Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Elder of Ziyon
For the past few years, Max Blumenthal has worked hard to
establish himself as a leading anti-Israel activist who is rightly celebrated wherever
there are Jew-haters. But while Blumenthal’s “pro-Palestinian” fans could see
nothing wrong with his “journalism” as long as it served to demonize Israel,
they have come to reject the exact same kind of “journalism” as deeply
offensive hackery when Blumenthal turned his attention to Syria. Since many
people were hoping that Syria’s truly heroic rescuers known as “White Helmets” would get this
year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Blumenthal apparently felt an irresistible urge to show
off his journalistic brilliance by exposing the Syria Campaign – a group
supporting the White Helmets – as an evil tool of the West. Not deceived by “the
lofty rhetoric about solidarity and the images of heroic rescuers rushing in to
save lives,” Blumenthal triumphantly discovered “an agenda that aligns closely
with the forces from Riyadh to Washington clamoring for regime change.”
So brilliant and so obvious at the same time, isn’t it:
given Bashar al-Assad’s benevolent rule, no Syrian could possibly want “regime
change”…
The backlash against Blumenthal and his closest allies –
notably Ali Abunimah and some of his Electronic Intifada writers – was
quick and furious. Admittedly, it was a rather enjoyable spectacle, because a
lot of the harsh criticism now voiced by disappointed fans (who want to see
Israel gone as much as the likes of Blumenthal) could have been quoted from
posts I and other critics of his screeds have written: suddenly people were
ready to denounce
“Max’s fact-free delusions” and his “smear pieces;” my personal favorite was
perhaps when Blumenthal’s gonzo journalism was mocked in a tweet ridiculing
how he usually concocts the “evidence” to indict his targets: “This NGO took
money from a fund whose director once ate lunch in the same restaurant as an
employee of an Islamophobe.” Incidentally, this is also an excellent
description of the modus operandi regularly followed by Ali Abunimah and his Electronic
Intifada crew.
Abunimah was quick to complain
that this was a “coordinated smear campaign that’s been going on for months,”
and naturally, he had no doubt about the sinister forces behind it all: it was,
of course,
an “Israel-lobby inspired smear campaign.” Stalwart Abunimah fans like the
perpetually “Angry Arab” agreed:
it just couldn’t be a “coincidence that the campaign is being directed against
some of the bravest voices against Israel in the US.”
Abunimah reacted with a torrent of tweets hurling abuse
against his critics – and his bullying ultimately paid off: a blog post under
the title
“Palestinians decry Western Assad apologists” named only Max Blumenthal and
linked to a statement
signed by about 120 “Palestinian signatories” that denounced unnamed “Allies
We’re Not Proud Of.” The statement declared that the signatories “are
embarrassed by the ways in which some individuals known for their work on
Palestine have failed to account for some crucial context in their analysis of
Syria” and decried the “tendency to heroize those who advocate on behalf of the
Palestinian struggle,” vowing that the signatories would “no longer entertain
individuals who fail to acknowledge the immediate concerns of besieged Syrians
in their analysis.”
An Al Jazeera article
on the controversy also avoided naming names, though the author forcefully
condemned activists who regard the “Palestinian cause” merely as a convenient “platform
… to vent their selective anti-imperialist outrage.” Interestingly, this
article painted a rather dramatic picture of the controversy:
“The Palestine solidarity movement
is facing an unprecedented internal crisis, brought about not by the conflict
with Israel but by the war in Syria. The latter has caused divisions that are
arguably deeper and more damaging than those over how to realise Palestinian
rights and aspirations. While the effects of Palestinian political infighting
have remained largely domestic, the fissures over Syria have taken on a global
dimension, and created unparalleled hostility among supporters of the
Palestinian cause.”
There was indeed quite a bit of “hostility” on social media,
some of it helpfully documented by Ali Abunimah himself. One telling example is
archived here: Abunimah complained that
the “Syrian American Medical Assoc. launches incitement campaign against
me/others, claims we’re paid by Assad/Russia.” And apparently, Abunimah didn’t
like getting a taste of his own medicine: “This level of incitement – comparing
us to Hitler – is getting to dangerous levels.” Abunimah also took
offense when his dear friend Max Blumenthal got the Max Blumenthal treatment
from erstwhile fans.
