By Ron Hayes

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, February 10, 2007

PALM BEACH — The national director of the Anti-Defamation League speculated Friday that the Internet may be a major factor in growing anti-Semitism throughout the world.

"I'm becoming convinced more and more every day that the reason anti-Semitism is out there more is this highway, this transmitter belt," Abraham Foxman told about 350 people gathered for the ADL's national executive committee meeting, which runs through Sunday at The Breakers. "These blogs circulate it and reinforce it and so there's more of it."

While calling himself "a complete illiterate" who's only now learning about computers, Foxman said he's seen the potential for spreading hatred and bigotry online.

"Want to get sick?" he asked. "Log on to 'Holocaust.' With the Web you can extend and enhance and entertain, but it's also provided a legitimate highway for bigotry."

On the Internet, neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers have at least the same potential audience as Web sites that promote peace, love and understanding. But Foxman confessed frustration at finding an effective way to combat the Internet's potential for inflaming bigotry.

"We have to come up with a better answer so that when they Google 'Jew' they don't get a hateful, anti-Semitic definition," he said. "We have to tell the Jewish community to bombard the Web with 'Jewish' positively."

Foxman made his comments on the Internet as part of a keynote address in which he expressed concerns that anti-Semitism is rising throughout the world.

"Why are we now hearing all the hideous canards about Jewish people that we believed buried in history?" he asked.

Anti-Semitism seems to have increased since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Foxman said.

Many people believe Israel was behind the attacks, he said. "This is a fact in at least a third of the world, if not more."

Terrorist attacks in Bali and the Sinai and the recent shooting of a newspaper editor in Turkey are being blamed on Jews, he said.

"I almost expect to hear that the Denmark cartoons that insulted the prophet Mohammed were our fault," he said.

Foxman also criticized former President Jimmy Carter, whose current bestseller, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, has offended many Jews and other supporters of Israel.

"When Jimmy Carter says he chose that title to provoke debate because the Jews control the debate, that's an anti-Semitic canard," Foxman charged. "It wasn't David Duke or Pat Buchanan who said it. It's Jimmy Carter, a former president of the United States, and he's still saying it.

"I don't remember ever being so seriously concerned about the safety and security of my grandson."

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