Anti-Zionism As Poorly-Disguised Anti-Semitism, ADL Leader Finally Getting Serious
Jonathan Greenblatt, someone of whom we have been highly critical, finally is speaking out against leftwing anti-Zionism.
We’ve been very critical of Jonathan Greenblatt’s leadership of the Anti-Defamation League. (See here, here, here, here, and most recently, here.) We think it only right to acknowledge when he does something right.
Greenblatt’s recent Newsweek opinion piece and May 1 speech to the ADL Virtual National Leadership Summit seem to indicate growing recognition that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, and new resolve to fight it. In his 25-minute speech, Greenblatt said bluntly: “To those who still cling to the idea that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism – let me clarify this for you as clearly as I can – anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.” The Newsweek op-ed explained it this way:
Replacing the word “Jews” with “Zionists” to claim some perceived moral high ground was a rhetorical technique pioneered by Soviet disinformation specialists… If you demonize another group enough, there are more than a few people out there who will act—who will think it’s OK to slur a classmate during a pick-up basketball game, or spray paint a synagogue, or jump the Haredi man walking down the street in Brooklyn, or—God forbid—do even worse.
Greenblatt has come a long way, but he has a long way to go. His ADL is not starting from the baseline of being the nation’s leading organization standing up for Jews and fighting anti-Semitism, but from the left-wing political advocacy group into which he’s transformed it. Strong words in isolation must be transformed into strong words and strong deeds when faced with real life occurrences of anti-Semitism whether disguised as anti-Zionism or anything else. So far, the ADL’s response to anti-“Zionism” remains particularly lacking.
That’s the gist of an op-ed I recently had published by JNS (also appearing in Israel Hayom and the Jewish Press). I took the liberty of offering Mr. Greenblatt suggestions for beefing up the ADL’s performance. Here are the first few:
The May 1 speech and recent article spent less time on criticisms of right-wing anti-Semites than the 2021 op-ed, but still criticized the right.
Mr. Greenblatt, please stop your attempts to “balance” condemnations of the left with put-downs of right-wingers. It suggests the ADL is not serious about critiquing the left. After all, how many ADL exposés of right-wing anti-Semitism “balance” themselves with criticisms of left-wingers?
Don’t be tepid or slow on denunciations of left-wing anti-Semitism. We’re encouraged that you criticized The Harvard Crimson’s publication of a pro-BDS editorial, but a tweet that it is “beyond disturbing” and cheers for faculty members and students who spoke out against it isn’t enough. The ADL exists to take point in controversies like this.
Likewise, why are you so silent about President Joe Biden’s choice of Karine Jean-Pierre as his new press secretary, despite her track record of Israel-bashing? When a group that at least used to be the premier Jewish organization fighting hatred, discrimination and crimes against Jews is slow to recognize anti-Semitism and cautious about denouncing it, is it any wonder that college presidents, politicians and others are reluctant to say or do anything?
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Comments
It must be very hard to accept that people you’ve long thought of as fellow travelers are, in fact, deadly enemies.
Perhaps after helping leftist fellow travelers throw others to the wolves he has come to understand that his actions are simply speeding his own place on the menu?
I don’t think he actually accepts that. He just thinks that because he’s Jewish he can make himself exempt from his fellow travelers.
In the past several years. this moron Greenblatt and the leftist ADL have done more damage to world Jewry than Isis has.
Once again: leftist Jews trying to take the rest of Jewry off a cliff.
The problem is “Reform Judaism”. This cult has taken hold in the U.S. and resulted in a Jewish sect that is decidedly left-wing, and socialist.
Reform Judaism is a blending of the traditional Jewish faith, with Marxism.
Correction: There’s very little if any trace of the traditional Jewish faith to be found in Reform. It doesn’t believe in almost any of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism. What traditions exist are mere decorative veneer on a religion that has less in common with Judaism than do many forms of Christianity. Many Reform clergymen are agnostic or atheist; and in fact many are not even Jewish. It’s likely that a majority of Reform members are not Jewish either.
