Whether or not the ADL is an elected or unelected body, it is completely entitled to use whatever influence it has to protect the interests of Jews, wherever they are...and whether or not you approve.
I believe that you, like others on this forum, are uncomfortable with the fact that Jews today (and possibly for the last 50-70 years) now have a greater ability to defend themselves than they had during the previous 2000 years or so. Jews were always expected to not defend themselves, but to "go like sheep to the slaughter", and you and others don't like that this is not the case any more.
You claim to have a "reasonable grasp of history", so you are aware that for centuries, Jews were told where they could and could not live, what trades they could and could not engage in, and what they could and could not own.
They were falsely accused of "poisoning the wells", using children's blood to make matzah for Passover, and even causing the plague (as some today are even claiming the COVID-19 is spread by Jews [
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/04/...rus-to-distract-the-world-from-their-scheming].
They were massacred by the "holy" Crusaders who were on their way to Jerusalem, massacred during the Russian and Ukrainian pogroms in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, massacred by Ukrainian "hero" in the 16th Century, were persecuted in many places and evicted from cities and countries all over Europe (including your beloved civilized England).
Here's a brief summary, to help improve your "reasonable grasp of history":
https://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/historyjewishpersecution/
(I'm not even mentioning what happened between 1939 and 1945, so don't bother coming back with the ridiculous "Godwin's law" response.)
All of that, and more, to a group of people who - like you - wanted nothing more than to have a peaceful, productive life, and left alone to do that.
So, now, today, I'm quite comfortable with Jews, Israel, Zionists, the ADL and AIPAC and other legally-constituted Jewish communal organisations doing whatever is legally necessary to protect Jews, their lives, their welfare, their country and their religious practices, wherever and whenever such actions are necessary.
Your usual "cry for sympathy" or "always playing the victim" responses will be unacceptable and inappropriate. Jews have been the victims, and are entitled - obligated - to ensure they will not be the victims now or in the future.
