Judging Freedom - Max Blumenthal: Gaza, Democracy, and the DNC

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Max Blumenthal: Gaza, Democracy, and the DNCSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, August 28, 2024. Back from his adventures in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention is our dear friend Max Blumenthal. Before he says a word, I'm going to play a clip that we have. If you're a fan of Saturday Night Live, you'll recognize the person in this clip. If you're a fan of this show, you'll recognize Max's voice. And the most important Q&A is at the end. Will you delete that? No.

Will you come with me? No. Watch this. I'm asking you, why do y'all keep asking me the same questions? Because the celebrities will not speak on cameras in people's faces? Exactly. I'm a journalist. Yeah, right.

I don't get in the room and come on and speak to us. How does that make policy? That doesn't make policy. You should get mad at the people carrying out this genocide. I'm not mad at nobody. I'm not speaking out against things. I'm just a clown out here. That's what celebrities are doing for her.

You're not demanding anything if it fights for you to be on stage. Come on. The Gray Zone. Who? The Gray Zone. TheGrayZone.com. Can you guys play that? No.

Can you guys call me? No. Excuse me. Oh, word. Nobody intimidates Blumenthal. God love you, Max. So my first question was going to be, I know the answer, how hospitable were the Democrats to anti-war questions and activism? Well, you know, I didn't have press credentials. And so I wasn't corralled like the

rest of the press. The DNC credentialed mostly influencers, including teenagers, I met some 14 year old girls who are credentialed as influencers. To ask questions about climate change. There were hundreds of them all around. There wasn't much independent press allowed in, and there weren't many members of the press who were able to ask adversarial questions about war or the Gaza genocide to the DNC VIPs. And so basically what me and Wyatt Reed did was we went down a stairwell towards the floor and found an area where the VIPs would be actually passing through. We got Chuck Schumer on camera, Representative Steny Hoyer, Wolf Blitzer. We confronted about having worked for AIPAC and various other Israeli propaganda outlets. And Kenan from the kids show, Kenan and Kel, who got on Saturday Night Live, who was one of a drove of celebrities providing cover for Kamala Harris to make her and Tim Walz more relatable and to sort of depoliticize the entire convention. He was one of the few

people that actually engaged with me. The rest were sort of trained to walk away. CNN's Caitlin Collins just walked away from me when I asked about their October 7th coverage. And he was sort of mystified, befuddled, stunned that I would ask about the Gaza genocide or any of the wars that Kamala Harris had presided over as VP. And he seemed to think he was just being a good citizen by being there. And it wasn't political at all, as if he was sort of speaking at a quinceanera or a bar mitzvah or a sweet 16 party. And so what I wanted to do was kind of break the fourth wall and show how these celebrities were actually clowns for empire. Here's a line I love that you put right to his face at the end as he was walking away from you.

You're not demanding anything is the price you pay to be on stage. Did he even realize what you were saying to him? I don't think he did. I don't know if he understands the issues that well, he was given a script and it was to hold up a giant copy of Project 2025, which is one of the Democrats' big scare tactics about Trump and to just make jokes about it. So it's obvious he was being managed. But what I was speaking to was a point of leverage that celebrities actually have that would be one of the few points that can offset the power that AIPAC and the defense lobby, clearly the arms industry lobby,

clearly has over the Democrats, which is to just say, look, we're not going to participate in this as long as you continue this genocide and refuse to impose a ceasefire. Because we actually are horrified by the images of dead children. But most of them are just so ambitious and so fame obsessed, and they probably are getting paid as well, that they wouldn't pass up this opportunity. I thought I saw a segment of the gray zone where you were outside the convention center. Nobody was harassing you, but there were a lot of people between you

and the actual building. What was it like outside? Or was anybody interested in hearing about peace in Gaza? I'm glad you asked that question. And I guess I'll explain what I was doing in that video in a second. But I had actually just witnessed the uncommitted delegates staging a sit-in in front of the United Center. were delegates. They were wearing Palestinian kufiyas. Most of them were Arab Americans. And they were trying to voice their outrage and disgust that a Palestinian speaker was not allowed on stage to present the Palestinian side after the families of Israeli hostages and prisoners of war in Gaza were allowed to speak. And it's pretty obvious they weren't going to be allowed to speak. It should have been obvious going in that the Democratic Party

is deeply undemocratic and is under the sway of the Israel lobby. And so they staged this sit-in, which had really no effect on disrupting business as usual. They could have gone to the area we were in near where the speakers were entering, the VIPs, President Bill Clinton had just briefly walked by. They could have blocked their passage. They could have disrupted the convention. And yet instead they engaged in this weepy and I would say kind of undignified display outside the Democratic Convention just to have a vetted speech. So they weren't really asking for much either. And I think, what do you think the Democratic party is going to do? This is a red line. The genocide in Gaza is a red line for you.

