ADL Tries to Find Common Ground w/Anti-Israel Hate Group "If Not Now"

The Abe Foxman era of the ADL was bad. The Jonathan Greenblatt era has moved into a deeply problematic pattern of pandering to Anti-Israel hate groups.

Case in point, anti-Israel hate group If Not Now, which pushes stealth BDS (SBDS) has conducted anti-Israel protests targeting Jewish organizations with the ultimate aim of forcing them to boycott Israel.

If Not Now adopted the tactics of the BDS movement, vocal protests at Jewish organizations, with the aim of "divestment". So when If Not Now's Yonah Lieberman talked to Tom Pessah, the author of a BDS resolution, he told him, "We don’t talk about BDS, the one-state solution, the two-state solution." But then told Pessah that the goal was to pressure Jewish organizations so that, "If we stop giving them money this will stop happening."

If Not Now came to public attention when Simone Zimmerman, its media liaison was hired on by Bernie Sanders to head Jewish outreach before being suspended over her hateful views.

If Not Now appears to have links to JVP, currently the most extreme anti-Israel hate group that appropriates a Jewish identity. If Now Now's tactics resemble those of JVP. JVP has praised them. And key If Not Now figures, including Simone Zimmerman, have collaborated with the hate group which has a history of demonizing Jews, defending Islamic terrorists and pushing BDS.

The ADL is well aware of this. It has described JVP as hardline and anti-Zionist.

JVP’s positions on BDS, its willingness to partner with anti-Israel organizations that deny Israel’s right to exist, and its refusal to support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, demonstrate its hardline stance. In fact, JVP has consistently co-sponsored demonstrations to oppose Israeli military policy that have been marked by signs comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and slogans that voice support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. JVP has not condemned or sought to distance itself from these messages.

JVP also intentionally exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its supporters that opposition to Israel does not contradict Jewish values, but that it is actually consistent with them. Their “Rabbinical Council” even published a Passover Haggadah in Spring of 2012 that dedicated one of the traditional cups of wine to BDS and added an olive to the Seder plate in honor of the Palestinian struggle.

BREAKING: 17 @IfNotNowOrg activists protesting #Israeli occupation arrested @ADL_National HQ https://t.co/nY4DfIavoE pic.twitter.com/3HVuwjyYuZ

— Helen Chernikoff (@thesimplechild) April 21, 2016

These are exactly the same tactics being used by If Not Now, which has begun harassing Jewish groups, including the ADL, at which it describes as "Liberation Seders" in a shameful appropriation of Jewish religion and culture by an anti-Jewish hate group.

Furthermore the ADL is well aware of the link between JVP and If Not Now in exactly these types of protests. Nevertheless after members of the If Not Now hate group were arrested, ADL's twitter account reached out to them to talk about how much they agree on.

A follow-up tweet appeared directed at, among others, Beth Miller of JVP.

The responses were predictably ugly. But that's what happens when you try to conduct a dialog with supporters of a hate group. And behind the appropriated Jewish references and activist touchy-feely narcissism, that's what If Not Now is.

A hate group.

The more problematic part is why the ADL under Greenblatt appears determined to defend and even whitewash some BDS proponents.

If Now Now agrees far more with hate groups like JVP than it does with any Jewish organization. Even one as watered down as the ADL. If Not Now is exactly the sort of ugly hatred that the ADL should be standing up against.