Clearly, Abunimah feels that Nazi smears should only be
reserved for Israel.
The controversy also revealed a few interesting tidbits
showing “pro-Palestinian” stars like Max Blumenthal and Rania Khalek in a
rather unflattering light. If Blumenthal really
“went to Gaza &burst into tears at a Hamas checkpoint,” the boundless
admiration he has expressed for Hamas perhaps also reflects some rather
unhealthy psychological dispositions: the more brutal the bully, the more
admiration Blumenthal will feel – which may well help to explain why Blumenthal
has so much despisement for Israel and the US, and so much respect for Hamas,
Assad, Russia and Iran.
But while I couldn’t find confirmation for the delightful
insider rumor about Hamas reducing Blumenthal to tears, I did manage to find
evidence for the accusation
that Electronic Intifada “associate editor” Rania Khalek is a
plagiarist: if you check out this 2008
post on “6 ‘Non-Lethal’ Weapons That’ll Make You Wish You Were Dead” and
scroll to the comments, you will find one posted on August 4th, 2011, which
says: “This article has recently been plagiarized by someone named Rania Khalek
for a website called Alternet. It’s not even subtle. […] The title of the
stolen article is ‘6 Creepy New Weapons the Police and Military Use To Subdue
Unarmed People’ and it was published August 1st 2011.” Sure enough, there is
such an Alternet article
by Khalek, which is marked as “updated” at the beginning and adorned with
an “EDITOR’S NOTE” at the end stating: “This article has been corrected since
its original publication for more accurate attribution to original sources.”
Isn’t this a delicate way to put it…
Khalek’s author archive at Alternet
shows that her regular contributions at the site ended a few months later
in January 2012, but resumed again after three years in January 2015 – and
amazingly enough, the plagiarized piece was promptly recycled under the exact
same title, without the “editor’s note” and without any hint that it had
been published years earlier. I suppose that’s Alternet quality
journalism …
Last but not least, the disappointment expressed by
erstwhile Blumenthal fans offered many more revealing glimpses at how truly
pathetic many supporters of the “Palestinian cause” are. One heartbroken
Blumenthal fan lamented:
“I regret writing a review of @MaxBlumenthal’s Gaza
book for @MuftahOrg http://muftah.org/a-review-of-max-blumenthals-the-51-day-war-ruin-and-resistance-in-gaza/ … I see that he’s fallen as low as Rania Khalek.”
Check out the linked review posted on July 29, 2015, and you’ll find the
highest praise for the “fearless integrity that fuels Blumenthal’s reporting.”
You’ll also find that this review is illustrated with an image of the aftermath
of a deadly “explosion … at a public garden near Shifa hospital in Gaza City on
July 28, 2014.” It’s hard to think of a better illustration for a review
praising Blumenthal, because Israel had immediately said that the carnage was
caused by Hamas rockets, and even Amnesty International ultimately conceded in the spring of 2015 that “the projectile was a
Palestinian rocket.” Ignoring this fact is really a good example of
Blumenthal-style “integrity”.
So here’s a lesson for erstwhile Blumenthal fan Joey
Husseini Ayoub and the likes of him: if you hail a hack like Blumenthal who
glorifies an Islamist terror group like Hamas for his “fearless integrity,” you
just look utterly pathetic when you denounce him for serving as an apologist
for Syria’s Assad: Hamas and Assad have pretty much the same concern for the
people under their rule. Just as the current carnage in Syria is due to Assad’s
determination to hold on to power, all the wars in Gaza in the last decade are
due to Hamas’ cynical efforts to polish their credentials as the “Islamic Resistance
Movement.”
But I suppose there’s really nothing more “pro-Palestinian” than
to quickly forget how Hamas threw
opponents from high-rises in Gaza, tortured them and dragged
their bodies through the streets, or executed them ISIS-style on public
squares – a spectacle that was actually defended
by Ali Abunimah. Maybe Max Blumenthal recalled atrocities like these when he
burst into tears at a Hamas checkpoint: it must be really scary to be at the
mercy of people who treat their own like this – even if you’re a “journalist”
who came to glorify those brutal bullies.