What state were they from, Michigan? Each. Sorry? What state were they from, Max? Michigan? Well, the uncommitted delegates were from across the country, but they had the most impact in the Michigan primary where over 100,000 people voted uncommitted. Largely Arab Americans, but also many progressive Democrats who were just horrified, you know, non-Arabs who were horrified by the genocide. And so it was a sad display. I really came away feeling depressed. Did anybody in the four days, there must have been 100 speakers in four days, speak against the genocide in Gaza? No.

And, you know, Keith Ellison, who is one of the first Muslim Americans in Congress, spoke and said nothing about it. He's someone who claims to care about Palestinian rights. And nothing was said except Kamala Harris attempted to mollify the Democratic base by sandwiching in some hollow words of concern for civilians in Gaza between calls for staging military escalation against Iran and the Yemeni Houthis with a pledge to defend Israel no matter what. And this was hailed, including by some members of the Democratic Party's activist base. I saw like Bhaskar Sansara, the editor of Jacobin magazine and other people sort of praising Kamala for humanizing Palestinians, when this is actually worse

than what Donald Trump does when he uses Palestinian as an insult. Because Donald Trump's telling us exactly what he's going to do with Palestinians and how he will relate to Israel. Kamala is mollifying the one group in America, the one element which has actually been pushing back against this policy with her vibes and her words. And we need to see through it and recognize how insidious this is. Was there any of 1968 there from the police? Well, the police, certainly. I mean, we see 1968 at every protest from the police, including on campuses across the US. I think what was see 1968 at every protest from the police, including on campuses across the US. I think what was so horrifying about 1968 to so many Americans is they had never seen a

televised police riot egged on by a big city mayor. Now in Chicago, what you had was a putatively progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson, who comes from the teachers union, who voted the tie-breaking vote in favor of a ceasefire resolution in Chicago. And he said, you know, the police are going to be so much different here. But the protests that took place, one outside the Israeli embassy, at those, the Chicago PD viciously attacked protesters, arrested people without much provocation. And the propaganda that came out through the Chicago area media and national media scared Chicago residents, particularly in the loop

area near the United Center, to the point where they were inside their homes worrying about a Hamas riot, terror attacks. An Uber driver complained to me that he was getting no fares, there were no surge prices because everybody was afraid. And the protests that appeared on the first day was the largest one, the coalition to march on the DNC, numbered only in the few thousands and petered out towards the end. There was no major confrontation between the Palestine Solidarity Movement and the Democratic Party as the party feared. And I have my theories on why that was the case. It was not a strong display of protest. Where is the donor class money this fall? Is it with both campaigns? Well, of course.

That's AIPAC's secret, is to put its money on both sides of the aisle to make Israel a bipartisan issue. As soon as Israel becomes a partisan football, like abortion or gay marriage, something like that, AIPAC loses. That's why they dumped $8 million into defeating Cori Bush in St. Louis, why they dumped an equal sum into defeating Jamal Bowman in the Bronx. They've pumped more than $100 million into the 2024 campaign already. This is a record sum.

And so the idea- Into Harris and Trump. Into Harris and Trump. They're both drunk off of, you know, APAC aid. While this is going on, earlier today, the Netanyahu foreign minister stated, I guess it's official policy of the government, Palestinians must leave Judea and Samaria. His words for the West Bank. What is he talking about?

This is Israel Katz, Israel's foreign minister. And yes, he has no power over the Israeli army. That's true, but he represents Israel on the world stage. He's Tony Blinken's counterpart, and he's calling for the forcible evacuation of residents of the northern West Bank who are Palestinian, particularly in Tulkarim and Jenin, where the Israeli army is staging the largest raids of those areas since 2002, since the height of the second Intifada. And so therefore, Katz is calling for the Gazification of the Northern West Bank, because every day in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of people are given immediate evacuation orders and have to flee from their tents or their homes or wherever

