Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
skits you on the following max blumenthal homework
when internal skin best-selling author
and a writer for the nation institute he's been covering uh...
uh... the flotilla
uh... story uh...
and uh...
leads apparently you're you're knee deep in a book
i'm working on a along book project here
and whom can you tell us what is it what it is are you wanna
you don't let the air and sizes
i let a little a rather
cars taken so long to get to the finish line but uh...
i'd spent about eight or nine months common in the last two years since the
election of
uh... the movie vermin uh... netanyahu
government inside israel and palestine not just be writing about that
now people should know when you talk lieberman you're not talking to leave me
talking
wiki d_d_t_
to princeton
uh... addict or have a door
lieberman who is
uh...
about an easy
has caused you to get to a fascist
and indian in modern day well i guess it is at least in israeli politics but a
bit do you know in in the western world holding office right i mean is that
uh... that accurate
yet the product really berman was bad attic door
calls it even worse even open proponent of ethnic cleansing and he's
one of the most popular politicians in israel actually the foreign minister
yet stunning but
um... looking forward to that
to that book but lets our catch us up on the flotilla uh... high i'm gonna soon
home that um... our listeners know about the first flotilla
student was attempting to
i guess uh...
descended
essentially it is due to bring aid to gaza but it but ultimately really
uh... provide some type of publicity and
uh... protest about the state of people in gaza in
and indeed israel uh...
uh... essentially killed nine people on board of that uh... flotilla
arguing first that they had weapons it turned out that they didn't eccentric
satara
uh... so so tell us about the second photo
yet it's really important there that you
point that out that the flotilla is a political provocation the people on it
will tell you that it's not about bringing aid to god that's about
breaking the blockade
which is systematically
d developed gaza
driven the unemployment rate up to forty fifth seven percent content
people
basically warehouse one point five million people
in a healthful
on seventy percent of these people are already refugees
his property was taken from them in nineteen forty eight
uh... and
over fifty percent of the president of god's our children
sorties it is a humanitarian crisis no matter how you slice it
and uh... six boats are heading out into the mediterranean are attempting to one
boat is already had its propeller destroyed uh... to sabotage
uh... actually an israeli unit
a commando unit in two thousand nine took credit for doing similar active
both him
uh... that was attempting to head the gaza
and the american vote
uh... no we we are we really six boats coming from the coming from a different
location at all
they're they're from all over the world it converts increase
some of them are actually
setting out into the mediterranean as we speak
and the american boat which contained
alice walker
on the enough famous american author
and uh... heady epstein in eighty seven-year-old holocaust survivor
actually the crew is over twenty five percent jewish
is really the biggest
p_r_ threat to israel made been doing
everything they can working overtime to discredit the crew of this boat
and keep them from actually getting out in the water to various uh... means of
legal harassment
and and weight that they have the israeli government has pad
uh... they they seem to have backed off this is slightly but if there's any
journalist my understanding is it gonna be in new york times uh... reporter on
the american vote
if there any journalists who are engaged in the
we're on this boat *** just to cover it
uh... that day they will be banned from israel for ten years now my understands
that backed off that
a little bit but they the they uh... they say that they're going to try and
figure out some process in which the punish these journalist
for simply covering this now israel argues that they need to stop the
the this flotilla
and uh... for their own self defense what what is
the the exist and chill uh...
to any israeli citizen or to israel uh...
bt country in any way here
uh... eight during fact
is none but they believe that they need to keep ah... gaza under blockade
because
uh... the people of gaza elected amok
uh... which israel considers a terrorist group in which has committed acts of
terrorism
of against israel
uh... data collected them in two thousand six in the legitimate
election and um... according to an israeli
document
which was sound
she retrieved by uh... human rights group cokie shock
uh... israel the israeli defense ministry said that it wants to come
that um... the blockade of god has actually mean that economic warfare that
israel's words omg of life black the former israeli
uh... negotiators said
in a meeting
uh... with israeli ministers that's
the blockade was a means of putting gazans on a diet
so this is a pure this is a book a political blockade it's designed for the
same the same way that our blockade of cuba designed except it's much harsher
and it's too where half the people of gaza because israel doesn't know what to
do with them
it doesn't want them to be part of a future palestinian state
and it wants to destroy hamas because how much will not collaborate
with israel and simply submit in the same way the palestinian authority has
done that's really what the blockade is a ballot and they've attempted to
smear the people on the flotilla by claiming
on the i_d_f_ is actually
the israeli army is actually issued several reports to his friendly israeli
journalist claiming that people on the flotilla have bags of
sulfur
as if they're satan
and i don't know if these bags are enough alice walker has a bag with the
color purple
um... and that they're planning to kill israeli soldiers and this is reported on
the front page of israeli papers without this claim
is completely falling apart in fact out last night i was on the phone
with uh... spokespeople for the israeli army asking if i could feel if they
never did
that they had supplied to the journalist
and they simply refused to show me
and the evidence and fed as a journalist i have to trust the judgment of
senior military officials
and it take them at their word that's almost a direct quote
they've been out of obviously been they've that they've been talking to a
lot of american journalist it sounds like
uh... yeah that's where the item placement of a precedent for that
so uh... in and
uh... what one of the other things i mean big big big the israeli government
really seems a a higher a member of the and the first flotilla they
the created a music video right uh... that was uh... parody of we are the
world
but it was all
um... sort of like uh... entirely
opposed any improper ganda
game it was it would be like a beauty who vino
for you to it was uh...
