{"id":7483,"date":"2015-07-20T01:31:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T07:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankschaeffer\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2015-07-20T01:31:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T07:31:45","slug":"why-is-the-mainstream-media-running-away-from-max-blumenthals-new-book-about-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankschaeffer\/2015\/07\/why-is-the-mainstream-media-running-away-from-max-blumenthals-new-book-about-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is the Mainstream Media Running Away From Max Blumenthal’s New Book About Israel?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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\u201cIs it possible for right-wingers and AIPAC adherents to speak about his work without either blowing a carotid artery; or attacking him personally, huffing and puffing about his being \u201canti-Semitic,\u201d a self-loathing Jew, an anti-Israeli propagandist, and a bullying anti-Zionist? It doesn\u2019t appear it is.[But] Max Blumenthal \u2014 a gutsy award-winning journalist whose on-the-ground reporting often shatters the confabulated wisdom of the Mainstream Media Misinformation and Disinformation Complex \u2014 speaks for itself in its insights and fearlessness.\u201d So writes\u00a0\u00a0Bill Berkowitz<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/\u00a0Truthout<\/a>\u00a0in the important article below. I\u2019m republishing it here with the author\u2019s written permission.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Why Is the Mainstream Media Running Away From Max Blumenthal\u2019s New Book About Israel?<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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The media has a history of refusing to acknowledge Israel\u2019s sharpest critics.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
By<\/em>\u00a0Bill Berkowitz<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/\u00a0Truthout<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Max Blumenthal.
\nPhoto Credit: screenshot via Democracry Now!<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Max Blumenthal is a spot-on, tenacious journalist.<\/p>\n

He has a bevy of enthusiastic supporters, and a host of virulent pro-Israel \u201cno matter what\u201d critics. He has become a lightening rod for conservatives. Is it possible for right-wingers and AIPAC adherents to speak about his work without either blowing a carotid artery; or attacking him personally, huffing and puffing about his being \u201canti-Semitic,\u201d a self-loathing Jew, an anti-Israeli propagandist, and a bullying anti-Zionist? It doesn\u2019t appear it is.<\/p>\n

That dear readers, is a darn shame, because the work of Max Blumenthal \u2014 a gutsy award-winning journalist whose on-the-ground reporting often shatters the confabulated wisdom of the Mainstream Media Misinformation and Disinformation Complex \u2014 speaks for itself in its insights and fearlessness.<\/p>\n

As Mondoweiss pointed out, Blumenthal\u2019s last book \u2013\u00a0Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel\u00a0\u2013 documenting the growth of radical right-wing politics in Israeli \u2014 did not get reviewed in The New York Times.<\/p>\n

Typical of attacks from the pro-Israel media, Petra Marquardt-Bigman, a German-Israeli freelance writer and researcher, takes\u00a0the slash and burn approach<\/a>\u00a0to Blumenthal and his work. In a recent blog post, she maintained that Blumenthal not only has \u201centhusiasm for Hamas,\u201d but that he seems to have an \u201cuncritical acceptance of the terror group\u2019s propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blumenthal\u2019s new book is titled\u00a0The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza<\/a>, and was published at the end of June. The book covers \u2013 as Blumenthal reported directly from Gaza at the time \u2013 Israel\u2019s aerial onslaught last year on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 2,200 people, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian civilians, including over 500 children.<\/p>\n

I know Max Blumenthal, but don\u2019t know him well. Somewhere along the line, those of us reporting on the religious right exchange emails, and on occasion, actually run into each other. I\u2019m guessing it was an email exchange.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, despite how critics attempt to cast him, Blumenthal is not a one-trick pony. Over the years he\u2019s reported on: the murder of hundreds of women in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Chihuahua, Mexico and how those deaths were connected to the policies of corporate interests in the border city; hunger strikes by undocumented migrants in privatized U.S. detention centers; the rise of the anti-immigrant Minuteman movement; and Sarah Palin\u2019s connection to the Alaska Independence Party among other diverse topics.<\/p>\n

His 2009 book,\u00a0Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party\u00a0made The New York Times bestseller list, despite it not being reviewed the \u201cpaper of record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blumenthal is also a kind of pioneer of short video documentaries, in which he heroically (not in the Greek sense, but bravely nevertheless) made his way into all sorts of conservative confabs and get-togethers, and allowed attendees to offer up their unadulterated opinions about the state of the nation. Folks were more than happy to tell him how effed up the nation was. Then Blumenthal would get asked to leave the premises, occasionally being escorted out.<\/p>\n

In the video\u00a0Generation Chickenhawk\u00a0attendees at the July 2007 College Republican National Convention in Washington, D.C. were asked why they, as Iraq War supporters, had not enlisted in the United States Armed Forces. That same year, his short video called\u00a0Rapture Ready, was about American Christian fundamentalists\u2019 support for the State of Israel. Blumenthal also exposed Israeli racism toward Palestinians in clips he shot there.<\/p>\n

Some conservatives are still obsessing about Blumenthal\u2019s\u00a0Republican Gomorrah, and cheerfully bringing Hillary Clinton into the picture. According to a recent Washington Free Beacon story, Alana Goodman cites e-mails from Clinton praising Max\u2019s book. In an email to Max\u2019s father Sidney Blumenthal, a long-time friend of and adviser to Hillary Clinton, dated September 11, 2009, Clinton describes the book as \u201cgreat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blumenthal has numerous platforms available to him, and he has garnered a huge following. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Salon, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, and The Guardian. Blumenthal contributes weekly articles to Alternet where he has been a senior writer since September 2014.<\/p>\n

Reza Aslan, a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, who is a nationally-known author on religious issues and commentator on the Middle East, has said that Blumenthal is among \u201cthe most vital voices in journalism today, always speaking truth to power with fearlessness and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how Blumenthal\u2019s new book will be received. In judging the work, will it be possible to \u201clet a hundred flowers bloom,\u201d without the personal attacks? Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

Order the book HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

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Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement.<\/p>\n


Frank\u00a0Schaeffer<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is a writer.\u00a0His latest book \u2014<\/span>WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD:<\/strong>\u00a0How to give love, create beauty and find peace<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Available now on Amazon<\/h2>\n
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Follow Frank on Twitter\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>www.twitter.com\/frank_schaeffer<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0See Frank\u2019s paintings\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>http:\/\/www.frankschaefferart.com\/<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Follow Frank on Facebook<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/frank.schaeffer.16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Contact Frank at<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>http:\/\/www.frankschaeffer.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIs it possible for right-wingers and AIPAC adherents to speak about his work without either blowing a carotid artery; or attacking him personally, huffing and puffing about his being \u201canti-Semitic,\u201d a self-loathing Jew, an anti-Israeli propagandist, and a bullying anti-Zionist? It doesn\u2019t appear it is.[But] Max Blumenthal \u2014 a gutsy award-winning journalist whose on-the-ground reporting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[1416,159,1415,1794,1793,13,628],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-religion","tag-bill-berkowitz","tag-israel","tag-max-blumenthal","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-religious-right","tag-zionism"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Is the Mainstream Media Running Away From Max Blumenthal's New Book About Israel?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Is it possible for right-wingers and AIPAC adherents to speak about his work without either blowing a carotid artery; or attacking him personally,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankschaeffer\/2015\/07\/why-is-the-mainstream-media-running-away-from-max-blumenthals-new-book-about-israel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Is the Mainstream Media Running Away From Max Blumenthal's New Book About Israel?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Is it possible for right-wingers and AIPAC adherents to speak about his work without either blowing a carotid artery; 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