they are under bombing in intense heat. Many of them are already sick. A hospital in Dera al-Bala was given a evacuation order. And so some of the patients had to be left behind while the doctors fled two days ago. So this is what Israel's plan is for the northern West Bank. It's definitely the plan. And what we're seeing with these raids is drone attacks, tanks, bulldozers moving in to Jenin, as they did in the second Intifada when they destroyed the refugee camp there and in Tilkarim, because there is armed resistance taking place in those areas. And Israel fears that it will spread to the rest of the West Bank, where the rest of the resistance has been pacified by the Palestinian Authority,

which is effectively the Vichy Authority. Chris, can you put the map up, please? So internationally, under international law, this is known as the West Bank. By the way, this is an Israeli map. Do you see Gaza? So they are propagandists in chief that they're calling these two halves of the West Bank by ancient biblical names, Judea and Samaria, and totally wiped out Gaza. Do they think the rest of the world will accept that? I guess they do. Or they don't care. Well, they only care what the Gentile authority in Washington thinks. And to a certain extent, Berlin, which answers to the authorities in Washington.

They refer to the West Bank by its biblical name, asserting biblical claims to these lands. It doesn't matter if Netanyahu is actually himself secular. He uses that language because I think it was as David Ben-Gurion said, I don't believe in God, but God gave me the land. Right, right, right. So Sunday in Haaretz, I'm sure you know of this person, Major General Yitzhak Barak had a very, very strong op-ed

in which he said the following, Israel will collapse in a year. Netanyahu has decided to die with the Philistines. He has lost his humanity, morality, norms, values, sense of responsibility. And Ronan Barr, who's the head of Shin Bet, accused the Netanyahu government of creating Jewish terror. Now, Colonel McGregor says he knows this fellow Yitzhak Barik, and he is speaking as the mouthpiece for active duty IDF generals who can't say this. Do you get that sense from your knowledge of the area and sources in the community? The sense I get is that there is no endgame here.

And I think that any political leadership in Israel will struggle to find an off-ramp, given the socio-political pressures from within Israel, unless they are willing to accept a ceasefire on the terms put forward by the U.S. at Doha with Hamas accepting those proposals in early May. And I just don't see any Israeli political leadership willing to accept those terms. Netanyahu is the one who's willing to own the obstinacy and rejectionism and to declare that this war has to go on forever until total victory. And are elements in the military leadership and the officer corps, particularly from the more enlightened elements, the so-called gatekeepers and the shin bed and Mossad, who would like to see some sort of resolution to get the hostages and captives back from Gaza. The families of the hostages and captives, many of them want to cease fire, including some of the families that appeared at the Democratic National Convention. But the base of Netanyahu wants Operation Infinite Genocide. And Netanyahu wants to finish the job that he started because as soon as it all ends, that he's going to get roasted. So I don't see any resolution here. And I think the real responsibility lies on the ultimate patron of Operation Infinite Genocide, Tony Blinken,

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, these characters. What they're doing in Doha has become incredibly obvious. And while they say they're pressing hard for ceasefire, and they're constantly using language about being in the red zone, they just got to run the ball into the end zone from the one yard line. They're using that language the same way that the Clinton administration and the second Bush administration, both Bush administrations used the peace process around the Oslo Accords to basically delay, to create this endless delay for Israel to put new facts on the ground, to build more settlements, more walls, more military bases, and make the occupation intractable. And what they're

doing is they're allowing Israel to make the internal occupation of Gaza intractable and to allow Israel to build up strength for regional war with Hezbollah and ultimately Iran under cover of a peace process. They're also under cover of negotiations. They're also using negotiations transparently to prevent an Iranian counterattack for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. So it's ultimately the fault of the U.S. And yes, as long as this Operation Infinite Genocide continues, Israeli society will decay in rapid fashion. And we'll see more and more of these gatekeepers from the military intelligence elite coming out to condemn the political leadership. We'll see the brewing civil war emerge. What do you think General Barak meant when he said Israel will collapse in a year,

economically collapse, no matter how much cash the U.S. sends over there? I mean, it's an extreme statement. I don't see it taking place that same way, but I think he means the Ashkenazi Israeli way of life as experienced from Tel Aviv and, you know, Southern and Western Jerusalem. Meaning the secular, uh, liberal Israelis. Well, the first world way of life where they, you know, they, they depend on the tech sector for a very nice middle-class upper middle-class lifestyle. Many former military people retire and go into weapons sales. And they live like they're Europeans in the heart of the Middle East.

