Jewish Groups Line Up to Condemn Ad Criticizing Susan Rice

A wide slate of Jewish groups have lined up to condemn a newspaper advertisement that accuses National Security Adviser Susan Rice of having a "blind spot" when it comes to genocide.

The ad was taken out in Saturday's edition of The New York Times to promote a talk hosted Rabbi Shmuley Boteach this week in Washington on Iran, reports The Jerusalem Post,

The ad slams Rice for her complaints about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress, which was organized through the office of House Speaker John Boehner without consulting the White House.
The way the speech was organized was "destructive" to the relationship between the United States and Israel, Rice complained.

But the main point of the ad was a controversy dating back to the 1990s, when Rice, then a member of President Bill Clinton's National Security Council staff, advised against describing mass killings that had happened in Rwanda as "genocide."

"Ms. Rice may be blind to the issue of genocide, but should treat our ally with at least as much diplomatic courtesy as she does the committed enemy of both our nations," the Times advertisement said.

Marshall Wittmann, spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which plans to host Rice on Monday at its annual conference, told The Jerusalem Post that such such attacks "should have no place in our discourse."

Meanwhile, the ad was described as "revolting" by the American Jewish Committee; "spurious and perverse" by the Anti-Defamation League; and "outrageous" by the Jewish Federations of North America. Further, Josh Block, president of The Israel Project, called the attack "entirely inappropriate."

The Orthodox Union, J Street, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative also condemned the anti-Rice ad in a combined statement as being "abhorrent," "grotesque," and a "sinister slur."

Rice deserves an apology from Boteach, said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, director of the Rabbinical Assembly, for an ad that "is completely inconsistent with the record of friendship and loyalty this public official has shown Israel and the Jewish people."

During Obama's first term, while Rice served as U.S. envoy to the United Nations, she worked to stop attacks on Israel and to protect Sudanese populations, and Schoenfeld said it is not up to Boteach to "make it appear this is the way the Jewish community treats our friends."

Boteach's event on Monday will be held at a Senate office building, The Post reports, and includes  Nobel laureate and Holocaust memoirist Elie Wiesel, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif. and Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

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