Coulter escalates war of words with Jewish groups

By · November 2, 2007

Ann Coulter escalated her war of words with Jewish groups.

In a column Thursday, the conservative pundit blasted the Anti-Defamation League for condemning her earlier remarks suggesting that Jews would be “perfected” by Christianity. Coulter suggested the ADL was soft on Iran and Islamist extremists. “The ADL is more concerned with what it calls the ‘neo-Nazis’ and ‘anti-Semites’ in the Minutemen organization,” she wrote, referring to an anti-illegal immigrant group that has drawn support from right-wing extremists, “than with people who behead Jews whenever they get half a chance.”

The ADL is at the forefront of lobbying for tougher anti-Iran sanctions and monitoring pro-terrorist activity.

She also blasted the ADL for defending Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim in Congress, for taking his oath on a Koran instead of a Muslim bible. “Do they have Ellison on the record acknowledging whether the Holocaust happened?” she wrote. Ellison joined resolutions in the Minnesota legislature condemning Holocaust denial and attended Holocaust commemorations.

Coulter accused the ADL, as well as the American Jewish Committee, of being part of the liberal establishment. She added: “Liberal Jews are on a collision course with themselves. They can’t reconcile the survival of Israel with their conception of themselves as liberals. The liberal coalition has turned against them. Jews are out; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is in. The new king knows not Joseph.”

ADL dismissed the column as “little more than a desperate attempt to deflect attention from her own bigoted and hateful views, and her mistake in giving vent to anti-Semitism on a national cable broadcast.”

The National Jewish Democratic Council renewed its call on broadcast networks to stop using Coulter, dismissing her claims that she is a true defender of Jewish interests. “Jews for Coulter?,” Ira Forman, the NJDC’s executive director said in a statement. “You could hold that convention in the backseat of a Volkswagen Bug.”