And yes, leftist politics is at the core of this religion.
Looking from the outside, seems like the “High Point” of aggressive push back against anti-Israel/anti-semitism was 1980-1993 when Tom Dine was head of AIPAC. I remember reading an article at the time that characterized him as one of the most powerful men in D.C. IIRC, he was “taken down” over a negative comment that he made about Haredim.(sp?)
Tom Dine is as leftist as Greenblatt. He insists that AIPAC should not endorse any Republican who voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 win, and says he will not give a dime to AIPAC because of that. And yes, he was forced to resign from AIPAC in 1993 because he told a reporter that most of the snobby secular Jews he associates with look down their noses at Haredim. “It’s a class thing”, and “They have a smelly image”.
“Reform Judaism.”
Oh, this idiot is finally realizing the Keft hates Jews? Better late than never.
Nah. He’s just doing the usual leftist b.s. of trying to show they’re honest once in a while.
“Replacing the word ‘Jews’ with ‘Zionists’ … was a rhetorical technique pioneered by Soviet disinformation specialists…”
Really? I don’t suppose anyone would like to document this statement with qualified citations.
I first noticed this problem when BHO was making his run for the presidency; a lot of it spewing from the mouth of Pastor Jeremiah Wright.
It was Soviet propaganda that decided to treat “Palestinian” as an actual people, too
Exactly.
Yes, really. I don’t have citations to hand, but they’re easy enough to find if you’re interested. It’s very well known and well documented, going back to the ’60s.
“I don’t suppose anyone would like to document this statement with qualified citations.”
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=soviet+zionists
TNX much, but I’d appreciate actual material, not stuff that’s been passed through the digestive apparatus of genus Bos. Wikipedia – really!
Remember that earlier this year the ADL web page defined racism as “the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.” And the left-wing Jews that run the ADL didn’t even seem to notice.
That definition would mean that the Holocaust was not an example of racism. The ADL’s ridiculous definition of racism probably wouldn’t have been noticed except that Whoopi Goldberg cited it after she made her comment that the Holocaust was not racist, then the ADL quickly changed their definition to something more inclusive.
Yes, but the ADL’s definition still allows them to be as racist as they want to whites while claiming, despite their appearance, to not be whites and therefore not racist. They still don’t get it.
Aside from acknowledging anti-Semitism from the left, it is also critical to point out anti-Semitism coming from Islamic quarters, not just the anti-Zionism crusade of the pro-Palestinian crowd on our university campuses, but Islamic anti-Semitism-very much and alive not only in the Arab world but Europe as well.
Jews historically get it from every direction, and those anti-Semites on the right, neo-Nazis, Goyim Defense League, or whatever are to be condemned, but Islamic anti-Semitism, which is embedded in the Koran and other Islamic scripture, is a major ingredient of the overall problem.
This political hack has done more harm to American Jews than anyone since Roosevelt.
LI are welcome to remove this comment, as it’s going to be controversial.
I’m anti-Zionism _because_ it’s anti-semitic.
If you support a nation state and homeland for Jewish people then the logical extrapolation is that every other race and culture must also have its own nation state and homeland. One in which Jewish people would not belong.
Thus Zionism demands the expulsion of Jewish people from every other country. I do not support this.
That is bullshit, and you are an antisemite. We already established that earlier, when you openly supported the forcible expulsion of Jews who choose to live in their native land, Judaea.
Yes, every nation is entitled to its own state, if it likes. Isn’t that the whole basis of the supposed claim for a “Palestinian” state? The French have theirs, the Germans have theirs, the Catalans want theirs and they’re right, how is it that the Jews are the only nation in the world not entitled to one?
But since when do nation states expel people of other nationalities who live in their country? How in your twisted mind does supporting the existence of a Japanese state mean that Gaijin should not be allowed to live there?
