The Moral Bankruptcy of the Anti-Defamation League 

 By David Starr

 

On March 03, 2025 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt made a speech for the State of Hate / Never Is Now 2025 campaign. It was specifically a press release. In it, Greenblatt conjures up the same old stereotypes about how pro-Palestinian supporters are agents of Hamas, as well as terrorists. And he, like always with hardline Israeli supporters, whipped out the anti-Semitic card for practically any criticism made by people who oppose Israel’s attempted genocide and ethnic cleansing military campaigns.

 

Greenblatt said that “after months of allowing the harassment, intimidation, and even violence against Jewish students and faculty, many university presidents, certainly not all, but many have discovered the virtues of actually enforcing their policies on encampments and harassment.”

 

True, there is a reemergence of anti-Semitism but it’s not from Palestinian supporters, but from Nazis, fascists and white supremacists. In all, the right-wing. Many of those supporters are in fact Jewish and they have a slogan: “Not In Our Name!” Many Jews have come out against Israel’s fascist government and its supporters. They also oppose what the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have been doing in the process of committing war crimes.

 

Further, Greenblatt said, “And now – a new administration has taken office in Washington and made it clear that it will redouble the federal government’s efforts to fight antisemitism on campus, in K-12 schools, and in international organizations.” Like with many examples, Greenblatt omits facts like how insane and selfish the Trump regime is, with domestic and foreign policy-making. He should take a look at how Trump and his billionaire friends are bleeding the working class and poor; how Trump and ICE thugs have imposed a policy of deporting immigrants, some even being U.S. citizens, in a fascist-like manner; how ultranationalist Republicans who support Trump are clamoring for a forever war or wars.

 

Greenblatt accused Iran of state-sponsored terrorism and anti-Semitism but he fails to see the shades of gray. While a theocracy, like Iran has, is not democratic, that country still has the right to defend its sovereignty. Greenblatt also fails to see the obvious terrorism Israel is committing for myths of religious supremacy. It can be said that Israel now has a theocracy.

 

Greenblatt acknowledges that we “still have right-wing extremists – emboldened in the United States…and their compatriots organizing and mobilizing in political parties across Europe.” While this is true, Greenblatt fails again…he doesn’t recognize that many right-wing fanatics support the Trump regime. 

 

Greenblatt went on to complain that universities are being forced to “adopt BDS.” He mentions that campus protesters want to “glorify Hamas terrorists.” Greenblatt also complains that, “We still have self-described ‘progressives’ – in major non-profits, professional associations, news outlets, and in elected in office – who see themselves as the ‘parity police’ refusing to acknowledge anti-Jewish hate on its own and gaslighting us about what is and is not antisemitic.”

 

First, Greenblatt would rather ignore Israel’s own terrorism which is an obvious reality, given the amount of military actions by the IOF and the resulting carnage. Second, calling progressives the “parity police” makes it sound like Greenblatt opposes parity, or perhaps equality. He certainly ignores the Palestinians’ plight; implies they’re all terrorists – something the fascists in the Israeli government are fond of saying – and is rather hypocritical in accusing others of gaslighting.

 

Greenblatt claims that “83 percent of Jewish students have witnessed or experienced antisemitism since 10/7.” Once again he omits the fact that 10/7 was not the beginning of the conflict, but rather starting in 1948 with the Israeli occupation and settlements. Slowly but surely, Israel has stolen Palestinian land and subjected Palestinians to its own form of terrorism.

 

As for the rest of Greenblatt’s rhetoric, it mentions how the ADL is combatting anti-Semitism. But he confuses that – the result of right-wing fanatics – with actual historical and present-day oppression of Palestinians. And because of his omitting of facts that justify criticizing Israel, Greenblatt embraces reactionary hysteria and plays the anti-Semite card.

 

There is someone else who is Jewish that condemns Greenblatt’s agenda when it comes to demonizing Palestinians and their supporters. And that is Max Blumenthal who posted one of his views of Greenblatt on Twitter (X). Further, Blumenthal was on the Katie Halper show taking Greenblatt to task.

 

On Facebook, Jewish Voice for Peace strongly condemns Greenblatt and Israel’s aggression. This was expressed by Stefanie Fox.

 

Writing for Mondoweiss, Mitchell Plitnick expressed his view of Greenblatt, stating that the ADL CEO expressed a “vile and racist rant to a group of Republican DAs [showing] the man and the organization he leads for what they really are – a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

 

Plitnick writes that, “we have to contend with a public that is woefully misinformed but holds a significant and vocal minority which, whether out of hate or ignorance supports the most heinous and repulsive Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

 

“The [ADL] has become a symbol of corruption and the manipulation of campaign finance to enact unpopular legislation and policy.”

 

Plitnick went further in describing Greenblatt, who called the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter movements “nihilistic,” making it “clear his opposition to racial justice and equality, to the idea that a debt might be owed to people historically wronged by racism, slavery , genocide, and apartheid. 

 

“It goes without saying that the Palestinian cause would be his main target. Greenblatt collectively labels the group of people who support Palestinian rights, “From the River to the Sea,” a phrase routinely used by Israeli leaders to refer not to any Palestinian vision but to the goal of ‘Greater Israel.’ Sometimes they use different words but it is actually Israelis who express this desire as a genocidal concept publicly.” 

 

Greenblatt claims that the opposition is “not just opposed to jews, although they are. They’re opposed to the West, they’re opposed to capitalism, they’re opposed to America.” In response, Plitnick writes, “This is exactly what the far right is saying about everyone from the moderate middle to the activist left.” Plitnick adds, “It should also be noted that it is false. Jews are disproportionately represented in the Palestinian rights movement, Occupy, BLM, and many other social justice movements, and some of the proudest Jews you will find…”

 

Plitnick is right about the ADL, concluding that it “has to go.” Like the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which heavily influences U.S. politics, the ADL is a morally bankrupt entity which sows the very hatred it accuses others of expressing. 

 

But the likes of the ADL and AIPAC are fighting a losing cause. Religious supremacy myths, and the ongoing genocide, have made Israel hated worldwide. It is assuring its own self-destruction.