basically like uh...
felt kind of musical birth of the nation racist propaganda called week on the
world which featured
various caricatures of the arabs claiming that
you know the photo i was actually a bunch of terrorists in disguise his
peeps activist
and it was produced by a woman named caroline glick
uh... we've actually now
american or former american who went to work in the uh...
in netanyahu's office
during his first term as prime minister
and remains really close to the people around that and you know
and for this this video it was
era moved from youtube eventually
circled
not because of its racist content the because the people who wrote we are the
world uh...
bile copyrights infringement claims
but out
h_t_t_p_ each flotilla the propaganda emanating from about in or around the
prime minister's office gets crazier and crazy i mean this year we have this
uh... gaye ho
video
with uh...
actor from tel aviv
i act anyway so transparent in such a transparent hopes for an actor from tel
aviv
claiming enough
fake um... video blog that he was denied um... the ability to travel on the
flotilla because even date because the flotilla organizers
all more cozy with amok
and how much is homophobic and this is part of the strategy of a lot of
right wing pro-israel groups
say you know israel supports gay rights and how much does it so
support the blockade of gaza well it is
uh... it's is pretty stunning and what will post it on uh... majority death and
it isn't just
care a comedy
windshields the reason why i just saw sam snead by this video is
i mean aside from the fact that i think it's it's a sort of the
it's somewhat incompetent insofar as i like
it was so clearly not real i mean they used an actor
well i guess well-known he told me and uh...
uh... israel
uh... he writes shot in a way that uh...
i mean frankly with all due respect to
my video production here you shot better then one of our videos and we do it
consciously it's not you know theoretically it's not a um... you know
sort of like it's just a confessional into uh... a webcam this thing looks
like it was set dressed in a in a hula innate um...
it shot on the beautiful camera and
um...
but but and fascinating idea that the
they thought they could get away with this in maybe the ye even have in some
respects just to get the idea out there blake
uh... they are really going it any length in this clearly was not for the
israeli public this clearly was for the rest of the world airway joy eight real
full-on propaganda campaign
to discredit
in any manner in any way they can the idea that these peace activist
arond are trying to block ah...
uh... break this blockade
now i mean we thought last year
um...
wet without their attempt to claim that al qaeda mercenaries
we're on the flotilla and i actually manage to get the israeli army to
retract that claim
by simply asking him for evidence of a new pair of the third al-qaeda on that
both the u_s_ order that predator drones bombarding it
right but i had they they claimed that the flotilla uh... capped at one of the
captains of the flotilla shouted go back to house with israeli troops site i
question back lehman got them to issue what they call the clarification
uh... man this year it happening again all the claims were false if dole back
to the plows about
pick that
no i mean it it but this one is so unusual because um...
you know i expect them
that the israeli government to claim that people on the floor kill are
terrorists that have weapons
because and and it's really tragic that they would do that but i
they need to keep the israeli public in fear
of the outside world in fear of the palestinian they need to be induced
uh... total ctns military conscription and one of the only way to do that
is to keep the public and fear
of which is you know why i think the situation is really tragic but i've
incredibly surprised
people connected to the prime minister's office with distribute or even produced
such a bizarre video
um... at the one-week target date
hoax video
uh... i don't actually know what they're thinking and then when the heart the
israeli paper went to the prime minister's office and asked
uh... did u distributor produced this video they refused to deny it which is
even
more eighty articles you know it
any politician notes of just deny anything stupid he did
right in front of the wuyda indicates a majority in his answer to that it was on
duty
and this is basically what uh...
