The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was supposedly established “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike,” but under the leadership of Abraham Foxman, they have become a group of irrelevant political hacks. They attack Christians, America’s Christian heritage, and anyone or anything else that is not politically correct. It’s a shame, really, as there truly is too much real anti-Semitism in the world. The latest of their ridiculous accusations (issued in the form of a press release “accepting” a clarification–as if an offense had actually been committed) is against musician/actor Will Smith. As Dennis Prager explains,

On Dec. 22, the Scottish newspaper the Daily Record published an article summarizing an interview its reporter Siobhan Synnot had with the superstar actor Will Smith. Near the end of the highly laudatory piece, the reporter wrote: “Remarkably, Will believes everyone is basically good” and immediately cited the actor saying: “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today,’” said Will. “I think he woke up in the morning and, using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.’”…Every Hollywood and celebrities Internet site I checked – about 30 – headlined that “Will Smith thinks Hitler was a ‘good’ person” (note that ‘good’ was put in quotation marks as if the headline was accurately quoting Smith).

And most then opened their phony report with this: “U.S. actor Will Smith has stunned fans by reportedly declaring that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was essentially a ‘good’ person.”

A complete fabrication.

…Smith reacted to what he correctly called “an awful and disgusting lie” and denounced Hitler as “a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.” At that point, Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, announced, “We welcome and accept Will Smith’s statement that Hitler was a ‘vicious killer’ and that he did not mean for his remarks about the Nazi leader to be mistaken as praise.” That was good and necessary. But, like the irresponsible blogs, the ADL leader characterized Smith’s original statement this way: “Unfortunately, in citing Hitler in what appears to be a positive context, Smith stirred up a hornet’s nest on the Internet, where hate groups and anti-Semites latched on to the remark and praised it.”

But Will Smith never cited Hitler in “a positive context,” and Foxman should never have said that Smith did. By doing so, Foxman preserved the original lie. A group dedicated to opposing defamation should have opposed the defamation of Will Smith, not subtly contributed to it. (emphasis mine)

I think it’s time for Foxman to step down before the ADL becomes completely irrelevant–if it hasn’t already.