Democratic Senator Hits Back at ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt: ‘He’s Losing’ 

Zeteo

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) responded to Anti-Defamation League head Jonathan Greenblatt, who suggested the senator peddled anti-Semitism by criticizing a pro-Israel lobbying group.

Earlier this month, Van Hollen spoke at an event sponsored by J Street, a pro-Israel organization formed in 2007 as a more liberal and less hawkish alternative to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, which has long been a force in U.S. politics. The senator has been one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most vocal critics in the Senate. Van Hollen has said that Netanyahu had long sought a U.S. president “stupid enough” to start a war with Iran, and now the prime minister has found one in President Donald Trump.

“I will tell you that AIPAC may call itself pro-American. They may call themselves pro-Israel,” Van Hollen told the J Street crowd. “But they are neither. They have been a very destructive influence. And it is time to call them out. And the American people are catching on.”

Giving the ADL’s “State of Hate” address on Monday, Greenblatt said Van Hollen was blaming the Jews, even though the senator received applause from the pro-Israel audience when he made the comments in question.

“The blame, as it so often does, was placed at the feet of who else but the Jews,” Greenblatt said. “For some, they pointed fingers at the Israelis, who they claimed whispered a few too many times in President Trump’s ear.”

On Wednesday, Van Hollen was interviewed by Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan, who asked for the senator’s reaction.

“Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, which claims to be this, you know, monitor of anti-Semitism, but is really a defender of Israel,” Hasan began. “He says that when you attacked AIPAC for lobbying on behalf of Israel, for lobbying the American government to back Israel, you are perpetuating anti-Semitism. What do you say to Jonathan Greenblatt?”

“I say that he is undermining his own mission and a mission that I share, which we should be fighting and defeating anti-Semitism,” Van Hollen responded. “But when he equates criticism of the government of Israel, when he acquits criticism of a political organization like AIPAC with anti-Semitism, all he’s doing is cheapening the effort to fight real anti-Semitism. And so I think a lot of folks– put it this way. I’m hearing from a lot of folks in the Jewish community that he is undermining the very important cause, which he says is his mission.”

“Must make you mad, though, to be accused of bigotry when you’re trying to call out human rights abuses by a foreign government,” Hasan said.

“Look, of course it does,” Van Hollen said. “But really, what it does is discredit any individual who pursues that line of questioning. If you have to respond to criticisms, including strong criticisms of the government of Israel, the Netanyahu government, or any government, or of a political organization, by essentially labeling people in that way, what it means is that you’re losing the real argument. And that is why the effect of all of this is to weaken what he says is his primary mission.”

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