CNN reported, without mangling any facts, that Wikipedia has downgraded the ADL to an unreliable source. Even CNN ’s commentary part was precise. “It’s a stunning rebuke to one of the world’s preeminent authorities on anti-Jewish hate and a significant advocate for the rights and causes of American Jews.” Never mind that Wiki editors are as biased as they declare the ADL. Who does Wiki consider reliable on anti-Jewish hate? It considers Hamas reliable. On its page for the October 7 attacks Wiki respects the removal from its charter of, “antisemitic language and shifting focus from Jews to Zionists.” And who does Wiki consider a reliable source on the Gaza war? It considers Al Jazeera reliable – after the channel described October 7 as “heroic” and ignores its reporter moonlighting as a senior Hamas commander and another writer holding three hostages in his home. What exact decision did the online encyclopaedia make? The editors ruled that the ADL was an unreliable source on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so, by implication, that the ADL was wrongly labelling “pro-Palestinian” activists as antisemites. I use quotation marks for a good reason. If the activists were pro-Palestinian Aarab they’d scream at Hamas to stop putting Palestinian Arabs in harm's way by using hospitals, schools and tenements for armouries, rocket launching sites and hostage holding. They would scream at Hamas, stop it! Stop causing women and kids to die. Release the hostages, they’d holler, only stop Palestinian Arab suffering. But the activists don’t. They don’t because they are pro-Hamas, pro terrorism, pro-murder of Jews. Two questions: What gave Wiki the leeway to destroy the ADL’s hard won and precious credibility? Is the ADL victim or culprit? Wiki’s arguments are the devil to refute. The ADL, it complained, cries ‘antisemitism’ for what is no more than a constitutional right to criticise Israel. To add insult to injury Wiki drives home an undeniable fact: the ADL fails to adhere to a serious and intellectually tight definition of antisemitism. Rather, states Wiki, the ADL has “given into the shameless politicization of the very subject that it was originally esteemed for being reliable on.” Touché. The ADL began (in 1913) small and focused, it ended up (in 2024) monolithic and greedy-eyed. What happened to it has happened to other altruistic bodies. Simply put the ADL went from defending Jews against prejudice, injustice and slander to leftist advocacy, and trying to curb the 1st Amendment right of freedom to speak and be heard. Under Jonathan Greenblatt since 2015 the ADL became a Jewish arm of the Democrat party. This was only to be expected – Greenblatt had worked for President Obama. True to form he supported the Biden campaign in 2016, accusing opponent Donald Trump of being antisemitic. Really now: Trump with Jewish grandchildren? Trump as President who proved to be an Israeli extremist by comparison with Greenblatt’s old boss Barak Obama? Antisemite? Trump! This is only the half of it. While he slandered Trump, Israel’s great friend, Greenblatt shielded Mr Soros, Israel’s ghastly foe. He depicted Soros as a Jewish victim of “Antisemitic Elon Musk.” Who can blame Musk, another firm friend of Israel, for wanting to sue the pants off the ADL? We know something is wrong in the state of Denmark when the ADL libels a man whose acts are Jew-friendly while it hails a man whose acts are Jew-hating. I mean, who financed the Nazi youth mobs on campus? George Soros. Greenblatt happened to be born to a Jewish mother. Ronnie Kasrils was born to a Jewish mother. It did not stop the man clapping in reaction to the butchery and raping on Oct 7. Kasrils lit up with ecstatic glee when the news broke. He wanted to hug and kiss Hamas for its bravado. Impossible you say? A Jew can hate Jews to that extent? Read the cleverest book, “Anti-Semite and Jew” by a non-Jewish Frenchman. Sartre explained how it is that Jewish haters of Jews reveal a doubly wicked psyche. By dabbling in politics, the ADL completely lost its way as a fighter against bigotry. Ideologically corrupt, Greenblatt and his staff failed to finger American Muslims as the main source of Jew-hatred. Instead they picked on “Right wing domestic extremists”. How many of those were on view at Ivy League schools camping, occupying and screaming, ‘Palestine will be free”? The ADL’s downfall was of its own making. Any institute that puts progressive ideals before a mandate is ill suited to fight the progressive-Islamic axis of evil. Wiki will no longer take it seriously. Nor will antisemites. Said James Loeffler a professor of Jewish history at Johns Hopkins University: “The ADL’s ability to fulfil its mission is directly tied to its credibility, which has taken a significant hit with the decision by Wikipedia. Losing this mark of trust will impair the ability to reach digital audiences and counter online hatred. We desperately need solid, evidence-based data analysis of contemporary antisemitism. Without a trusted authority, we’re likely to see only more politicization and polarization to the detriment of all, especially vulnerable Jews.” As a matter of fact playing politics is only part of the ADL’s problem. Wiki, recall, referenced a failure to adhere to a serious and intellectually tight definition of antisemitism. Can we rescue it from this hole it dug for itself? No problem. The ADL chose to rely on a definition of antisemitism that’s unworkable. This explains why it lacks a valid response to Wiki’s deliberate sabotage. The ADL has fought antisemitism unclear as to what the disease looks like. Wiki insists it conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and the ADL can’t prove Wiki is wrong. In what way is the definition that ADL uses unworkable? I myself, in a different context, explained at length why the definitions of antisemitism being used are hopeless. Now comes Wiki to rubber stamp my analytics. “The ADL and many other Jewish organizations have campaigned for governments to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which considers that anti-Zionism and some forms of criticism of Israel are antisemitic. Other Jewish organizations such as the Nexus Task Force , whose work was welcomed by the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism , take a different view. " An article in The Nation said, "The ADL's priority today remains going after Americans who are simply opposed to Israel's endless occupation and oppression of Palestinians." That is an untruth concerning ADL's priority, but then so is the rest of the sentence. Had the ADL carried a pocketbook inscribed with the oldest definition of the oldest hatred it would not today be a wreck of its old self. Steve Apfel is a veteran authority on anti-Zionism, is published widely and has put paid to not a few antisemitic agendas. Follow his works at : https://steveapfel.substack.com and https://enemiesofzion.wordpress.com/
