Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has proved to be the most potent force in mainstream American politics in pushing the Palestinian perspective, lately leading a Nakba commemoration in the Capitol.
So Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, a leading Israel lobbyist, has smeared Tlaib as a dedicated antisemite who “literally propounds that every problem in the world is a function of the only Jewish state on the planet.” But Greenblatt laments that the Democratic leadership refuses his urging to push her to the sidelines.
Greenblatt made his remarks to Steve Schmidt, the political consultant, on Schmidt’s internet show on May 11, even as Tlaib was organizing a Nakba at 75 commemoration in the Capitol.
Asked about extremist Republican congresspeople Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Greenblatt said that in the past the leadership had “kneecapped” the “craziest members.” But now leadership refuses to do so. And that goes for Tlaib too.
Extremism is not a partisan phenomenon. Neither side of the political spectrum is exempt from intolerance… You get haters on both sides… What’s happened recently with this hyperpartisanship, people are now unwilling to acknowledge those who offend when they are within their own ranks.
You see it on the Democratic side too. I mentioned Rashida Tlaib. She is a hardcore unrepentant anti-Zionist who uses every opportunity she can to slander the state of Israel, despite the fact that we know that that kind of slander leads to antisemitism here in the United States. It doesn’t matter, she has got an intersectional worldview that ends where Israel begins. And so she literally propounds that every problem in the world is a function of the only Jewish state on the planet.
Greenblatt went on to say that Tlaib appears to be “embraced” by the Democratic leadership. So the ADL is not able to marginalize her.
That makes it much harder for a group like mine when we go to a leader [Hakeem] Jeffries or speaker [Kevin] McCarthy to get the kind of basic results we would expect where people who espouse radical views instead of being pushed to the sidelines are welcomed into the center, into the forefront of politics. It’s a crazy sign of these crazy times.
Greenblatt is distorting Tlaib’s views because she has insisted on describing Israel, accurately, as an apartheid country, and cited the many human rights reports reaching that conclusion. In fact, Tlaib is embraced by leadership because she is a charismatic and effective politician. Joe Biden met with her during an Israeli massacre in 2021 and called for an end to it because of her intervention. Tlaib is a “nice person,” a pro-Israel Democrat said lately, shocking one rightwing religious Zionist group.
At one point in the discussion, Greenblatt even appeared to put Tlaib in the category of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Jewish genocide in death camps in 1942-1945. Schmidt brought up Eichmann, saying that Eichmann’s Israeli police interrogator, Avner Less, concluded that “there are Adolph Eichmanns everywhere, they are all around us.” But when there is a “dictatorship, they turn deadly in an instant.”
Greenblatt appeared to agree, speaking of Eichmanns “in positions of power” in both parties.
Yeah maybe there are latent Eichmanns around, but once they were marginalized. Now to see them mainstreamed, to see them moving into positions of power, it’s not troubling– it’s terrifying. I think we’ve all got to think collectively, beyond our party, beyond our political frame, How do we do something about it.
Greenblatt clearly was calling out rightwing racists in answering the Eichmann question– he spoke of “white supremacy” and “structural racism” and the dehumanization of immigrants. But he injected Israel into the answer, saying “Israel is a Jewish state. Saudi Arabia is a Muslim state. There are other countries that have a longstanding identity based on a particular faith or ethnicity.” And he considers anti-Zionism “a deeply antisemitic thing.”
Asked about Israel, Greenblatt said that being a Jewish state was perfectly compatible with being a democracy.
Is Judaism or being a Jewish state incompatible with it being a democracy? The answer to that is resoundingly No. [It is] the only democracy in the region. You’re born in Israel, you’re a citizen, you can vote. It is a very vibrant democracy.
Greenblatt said Israel’s Jewish character is no different from Spain’s Catholic character, or Muslim countries having a Muslim character. Israel has provided a refuge for “religious minorities” and been a “welcoming place” for 75 years.
That is poppycock, and Nakba denial. You can’t say that Israel has been welcoming for 75 years when it refused to allow 750,000 Palestinians to return to their homes after the Nakba. You can’t say that people born in Israel can vote, because actually many Palestinians born in Israel were pushed east of the Green Line, and denied that right. The fact that half of Israel’s subjects don’t regard it as a democracy but see it as a state of “Jewish supremacy” ought to mean something to any protector of human rights.
It might help if Israel stopped contributing to propping up radicals (see link #1 below) and authoritarians in the region with the help of the United States, the United Kingdom and France. They carved up the Middle East, appointed dictators, continuously help protect them and provide them with the means to oppress people’s freedoms, and then they make it seem as though the problem is in the DNA of the people who inhabit the region, as if “Ay-rabs” are predisposed to authoritarianism.