went with the israeli government is saying there um... now do you make of
the
of you know the uh... the u_s_ position here and then we have a
as secretary of state hillary clinton
um... saying that
uh... quote photos they try to provoke actions by entering into israeli waters
in creating a situation in which it the israelis have to do the right to defend
themselves
any this isn't going into israeli waters is it
right now it's not uh... according to the terms agreed upon between the
palestinian authority and is really not blow it is
not going into
israeli territorial waters
uh... but because of the israeli blockade which is
illegal under the fourth geneva convention
israel has limited the territorial waters of gaza two to three call on the
dirt off the gaza strip and routinely sheets out fishermen
who go beyond that threshold
uh... so
patted the state department was in a in a
in a briefing about this
statement on mat leave from the associated press after
s spokesperson
uh... is div israeli blockade legal and she was unable to answer the question so
they're basically debate they've gone beyond i think there
well with american diplomats into uh... and did the defendant a personal opinion
and politics
by trying to appease israel
but beyond that it's an incredibly dangerous too
almost forty americans traveling in the photo at the top of the american
government to protect americans wherever they are
when the freedom riders went into the deep south
onto challenged jim crow
racism
on that i think the flotilla if the modern incarnation of the freedom rides
in alice walker said the fainting
attorney general robert f_ kennedy dispatch dot his specialist
fegan dollar
uh... to accompany them
hit it head kicked in by a klansman
but the federal government was trying to protect these people even at the ritz
even though they were creating a provocation the state department is done
the opposite refuses to protect its own citizens
against a foreign government which has all been weak threatening to kill them
and i think that sort of a dereliction
of the duty of our government mate
basically betrayed a people
it's it means that they're using
that that is one of the most stunning aspects of this is the summit from an
american perspective
i needed you
have governments around the world is basically saying to israel please do not
shoot our citizens are unarmed citizens uh... on this road and you have the
american government essentially saying
sessions happen people get shot a good shot and if they don't get shot we may
end up finding them in that put him in prison
israel at the right to defend itself against eighty seven-year-old holocaust
survivor eddie epstein minute
it's absurd and she didn't meet she could've said israel should exercise
caution
some some kind of
put some balance in a statement but
i'm i think hillary clinton clearly crude line and then if you go on line
you know you go on
twitter you look at right wing blog
their openly calling for the killing
of americans on the flotilla eric erickson two red state openly called
for the killing
the massacre of american this guy was like a contributor to c_n_n_
onto to uh... trunking u_s_a_ on c_n_n_ i think this will contribute to see in
these stella contribute calling for the massacre of americans and somehow this
is okay uh... shell-shocked scenic right
yet former push
speechwriter on twitter called for the massacre
even arrogance by foreign government already i know you dear heidi f
that's as short for israeli defense force if you end up shooting any
americans on the new guy was a flotilla well most americans are cool with that
including me
then a uh... the reporter from the new york times i guess
um... said uh...
uh... wrote
uh... on-site no um...
reporter ed joseph dana
mathan the nation who apparently is going to be
who's covering the flotilla
it rotello is on the boat
and he said simply journalists and he says
as you firmly
clearly aligned yourself for the photos goals
i don't care what happens to you
main
e it really isn't
this is all about domestic politics for the uh... you look at it you know i
don't expect much different from these uh... right wingers uh...
this is the way that they they were all but uh...
is uh... is the
is the secretary of state is the obama administration is this just about
domestic politics is this just about appeasing some of those um... right wing
or need your uh...
did using of florida
uh... that you know we may rise israel can do no harm because they're still
living in some type of like uh...
the nineteen sixty-seven mindset
yeah i mean i don't think uh...
you've got the they
so-called pro-israel donors you know it really a representative of the jewish
community in the u_s_ represent a small fraction of that that they have
all the money and they donate aggressively
through a packing throughout shell pack spectator creates the kind of conceal
their donations and they have a disproportionate influence
on politics especially in congressional races especially in swing districts
uh... in some cases they're donate their trip aka responsible for the majority of
donations in races
uh... and ope what what what what what is no bomb it have to gain her from
issuing any kind of um... balanced statement about a flotilla of grassroots
activists
huard directly challenging israeli of israeli policy when he's trying to hold
onto congress he struck his fighting tooth and nail to hold on to the senate
and trying to get his domestic agenda passed i mean this is the crisis that
american democracy is in
that tiny rogue percentage of
of the population apana tiny percentage of the jewish community which is not
representative of jews
exercised this kind of stranglehold on uh... italy's some component of american
foreign policy i think it's george washington's worst nightmare exactly max
blumenthall
writer for the nation institute uh... bestselling author and looking forward
to your next book
um... let's pick up the pace on his body
yet thanks working on it for the encouragement fit
that's one of our folks st