Magazine accused of anti-Jewish dual-loyalty slur

As scholars prepare to mark the 100th anniversary of the antisemitic ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ a US magazine has published a Protocols-style “dual loyalty” slur against Ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr., one of the most prominent Jews in early twentieth-century American politics, alleges an institute that focuses on America’s response to the Holocaust.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine has printed an article in its November 2005 issue that the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies claims blames Morgenthau and Zionism for prolonging World War I. The Wyman Institute is located on the campus of Gratz College, and includes the Institute’s advisory committee includes Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, Members of Congress, and other luminaries.

The magazine’s upcoming article “falsely suggests that Morgenthau’s 1917 peace mission to Turkey could have brought an early end to the war, (except) that Morgenthau allowed Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann to talk him out of the effort because Morgenthau chose to “show more loyalty to Zionism than to his president or his country,” says the Wyman Institute, claiming that “in fact, Morgenthau was an opponent of Zionism,” according to the Wyman Institute.

For its part, The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs claims that it “does not take partisan domestic political positions. As a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, it endorses U.N. Security Council Resolution 242´s land-for-peace formula, supported by seven successive U.S. presidents. In general, the Washington Report supports Middle East solutions which it judges to be consistent with the charter of the United Nations and traditional American support for human rights, self-determination, and fair play.” According to its website, “The Washington Report is published by the American Educational Trust (AET), a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC by retired U.S. foreign service officers to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states,” and the “AET’s Foreign Policy Committee has included former U.S. ambassadors, government officials, and members of Congress, including the late Democratic Senator J. William Fulbright, and Republican Senator Charles Percy.”

But according to the Wyman Institute, “the magazine maintains a veneer of credibility because of the prominent positions previously held by some of its sponsors. The Washington Report’s publisher is Andrew J. Killgore, the U.S. ambassador to Qatar during the Carter administration, and its executive editor is Richard H. Curtiss, former chief inspector for the U.S. Information Agency. The magazine is published by the American Educational Trust, which enjoys nonprofit status. Its directors have included a number of former diplomats, a former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, and former Members of Congress.”

Furthermore, the Wyman Institute alleges that “The Washington Report often publishes articles comparing Israel to the Nazis and alleging inappropriate Jewish influence on Congress or the media. It also opposes U.S. government support of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and in 1998 printed an article claiming there is new evidence that ‘would cut in half the Zionists’ original claim that six million Jews had died under the Nazi regime.” U.S. Congressman Steven Rothman (D-N.J.) has described the Washington Report as ‘extremely anti-Semitic’ and urged his congressional colleagues to boycott it.”

According to the Wyman Institute, “the article also falsely claims that ‘a (U.S.) Senator” testified at congressional hearings in 1922 that the Zionists were to blame for prolonging World War I. In fact, that testimony was made not be a Senator but by an Arabist professor, Edward B. Reed, and his statement at the time was denounced by American Zionist leaders as reminiscent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was one of Adolf Hitler’s favorite books and was a staple of Nazi propaganda, is a Czarist Russian forgery, first published in 1905, which claims to expose a Jewish plot to infiltrate governments and conquer the world.

The Protocols will be the subject of a major scholarly conference at Boston University on Oct. 30 to Oct. 31.

Conference organizer Prof. Steven T. Katz, who is director of the university’s Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University and a member of the Academic Council of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, issued the following statement – via a Wyman Institute press release – regarding the Washington Report’s article:

“One hundred years after the publication of the forged document known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which alleged that Jews were trying to take over governments and rule the world, the Washington Report has echoed that vicious slur by portraying Henry Morgenthau as a sinister secret agent of Zionism and saboteur of America and President Wilson.”

The Wyman Institute also issued a statement by Henry Morgenthau III, who is the grandson of Morgenthau Sr. and a member of its Advisory Committee:

“The allegation that my grandfather was disloyal to America or to President Wilson is an outrageous falsehood. The claim that he was ‘loyal to Zionism’ is simply laughable, since Ambassador Morgenthau was well-known for his opposition to Zionism. But what the Washington Report has published goes far beyond slandering my grandfather; the notion that he helped prolong World War One for the sake of Jewish interests raises the vile ‘dual loyalty’ specter, by suggesting that Jews in government service must be suspected of secretly harboring foreign loyalties.”

Morgenthau is urging the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs to publish a full retraction of the statement about his grandfather. According to the Wyman Institute, “In Henry Morgenthau III’s book Mostly Morgenthaus, a family history, he devotes a full chapter to the so-called ‘secret mission,” Ambassador Morgenthau’s attempt to start negotiations for Turkish withdrawal from World War I.

The Washington Report’s article was authored by “John Cornelius,” whom it identifies as “the nom de plume of an American with long-standing interest in the Middle East,” according to the Wyman Institute.