Justin Elliott has an important story up at Salon on an email list of rightwing journalists called “The Freedom Community” to which former AIPAC staffer Josh Block sent a call-to-arms yesterday. Block was telling the list to flog Ben Smith’s important piece in Politico on a new rift inside the Democratic Party over Israel, evidenced by bloggers critical of Israel at the Center for American Progress. Block smears them. Elliott:
Block’s email to The Freedom Community list arrived under the subject line “Important piece to echo and the research to do it….” – a reference to the Politico story. He wasted no time throwing around more accusations of anti-Semitism.
“This kind of anti-Israel sentiment is so fringe it’s support by CAP is outrageous, but at least it is out in the open now — as is their goal – clearly applauded by revolting allies like the pro-HAMAS and anti-Zionist/One State Solution advocate Ali Abunumiah and those who accuse pro-Israel Americans of having ‘dual loyalties’ or being ‘Israel-Firsters’ – to shape the minds of future generations of Democrats,” Block writes. “These are the words of anti-Semites, not Democratic political players.”
The email continues by encouraging journalists on The Freedom Community list to ask Democratic members of Congress about the story.
“I wonder if Steny Hoyer or Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid or Chuck Schumer or Dick Durban or James Clyburn agree with CAP?” Block asks. “I wonder if they will say they disagree and condemn this stuff and expect better. You know how I feel – look at the below — and ask them how they feel about this discourse from CAP and Media Matters.”
He goes on: “YOU SHOULD AMPLIFY this. And use the below [research] to attack the bad guys.”
What follows is thousands of words of opposition research focusing on CAP writers Eli Clifton, Matt Duss, and Ali Gharib and Media Matters’ M.J. Rosenberg. I’ve posted the full text below.
I asked Ben Smith if he’s on the list. He’s not. But he wrote about them before, declining to name names, last year, but outing
a secret… list of center-right foreign policy writers and thinkers called Freedom Mail.
The list is maintained by Jamie Kirchick and is, as I wrote, actually a secret.
“I know nothing of this ‘list’ you’re talking about,” Kirchick e-mailed me, and I’m told an American Spectator writer was expelled from the list for compromising its secrecy. (The writer declined to comment on the incident.)
The members include many people whose views and work I respect, and it’s composed, I’m told, largely of foreign policy discussion and argument, weighted heavily toward the Middle East. I’m not going to write up a list of names for harebrained conspiracy theorists.
I was struck, though, by the affiliation of one participant: The Daily Caller’s deputy editor Jamie Weinstein, who also weighed in on Fox on the website’s big Journolist scoop, in which the website sought to tar a broad swath of outlets, including POLITICO, as conspirators.
What I find interesting about Block’s call-to-arms is that this stuff transcends party lines: the lobby is there to ensure that neither party can stake out political ground that’s critical of Israel, which is Block’s anxiety now re the Center for American Progress. Salon is right to call this list “rightwing.” But if a rightwing activist on abortion issues sent out an email to rightwing friends saying The Democrats are pro-abortion– no one would care, they’d say, If you care about abortion, vote Republican. But Block’s constituency, the lobby, obviously is much wider than one party or another, it’s its own party and wants to keep it that way. So when he says Call Pelosi, Call Chuck Schumer, he’s asking for the Democrats to excommunicate the good folks at Center for American Progress– just as he’d turn around and ask Republicans to excommunicate writers supporting Ron Paul. He’s enforcing orthodoxy on our political debate. And Democrats fear this assault because they fear they could lose a pillar of the party, Jews. (Remember that LBJ gave up the southern white vote for civil rights…)
Sloppy work from Block. He endangers exposing
his secretive media cabal and yet exposes himself
for dirty politicking. That’s what I call doubling down.
This the fine caliber of an Aipac Man? No wonder they
prefer Gingrich and Romney.
Quote from above: . . . those who accuse pro-Israel Americans of having ‘dual loyalties’ or being ‘Israel-Firsters’ – to shape the minds of future generations of Democrats,” Block writes. “These are the words of anti-Semites, not Democratic political players.”
I think people should have some evidence before they accuse people of having ulterior motives. It would be horrible if our country descended to a state in which people were accused of holding certain positions simply because they were Jewish.
At the same time, it is a reality that some people in our society will make decisions on the basis of illegitimate, ulterior motives. We can’t simply ignore this.
For me, when it’s okay to call someone on ulterior motivations all depends on the degree of evidence available. Recently, on the basis of what I feel is some fairly strong evidence, I accused the SPLC of having a pro-Jewish bias. Mark Potok wrote back that “your claim does give off a certain political odor.” Of course, he was referring to me being an anti-Semite.
Some people are trying to convolute this issue: Is it impossible for a Jew to act on tribal loyalty? Or is it just the case that in a particular instance he or she is not? I get the feeling that people such as Block and Potok tend to kneejerk-side with the former position–which is a very, very conservative reaction (relative to their own interests) when you think about it.
RE: “Lobbyist privately calls on journalists to hector Schumer & Pelosi about ‘anti-Semites’ at Democratic thinktank” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: I’m very disappointed to see these highly partisan attacks being made on the Democrats by this former AIPAC staffer. Not long ago AIPAC took great great pains to claim that it was strictly bipartisan. I guess The Times They Are A-Changin’ (VIDEO, 02:58)!
ALSO SEE: Former AIPAC Spokesperson Rallies Conservatives to Attack CAP, Media Matters as Anti-Semitic, by Sarah Posner, Religion Dispatches, 12/08/11
ENTIRE POST – http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/5483/former_aipac_spokesperson_rallies_conservatives_to_attack_cap,_media_matters_as_anti-semitic/
“those who accuse pro-Israel Americans of having ‘dual loyalties’ or being ‘Israel-Firsters’ – to shape the minds of future generations of Democrats,” Block writes. “These are the words of anti-Semites, not Democratic political players”
I think I will stick with Jeff Blankfort’s reply…”If it’s true it’s not anti semitic”.
You know, you just have to believe that no matter how weak our lawmakers are there’s gotta be an undercurrent of real anger there at the AIPAC types.
I mean … here’s an AIPACer, essentially siccing right-wingers on Pelosi and Reid and etc. so as to try to force them to denounce some of their fellow liberal/left-wingers.
And you just know conservative leaders know there’s AIPACer’s ready to sic liberal-left-wingers on them to force them them to denounce some of their fellow conservatives.
And all these liberal/left and conservative people know that the AIPACers are out there joyously playing these games and willing to attack them at the drop of a hat and force them to attack those who might be their friends even…
So you gotta wonder: While the support for AIPAC is obviously a mile wide just how deep can it be with it being known for these kind of tactics? Wouldn’t surprise me if the very second that accepting donations from AIPAC and the Israeli lobby turns bad that we would see some very deep resentments bubble to the surface over how they’ve been conducting themselves.
In any event glad this Block email came out: “The Lobby Does Not Believe In Friendship” should be the next Politico story.