Holocaust Museum
Pulls Back from Study on Obama’s Syrian Foreign Policy: Cites Failures Tempered
by Political Cover, Critics Charge
by Penny Starr19 Sep 2017
A major study produced by the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum in late August has caused a swirl
of debate and controversy among museum supporters, academics, Syrian analysts,
Jewish leaders, and even U.S. lawmakers.
News of the report — which was scheduled to be officially
released on September 11, came after Tablet Magazine was given portions
of the study, which it shared
with leaders in the Jewish community.
Those leaders were highly critical of the study, saying
that while the report does reflect the failures of Obama’s Syrian foreign
policy, it also seems to justify the inaction of the Obama administration to
stop the genocide that has unfolded at the hands of terrorists and Syrian
dictator Bashar al-Assad, the latter backed, in large part, by Russia
and Iran.
It was only in the final year of the Obama administration
that Secretary of State John officially designated ISIS’s atrocities in Syria
as genocide while not mentioning the Assad regime specifically in his March
2016 remarks.
The Syrian Network For
Human Rights reports
that some 480,000 deaths have occurred during the Syrian civil war over the
past six years. According to U.S. intelligence, that includes innocent
civilians and children killed by the Assad regime using chemical weapons,
brutal kidnapping and murders of religious minorities by the Islamic State, as
well deaths across all populations from efforts by the International Coalition
in Syria to end the civil war and defeat ISIS.
Although Obama famously drew his “red line” on Assad’s
use of chemical weapons
against his own people in a speech in 2013, minimal actions were taken under
his administration.
“Obama’s September 2013 decision not to undertake
standoff strikes to enforce his ‘red line’ against the Assad regime’s use of
chemical weapons stands as his most controversial policy decision on Syria, and
arguably of his entire presidency,” the report executive summary states.
“Conducting limited stand-off strikes followed immediately by intensive
diplomacy might have led to a reduction in the level of killing.”
The study attempts to sort out the situation on the
ground and the Obama’s response to it that includes assertions some inaction
could have been justified.
“Using computational modeling and game theory methods, as
well as interviews with experts and policymakers, the report asserted that
greater support for the anti-Assad rebels and U.S. strikes on the Assad regime
after the August 2013 Ghouta chemical weapons attack would not have reduced
atrocities in the country, and might conceivably have contributed to them,” Tablet
Magazine reported.
“The first thing I have to say is: Shame on the Holocaust
Museum,” Leon Wieseltier, a literary critic and fellow at the Brookings
Institution, said in the Tablet Magazine reporting,
slamming the museum for “releasing an allegedly scientific study that justifies
bystanderism.”
“I assume the leadership understands that it made a
misstep,” Abraham Foxman, the director of the Center of the Study of
Anti-Semitism at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the
History, told Tablet Magazine. “I served three times on the Holocaust
Commission.
“The institution is very dear to my heart,” Foxman said.
“And I believe that it’s appropriate—indeed, it’s imperative—for the museum
[to] deal with questions of genocide in contemporary current events.”
Foxman noted that the genocide in Syria is still ongoing and “more
broadly I just don’t think it’s appropriate for the museum to issue this kind
of judgement—that’s beyond its mandate. This should be a place where one meets
to discuss, to debate, to question, to challenge: Could more have been done?
Where? How? Not to issue judgment, especially not in this politicized
atmosphere.”
“While examining the U.S.’s response to the conflict
arguably falls within the Museum’s stated
purpose of ‘inspiring citizens and leaders to confront hatred,
prevent genocide, and promote human dignity,’ it is unclear how producing work
that could be used to justify or excuse official inaction in the face of war
crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria squares with
that mission,” Tablet Magazine reported. “Since the outbreak of civil
war early 2011, the Syrian dictator has repeatedly attacked civilians with
poison gas, maintaining a network of prison camps where as many
as 60,000 people have been tortured, murdered, and disappeared, with
their bodies dumped into crematoria
and mass graves.”
Tablet Magazine also points out that many former
Obama administration officials are now working at the museum — although it does
not document their direct involvement in the study — including former deputy
national security advisor Ben Rhodes, who was appointed to the museum’s Memorial
Council during the closing days of the Obama administration. The
Council also includes Obama National Security Council alumni Grant Harris and
Daniel Benjamin. Other Obama NSC alumni — Cameron Hudson and Anna Cave — have
joined the Museum’s staff.
The study was commissioned a year ago by a think tank
within the museum, the
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, which Hudson now
heads.
The New York Times weighed
in on the controversy on Sunday, reporting that the museum’s study
has made it “a lightning rod for the fierce debate over the Obama
administration’s role in the Syrian civil war.”
“Since then, the museum has been caught in a political
debate and faced questions about academic freedom and the board’s ties to the
Obama administration,” the Times reported.
