by Isi Leibler
Greenblatt - does not seem to appreciate that his current organization -- has a primary role to resist the growing tide of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism that is sweeping the United States, especially on college campuses.
Irrespective of one's
personal opinion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's videotaped
remarks on Palestinian "ethnic cleansing" of Jews from any future
Palestinian state, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt's
scornful public condemnation is simply beyond the pale.
On numerous occasions
over the past few months, I have expressed incredulity and anger at
Greenblatt's statements for determinedly tilting ADL policy away from
its primary mandate of combating anti-Semitism and steering it toward
partisan social action issues.
The latest example of
this was his kumbaya remarks to a J Street audience when he effectively
endorsed moral equivalence between Israelis and Palestinians, complained
of our failure to recognize the legitimacy of the Palestinian
narrative, questioned Israel's democratic structure, engaged in partisan
electoral politics and condemned the Republican platform as
"anti-Zionist" for omitting a two-state structure, and insisted that
groups supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which
he admittedly condemns, are "animated by a desire for justice."
Greenblatt also
continues to align the ADL with the Black Lives Matter movement, despite
the fact that the movement has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and
genocide and called on black institutions to support BDS. He refuses to
disassociate from them and continues to promote Black Lives Matter in
the ADL's educational and family discussion guides in schools and
elsewhere. He believes that this organization, despite its
anti-Semitism, is promoting "critical civil rights issues that merit
attention" and that only "a small minority of the leaders" are
responsible for the anti-Semitic campaigns.
Greenblatt, formerly
employed by the Obama administration, does not seem to appreciate that
his current organization -- which has a charity budget in excess of $50
million -- has a primary role to resist the growing tide of
anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism that is sweeping the United States,
especially on college campuses. Instead, in what is utterly
unprecedented from a purportedly mainstream American Jewish
organization, he has publicly excoriated the position adopted by the
democratically elected head of the Israeli government. Netanyahu's video
was, as expected, criticized within Israel by the traditional Left, but
endorsed by the vast majority of Israelis.
Netanyahu simply stated
facts. The Palestinians have made it eminently clear again and again
that a Palestinian state would be Judenrein. One only has to review the
ethnic-cleansing policy adopted by the Jordanians in 1948, when Jews
were expelled from east Jerusalem and the Etzion Bloc.
Despite the slick PR of
Palestinian spokesmen denying that this is the case to naive Western
audiences, there is no question in the mind of anyone who understands
the situation that Jews would not be tolerated in any Palestinian
hegemony -- and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has
publicly said so repeatedly.
The Palestinian
Authority officially supports this approach and I can only express
regret that, presumably out of sensitivities to liberal Americans who
refuse to confront this reality, it took so long for Netanyahu to shine
the spotlight on this despicable abomination. After all, this highlights
the outrageous fact that the Palestinians seek to delegitimize a Jewish
presence throughout the biblical homeland. Other than some Muslim
countries, there is no place in the world today where Jews are
prohibited from living.
Netanyahu is paving the
way for Israel's response to a predictable United Nations assault on
its policies later in the year. The reference to Israel's Arab citizens
makes the valid point that, despite the inevitable upheavals during the
1948 war, when the nascent Jewish state was invaded by the combined
armies of multiple Arab states, at no stage has Israel engaged in
systematic ethnic cleansing of its Arab inhabitants.
Not surprisingly, the
U.S. State Department responded that "using this type of terminology is
inappropriate and unhelpful" and reiterated that settlement construction
was an obstacle to peace. In so doing, they failed to address the
legitimate question raised by Netanyahu as to whether they accept that a
Palestinian state should be Judenrein.
American Jews can agree
or disagree with Netanyahu. But it is unprecedented and totally
unacceptable for the head of the ADL, a major Jewish organization, to
condemn Netanyahu in the Foreign Policy journal, and to accuse him of
choosing "to raise an inappropriate straw man regarding Palestinian
policy toward Israeli settlements." He stated further that "like the
term 'genocide,' the term 'ethnic cleansing' should be restricted to
actually describing the atrocity it suggests -- rather than distorted to
suit political ends." Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he
emphatically repudiated Netanyahu's charge that the Palestinians seek
ethnic cleansing.
Under such
circumstances, one would have expected that every major Jewish
organization would dissociate itself from Greenblatt's statement, noting
that it is not the role of an organization whose primary objective is
combating anti-Semitism to engage in public condemnations of views
expressed by the democratically elected leader of Israel. But aside from
the Zionist Organization of America, a curtain of silence has again
enveloped the major Jewish organizations.
It would seem that in
the post Abe Foxman era, the ADL board has knowingly empowered an
individual whose outlook is not only liberal, but effectively represents
an echo chamber of left-wing Democratic politics. In fact, despite
Greenblatt's protestations of love for Israel and reiteration that the
U.S.-Israel nexus is strong, especially after finalization of the
defense agreement, the ADL's approach to Israel is similar to that of J
Street, having no hesitation to tell Israelis that it knows better than
they do what is good for them.
This is a worrisome
situation. American Jews should inform the ADL board that by enabling
their CEO to make such partisan statements, they are causing enormous
harm to Israel during this critical period when retaining U.S. public
opinion is of crucial importance.
If the ADL fails to
act, American Jews should question whether they should continue
supporting what was until recently a venerable mainstream Jewish
organization, which has now been hijacked by a CEO whose outlook has
more in common with J Street and less with combating anti-Semitism and
supporting the embattled Jewish state.
Isi Leibler's website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com.
Isi Leibler
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17205
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