Defending or protecting American Jews isn’t one of them. Opinion.

By Douglas Altabef

Increasing numbers of American and Israeli Jews recognize that the ADL is no longer the all-weather stalwart defender of the Jewish People; now it is willing to temper its sentiments to fit political circumstances.

(August 22, 225 / Israel National News) The recent decision by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), once seen as a vaunted protector of the American Jewish community, to add “America First” to its Glossary of Extremism and Hate is no mere exercise in sanctimony or virtue signaling.

This unbelievably wrong-headed, ill-considered and insensitive decision sends the worst kind of messages, especially to those with who the American Jewish community is in most need of dialog and mutual understanding: American conservatives, particularly, America First MAGA conservatives.

To the extent that the ADL is still viewed as a proxy for American Jewish sensibilities, this decision must be seen as an angry gauntlet thrown down, whereby Jews are challenging the very legitimacy of a movement that is attracting millions of Americans, particularly young Americans.

What is that attraction based on? Well actually rather little having to do with the guilt-by-association feelings of the ADL that America First harkens back to Charles Lindbergh and Father Coughlin. America First in the 1930’s was a wrapping for a racist, bigoted and xenophobic movement that mirrored much of the racial supremacy hysteria that had overtaken a great portion of Europe.

By contrast, America First today is a reaction to a society where the gaps between haves and have nots has grown, and where young people increasingly fear that the policies of the Federal government are leaving them behind.

One of the most glaring reasons to many of these disaffected Americans is the pursuit of foreign involvement by the U.S. government, investments that inevitably, so the feeling goes, come at the expense of the average U.S. citizen/taxpayer.

There is nothing inherently racist nor exclusionary in these sentiments. Of course, one can keep peeling the onion back to try to ascertain where the animosity is functionally directed: for example, illegal migrants. But these sentiments are a response to policies that themselves were truly discriminatory and were oblivious to if not downright disdainful of millions of U.S. citizens.

The dangerous implication of the ADL decision is its demonization of the American Right, most particularly those who have struggled to keep afloat over the past 20 years.

The ADL takes Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” to a new depth. While Clinton showed her aristocratic contempt for the great unwashed, the ADL is calling them evil, hateful, loathsome.

Those among the MAGA crowd who are actually antisemitic have just been handed a great gift: validation for their hate.

Those among the MAGA crowd who are actually antisemitic have just been handed a great gift: validation for their hate.

“You see they really do hate us and hate everything we stand for and represent. We are right to hate them in return. They are just proving that everything we thought about Jews is actually true.”

That has to be a primary takeaway from this boneheaded decision.

There are of course heroic conservative voices tirelessly defending Israel and the Jewish People. What of them? Are they deluded, are they just trying to give cover and respectability to hate?

The inescapable takeaway from the ADL’s decision is that they have shown themselves to be wingmen to the political forces that oppose Trump and his Administration. The ADL is happy to give succor and cover to Progressive values and policies.

By way of support for this premise, here is the actual entry from the ADL’s Glossary:

“America first” is a term that references the World War Two-era “America First Committee,” and is used by extremists in antisemitic, racist and xenophobic ways. America First, in conservative circles, often refers to an ideology that was promoted by Donald Trump when he ran for office and served in office, which emphasizes American nationalism, nonintervention and anti-immigrant and anti-globalism beliefs.” (my emphasis)

So, the platform, the vision, the coalescing rallying cry from Trump that brought him twice into the White House, energizing millions of Americans, is actually extreme. It’s interesting that “extreme” can be mainstream, that “hateful” can be the norm.

What is hateful about American “nationalism?” A more balanced approach would call this “patriotism.” Is “non-intervention” hateful? It might be myopic and poor policy, but “anti-globalism” isn’t hateful nor necessarily extreme.  

And the assertion of “anti-immigrant” as a source for hate is rather disingenuous, since the negativity expressed in America First has been about illegal immigration, not immigration per se. Ironically, many of the most vocal critics are themselves legal immigrants.

By adding America First to its Glossary of Extremism and Hate, the ADL has politicized the support for Israel and the fight against antisemitism.

Frighteningly and astoundingly, by adding America First to its Glossary of Extremism and Hate the ADL has politicized the support for Israel and the fight against antisemitism. The takeaway is inescapable: if you are for America First, you are antisemitic. If you support Trump, you are likely to be antisemitic.

By the way, If Not Now and Jewish Voices for Peace, which are actually quite hateful to Israel, are not in the Glossary. Neither is the Muslim CAIR, which actively opposes Israel at every point.

Dare one wonder if this is because these groups are “blessed” by Progressives.

In sum, the ADL has created a remarkable self-fulfilling prophecy whereby what they most fear, they are actually contributing to.

One need not be a psychotherapist to understand that if you keep telling someone that they are a certain way, at a certain point they will likely say, well then, so be it.

That is the great harm that the ADL is facilitating. If loving my country is antisemitic, then I guess I must be an antisemite.

Increasing numbers of American and Israeli Jews recognize that the ADL is no longer the all-weather stalwart defender of the Jewish People; now it is willing to temper its sentiments to fit political circumstances.

However, for non-Jews that still see the ADL as a shield for Jewry, the takeaway from the ADL’s vitriol is that American Jews have lined up with Progressives and disdain Trump and his supporters.

Count me as one who believes the ADL should add its own name to its Glossary.

Douglas Altabef is the Chairman of the Board of Im Tirtzu and a Director of the Israel Independence Fund.
This article was originally published in Israel National News-Arutz Sheva and can be viewed here.