The Anti-Defamation League Have Become Democrat Party Shills

Increasingly, the ADL has become a more and more partisan organization. This is highlighted by the recent congressional elections when the director of the ADL tweeted regarding the election of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has previously expressed support for the Qanon conspiracy, which the ADL claims to be antisemitic, at least in part. Greene since then tried to distance herself from the movement. The tweet was from the director of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt. In it he said that he was “dismayed that Greene was projected to win her race”.

He went further than just expressing his displeasure, in the tweet-that was retweeted by the ADL’s official page, Greenblatt said that he wrote to Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy to ensure that “Qanon is blocked from any Congressional Leadership position”. 

What is interesting, is how the ADL failed to comment on a single other Congressional race. They made no comment as the three “Squad” members who have histories involving antisemitism, including those who have directly engaged with it. Nor did they mention the expansion of the “Squad”, now to include Cori Bush from Missouri’s first district. Back in August, Bush posted a picture on Twitter of herself with Linda Sarsour while claiming that Sarsour is a “fierce advocate for… the Jewish community”. This is a complete misrepresentation of the facts, Sarsour is a vociferous antisemite. 

The ADL also had no comment regarding Jamaal Bowman, the now Representative-elect from New York 16 who has a problematic history with Israel and is backed by and expressed his appreciation for an organization called “The Jewish Vote”, which has supported other antisemites in the past, including Washington DC Councilman Trayon White. White posted a ridiculous video in which he claimed that the Rothchilds are controlling the weather and making it snow in DC. (Tucker Carlson has an especially hilarious bit on this event, see here.) Despite this blatant antisemitism, The Jewish Vote had no problem backing White, and Bowman had no problem backing and using The Jewish Vote. 

Down in Georgia, the ADL condemned Senator David Perdue, who is competing in a special election in January for enlarging the nose of his Jewish opponent Jon Ossoff, invoking an antisemitic stereotype in a campaign ad. The Perdue campaign apologized and said it was an accident. I would think that Ossoff is deserving of a fair bit of condemnation, at a campaign speech, he said that he wants Trump supporters to “never be able to show their faces in public again”. That sounds an awful lot like political bigotry, something the ADL should be standing against. 

Similarly, they have ignored Georgia Senate candidate Raphael Warnock’s statements regarding Israel from 2018, that Israel was wantonly murdering Palestinian children, what David Harsayni at the National Review described as a “blood libel“. Warnock also signed a letter comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa.

The ADL also failed to mention anything regarding Rev. Warnock’s defence of Jeremiah Wright, when back in 2008, he said “We celebrate Rev. Wright in the same way that we celebrate the truth-telling tradition of the Black church, which when preachers tell the truth, very often it makes people uncomfortable”. This was after videos arose of Wright saying “Not God bless America, God damn America,” during his sermons. In 2009, Wright also said that the Jewish lobby was controlling Obama. None of this was worthy of even a single mention by the ADL or its director, Mr. Greenblatt. 

It would also seem that they have no comment over the recent trend that has begun, and has been promoted by figures like AOC, of making lists of people who have supported Trump in some way. This is an eerie practice that seems to come straight out of the Nazi or Soviet playbook and should be roundly condemned. The ADL doesn’t seem to agree.

In the meanwhile, Greenblatt has been going on MSNBC’s The Squak Box and slamming Parler, the new social media app, for its policy of not deplatforming anyone, unless they commit an actual crime. In his statement congratulating Joe Biden for being declared President-elect he mentions Qanon, but not the recent spate of left wing violence and attacks on right wing individuals, for the mere crime of supporting President Trump. The statement also says that Kamala Harris will be the “first VP of colour”. I would just like to point out that this is not correct. Republican Charles Curtis, VP from 1929-1933 was the first VP of colour, as he was a Native American and a member of the Kaw Nation. 

The ADL should be focused on fighting actual bigotry, nothing else. But that is not what has happened under this leadership, and there are no signs that it will be changing anytime soon. As long as this pattern is continued, of only singling out Republicans for bigotry and nonstop attacks on free speech, it places their legitimate work in danger. Why should anyone, especially those on the right, listen to, or respect such a blatantly partisan group? For the erosion of faith in the ADL to stop, they must stop their partisan attacks and go back to treating all bigotry the same.