Know Your Enemy - The 2024 Race: "It's Showtime, Folks!" (TEASER)

Sep 26, 2023

Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL (w/ Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, & Peter Beinart)

A few weeks ago, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, eagerly joined in a campaign, originating on the far right, to demonize the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a century-old Jewish civil rights organization whose leaders have criticized Musk for allowing anti-semitic and white supremacist hate speech to proliferate on Twitter/X. To many progressives, it could sound like a simple story of good vs. evil — the righteous vs. the hateful — especially for those who've experienced the palpable flourishing of Nazi and Nazi-adjacent sentiment on Twitter/X since Musk purchased the platform. But for our guests — Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, and Peter Beinart of _Jewish Currents _— the story is more complicated. Over the past five years, _Jewish Currents _ has been perhaps the _only_ outlet on the left aggressively reporting on the ADL, exposing its complicity with the Trump presidency, its attacks on pro-Palestinian activism, and its fraying relationships with Muslim and black-led civil rights groups. In this episode, we explore the central tension animating the ADL's erratic politics: can an organization officially dedicated to securing "justice and fair treatment to all" simultaneously forbid criticism of a state — the state of Israel — whose ethnonationalist social order is an inspiration to right-wing movements the world over? And if that contradiction can't be reconciled, how should we respond to Musk's attacks on the organization? Is the ADL salvageable? And does it deserve to be saved? Listen to find out! Further Reading Emmaia Gelman, "The Anti-Democratic Origins of the ADL and AJC," _Jewish Currents_, March 12, 2021 Peter Beinart, "Has the Fight Against Antisemitism Lost Its Way?" _New York Times_, Aug 26, 2022 Mari Cohen, The ADL's Antisemitism Findings, Explained, _Jewish Currents, _April 4, 2023 Mari Cohen & Isaac Scher, "The ADL Doubles Down on Opposing the Anti-Zionist Left," _Jewish Currents_, May 1, 2022 Alex Kane & Jacob Hutt, "How the ADL’s Israel Advocacy Undermines Its Civil Rights Work," February 8, 2021 Noah Kulwin, "The Unbearable Ignorance of the ADL," _Jewish Currents_, Dec 9, 2022 Mari Cohen & Alex Kane, "ADL Staffers Dissented After CEO Compared Palestinian Rights Groups to Right-Wing Extremists, Leaked Audio Reveals," _Jewish Currents_, Mar 8, 2023 Alex Kane & Sam Levin, "Internal ADL Memo Recommended Ending Police Delegations to Israel Amid Backlash," _Jewish Currents_, Mar 17, 2022 Eric Alterman, "What Does the ADL Stand for Today?" _The New Republic_, Aug 21, 2023 James Traub, "Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?" _New York Times_, Jan 14, 2007 Find our intrepid producer Jesse Brenneman's new record "Modern Life" on Bandcamp, Spotify, or YouTube. ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

1 hr 6 min