Perhaps Israel could also stop selling its oppressive Big Brother technology to dictators. Imagine if Israel and the United States also did not directly help these authoritarian rulers during the Arab Spring and allowed the inhabitants of the region to achieve self determination without quashing them.
No, Israel is a democracy if you are Jewish.
The problem with the ADL is that it deals in propaganda and is a mouthpiece of the Israeli government.
False!
Since we’re on the subject, you can be born in any country on the face of the Earth, but if you are Jewish, you will receive automatic citizenship in Israel.
Voting is not a metric for “democracy”. There are dozens of laws and built-in institutional racism in the Israeli system that prevents ANYONE who is not Jewish from exercising full rights.
You can be born in Jerusalem, within the municipal borders that Israel has taken upon itself to unilaterally annex and still not be allowed to vote, live, reside or exercise other rights enjoyed by Jews in the city. All the while, a Brooklynite Jew can come in, take your land and property, and you would have no recourse in Israel’s kangaroo court system.
Israel, is not, a democracy, not in the western sense. It never was.
Link #1: https://www.haaretz.com/2015-07-20/ty-article/idf-stops-treating-wounded-members-of-syrias-nusra-front/0000017f-f53e-ddde-abff-fd7f63510000
“Is Judaism or being a Jewish state incompatible with it being a democracy? The answer to that is resoundingly No. [It is] the only democracy in the region.”, says Greenblatt. Here’s a different perspective from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, yesterday:
https://fair.org/home/israels-real-crisis-of-democracy-is-that-its-not-a-democracy/
Israel’s Real ‘Crisis of Democracy’ Is That It’s Not a Democracy…Since the demonstrations began on January 7, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post have run a combined total of 194 pieces that contain some variety of the words “Israel,” “crisis” and “democracy.” Only 77 of these, or just under 40%, include some form of the terms “Palestine” or “Palestinian.”…This shortage of references to the Palestinians is startling, considering that the Israeli government controls the lives of approximately 14 million people who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, half of them Jewish and half of them Palestinian….In other words, of the 7 million Palestinians over whom Israel exercises authority, approximately 5 million have no say in who governs them or how, while Israel relegates the remaining 2 million to second-class citizenship. By writing about a “crisis” in Israel’s “democracy,” without foregrounding or most often even mentioning the fact that Israel completely disenfranchises some 5 million Palestinians, coverage in the Times, Post and Journal whitewashes the apartheid that fundamentally disqualifies Israel as a democracy….You probably won’t read about in your daily paper, but Israel’s real crisis of democracy is that Israel is not a democracy.
A hallmark of the professional con artist is the brazen lie. Many people will be fooled by the forcefulness of an assertion. They assume that no one would be so forceful on a statement they know is false. The professional con artist plays on that assumption, and puts brazen force behind their lie.
Greenblatt repeatedly exhibits this strategy, most recently in his brazen lies about Rashida Tlaib. He offers NO evidence that any of Tlaib’s statements are motivated by anti-Semitism. And he ignores and refuses to discuss the obvious and highly reasonable grounds for her statements. If Tlaib were merely a private citizen Greenblatt could clearly be sued for libel and slander.
In my view, Greenblatt is radically offensive.
Greenblatt, who serves the zionists primarily, and spends his time looking for anti semitism where there is none, pouncing on Americans like a junkyard dog every time someone dares to criticize Israel’s discriminatory policies or human rights violations, accusing them of anti-semitism in his efforts to shut them down. He even uses cases of real antisemitism by connecting it to those who are fighting for Palestinian rights, as if they are both the same. Nasty.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, is a Palestinian, and she has every right to bring America’s attention to the endless suffering of her people, who are under the control and mercy of his people. Too bad for him that he has to constantly keep trying to fend off well deserved criticism, because the on going occupation, land theft, and the killing of civilians, are international crimes occurring on a daily basis, and every time a voice calls for justice for the Palestinian people, Greenblatt makes sure he appears on all the television channels whining about how mean that person is, and how antisemitic they can be to poor Israel.
People are getting wise to this now, and that is why maybe Israel is losing support among many Democrats.
That victim/antisemitic card is really being overplayed.
It is time to rename the ADL as the Israeli Defense League.
Here is an article that supports my comment.
“How the ADL’s Israel Advocacy Undermines Its Civil Rights WorkInterviews with eight former ADL employees found that CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has repeatedly chosen to support crackdowns on criticism of Israel over protecting civil liberties, putting him in conflict with his own civil rights office.”
https://jewishcurrents.org/how-the-adls-israel-advocacy-undermines-its-civil-rights-work