Certainly Israel has many people of minority nationalities, and gives them completely equal rights with Jews. It does not harass them in any way, and certainly hasn’t expelled them. So why would you expect other nation-states to expel Jews? The only ones that have done so are Arab states, and if a “Palestinian” state were ever to be established it would certainly not allow Jews to live there.
Even Egypt, when it made peace with Israel, insisted on receiving the SInai completely Judenrein. That should have torpedoed the deal; instead Israel complied, and committed a terrible crime against humanity and against its own people the Jews, and forcibly expelled all of the Sinai’s Jewish residents. That was wrong. But it does not expel Arabs from anywhere.
No, you made a false accusation that I was an anti-semite, failed to back it up with any evidence or facts and continue to lie about me. Stop it.
I haven’t argued for the forced expulsion of Jews from anywhere. I’ve argued for the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine to be removed.
As for the French, they’re not French, they’re Gauls, Alsatians, Bretons, Normans.. The Germans are Saxons, Frisians, Visigoths and a dozen other ethnicities. No, your false equivalence does not hold, ethno-states just do not exist in the modern world.
As for “But since when do nation states expel people of other nationalities who live in their country” that’s just extreme gaslighting. Israel expels people of other nationalities that live in their own country, not in Israel! But we’re back to the illegal settlements..
More gaslighting with “Israel has many people of minority nationalities, and gives them completely equal rights with Jews.” No, the Nation State law explicitly denies them equal rights with Jewish people. If I moved to Israel I would be treated as lesser than people with Jewish ancestry because of that law. That’s racist.
Your argument appears to be that other countries would not expel Jewish people, thus invalidating my claim that Zionism is anti-semitic. Sadly your argument merely proves my point, as any true ethno-state must by definition exclude (my view) or discriminate against (your view) other ethnicities.
If Normandy claimed independence from France, and established a law that Normandy is a Norman state, that immediately means any Jewish people living in Normandy cease to be equal under law to Normans – just as I wouldn’t be equal under the law in Israel. Ergo establishing an ethno-state discriminates against those not belonging to that ethnicity, and Zionism is (to my understanding) all about establishing an ethno-state.
This is demonstrated in reality by the legal discrimination against Arabs in Israel, even if you disregard the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their own lands outside of Israel.
You don’t know any history. Thus, you shouldn’t pontificate. You don’t know how the modern state of Israel was established or why it was established. (If you start at 1948 you prove my point.)
How can any Jewish settlements in what was Mandatory Palestine be illegal? What makes them illegal? What law applies? Cite some law. And if you cite some United Nations resolution, you will be both wrong on the law and will be laughed out of the LI Board.
I have no doubt, Adult-In-Diapers, that you are a white guy living in the United States. Are you an indigenous person to that land? Interestingly, Jews are indigenous to Israel. There have always been Jews in Israel. Always. (Look up Hebron, too. and Shechem and Gush Etzion. You’ll learn something.)
While not an expert in history, I’d point out that Israel is on land that was occupied by people for 2000 years before the earliest mention of Israelites or Jews.
So no, there have not always been Jews in Israel. Also, I am indeed indigenous to the country I live in.
As for “Jewish settlements”, there are none. There are Israeli settlements, and please stop conflating the two. Those Israeli settlements are illegal according, well, everybody except Israel and America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law_and_Israeli_settlements
I’m happy to learn things, and do so through discussions such as these. If only others were equally open to being educated.
The Canaanites don’t exist any more. They have not existed for 3300 years, so they can’t have any rights today. Jews are the indigenous people of Judaea; yes, they had predecessors, but so did almost all indigenous people. There are almost no indigenous people who settled an empty land rather than displacing the previous inhabitants.
