January 16, 2013

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “President Morsi’s Repulsive Comments” (Jan. 16)

Expressions of virulent anti-Jewish sentiment are a longstanding feature of Egyptian society, be they uttered by Muslim Brotherhood leadership at campaign rallies, by clerics in Friday sermons, or in newspaper op-eds. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi must be held accountable for his 2010 base and offensive anti-Semitic remarks, renounce them, and publicly declare that such sentiments have no place in Egypt, nor anywhere in the region.

Having clearly identified and strongly condemned the "pure bigotry" of Morsi's beliefs about Jews, your editorial perspective loses its moral compass when it irresponsibly and outrageously equates the corrosive cancerous anti-Semitism at the highest political, government and religious levels in the Arab world to unidentified comments by unidentified Israelis. To be sure, just like any other county in the world, Israel is not immune from racism or prejudice. When anti-Arab and anti-Muslim statements are publicly expressed in Israel, the record shows they are promptly and clearly denounced by Israel’s leaders, the press and civil society. Until hatred, bigotry and prejudice are eliminated from the human condition, that is how a healthy democracy should respond.

Sincerely,

The Anti-Defamation League