As dubious as quoting “Patrick” as an authority is Bernstein’s argument. HRW has always been an equal opportunity critic of any and all regimes deserving of criticism. The rancid assertions of the Israel-first crowd to the contrary can be shown false by a simple visit to HRW’s web site and some time spent reading. That Bernstein and the rest reject open and clear evidence in favor of an endless repetition of false allegations is only what can be expected.
Their only purpose is to discredit any and all criticism of Israel not first vetted by them. Objectivity or the lack thereof has nothing to do with it. Stone-deaf ideologues they are, and so they are intent on remaining.

Diane Meskin
Researcher, NGO Monitor

http://irmep.org/ILA/AZCDOJ/default.asp

AIPAC policing foreign fund receipts is quite forgetful of its own history (Founder Isaiah Kenen was taking thousands from the Jewish Agency direct from Jerusalem, while lobbying the Hill).

According to Jeffrey Goldberg’s email exchange with Ken Roth:

…we don’t get any Saudi funds for work on Israel, if that’s what you’re driving at. We do have some funds from Jews for work on other Middle Eastern countries (and some for work on Israel), but the vast majority of our funding is for our work as a whole.

I recommend reading Goldberg’s piece in its entirety for Ken Roth’s remarks, but not for those of Goldberg, who seems to be acting obtuse on purpose.

Ms. Whitson has responded, both in the Post and on in the comments on OpinionJournal, asserting that contrary to the impression left by the Arab News (which, she notes without irony, is subject to government censorship), she did discuss Saudi Arabia’s abysmal human rights record during her visit to Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Ms. Whitson acknowledges that the trip involved fundraising, and she says that HRW obtaining funding from Saudi Arabia is something to be “applauded.” She also does not deny that her pitch involved trumpeting HRW’s battles with what Arab News quotes her as calling “pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union and the United Nations.”

For my part, if Ms. Whitson did indeed discuss Saudi human rights abuses during her trip, I apologize for suggesting otherwise. But note that she doesn’t state that she publicly mentioned any of them, much less criticized them, at the fundraising dinner at which she criticized Israel and its supporters, in front of “prominent members of Saudi society, human rights activists and dignitaries.” Perhaps she would share a transcript of her remarks, or better yet, a video. After all, HRW is all about “Transparency.”

In any event, I still think (a) it’s extremely unwise for a human rights group to raise money in a totalitarian country, even from human rights advocates in that country; the organization may become dependent on that funding, which in turn could be cut off by the government at any time, creating pressure on the organization to downplay its criticisms of that country; (b) it’s more than unwise for HRW to specifically raise money in Saudi Arabia by portraying itself as an organization doing battle with “pro-Israel forces,” which implies that HRW is serving as an “anti-Israel force.” This suggests either that HRW isn’t concerned about its reputation for evenhandedness, or that it’s so maniacally anti-Israel that its leaders just assume that being anti-Israel is somehow the obvious even-handed position that it embraces. This obviously plays into the hands of critics like myself who have previously accused HRW of a lack of objectivity with regard to Israel. I certainly can’t imagine HRW going to Israel and raising money with the pitch that it is trying to counter-balance “pro-Arab” or “pro-Saudi” “pressure groups”.

I’ll close with a quote from commenter “Patrick” at the Opinio Juris blog (scroll down), with whom I rarely agree:

“HRW pride themselves on being independent, but this raises two quasi-existential threats to them. First, the poisonous allure of Israel-bashing does sometime threaten to contaminate and devalue not only their other work, but the numerous legitimate criticisms that might be made of Israel. Secondly, I know that it is almost sweetest if rich Saudis can be convinced to fund HRW, but there is a real risk of giving very wrong impressions by soliciting same. HRW appear not to have so much managed that risk as blatantly embraced it.”