with Arabs. And it is a more serious issue as to why these fundamentalist extremist organizations such as the ADL and others in the same league are anti-Armenian hatemongers, shamelessly meddling in US government affairs to stop recognition of the Armenian Holocaust.

7. Dear Michael:
   Rather than look for anti-Semitism among Armenians, I think you should look for anti-Christian, anti-Armenian biases and actions among the top ranks of the ADL, since it is the latter organization that started this fight.
   The ADL decided all on its own to single out the Christian Armenian genocide as a genocide to deny. The ADL decided all on its own to work against recognition of that genocide by directly collaborating with Turkey.
   Michael, please don’t try this anti-Semitic canard on us Armenians because I can assure you that you and the ADL will be justifiably accused of anti-Christianism ten times over. Look to yourself and the ADL first for your own biases and uncalled for attacks on another ethnic group that has never done you harm.

8. {“ However, many of the Armenian people that I have met over the years have been antisemetic. Is that perhaps a factor for the ADL”}
   ( Michael // March 11, 2014 at 10:21 pm //)

   Michael:

   You admit your contact with Armenians has been limited, yet you extrapolate from your limited experience and give ADL a pass based on that ?
   Does ADL itself claim any anti-Semitism, even a smidgen, amongst Armenian-Americans at large ?
   Don’t you think they would publicize it, if there was any, given the pickle they are in vis-à-vis Armenian Americans ?

   As to anti-Semitism in general.
   Are there Armenian anti-Semites ? Undoubtedly.
   There are irrational, confused, ignorant people in every ethnos, country, and community.
   Show me an ethnos that does not have disturbed individuals in their midst*.
   (btw: spitting on Armenian clergymen is not just Anti-Armenian and Anti-Christian, but in US would be considered Assault and Battery; a Felony)
   {“…..The spittle did not fall at his feet but on his person….”}

   Back to ADL.
   Don’t you see the clear illogic in your cause-and-effect preposition re ADL ?
   So, if ‘many’ Armenians you have met have been (allegedly) anti-Semitic, that would give ADL the moral right to actively participate in the Denial of the Armenian Genocide on behalf of the denialist State of Turkey and denialist Turks ?
   There is a long list of Jewish-American scholars** who – on record – are AG Denialists: by your reasoning, should that give some ArmenianAmerican organizations the moral right to join the nuts who run around supposedly ‘scientifically disproving’ the Jewish Holocaust, or write books about the supposed ‘myth’ of JH ?
   See how absurd the premise of your argument defending ADL is on its face ?

   Jewish friends:
   Stop defending the indefensible.
   Stop defending AG Denial by _some_ Jews.
   Stop defending the denialists within ADL.
   Venerate Jews like Dr. Israel Charny; Recognize honorable Jews like former ADL member Andrew H. Tarsy, who told Foxman that he found the ADL’s stance “morally indefensible”, and was fired for it; Condemn and shout down the likes of Abraham Foxman – people like him bring dishonor to the honorable Jewish people.

   FOOTNOTE

   *[Ultra-Orthodox spitting attacks on Old City clergymen becoming daily
   Clergymen in the Armenian Church in Jerusalem say they are victims of harassment, from senior cardinals to priesthood students; when they do complain, the police don’t usually find the perpetrators.]
   http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/ultra-orthodox-spitting-attacks-on-old-city-clergymen-becoming-daily-1.393669

   * *e.g. Late Professor Stanford J. Shaw of UCLA (interred in Ankara); Tal Buenos, an Israeli PhD candidate studying genocide (denial) issues at Utah University; Guenter Lewy, and so on.

9. As Joseph Sobran observed “… an anti-Semite used to mean a man who hated Jews. Now it means a man who is hated by Jews.”

10. And let me also say, the phrase anti-Semitism which is being defined as “hatred of Jews” excludes everyone else, so isn’t that a bit racist? Because when someone is called an anti-Semite, especially by a Jew against an Arab, it becomes a very sad state of affairs, and it is like dehumanizing Arabs, who are also Semitic, not to mention others. I admit I have not heard Arabs or Assyrians talk about this issue, but I imagine that if I was in their place, and was called that, I would feel swindled or something.

    I remember when the notable reporter Helen Thomas who is of Arab descent passed away last year they had asked her earlier if she was an “anti-Semite” for being critical of Israel, and she asked how could she be an anti-Semite when she is a Semite herself. Well according to them when someone “hates Arabs” they are not anti-Semitic, but is someone “hates Jews” they are. The whole thing is a confused mess because one group of people feel that certain words are their property exclusively. (Reminds me also of the word Holocaust, for example, everyone else has genocide, but in the case of the Jews it was a Holocaust, even though the word had been used to describe what was happening to Armenians before).

    Citing the extremist genocide denier Bernard Lewis, On wikipedia for example it says: “”Antisemitism” refers specifically to prejudice against Jews alone and in general”. Excuse me?? Imagine if we went around claiming that “anti-Christianism” meant hatred of Armenians “alone and in general”. Or “anti-Slavism” meant hatred of Ukrainians “alone and in general”.

    Besides this, the extremists such as the ADL have hijacked the term and abused the life out of it anyway, and as a result it no longer has anything significant or shocking about it, or deserving of investigation, and in fact, a person using it to silence someone in an argument, typically exposes his own bigotry to the world. This is not fair for all people who are of Semitic descent, but probably little can be done about it now.

11. Hagop D wrote: The ADL has proved that it is an extremist, tantamount Neo-Nazi organization, expertly disguised as a hub for “human rights”. And besides, Armenians can’t really be antisemitic, because we get along just fine with Arabs.

    => I think that’s a little extreme. It might be more truthful to say that the ADL has degenerated into a politically partisan organization that lobbies for Israel, even when that contradicts its original human rights agenda.

    => Secondly, words are conventions and do not always mean what their origins would indicate. The word “anti-Semitism” has a well-established meaning that indicates a hatred specifically towards Jews. I’m not accusing Armenian-Americans of that. Their beef with Israel is a legitimate one. But I do want to clarify the meaning of the word. (By comparison, you can note that “herbal tea” is not a type of tea.)

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