The Aggressive Uselessness of the Anti-Defamation League
4 min read
Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States for the second time on Monday. Despite the president now being a convicted felon who was separately indicted for attempting to overthrow the country’s government, the American media generally treated this moment much more acceptingly than it had during his first inauguration. The American people responded similarly. The mass protests that accompanied Trump’s first inauguration attracted nowhere near the level of support this time, and the attitude of citizens was far more resigned to the next four years. This uniquely personalized and American variety of far-right, nativist, authoritarian politics has been normalized in our country.
Amid the first day’s blatantly illegal and questionably illegal executive actions, the immediate withdrawal of the United States from international organizations and multilateral agreements, and the undisguisedly partisan firings and pardons, the actions of the world’s richest man seemed to most sharply demonstrate the country’s submission to the far right. Elon Musk, who spent nearly $300 million and weaponized the world’s largest social-media platform to get Trump elected, appeared to twice make the Roman salute — more commonly known as the Fascist salute or Nazi salute — while delivering a speech.
Like most things Musk does, the gesture itself was awkward and poorly controlled. This is in keeping with many expressions of the far right in this era. Neo-fascists will communicate a fascist symbol that is slightly off, giving enough flexibility to provide a shadow of the doubt. Their supporters will then mock anyone who points out the meaning of the symbol, calling them overly sensitive or crazy. People who lack the context to understand these symbols will be swayed by this derision, while those who are sympathetic to the message will understand and appreciate it.
With Musk, there is no reason to offer the benefit of the doubt. He amplified and endorsed a tweet stating that “Jewish communities” push a “dialectical hatred against whites” and suggesting that Jewish people are responsible for “hordes of minorities” entering Western countries. This is the idea of the Great Replacement, a white nationalist and antisemitic conspiracy theory that remains popular with crude, reactionary, and racist people like Musk.
More recently, he has been backing the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a far-right party in Germany. Members of the AfD who sat in the Bundestag were found to have posted antisemitic posts in a private Facebook group, the party has been described as perpetrating “targeted campaigns” against Jewish celebrities, and its politicians and leaders have regularly minimized the Holocaust and attempted to rehabilitate those responsible for it. This is the party that Musk refers to as the “last spark of hope” for Germany. On X, he hosted a conversation with Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, in which he repeatedly gushed over her party’s program. We would doubt Musk’s far-right and white nationalist politics at our own peril.
But that has not stopped many from doubting or, more accurately, cynically disregarding the Roman salutes out of hand. The most preposterous of these defenses of Musk came from the Anti-Defamation League, an American non-governmental association that exists to, on paper, fight antisemitism. It is worth posting what it wrote in its entirety:
“This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety. It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge. In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.”
In response, Musk tweeted “Thanks guys” with a crying laughing emoji. Even he cannot believe it.
But this response was not surprising. The ADL cannot accurately be described as an organization devoted to fighting antisemitism. It is instead an organization dedicated to fighting criticism of Israel and Zionism, supporting Israeli claims to illegally occupied territories, and conflating any anti-Zionist views or arguments with antisemitism. The ADL is an organization that views opponents of Israeli apartheid, the country’s land theft in the West Bank, or its genocidal acts in the Gaza Strip as equivalent to avowed white supremacists. Its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, has compared the keffiyeh, the black and white scarf that is a symbol of Palestinian national identity, to the swastika.
Its place as the most recognized and cited organization in the country that advocates against antisemitism has presented major challenges to understanding antisemitism in the United States. Has there truly been a dramatic rise in antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023? The ADL thinks such incidents have risen by 360%, but it is difficult to tell when it considers statements such as “Free Palestine” to be antisemitic.
We can compare this attitude of zero tolerance for people concerned in any way with the plight of the Palestinian people to the organization’s deference to Musk. The richest man in the world has been supportive of Israel and its genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, and this is evidently enough to excuse all his questionable, Nazi-aligned behavior.
The ADL’s crusade against anti-Zionism has gone fully past the point of absurdity. The organization, along with many other supporters of Zionism and Israeli expansion, is no longer concerned about actual displays or symbols of antisemitism as long as those expressing them are sufficiently pro-Israel. In the 21st century, the traffickers of hatred against and distrust of the Jewish people can be absolved, as long as they do not dare to challenge Zionism.
-Elephant Print