“Of the eight sitting federal lawmakers who are trustees,
two responded,” the Times reported. “Senator Al Franken, Democrat of
Minnesota, had no comment on the study, a spokesman said. Senator Orrin Hatch,
Republican of Utah, said he supported the decision to remove it.”
“The Holocaust museum, if it stands for anything, stands
for the idea that we should always act against genocide and that there’s
something forever wrong and unsatisfying about the idea that we can do nothing
to alleviate radical evil,” Wieseltier said, as reported by the Times.
“This paper basically whitewashes the Obama administration’s inaction on Syria
and says that there’s nothing we can do.”
The Holocaust Museum opened in 1993 and is funded by the
federal government and private donations. It issued a brief
statement on its website.
Let’s connect the dots:
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad
is the president of Syria, supporting
Russia politically & militarily,
supporting the Syrian Electronic Army
which is a hacker group, and permitted the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria.
Note: Syrian
Electronic Army reportedly
hacked the Human Rights Watch.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, the Human
Rights First, and the Center for
International Policy.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a
benefactor for the Human Rights Watch,
and William D. Zabel was his divorce
lawyer.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the International
Rescue Committee, the Human Rights
First, and the Center for
International Policy.
John J. Studzinski
is a director at the Human Rights Watch,
and was the co-head of investment banking for the HSBC Holdings plc.
James B. Comey
was a director at the HSBC Holdings plc,
and a director for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI).
Stuart A. Levey
is the chief legal officer for HSBC
Holdings plc, and a member of the United
States Holocaust Memorial Council.
John L. Thornton
was a director at the HSBC Holdings plc,
and is the co-chairman for the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Norman L. Eisen is
a fellow at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and a member of the United
States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Joshua B. Bolten
is a member of
the United States Holocaust Memorial
Council, and a director at the ONE
Campaign.
ONE Campaign is
a partner with the International Rescue
Committee.
Elie
Wiesel was an overseer for the International
Rescue Committee, and a member of the United
States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Tom A. Bernstein
is the chairman for the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council, and a director at the Human Rights First.
Richard R. Verma
was a director at the Human Rights First,
and a member of the Commission on the
Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
William D. Zabel
is the chair for the Human Rights First,
and was George Soros’s divorce
lawyer, and a trustee at the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Human Rights First, the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the International
Rescue Committee, and the Human
Rights Watch.
George
Soros was the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, William D.
Zabel was his divorce lawyer, a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch, is
the founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Human Rights First, and the Human
Rights Watch.
Syrian
Electronic Army reportedly hacked the Human
Rights Watch.
Bashar al-Assad
is supporting the Syrian Electronic Army
which is a hacker group, the president of Syria,
supporting Russia politically &
militarily, and permitted the rise of the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria.
Edward P.
Djerejian was a U.S. ambassador for Syria,
a U.S. ambassador for Israel, and is
a trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of
New York.
Thomas H. Kean is
the chairman for the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, and a co-author of Without Precedent.
Benjamin J.
Rhodes is a co-author of Without Precedent, and was a deputy
national security adviser for the Barack
Obama administration.
Lee H. Hamilton is
a co-author of Without Precedent, and
an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past
Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Newton N. Minow
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, an honorary trustee at the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
Mark A. Angelson
was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a director at the Human Rights First.
James D. Zirin
was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a director at the Human Rights First.
Richard R. Verma
was a director at the Human Rights First,
and a member of the Commission on the
Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
William D. Zabel
is the chair for the Human Rights First,
and was George Soros’s divorce
lawyer, and a trustee at the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Tom A. Bernstein
is a director at the Human Rights First,
and the chairman for the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council.
Bradley D. Wine
was a member of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council, and a director at the Genocide Intervention Network.
Joan R. Platt was
a director at the Genocide Intervention
Network, and is a director at the Human
Rights Watch.
Syrian
Electronic Army reportedly hacked the Human
Rights Watch.
Bashar al-Assad
is supporting the Syrian Electronic Army
which is a hacker group, the president of Syria,
supporting Russia politically &
militarily, and permitted the rise of the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria.
Barbra
Streisand Foundation was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, and the Center
for International Policy (think tank).
Win Without War
is a Center for International Policy
(think tank) program.
Thomas H. Andrews
was a manager for Win Without War,
and is the president of the United to
End Genocide.
United to
End Genocide is a Save Darfur
Coalition.
Save Darfur
Coalition is a merged organization with the United
to End Genocide, and the Genocide
Intervention Network.
Joan R. Platt was
a director at the Save Darfur Coalition,
a director at the Genocide Intervention
Network, and is a director at the Human
Rights Watch.
Syrian
Electronic Army reportedly hacked the Human
Rights Watch.
Bashar al-Assad
is supporting the Syrian Electronic Army
which is a hacker group, the president of Syria,
supporting Russia politically &
militarily, and permitted the rise of the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria.
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