While serving as secretary of state, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shared with her staff articles that would later be published in a work described as the “I Hate Israel Handbook,” according to some of the thousands of emails revealed Thursday by the State Department.
The reference was included in 2010 emails between Clinton and adviser Sidney Blumenthal regarding Israel. Blumenthal promoted the work of his son, Max Blumenthal. The elder Blumenthal forwarded articles that would later emerge as part of Max Blumentahl’s book, Goliath. The book — highly critical of Israeli policies — was published in 2013.
The Forward’s J.J. Goldberg described it as “an unpleasant book.” The Forward headlined its review by calling it “The Anti-Israel Book That Makes Even Anti-Zionists Blush“.
The Nation called it the “I Hate Israel Handbook.” A review of the book noted that it contained “seventy-three short chapters, each one devoted to some shortcoming of Israeli society and/or moral outrage that the Jewish state has perpetrated against the Palestinians,” it read. “Some are titled to imply an equivalence between Israel and Nazi Germany.”
According to The Nation’s media editor Eric Alterman, the younger Blumenthal’s “case against the Jewish state is so carelessly constructed, it will likely alienate anyone but the most fanatical anti-Zionist extremists, and hence do nothing to advance the interests of the occupation’s victims.”
Blumenthal also sent Clinton the writings of leftist Israeli Uri Avnery, who criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Clinton asked Blumenthal how that material could be used. No reply was found in the trove of released emails.
In 2012, Blumenthal sent his son’s article in al-Akhbar, “The Bibi Connection,” to Clinton, who then forwarded it along. The article emphasized Netanyahu’s intent to campaign against Obama in 2012, arguing that “Netanyahu’s shadow campaign is intended to be a factor in defeating Obama and electing a Republican in his place.”
h/t: Joe Miller
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