Jonathan Greenblatt, the new ADL boss, is having a very strange opening round. While the ADL contacted me to distance the organization from Foxman's criticism of Bernie Sanders for hiring Simone Zimmerman, a radical anti-Israel activist, to head Jewish outreach, Greenblatt retweeted attacks on Bill Clinton.
It began when Jonathan Greenblatt retweeted an essay from NAACP boss Ben Jealous against Bill Clinton for the former president's defense of his attempts to fight crime.
"I talked to a lot of African-American groups. They thought black lives mattered. They said take this bill because our kids are being shot in the street by gangs. We had 13-year-old kids planning their own funerals," Clinton said.
One protester yelled that “black youth are not super predators” – a reference to a statement Hillary Clinton made as first lady. The former president shot back.
“I don't know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the streets to murder other African-American children, maybe you thought they were good citizens,” Clinton said, his face turning increasingly red. “She didn’t.”
“You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter. Tell the truth. You are defending the people who cause young people to go out and take guns,” Clinton yelled.
Bill Clinton was right. Ben Jealous was mad.
"President Clinton should apologize. He just did to an entire generation what he did to Sister Souljah a generation ago," Jealous wrote. At this point most people would stop reading because Souljah had defended the LA race riots by saying, "I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"
"So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person?"
This is the vile racism that Ben Jealous is defending. This is what Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted as a "searing letter" while attacking Bill Clinton.
Why take on Bill Clinton, of all people? But then Jonathan Greenblatt also retweeted a reply from GAPeach
GAPeach has #FreePalestine right in her profile. And here's her view of Jews.
Maybe this is the kind of hatred that the ADL head should be speaking out against instead of allying with.