Whitewashing Hate Crimes

 J, a Weekly Magazine and its Apologetic for a Domestic Hate Group

On November 18th, 2005, "J, the Jewish Newsweekly of Northern California" ran a guest commentary by Cinnamon Stillwell, a columnist from sfgate.com (online version of the San Francisco Chronicle) defending the history of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), calling it an organization guilty of nothing more than "standing up unequivocally for the Jewish people".   The FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), and the Southern Poverty Law Center think otherwise. 

Why did J print a commentary praising the JDL's willingness "to stand up for other Jews" when its leaders were convicted of heinous hate crimes?  Why has their been no retraction, no apology, even after a leader of one the most respected national organizations fighting hate crime, the Southern Poverty Law Center, condemned the commentary for its falsehoods and stupidity?  These are the questions we want answered. 

Background History of the JDL

The Sentencing of Krugel

Full commentary as written by Cinnamon Stillwell.  Rewriting History. 

Response by Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center

Email from Marc Klein, Editor and Publisher of J. 

Taking Action

Background

Meir Kahane, an Arab-hating racist who was assassinated in 1990, founded the JDL in 1968, he is also the founder of Kach political party in Israel. The Kach movement was declared a racist party by the Israeli government and in 1988 removed from the Knesset (substitute parties, which also advocate the forcible expulsion of all Arabs from Israel, operate freely in Israeli politics, and even have at times formed part of the ruling coalition).   In 1994, terrorist Baruch Goldstein, a follower of Kahane, a US citizen, opened fire on Muslim worshipers in Hebron in the West Bank of Palestine, killing 30 men women and children. 

In the United States the JDL has been linked to a number of crimes, including the murder of Alex Odeh, an Arab-American activist in Santa Ana, California.  The FBI identified JDL members as suspects, but there was insufficient evidence to arrest anyone. Nonetheless, JDL leader Irv Rubin was infamous for saying Odeh "got what he deserved".  Odeh was murdered 20 years ago this October.  Alex Odeh's fight for justice, for equality is remembered and honored. 

From the FBI files:

On December 11, 2001, Irving David Rubin and Earl Leslie Krugel were arrested by the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force for conspiring to build and place improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California, and the local office of Congressman Darrell Issa. Rubin and Krugel were subsequently charged with conspiracy to destroy a building by means of an explosive, as well as possession of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence. Rubin and Krugel were active members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a violent extremist Jewish organization. Statements by Rubin and Krugel indicated that they had planned the attack against the mosque to demonstrate the militancy of the JDL. Krugel further indicated that the attack was planned to provide a “wake up call” to the Muslim community. It was determined that Rubin and Krugel had already acquired the necessary components to build an IED, including pipes, fuses, and smokeless powder.  Link

Krugel later pled guilty to charges related to this crime and got a 20 year sentence. 

This reality is very different than the romantic portrayal presented in the pages of J. 

The long history of JDL’s hate, extremism, and crimes of violence against Arabs, Jews, and others is summed up by Stillwell as “self defense”.   We call JDL for what it is, a cult of hate and paranoia.  Such diverse groups as the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee are together on this because it is undeniable.  It is left for a lone extremist propagandist like Stillwell to come to the aid of this discredited and very dangerous organization. 

J Weekly has truly debased itself by the publication of this call to support the JDL, and this is a great disservice to the Bay Area. Mark Potok's letter clearly sums it up: what J printed was not a mere unpopular opinion, but a whitewash of history.  We ask people of conscience to contact J Weekly and set the record straight.  They should distance themselves from those who call hate crimes "acts of self defense".  Stillwell's commentary amounted to historical revisionism of the kind found in hate tracts and their websites.   

From this ADC website:

September 22, 2005

Washington, DC -- A member of the Jewish Defense League was sentenced today to 20 years for his role in a plot to blow up a Los Angeles-area mosque, the office of an Arab-American congressman, and the office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

Earl Krugel and the militant group's leader, Irv Rubin, were charged in December 2001 with conspiring in the bomb plot. Rubin died a year later from injuries suffered in what authorities said was a jailhouse suicide attempt.

Under his 2003 plea bargain, Krugel admitted conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the King Fahd Mosque and also a weapons count tied to explosives that prosecutors said were meant for the field office of Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA).

Krugel admitted in his plea agreement that he met with a teenage JDL recruit and showed him a list of mosques that were potential targets. He alleged that Rubin, who was present at the meetings, told the recruit to carry out the bombings. Krugel admitted he and Rubin targeted Issa because he is an Arab American. He also acknowledged calling mosques "filthy” and saying Arabs needed a "wake-up call."
 

 Stillwell's Commentary or JDL's Complete Fantasy Makeover

Jews must stand by Jews — including the marginalized JDL

As published in J Weekly by cinnamon stillwell

A deafening silence overcame the Jewish community this month after Jewish Defense League member Earl Krugel was murdered in an Arizona prison.

