As if there weren’t already enough censorship and deplatforming on Jewish issues, the ADL is using the opportunity presented by the Gaza war to ramp up even more. Prior to the war, in May, 2023 the Biden administration unveiled a plan, designed by the ADL, to undertake “over 100 bold and unprecedented actions” to, among other things, pressure social media companies to rein in free speech on their platforms.
We’re proud to work collaboratively with @AmbRice46 in crafting the historic National Strategy to Counter #antisemitism. We look forward to working together with the @WhiteHouse as we put these policies into action! https://t.co/xZ7nuqUPTo
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) May 25, 2023
This includes the following attempt to pressure social media companies to remove content they don’t like.
The Biden-Harris Administration calls on Congress to hold social media platforms accountable for spreading hate-fueled violence, including antisemitism, by requiring fundamental reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and by removing special immunity for online platforms; to impose much stronger transparency requirements on online platforms, including their algorithmic recommendation systems, content moderation decisions, and enforcement of community standards; and to pass legislation requiring platforms to enable timely and robust public interest research, including on the spread of antisemitism and other forms of hate, using platforms’ data and analyzing their algorithmic recommendation systems, while maintaining users’ privacy.’
Notice that the following would include “banning extremist websites,” presumably including TOO.
The Biden-Harris Administration encourages all online platforms to independently commit to actions such as ensuring that terms of service and community standards explicitly cover antisemitism; adopt zero-tolerance standards for hate speech, including antisemitism; permanently ban repeat offenders, both personal accounts and extremist websites; invest in the human and technical resources necessary to enable vigorous and timely enforcement of their terms of service and community standards; improve capabilities to stop recommending and de-rank antisemitic and other hateful content; and increase the transparency of their algorithmic recommendation systems and data.
The ADL then pushed for action in Congress:
The Countering Antisemitism Act is the most far-reaching antisemitism initiative to be introduced in Congress. It offers a smart, bipartisan, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to combating this hatred and protecting Jews around the country. https://t.co/PMQnqlYoB6
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) April 11, 2024
This has morphed into the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act” of 2024. As developed by the ADL, it contained a provision requiring “the National Coordinator to conduct an annual analysis of online antisemitic content, including Holocaust denial and distortion, and prepare recommendations for Congress on how to counter the spread of antisemitism online.”[1]—clearly an attempt to remove criticism of Jews from the internet. As passed by the House,[2] the bill provides that penalties would apply to “programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance” and could thus include defunding universities that allow protests against Israel and its support by the Jewish community, since in recent years, criticism or opposition to Israel has been conflated with anti-Semitism.[3] This is far less than Jewish activists would like to see in their ideal world: stiff prison sentences for violators. One step at a time.
This version of the bill includes a provision that the U.S. government define anti-Semitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association—a definition that the American Civil Liberties Union opposes because it would likely infringe on the First Amendment by precluding criticism of Israel.[4] For example, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” would presumably make illegal any claim that, despite the existence of relatively powerless anti-Israel Jews, the Israel Lobby and its power in American politics is a project of the mainstream Jewish community with the support of all of the major American Jewish organizations. The Jewish community thus bears considerable responsibility for the actions of Israel given Jewish-influenced U.S. diplomatic and military support for Israel — and the power of the U.S. in international politics.
It would also make illegal “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”—when at least some such comparisons are eminently rational and evidence-based. Yair Golan, the deputy head of the Israeli military, stated in 2016: “If there’s something that frightens me about Holocaust remembrance, it’s the recognition of the revolting processes that occurred in Europe – and particularly in Germany – 70, 80 and 90 years ago, and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016.” Golan called for “national soul-searching”, adding: “There is nothing easier than hating the stranger, nothing easier than to stir fears and intimidate. There is nothing easier than to behave like an animal and to act sanctimoniously.” Of course, he was met with a deluge of criticism, and he recanted almost immediately.
Moreover, Jewish influence in the media (or via the Israel Lobby) would presumably run afoul of “Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.” This website and some of my other work have often discussed the outsize role of Jewish influence in the media.
And it would appear to make any claim that no Jews could ever be reasonably charged with disloyalty: “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.” This despite Jonathan Pollard and the well-known statements of Jews like Haim Saban, a major donor to the Democrat Party.
Saban’s commitment to Israel really knows no bounds. This is from an interview with Haaretz in 2006; Saban’s comments are in quotes.
You said once that you are a one-note person, and that note is Israel. Why?
“You can’t explain love.”
It’s really love?
“More than love. Passion. A love that is passion.”
Please explain.
“When we approach Israel I always ask the pilots of my plane to let me sit in the chair between them. We don’t play ‘Heveinu Shalom Aleichem,’ but when I see the coast coming up my heart starts to go boom, boom, boom.”
Is Israel also part of your everyday life here, in Los Angeles?
“At 9 A.M. I start with London and Kirschenbaum [Channel 10’s evening current events program]. After that, throughout the day, if I see something about Israel on one of the four channels that are always on in my office, on mute, I immediately turn on the sound. And I have Israeli music on my computer, classics and contemporary singers, too.
“Let me tell you a story. A few years ago I got some new albums and I put them on the computer. Suddenly ‘The Photos in the Album’ [sung by Haim Moshe] comes up. I’m standing there, shaving, listening to the lyrics. And the tears stream over the soap, without my even being able to explain why. Grandma, mom cooking, I promised you wouldn’t fight against anyone. A knife in the heart. That is the heart of the nation. And I love this nation. I love the Jewish people, even more the Israeli people. I feel a very deep bond which I can’t explain.”
Haim Saban is an American citizen, but can there really be any question where his loyalty lies? I suspect it’s the same with the neocons accused of spying, and with AIPAC’s Rosen and Weissman (see previous link). A big part of my article on neocons was simply to document their intense commitment to Israel.
Finally, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed it would infringe on some Christian beliefs, such as the view that Jews were responsible for killing Christ.
It’s pretty obvious that facts and truth are completely irrelevant, as one expects when dealing with ethnocentric activists. But that shouldn’t prevent internet-based criticism of Israel and Jewish influence to continue as long as possible. It’s just getting more and more unlikely that this will be allowed to continue. It’s quite possible that it won’t be long before criticism of Jews and Jewish power is confined to printed material mailed to subscribers in envelops without return addresses, just like the 1980s. The First Amendment be damned.
1] Anti-defamation League, “Countering Anti-Semitism Act (April, 2024)
[2] https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/hr6090/BILLS-118hr6090eh.pdf
[3] Clare Foran, Haley Talbot, & Kristin Wilson, “House Passes Antisemitism Bill as Johnson Highlights Campus Protests,” Newsweek (May 1, 2024).
[4] https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism
