During an interview with CBS on Friday, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt stated that statements like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) equating Hamas and Israel give license to extremists on the left to say that “it’s open season to attack Jews.”
Greenblatt said, “I’ve been very bold about this, calling out the extreme right and the normalization of a kind of inflammatory rhetoric from people on the extreme right like a Marjorie Taylor Greene that give[s] license to people, as we saw on January the 6 with the Camp Auschwitz sweatshirts, right? They feel emboldened in an environment where leaders give them free license. So, by the same token, when Congresswoman Omar equates Hamas and Israel, when Congresswoman Tlaib accuses the country of ethnic cleansing, right? Those statements are simply wrong on the facts, but it gives license to extremists of a different ideology to say, okay, if the Jewish state is committing genocide, then it’s open season to attack Jews. And I’m not saying this in some abstract way, that’s literally what happened.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett