The NYTimes today has a long interview with Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL.
Here he states, "Zionism is essential to the Jewish tradition," even though Zionism has not existed for most of Jewish history. Yes, there is a messianic yearning to return to the land, but that is not Zionism.
Jonathan Greenblatt is a disgraceful bigot.
And he does not care about antisemitism at all.
He only cares about Zionism, which is why he tries to conflate it with my religion.
He’s an evil person.
Both Zionists and antisemites want to conflate the two, each for their own selfish interests. No, Chaim Weitzmann was not the Mashiach. This is not the hoped-for messianic state. Nor is there any traditional religious directive to carry out a second conquest of Canaan like Joshua.
This passage is very illuminating. Here’s what I think.
Greenblatt claims that Jews have a religious belief that they have the right to return to their ancestral homeland in the Middle East. I respect that - but I do not believe it (or any other religious belief) should influence world affairs.
if you step back to view the forest through the tree's.....
the director of a once vaunted organization that researched, documented, & categorized radical groups ~ has been RADICALIZED. It's incredible.
It is antisemitic to conflate Jewish identity with Israeli nationalism. It is antisemitic to presume that because someone is Jewish that they unconditionally support Israeli policy.
It doesn't matter whether it's a neo-Nazi doing it or the head of the ADL. It's still antisemitic.
Joshua didn’t slaughter the Canaanites for nothing 🤷♂️
October 7 really broke him. He needs to be replaced at ADL because he’s doing real damage there.
an excellent thread
to be fair, he distinguishes “Zionism” from “political Zionism” in that very quote.
I think the issue here is more that his definition of Zionism as “where Jerusalem is mentioned” is vague enough as to be meaningless, so he fundamentally fails to understand what a lot of people see Zionism as.
This is such a fundamentally dishonest framing, to suggest that everyone who wants one state with equal rights is in support of burning down the Pennsylvania Governor's mansion.
The next sentence is more galling. “Doesn’t exclude Palestinians” necessarily means they either need citizenship and the vote or their own state, both rejected by the current Israeli government and, frankly, a supermajority of Jewish Israeli voters. But he’d go ballistic if anyone pointed that out.
Ethnostates are gross
Moses literally never existed.
isn't actual jewish tradition that they don't get israel until the messiah comes, which is why hasidic people think this israel doesn't count
"We've talking about returning to our land since Moses. Nothing has happened since then, no sir."
I read this article with eyes wide open which is something the ADL doesn't care for. Greenblatt is slick, I'll give him that, but he's also a gaslighter right up there with any right wing ideologue anywhere on the planet. That said I thought Lulu Garcia-Narvarro did a good job.