That’s a contradiction in terms. Besides the fact that “settlements” are not illegal, and that “Palestine” is an area that includes all of Israel, “Israeli settlements” means anywhere a Jew lives in the area that was (illegally) occupied by Jordan from 1949 to 1967. That’s what the term means. If a Jew buys an apartment in the middle of a city there, that’s a “settlement”. If an Arab buys one next door, that’s not a “settlement”. If a Jew parks a trailer on a hilltop that is state land, and that has been unoccupied and unused for thousands of years, that’s a “settlement”; but Arabs building an entire village on state land, without any permit, is not a “settlement”. Calling for all “settlements” to be removed is semantically exactly the same as calling for all Jews to be removed. Which is antisemitism by definition.
There is no “international law” banning Jews from deciding to live in Judaea; and if there were such a purported “law” it would be automatically void, just like the Nazi laws. Nor is there any such “law” requiring Israel to forcibly prevent its Jewish citizens (or indeed any of its citizens) from living there. And of course removing “Israeli settlements” from all of “Palestine” means removing Israel altogether, since there isn’t anywhere in Israel that isn’t “Palestine”.
No, it doesn’t. Where are you getting these insane fantasies? Whom exactly has it expelled, and what has that got to do with “illegal settlements”?
That is an outright lie.
Liar.
Liar again. There is no such discrimination and no such expulsion.
Oh, and “French” certainly is an ethnicity. Ask any Frenchman. It includes multiple sub-ethnicities. And it took French governments centuries to create a “French” ethnicity out of them. But they did it.
“German” is easier, since that was an ethnicity long before there was such a state called “Germany”. There were multiple German states, all of which knew themselves and were known by everyone else as German, and the whole area was known by the generic name of Germany, which was not a state but an area. Just like Palestine, or the Midwest. And German communities living in Eastern Europe were also known to themselves and everyone else as Germans too.
Ditto for Italians, who were long known as “Italians” even when “Italy” was a geographic region, not a state.
“The realization of the right to national self-
determination in the State of Israel is exclusive to the
Jewish People.”
— https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/Documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawNationState.pdf
I’m sorry the Israeli Government agrees with me, despite your multiple false accusations of lying.
You clearly have no intention of discussing this topic objectively, so I’m going to stop here.
Yes. How would that discriminate against or oppress you if you were to live there? What right would it deprive you of? In what way would you be “treated as lesser than people with Jewish ancestry”? None at all. You remain a liar and a ****ing antisemite.
Wait. Are you reading “the Jewish people” as if it said “people who are Jewish”?! Could you be that illiterate?! Do you not know what a “people” in the singular means?!
Below you cite to a Wikipedia page for the proposition that the Israeli/Jewish settlements are illegal.
I rest my case.
I’m so sorry I left you to go through that page and its multiple citations by yourself.
I know Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source but on matters such as this it does conveniently list multiple sources. I didn’t think it would be helpful to copy several of those citations here for you when I can just link the whole list.
The Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories are illegal. You don’t need to convince me otherwise, you need to convince 200 countries and several international organisations. Achieve that if you wish to change my mind.
The opinion of 200 antisemitic countries and several antisemitic organizations is irrelevant. They have no power to make “laws” that bind anyone but themselves.
That is not even logical It is the fallacy of unwarranted extrapolation.
However, if the French want to go back to France or the Italians to Italy, they are free to do so. Those countries didn’t even exist 3000 years ago, but we recognize that they have a now right to exist. ……and, guess what, like Israel, they allow other people groups to live there and be treated properly.
Then perhaps I could articulate it a different way:
Zionism is a “Jewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine”
— https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism
I would like to rephrase that:
Zionism is members of a nationalist movement pointing at a geographical territory and saying, based on a specific racial ancestry, “That is our land.”
To accept that as legitimate I would have to also accept other nationalist movements pointing at geographical territories and saying, based on a specific racial ancestry, “That is our land.”
Implicit in that, and a point that people keep claiming is an unwarranted extrapolation, is “That is not your land, because you are not us.” That is why my logic holds: it is just not possible for everybody to say “this is my land” without also directly saying, “this is not your land.”
