ADL Boss Says J Street Wants to Isolate Israel, Rejects Isolating J Street

Last week I wrote about the anti-Israel turn of the ADL under its new boss Jonathan Greenblatt.

When radical anti-Israel hate group If Not Now targeted Jewish charities for harassment, the ADL told the stealth BDS group, which has ties to open BDS group JVP, that “there’s more we agree on than disagree on.” Afollow up ADL tweet was openly directed at a JVP member. Greenblatt’s press release described members of the anti-Israel hate group as “part of our community” and claimed once again that If Not Now and ADL shared the “same goal”. No less a figure on the left than Eric Yoffie, a persistent critic of Israel, had written that, “IfNotNow is not a pro-Israel organization. It does not deserve the support of left-leaning American Jews.”  And that was coming from a J Street supporter.

But Greenblatt’s courting of anti-Israel hate groups was the new ADL policy. He became the first ADL boss to speak to J Street, a group which has provided a forum for BDS activists, including JVP. 

The ADL head told J Street, as he had assured If Not Now, that his organization “shares your commitment to change”.  He echoed talking points by the astroturf anti-Israel groups that the “establishment” had not provided a “safe space” for debate. That’s a euphemism for providing forums for anti-Israel groups to spread their hate against the Jewish State. 

Now Greenblatt has launched an attack on another critic, Isi Leibler over his speech to J Street. In his response, Jonathan Greenblatt squirms and hedges, but then spills his agenda.

"As to the crit­i­cism of my deci­sion to speak to J Street U, I have no apolo­gies. I do not know if Leibler ever both­ered to attempt to meet these young peo­ple, but I was impressed: They are a group of deeply thought­ful col­lege stu­dents whose com­mit­ment to Israel is gen­uine and whose pas­sion on the issues is impres­sive. Whether Leibler likes it or not, these are future lead­ers in our com­mu­nity and in our country."

Greenblatt's community perhaps, not the Jewish community. They are fronts for an astroturf organization, one of many, funded by anti-Israel billionaires, as the recent Ploughshares Fund leak revealed. They are being prepped for roles in the same network of astroturf groups with a view to moving them, like Greenblatt, into roles in decaying establishment groups.

And it's telling how Greenblatt sounds indistinguishable from Peter Beinart, echoing the same talking points about deeply thoughtful (and hateful) college students who are our future.

But Jonathan Greenblatt had conceded that...

  This in many ways is the crux of our dis­agree­ment with J Street—that fur­ther iso­lat­ing Israel at a time of great tumult and regional volatil­ity is bound to make peace less likely.

So J Street is dedicated to isolating Israel, as Greenblatt admits, yet he rants about the wrongness of isolating J Street.

Again, while I may dis­agree with many of their par­ent organization’s posi­tions and tactics—and ADL has expressed such sen­ti­ment pub­licly in the past—if we are going to main­tain a true sense of com­mu­nity and inclu­sion, par­tic­u­larly among younger Jews, then we must engage those with whom we have dis­agree­ments and explain our posi­tions. 

J Street wants to isolate Israel. But Greenblatt rejects the idea of isolating J Street. His "community" includes supporters of isolating Israel.

Now while Greenblatt blathers through these Beiartian talking points about inclusion and engagement, this is directed purely at the left. I doubt that Jonathan Greenblatt would show up at a ZOA dinner, let alone organizations genuinely to the right, or even acknowledge them. Like Beinart, his talk of inclusion is a sham, a means of justifying alliances with anti-Israel; left-wing groups.

Finally Jonathan Greenblatt concludes his deeply cynical screed 

Israel con­tin­ues to face many threats from ter­ror­ists and extrem­ists, as well as in the form of calls for boy­cotts, divest­ment and sanc­tions. We must stand against all. But there are also dan­gers to Israel from those who do not want a two-state solu­tion, from those who do not worry about main­tain­ing Israel as a Jew­ish and demo­c­ra­tic state.

And there's your equivalence between BDS opponents of Israel and supporters of Israel who don't believe the PLO is magically going to play nice. According to Jonathan Greenblatt, the threat to Israel comes not just from his anti-Israel pals at J Street and If Not Now, but from the Israeli people.