NCJA Calls For Ambassador Gutman's Removal

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JEWISH AFFAIRS (NCJA)

Calls on US Administration to Remove Dangerously Clueless Ambassador Gutman from his Post

Contact: Lori Lowenthal Marcus  610.664.1184                              

For Immediate Release

New York, December 9, 2011 — The NCJA, a coalition of Jewish leaders and heads of Jewish, pro-Israel organizations, is appalled by the current US Ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, trading on his ancestory and the tragedy of his familial suffering in the Holocaust to sanitize his double-headed affront regarding anti-Semitism.  At a time when there are well-documented increases in European anti-Semitism, including arson and other attacks on synagogues, defacements of Jewish cemeteries, physical violence against those wearing outwardly Jewish symbols, and anti-Semitic aspects to public protests on unrelated topics, Gutman’s claim that there isn’t any increase in anti-Semitism simply attests to his Ostrich qualities.  Even worse, his pronouncement that Israel itself is at fault for a different kind of anti-Semitism, because of its “failure” to achieve peace with the Arab Palestinians is staggering. 

“It is time for Jews to stop using their ancestry as an imprimatur of validity for their own anti-Israel views, and to their dangerous minimization of the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and around the world,” said Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Z STREET president and chair of the NCJA executive committee.  “When the ‘partner’ with whom Israel is supposed to make peace refuses to recognize the Jewish nation’s existence and continues naming public squares and soccer teams for murderers of Jews, it is grotesque for Gutman to blame anti-Semitism on Israel’s ‘recalcitrance’,” said Marcus. 

Beth Gilinsky, executive director of NCJA, asked “How can it be that the official representative of the United States is telling the world that, despite all palpable evidence to the contrary, anti-Semitism is not on the rise?”  Gilinsky, a long-time advocate for Jewish causes, said,  ”Gutman is a disgrace for having made those statements both because he officially represents the views of the United States and because he is a Jew.”  Dr. Herbert London, president emeritus of the Hudson Institute and member of the NCJA executive committee added, “Gutman has demonstrated in his misguided commentary that he is gutless, yet another pol who myopically blames Israel for the violent behavior of Hamas and Hizbollah.”

The National Conference on Jewish Affairs is an umbrella organization of American Jewish leaders and groups which work to uphold the American Constitution and liberty, promote a strong and safe Israel and Jewish rights in the Land of Israel, initiate positive relations with our non-Jewish friends, protect our Jewish young people in educational institutions, and assert the rights and security of Jewish People across the globe.  NCJA is adamantly opposed to making concessions to terrorists in the Middle East, or anywhere else across the globe.  The NCJA calls on this US Administration to recall Amb. Gutman from his post.