The 62-year old Navy veteran and former dental technician — three days into a 20-year federal sentence [A sentence he received after pleading guilty to plotting to bomb the office of Congressman Darrell Issa and plotting to bomb a Mosque.  Stillwell omits these facts.] — was exercising when another inmate came up behind him and hit him over the head with a concrete block, killing him instantly.

Why a loose cement block was just hanging around the exercise yard is still unknown. Authorities have been fairly tightlipped so far, but the investigation has reportedly focused on a white supremacist inmate.

Despite all the questions surrounding the case, not one Jewish group other than the JDL has called for an investigation. [Stillwell gives no evidence that the murder of Krugel is not being adequately investigated already.  It is not the point.  The purpose here is to celebrate the JDL.] And they reacted in exactly the same manner after former JDL chairman Irv Rubin’s alleged suicide.

The truth is the American Jewish community has long been wary of associating itself with the JDL, which it sees as an obstacle to its own comfortable existence as non-threatening Jews. While Jews have shown concern in the past over the fate of Jewish prisoners housed with neo-Nazis and such, when it comes to the JDL, it seems that some Jewish lives are deemed more important than others.

But perhaps the JDL’s reputation as hardcore extremists is off the mark.  Richard Rosenthal was a New York police officer who went undercover to investigate the JDL in 1970 and he wrote a book about the experience, “Rookie Cop.” The picture Rosenthal paints of the JDL hardly demonstrates the ruthless and criminally skilled organization so often portrayed by its opponents. If anything, JDL members were beset by mishaps, petty infighting and a lack of experience. Such internecine squabbling continues today with a split within the JDL that shows no sign of letting up, even after Krugel’s death.

Beyond all the accusations of extremism,  it appears the JDL’s real crime has always been standing up unequivocally for the Jewish people. They are Jews who refuse to be victims. They believe in armed self-defense as the best means of combating anti-Semitism. For this they are shunned by the mainstream Jewish community to this day.  

Indeed, there is such a strong prejudice among Jews against displays of strength [Stillwell seems to be saying that opposition to the JDL is based on "wimpiness", not opposition to its deviant behavior.] that those who stray from the party line are immediately ostracized. This is why if one dares mention the JDL in Jewish company, they are sure to be met with either immediate dismissal or a barrage of animosity.

The Anti-Defamation League has been particularly strident in its denunciation of the JDL, going so far ["So far"? Wouldn't any reasonable person want these people arrested, considering the crimes that were planning?] as to commend the FBI for arresting Irv Rubin. From the ADL Web site: “For more than a quarter of a century, [the] ADL has been monitoring the contemptible activities of the JDL and its leadership.”  [See the ADL website for yourself.]

Rabbi Myra Soifer of Temple Sinai synagogue in Reno (where the JDL recently held a conference) [Did Stillwell attend this conference as a supporter of the JDL?  Some journalistic self-disclosure would be very helpful here.] told the Reno Gazette-Journal: “There is nothing about the JDL I think as acceptable … I think, in the end, they are harmful to Jews and Jewish survival.”

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, said of the JDL: “They’re extremists. They really have been marginalized. None of the credible [Jewish] groups would have anything to do with these people.”

[It seems Stillwell quotes these condemnations of the JDL to bolster her theory that there is some "unfair" (in her perverse mind) animosity towards the JDL, not to give a more balanced view of its criminal history.]

Some have simply written off Rubin and Krugel’s deaths as the deserved end to lives of controversy. But the point isn’t whether Krugel and Rubin were the “terrorists” they’ve been labeled, but rather that prominent Jews in federal custody have a curious habit of dying under mysterious circumstances. In a time when liberal organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International devote an inordinate amount of energy to standing up for the rights of Islamic terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, one would think that Jewish “extremists” would garner as much concern [Are there allegations that prison officials purposely had these inmates killed?  That would indeed be a human rights concern.  Stillwell offers no such evidence, because none exists.] But the overriding attitude has been one of silence, dismissal and even contempt.

If there’s anything the JDL can teach the Jewish community, it’s the principle that Jews must stand up for other Jews [The JDL has really nothing to teach any human community, except as a warning, any more than the KKK or Nazi Party, whose philosophy it closely parallels.  An alternate lesson is suggested: "We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or perish together as fools."]. Unfortunately, this has not been the case with Irv Rubin and Earl Krugel, whose deaths are being largely disregarded because of their unpopular politics.

Perhaps it’s time to right that wrong.

Cinnamon Stillwell is a Bay Area-based columnist for SFGate.com (on-line version of the San Francisco Chronicle, the city's main daily.) and Israel National News and she can be reached at cinnamonstillwell@yahoo.com.

(See Fair Use Notice)

Stillwell's "Aggressive Stupidity" Southern Poverty Law Center Responds

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971 as a small civil rights law firm. Today, the Center is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups.  It is known and respected by millions of Americans.  When contacted by Tom Joad about the J article, Mark Potok sent this letter to its editor. 