Forgive me for not wanting every other country on the planet to tell Jewish people, “This is not your land.”
But let’s add a complication: What if two different peoples point at the same geographic region? How do we judge between them?
It’s not an academic question, because Jewish people point at the land now known as Israel and say, “This is our homeland”, and the descendants of the Canaanites (also known as Palestinians) point at the land now known as Israel and say, “This is our homeland.”
To accept Zionism I must also accept Palestinian claims to Israel, and decide between them – in which case, whether you go by ‘earliest presence’ or ‘longest continued presence’ it’s not looking good for the Jewish people in Israel.
By rejecting Zionism I can also reject the claims of Palestinians. I choose that option.
Why would you not want that? All those places are not the Jews’ land. Jews have only one native land, only one true home, and that is the Land of Israel. Anywhere else Jews live we are strangers, guests, very productive ones where we are made welcome, but ultimately we cannot be at home there.
That’s more bullshit. There is no connection between the ancient Canaanites and the Arabs who were living in the area in 1948.
Israel is an ‘ethno state’? Wouldn’t it follow from your argument that all Jews share the same ethnicity? IOW, to your mind ‘all Jews look the same’.
Jews do all share the same ethnicity. “Jewish” is an ethnicity. Also known as a nationality; the two words are more or less synonyms. It’s not necessary for all members of a nation to look alike.
(Americans tend to imagine that “nationality” and “citizenship” are synonyms, but they’re not, as every European knows. Not every French citizen is a Frenchman. Some countries put both citizenship and nationality on their ID cards, because they’re not necessarily the same.)
That is ridiculous on a number of levels. First (and kind of last since your whole point is based on this crazy), Zionism doesn’t demand anything of other countries; that’s a false syllogism (i.e. summers are hot, so people eat more ice cream: more people commit murder in the heat of summer; therefore, ice cream causes murder).
Most of us do have our own nation state and homeland; Jews, for centuries, did not. Because there is a Jewish state does not mean that every other country is “demanded” by Zionism to expel Jews. What garbage. We don’t expel Asians or Arabs even though there are most certainly Arab and Asian nation states and countries. Ditto Muslim countries; they exist, but that does not mean their existence is a “demand” that all Muslims be expelled from other countries. Or does it? Is that what you are arguing? That no nation should exist? One world, blah blah?
Following YOUR logic, there should be no Asian countries and no Arab countries since many of those do, in fact, expel, enslave, imprison, or slaughter people who are not Asian or Arab (or of the correct religion; we know what is happening to Uyghurs right now in China, what happens daily to Christians, including Arab and African Christians, throughout the Arab Muslim world, so we don’t even have to open a history book, a relief to you, I’m sure). Can you think of no country on earth that does not allow Jews to live within its borders? Or that does not allow “westerners” to freely visit, much less live there?
All nations have laws regarding citizenship, residency, and borders (or they would not be nations, right?). In Mexico, there are any number of restricted areas where a foreigner (i.e. not a Mexican national) is legally unable to purchase land. Are you anti-Mexican, too? Russia, Cuba, North Korea all have intensive restrictions on who is even allowed IN the country for a (heavily-state monitored) visit, let alone to live there on a permanent basis. Are you anti-Russia/Cuba/NoKo on these same grounds? Heck, even America has restrictions on who is allowed to legally enter and stay in this country, and not everyone is permitted to become a United States citizen (citizenship is not magically granted to any foreigner anywhere in the world over). Are you anti-America, too? Anti-every country in the world? Or is it just Israel you have a problem with? I ask rhetorically because I think you’ve made it clear that’s the case.
It’s interesting that you’re calling out countries that apply different laws to foreigners than to their own citizens. Those are not ethno-states, and do not (to my knowledge) have different laws based on the race of their citizens.
Countries that do, I absolutely condemn. That includes Palestinian territories and Arab states that have anti-Jewish laws. Those are wrong, because excluding people because of their race or ancestry is wrong.