And they have also experienced this kind of false tranquility through a multi-billion dollar air defense system, the Iron Dome, David's Sling, underwritten by U.S. taxpayers. And once that's penetrated, it's all over. So I think what he means is a certain way of life, and Israel will soon transform into a Spartan state in which, a Spartan theocratic state of Judea in which the Ben-Gavirs, the Smotrics, and the Kahanist wing of the Netanyahu coalition will ultimately take power. So on Sunday in the middle of the night, Israeli time, for about 20 minutes, there was this back and forth of drones and missiles between Hezbollah and Israel. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal posted a picture of a missile exploding another missile in the skies and credited the Iron Dome. Of course, the sun was out when that picture was taken, and this conflagration occurred in the dark.

And then before the sun came up, Chris, do we have Alistair Crook? Here's what Netanyahu did. is immediately at five o'clock in the morning, the Israeli government issued an absolute ban on any reporting of any damage or any attacks. A complete censor was imposed on what happened in Tel Aviv, what happened at the airbase, which they also attacked, which is where the drones flew from absolute ban no reporting no photographs no visuals and so they put a complete blackout on any news of any damage to any infrastructure any defense sites or to the intelligence um basis in Tel Aviv Netanyahu told his cabinet and the Israeli public that they shot down all the incoming projectiles. If that were true, why would he put a ban on journalists reporting it? The reason there was a ban, the equivalent of D-notice in the UK, was to protect intelligence assets. What Hezbollah aimed to do was to go

beyond attacking the near abroad in Israel's north and in the occupied Golan Heights. There's clear footage of Hezbollah striking a military base inside the city of Kiryat Shemona in the north. What they wanted to do was hit the Unit 8200 base and the Mossad base north of Tel Aviv. And the Israeli media was ordered to basically protect the locations of these targets because they're supposed to be top secret. And as we know, there have been several Hezbollah drone incursions through its Hupo drone that Hezbollah published

showing sensitive bases all across northern Israel. It doesn't appear that any of these sites were hit, though, in central Israel. This may have been due to the preemptive strike by the Israeli Air Force in which the US NSA and Pentagon provided intelligence support to hit rocket launchers, it looks like over 300 rocket strikes still took place. And that the Israeli way of life that we were talking about before, even though the sensitive bases weren't hit, the Israeli way of life has been shaken by the reality and by the potential of Hezbollah's rocket capacity. Israel's strikes inside Lebanon took place almost entirely south of the Litani River, which is interesting because the rocket launches did not only take place below the Litani River. So what we're seeing, I think, from both sides

is still a desire to avoid escalation in which a ground invasion could take place or Israel would flatten large parts of Beirut. And I think Israel in particular is loathe to send its infantry and its tanks into southern Lebanon because of the precedent in 2006. They got hammered there. Hezbollah has improved its capacity. It actually has offensive and counterinsurgency experience now through its operations in Syria, throughout the Syrian

Dirty War. It has new weapons. And I think Hezbollah is accountable to the rest of the Lebanese public and doesn't want to be held responsible for the destruction of Beirut. When is the next Gray Zone episode? I think it'll be Friday. We've had Aaron Mate on the road, so it's been hard to nail down a live stream, but, uh, the last, in the last week, we were unable to post on YouTube for the same reason that you judge were unable to post on YouTube for an arbitrary bogus reason. We were given a strike and suspended for a full week. And it just happened to be the week when we went into covering the DNC. And I'm noticing this whole pattern here of people

who are criticizing Kamala Harris from the left or from the anti-war perspective. Chris Hedges, for example, just had a TikTok post criticizing Kamala Harris removed. Caleb Maupin had his book of essays on Kamala Harris taken down by Amazon. And we had this happen to us. It feels to me like the Kamala Harris campaign is using the power of the Biden white house to issue censorship demands to big tech companies that run these social media platforms in order to suppress criticism of her from the anti-war left and, and, and right.

Got it. Got it. Thank you, Max. Thanks for everything you do. Thanks for coming on with us today. Let us know when, I think Aaron is on with us tomorrow. I don't know if he's on from wherever he is or back in the country, but all the best to you. I'm looking forward to that weekend we'll be spending together in upstate New York with Anya and with our friend Gerald Salenti. Absolutely. It'll be a great rally. Gilbert Doctorow, 9 a.m. Dennis Kucinich, 2 p.m. Colonel Wilkerson, 3 p.m. The Roundtable at 345, Aaron Maté at 430. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. I'm out.