Commentary: ADL’s Partisanship Harms the Fight Against Antisemitism

Jon Greenblatt

For over a century, the Anti-Defamation League has enjoyed a reputation as the preeminent Jewish organization combating antisemitism and all forms of hate. Its acronym, ADL, has “household name” status—and not just in Jewish homes. This makes its current penchant for partisanship extraordinarily dangerous for, and beyond, the Jewish community.

Last December, Senate Republicans learned that a Joe Biden nominee for a lifetime judicial appointment, Adeel Mangi, was previously a board member and generous supporter of the antisemitic Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University Law School.

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Biden Taps ADL Regional Board Member as U.S. Attorney for Middle District of Tennessee

The Middle District of Tennessee, which includes Nashville, will likely be receiving a new U.S. Attorney after the Biden Administration tapped a new lawyer for the job. 

“These individuals were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice,” said the White House in naming Henry Leventis and two other U.S. Attorney nominees last week. 

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PayPal Teams Up with Far-Left Anti-Defamation League to Target Right-Wing Users

PayPal outside shot of logo

On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a far-left hate group, announced a new initiative in conjunction with the online payment processor PayPal, aimed at targeting so-called “extremist and hate movements” on the platform, the Daily Caller reports.

The partnership is led by the ADL’s “Center on Extremism,” and will involve the ADL studying the use of PayPal’s services by alleged “extremists,” and sharing their findings with politicians and law enforcement, for the purpose of disrupting “the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements.” PayPal’s Chief Risk Officer Aaron Karczmer released a statement celebrating the new program as having the potential to make “an even greater impact than any of us could do on our own.”

PayPal has frequently and exclusively targeted conservatives in recent years, while ignoring actual extremism from the Left. Following the peaceful protests at the United States Capitol on January 6th, PayPal suspended its services for several organizations and individuals that paid for travel expenses for people attending the march, which was in protest of the widespread voter fraud that took place in the 2020 election. PayPal also banned the anti-terrorism website Jihad Watch in August of 2017, after Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters attacked a peaceful right-wing protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, leading to the death of one left-wing protester.

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Pentagon Contractor Paid to Tackle ‘Extremism’ Claims Searching for ‘The Truth About’ BLM Implies White Supremacist Behavior

The Pentagon is working with a contractor to reportedly look into web searches such as “George Floyd deserved to die,” “Jews will not replace us” and “the truth about black lives matter” as potential signals of white supremacism, Fox News reported.

Pentagon contractor Moonshot CVE (Countering Violent Extremism), which has ties to the Obama Foundation, is gathering data to determine which bases and branches of the military have the most troops searching for domestic extremist content, Defense One and Fox News reported.

The exact details of the project are not clear, but the data is expected to be available in three weeks, Defense One reported. Moonshot Founder and CEO Vidhya Ramalingam said the data suggested active duty troops are less prone than the general American public to searching for violent extremism information.

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Newspaper Builds Convoluted Case to Accuse Rep. Vitale of Being Anti-Semitic for Calling Health Department Director ‘Globalist’

Thinking local is racist, according to The Columbus Dispatch, which built a convoluted case to accuse Ohio Rep. Nino Vitale (R-OH-85) of being anti-semitic for using the dirty word “globalist.”

On May 1, the Urban-area Republican posted on Facebook:

While you were sleeping, UNELECTED Acton declared Ohio closed until May 29th.

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Omar Uses Backlash Over Anti-Semitic Comments to Ask for Donations

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is running an advertisement on Facebook asking for donations in response to the criticism she received for making anti-Semitic comments. “Stand with Ilhan. We will not be silenced,” the advertisement states and quotes President Donald Trump calling for Omar’s resignation. Ilhan Omar is raising money on this anti-Semitism row. "We will not be silenced" pic.twitter.com/vuqPOtpBki — Adam Rubenstein (@RubensteinAdam) February 14, 2019 As The Minnesota Sun reported, Trump said Omar should resign from Congress during a Tuesday cabinet meeting. “One other thing I want to say is that anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress, and Congresswoman Omar is—terrible what she said. And I think she should either resign from Congress, or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Trump said. “What she said is do deep-seated in her heart that her lame apology—that’s what it was, it was lame, and she didn’t mean a word of it.” His comments came in response to widespread backlash Omar received after she suggested that Jewish money is influencing bipartisan support of Israel. “The notion that wealthy Jews are controlling the government is a longstanding anti-Semitic trope and one of the pillars of modern…

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Ilhan Omar Faces Widespread Condemnation for Using Anti-Semitic Tropes

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is once again facing backlash for multiple anti-Semitic tweets in which she suggested that Jewish money is responsible for bipartisan support of Israel. In response to journalist Glenn Greenwald’s claim that “it’s stunning how much time U.S. political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans,” Omar suggested that it’s “all about the Benjamins baby.” It's all about the Benjamins baby 🎶 https://t.co/KatcXJnZLV — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 10, 2019 Then, when another journalist said she would “love to know who [Omar] thinks is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” Omar responded by exclaiming, “AIPAC,” which stands for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC! https://t.co/UdzaFUEfrh — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 11, 2019 Her tweets were later condemned by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as several Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “As Americans and Jews, we expect our politicians to condemn bigotry, not to fuel it. Words matter. At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise in the U.S. and abroad, Rep. Omar is promoting the ugly, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jews have an outsized influence over politics,” said Jonathan Greenblatt,…

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