Oct. 15, 2004 Nader, ADL chief locked in war of words By URIEL HEILMAN NEW YORK There's never been much love lost between Ralph Nader, the independent U.S. presidential candidate, and Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Now the two are sparring again over Israel and the use of the term "anti-Semite." In a letter to Foxman sent Tuesday, Nader ratcheted up his criticism of Israel beyond the remarks he made in June describing the White House and Congress as "puppets" of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In this week's letter, Nader said that Palestinian prisoners in Israel are detained in a "violent Gulag," that the "Israeli militaristic regime" causes "brutalization and slaughter" of innocent Palestinians, and that Foxman shows serious insensitivity to the "other anti-Semitism"-bigotry against Arabs, a Semitic people. The letter came as part of an exchange between the two prompted by Nader's comments during a radio interview in June that successive American administrations have been "puppets to Israeli military policy." At the time, he also suggested that the pro-Israel lobby in Washington held hostage U.S. Congressional policy when it came to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those comments prompted Foxman, and many Jews, to condemn Nader, who had earned a reputation as a tireless consumer-rights advocate before becoming known as Al Gore's spoiler in the 2000 presidential election. Nader is also an Arab-American, the son of Lebanese immigrants. "There is a line between thoughtful, reasoned, constructive disagreements and offensive hyperbole," Foxman and Barbara Balser, the ADL's national chairman, wrote in a July 2 letter to Nader. "The image of the Jewish State as a 'puppeteer,' controlling the powerful U.S. Congress feeds into many age-old stereotypes which have no place in legitimate public discourse." Nader responded with a letter of his own Aug. 5 in which he described the debate in Israel over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as far more open and fair than the one in the United States. In it, he enclosed a public letter signed by hundreds of Israeli "refuseniks," the IDF soldiers refusing to serve in the West Bank and Gaza, as evidence that Israel "is dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people." Foxman wrote back on Aug. 13 saying Nader was distorting the truth. "The realities of Israel, of American-Israeli relations and of U.S. policy are very different from what you describe in your effort to justify your false and offensive accusation," Foxman wrote. "I would urge you to reconsider your comments." Kevin Zeese, a spokesman for the Nader campaign, said the point of the exchange of letters with Foxman was to "highlight an issue that is not discussed in the United States: how to achieve peace in Israel and Palestine." Zeese said there is a "lack of free speech on this issue because of the kind of threatening responses people get from the ADL." On the issue of anti-Semitism, Nader believes there is a double-standard when it comes to anti-Semitism against Arabs, Zeese said, given that Arabs are a Semitic people, too. "People need to know what Semite really means," Zeese said. Foxman could not be reached for comment, and an ADL spokesman declined to comment. The latest salvo between the apparent pen pals came on the eve of some bad news for the independent presidential candidate, who is polling at about 1 percent of the vote nationwide. A Pennsylvania court Wednesday yanked Nader's name from the state's presidential ballot, ruling that the petition that nominated Nader was "rife with forgeries." Signatories apparently included "Mickey Mouse" and "Fred Flintstone," according to The Associated Press. Fewer that 19,000 of the 51,000 signatures of the petition were valid, the court said, short of the 26,000 required to get on the state's ballot. Pennsylvania is so-called swing state this election, and Nader's removal from the ballot is widely seen as beneficial to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the Democratic presidential nominee.