NED, ADL and the Middle East Uprisings

Carl Gershman, longtime president of the National Endowment for Democracy, worked in the research department of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith during the second half of 1968. “Research,” as the 1993 San Francisco caserevealed, can be a convenient euphemism for the ADL’s spying on Israel’s perceived enemies.

Speaking at the ADL’s 2004 Rome conference on “Anti-Semitism – A Threat to Democracy,” Gershman revealed a pro-Israeli motivation behind his promotion of “democratic reform” in the Middle East. “Whatever their differences,” said NED’s president, “the Baathists and Islamists share a visceral hatred of liberal values that finds its most potent expression in the vilification of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Pro-democracy activists in the Middle East who have been “quietly nurtured” by NED would be well advised to do a little more research themselves on who is supporting their uprisings, and why. And those who support them in the hope that they might pose a threat to Israeli hegemony should ask themselves why ardent Zionists like Carl Gershman have worked long and hard to promote “democracy” in the region.