Sorry for being consistent on that, I just don’t like racism.
How are Jews a race? They are historically a nation. That is how the Europeans viewed them for a thousand years. So did the Arabs. Jews lived in France, but they did not have French citizenship. Same with virtually every European country. You write about issues that are very complex but which you don’t understand. You don’t even know the issues are complex. They seem so simple to you. Black and white.
It is the definition of ignorance. That said, your reliance on a
Wikipedia page with multiple sources and a stupid reference to countries that consider the settlements illegal implicates an underlying inclination towards antisemitism. Ignorance and antisemitism are basically interchangeable.
How isn’t Jewish ancestry classed as a race by, well, everybody? What, you’re telling me that Hitler wasn’t racist, he was merely attacking a Jewish nation – that at the time didn’t exist? Your argument fails the laughter test.
Your inability and refusal to provide any evidence that the illegal Israeli settlements aren’t illegal makes your claims of ignorance laughable too. I gave you access to multiple references (via an intermediary) and your argument appears to be ‘they don’t count’. Why?
Incidentally your farcical claim that criticising Israel is anti-semitic is deranged and you may want to reflect on the appropriate term to describe someone that can’t differentiate between the illegal actions of Israel and people of Jewish ancestry.
I can. I do. Many of the flaws in Israel’s laws and actions derive from Zionism but the acts of Israel are the acts of a nation state, and can be criticised as such. Similarly Zionism can be stripped away the racial ancestry it’s attached to and looked at as a divisive ideology that’s inherently racist, and that’s what I’ve done.
That’s not ignorance. It sure as fuck isn’t anti-semitism. It’s highlighting that pushing for a race based ‘homeland’ drives racism everywhere else against that race.
You want proof of that? Someone else in this comment section keeps bleating on about anti-semitism, has falsely accused 200 countries of being anti-semitic, and in the very same post also tells us that Jewish people do not belong anywhere in the world outside of Israel.
Me, I find that incredibly anti-semitic. That’s why I made the initial post that I did, and that’s why none of the people challenging me have been able to change my mind.
Your rhetorical question is rhetorical indeed, but not for the reason you think.
You assume I have a problem with Israel. That’s disappointingly simplistic.
I don’t have a problem with Israel. I have a problem with certain Israeli laws and actions. I also have a problem with laws and actions of many other countries, including the one I live in.
So is it just Israel I have a problem with? False assumptions behind that question make it unanswerable.
Is it just Zionism I have a problem with? I reject racial discrimination in all its forms, including the demands for an ethno-state. I could name half a dozen ethnicities in my ancestry and not a single one has a ‘home land’, and not a single one would be granted one. I’m also not demanding one, and don’t reject any immigrants to my country based on their ethnicity, or use that as a basis to treat them differently once they’re here.
Why would I hold any other country to a lesser standard?
It’s good that you made that comment and that it was not removed. Now we know what you believe. That’s important.
The Jews needed their own homeland because they were a minority everywhere and were being persecuted and killed because of it–everywhere. It’s pretty simple. One cannot conclude from your premises that Zionism demands expulsion of the Jewish people from every other country. That’s an illogical conclusion.
That said, the creation of Israel was not a charitable event. Study up. Start with World War I and the Ottomans. Enjoy the reading.
Ooooh. Your Wikipedia page has multiple citations! Multiple. That really changes my mind!
Your incontinence is not limited to your bowels.
Never mind Greenblatt’s silence on Ores Biden’s new press secretary; how can Greenblatt justify hiring a minority outreach director who bashes Jews as being privileged white racists and repeatedly sides with celebrities who make antisemitic remarks if those celebrities happen to be black?
I have long thought that almost all expressions of anti-Zionism are simply dressed up anti-Semitism. It’s the socially acceptable way for anti-Semites to demagogue.
Now that our daughter has converted to Judaism, this sinister ploy and its dangerous effects bother me even more than before.