The suppression of a documentary produced by Qatar-funded Al Jazeera about Israeli influence in Washington demonstrates the incredible power and influence wielded by the Israel lobby, journalist Max Blumenthal told RT.
A two-minute clip from the censored documentary was recently leaked to Blumenthal, who published it on his independent news site, the Grayzone Project. The footage documents how campus fellows from the neo-conservative Hoover Institution were essentially required to attend a pro-Israel rally, with one participant even acknowledging that he and the other bused-in “activists” were engaged in astroturfing – a tactic used to create the illusion of grassroots support for a political cause or organization.
“You can see in the footage that the campus fellows are not very interested in going out and shouting at young fellow college students and calling them names and using anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric. But they say they were forced to do this in order to be foot soldiers in the conservative movement. It’s rather pathetic,” Blumenthal told RT in an interview.
However, the explosive contents of the leaked clip almost pale in comparison to the shocking success of the Israel lobby in stopping the release of the documentary.
“There’s an enormous amount of irony around the fact that the Israel lobby has managed to suppress the release of a documentary about the Israel lobby. It really does demonstrate its power and in an unlikely way. Because we know that Qatar has a relationship with Hamas – the governing authority of the Gaza strip – that Qatar maintains diplomatic relations with Iran. It’s not the kind of country you would think that the Israel lobby could influence,” Blumenthal noted.
He explained how Alan Dershowitz and Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, traveled to Doha and pressed the Qatari government to stop the documentary in exchange for their support against the Saudi and UAE embargo.
“So, this is one of the most effective and most high-level Israel lobbying campaigns in recent history, where it managed to extract concessions from a Gulf state that was said to be no friend of Israel, and which the Israel lobby had traditionally demonized. I find it incredible,” remarked Blumenthal.
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