This letter was printed in the December 2nd issue of J Weekly, and without comment from the Editor.  It also printed another letter which pointed out one of their reporters reviewed an art installation without actually viewing it. 

To the Editor,

Your Nov. 21 opinion piece on the Jewish Defense League (JDL) by Cinnamon Stillwell bordered on the moronic. Her bizarre summation -- that "the JDL¹s real crime has always been standing up unequivocally for the Jewish people" -- comes close to the aggressive stupidity of those who today deny the World War II Holocaust. In fact, the JDL is a racist hate group with a lengthy record of terrorist crimes -- one of more than 700 that we monitor at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Stillwell suggests that the deaths in prison of JDL leader Irv Rubin and follower Earl Krugel involved some kind of nefarious conspiracy. Incredibly, she never mentions the reason that Rubin and Krugel were imprisoned -- they were principals in a plot to bomb a mosque and the offices of a California congressman. I guess this is what Stillwell means when she speaks adoringly of the "armed self-defense" that she claims is what the JDL is really all about.

By the way, lest Stillwell contend that I'm some kind of raving anti-Semite, let me state for the record that most of my father¹s side of the family died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Mark Potok

Director, Intelligence Project

Southern Poverty Law Center

Montgomery, Ala.

J Publisher and Editor, Mark Klein, says it all about "self defense". 

The following is an email to Tom Joad from Marc Klein regarding the Op-Ed. Here again, my comments are added. I had expected a better response to Mr. Klein, at least a strong statement that Stillwell's contention that JDL's action are really self-defense was wrong.  Instead, Klein, while not saying he supported JDL's actions, never acknowledges that they are anything other than "self-defense", never acknowledges that the JDL is a hate group. 

From Klein:

First of all, this column appears on a commentary page. That means it is HER opinion, not the newspaper's. There are many columns that appear on the commentary pages of the S.F. Chronicle, the NY Times and other publications, which the newspapers do not necessarily agree with.  [An editor has the responsibility that inflammatory and false statements are not in any part of the publication.  Strong, unpopular opinions are one thing.  The piece Stillwell wrote is a deliberate falsification of history to promote a well-known hate group.  Tom Joad does not take the position that J does not have the First Amendment right to print such idiocy and filth.  However, we also have the right to call for accountability, and to ask for an apology and full retraction.] 

While I do not support Ms. Stillwell's opinion, I do not see any evidence that she is calling for domestic terrorism. Her argument is that Jews should defend themselves against anti-Semitism [By plotting to blow up a Congressman's office?!?  This is "self defense"?], and that the JDL was better at doing that than any other organization.  She  does NOT say that Earl Krugel or Irv Rubin were innocent; she just says that both their deaths were mysterious and should be investigated further. [She makes no case that they are not being investigated appropriately already.]

Ms. Stillwell does NOT call for the use of weapons. But she applauds that JDL is willing to use them if Jews are threatened. That's a lot different than domestic terrorism. The National Rifle Association (NRA) says Americans have a right to use weapons if they are threatened. Although Ms. Stillwell did not use an analogy,  the way I read her column is that the JDL has a right to do its thing just like the NRA does its thing.  [In Klein's bizarre analogy, the JDL is to likened to a lobby group that advocates self-protection by use of firearms.  We are not talking here about a proper response to a dangerous home intruder, we are talking about planning to bomb a place of worship, the crime for which Krugel pleaded guilty. While the NRA does have hate-group aficionados amongst its members, like Stillwell herself, can we imagine former NRA leader Charlton Heston, ever being charged with plotting to bomb a mosque?]   

Personally I think both organizations are misguided [Mr. Klein, the JDL is not only misguided, it is a criminal enterprise.  Could you acknowledge that?] and that violence only perpetuates more violence. But again, I do NOT see anything in Ms. Stillwell's column calling for terrorism [She *merely* implies that the actions of the JDL, which include a long history of domestic terrorism, of hate crimes against Arab-Americans, is the best "self defense"]. 

Take Action, Stop Hate Crime, Demand the Truth!

1. Write a responsible, hate-free email to the Editor of J Weekly.  info@jweekly.com   copy to Tom at Tomjoad.org.  Demand a retraction and an apology to all for the distortions presented, and a clear, unambiguous renunciation of JDL's terror tactics.  Specific apologies should be directed towards the many victims of JDL's campaign of hate, including Congressman Darrell Issa, the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, the friends and family of Alex Odeh. 

2.  Write to sfgate.com and its reader representative, Dick Rogers.  Ask if it is in the best interest of the community, and the newspaper, if they have a columnist who will use the good name of sfgate.com after a commentary of such moronic racist rubbish?  If they choose to retain Stillwell, despite her extremist views, could they at least hire someone who would be willing to present a presents an Arab American perspective, that is sorely lacking in the paper or on the sfgate.com website?