ADL Blasts Eye-for-eye Article

The Anti-Defamation League blasted a Jewish weekly for publishing an article that called for the retaliatory killing of Muslim innocents.

"The only way to deal with Islamic terrorists is the same way in which they deal with their victims," Lawrence Kulak wrote in an opinion piece titled "The Appropriate Response to Islamic Terror in the Dec. 12 issue of the Five Towns Jewish Times, a paper serving the Orthodox communities in southern Long Island, N.Y. "Muslims believe in the literal interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of an eye for an eye, and they do not have respect for anything perceived as a lesser standard of justice. They killed our innocents, and unless we kill theirs, they will go on killing ours."

In a Dec. 17 letter to the editor, the ADL wrote, "Regardless of one’s views on terrorism, to even entertain the notion of responding in kind is morally reprehensible and appalling. It is unfair to hold innocent Muslims responsible for the radical views of an extreme minority. In the Jewish tradition, words have consequences. In this case, Kulak’s words crossed the line."

The letter was signed "Anti-Defamation League," without any official’s name.

Kulak’s article was brought to public attention by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a Dec. 12 release calling for its repudiation by Jewish leaders.

In its own response to CAIR, the newspaper said Kulak’s sin was no more than "a poor choice of words — a slip of the author’s pen, if you will. Read in its entirety, the article is clearly conveying the message that members of a community that supports terrorists and allows them to remain in its midst should not expect to escape retaliation."