The ADL is spying on Americans and sharing intelligence with the FBI, framed as a threat to free speech that hurts anyone who criticizes Israel.
- The Anti-Defamation League runs a full-time team monitoring people online — social media, messaging apps, podcasts, even video games — and hands that intelligence to the FBI.
- Its head Jonathan Greenblat admits the group tracks the left and the right, from pro-Palestinian activists and the DSA to white supremacists and Christian nationalists, and trains 20,000 police officers a year.
- Critics say the ADL now serves the Israeli government rather than Jewish Americans, most of whom oppose Netanyahu, and that sending in informants endangers Jewish communities.
- The bigger fear is a coming crackdown: censorship of Israel criticism, blacklisting of student protesters, and "debanking" of targeted groups to cut off their money and silence them.
- Marco Rubio's watchlist, first aimed at people who traveled to Cuba, is seen as a tool to punish anyone who criticizes Israel, with US media accused of looking away.
Outlook: Expect more pressure to censor and defund critics of Israel, met by calls for a broad anti-war movement to push back.