Max Blumenthal is a party pooper.
Or, at least, you might feel that way if you were the organizer of a conservative conference and Blumenthal showed up with a video camera.
The New York-based journalist is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute (which is affiliated with the venerable left-wing magazine of the same name) and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. At 29, Blumenthal has covered the various strands of the conservative movement for an array of left-leaning publications.
But he has really made a name for himself with his videos.
Armed with a cameraman and a dry wit, Blumenthal has become an Internet favorite, offering up red meat to those looking to have their stereotypes of conservatives confirmed with video evidence.
Deadpanning his way through this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Blumenthal cornered pundit Michelle Malkin, author of a recent book defending the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans, and asked her to autograph a photo of Manzanar, the famed internment camp. (She declined.) Later, before a packed auditorium, he asked right-wing fire-breather Ann Coulter: “As a proponent of the sanctity of marriage, can you explain why you’ve had three broken engagements and never been married?” The seven-minute video has been viewed more than 160,000 times on YouTube alone.
For his follow-up, “Generation Chickenhawk,” Blumenthal attended a conference for College Republicans. There, he surveyed the enthusiastic young supporters of the Iraq War, searching in vain for attendees who were eager to enlist.
Blumenthal has also focused his lens leftward. He teamed up with organizers of the Take Back America conference to make a video about their event. Blumenthal ran around asking participants, such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, if they knew where he could find “Obama Girl,” the sexy YouTube phenomenon who had delivered a sultry serenade to the dashing Illinois senator. Blumenthal interviewed 9/11 conspiracy theorists and demanded of Ralph Nader, “If Al Gore was president now, you think everything would be the same?” (“Given his record as vice president, yes, it wouldn’t be that much different, except for the war,” Nader replied.)
Organizers, it seems, weren’t impressed. Blumenthal says they refused to show the finished product at the conference. “It was a fiasco,” Blumenthal said.
Journalism and politics run in Blumenthal’s blood. His father is veteran liberal journalist and former White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, who was a frontline combatant in the Clinton wars of the 1990s. The younger Blumenthal has inherited his father’s combative relationship with the conservative movement.
His latest video, “Rapture Ready,” is focused on a recent Christians United for Israel conference in Washington. After interviewing Tom DeLay about Jesus’ Second Coming (“It’s what I live for, and I hope it comes tomorrow. And obviously we have to be connected to Israel in order to enjoy the Second Coming of Christ,” DeLay said); taking in some inspired Jewish-style dancing; and asking the group’s founder, Pastor John Hagee, some pointed questions about passages from his book, “Jerusalem Countdown,” Blumenthal eventually was booted by security.
Blumenthal spoke with the Forward about making videos, Christian Zionism, his Jewish identity and growing up in the thick of things politically.
How did you wind up starting to make these political videos? What was the impetus behind it?
I’ve been covering the conservative movement, the religious right, the anti-immigration movement for well over four years, and I wanted to show people what it was like doing the work that I do, because so many people had sort of expressed fascination with the idea of just hanging out with people they consider to be intolerable, I guess. These are sort of progressive fans and friends. And so I just wanted to show them what it was like and how interesting and intellectually stimulating it can be, and also how funny it can be to hang around these kinds of conferences.
You said you find covering this beat to be intellectually stimulating, but in the videos people come across, oftentimes, as laughable or ridiculous. Do you find hanging out with the conservatives to be something you enjoy, or do you find it intolerable? Do you find that they make points that make you think?
I suppose when I initially delved into covering the right, it was because I found it so fascinating. I realized that there were so many unacknowledged components of this movement that I could explain to people and try to investigate for myself. It propelled me to go further into the movement. And on my videos I think that there are some subjects who are unintentionally self-satirical and hilarious, and stupid also, brain-dead even. But there are also people who are part of something that fascinates me. For instance, the people on the Christians United for Israel video explaining their eschatology — that’s really interesting, a whole movement that supports Israel because of end-times theology. Also, I find the spectacles that the right produces to be really fascinating. As far as how I feel about it personally, covering this movement and being among people who I deeply disagree with, I guess it doesn’t have that much of a lasting effect on me. I have a pretty short emotional memory.
Have you gotten more response from your videos than you have from your articles on the same topic?
I wrote in 2005 a piece on the College Republican National Convention, and I asked participants the same question. While the reaction was immense, it wasn’t the same. I think for so many people, reading is just such a rigorous mental exercise; they just can’t handle it. They respond much more to my videos. That’s partly why I produced it, to break out of the liberal intellectual bubble that I’ve been working in and that audience that I’ve been writing for. And I think I’ve really broken through. Also, young people have responded more to my videos because they’re like the YouTube generation. And I think it’s difficult to capture the aesthetic of these rallies and conservative conferences in print, and my videos, I think, have captured it perfectly, especially in the case of Christians United for Israel. I’m not comparing this organization or its agenda to fascism, but I think if you read Susan Sontag’s essay on the “fascist aesthetic,” there clearly is a fascist aesthetic to their Night to Honor Israel, which I portrayed in this video.
So I take it from this video that you don’t think that American Jews should ally themselves with these Christian Zionists?
Whatever you think about Israel, whether you’re a Zionist or not, whether you’re a Likudnik or you support Labor or even a more left-wing party, you have to recognize that Israel’s survival depends on a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. And this organization opposes and lobbies against any sort of negotiation with the Palestinians or Israel’s Arab neighbors, and that’s extraordinarily dangerous to Israel’s short-term security and long-term survival. If you look deeper in a moral sense, it’s absolutely immoral for Jews to align themselves with this organization — and cynical, because of their theology, which is openly antisemitic and culminates in a battle between what one participant in the conference described as a war between the Christians and the anti-Christians — the anti-Christians encompass Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, anyone who isn’t a born-again Christian, including mainline Christians and Palestinian Christians who’ve lived in Nazareth and Bethlehem since the days of the Apostles. So absolutely, I think it’s cynical and dangerous for Jews to align themselves with this organization and with Christian Zionists. And those who have reflect a level of desperation that I think is really troubling.
In part, this is because American Jews feel spurned by some groups that they had seen — particularly liberal Jews had seen — as their natural allies. For instance, the more liberal mainline churches are seen as unfairly placing the onus on Israel for its conflict with the Palestinians. The Presbyterians had moved forward on a divestment measure, an effort that we’ve seen echoes of in other mainline denominations. And many Jews view the intellectual left or the activist left — including The Nation magazine — as hostile to Israel. So people say, “Well, Jews and Israel should take their friends where they can get them, irrespective of what these friends think is going to happen in the afterlife.” How would you respond to people who say that, who feel because they perceive those on the left as being unfriendly to Israel, they can’t really turn away these people who are coming to them as allies, and as supporters of Israel?
“Being friendly to Israel” is sort of a loaded phrase. It’s a very subjective phrase. And I don’t know how you would define that, “Being friendly to Israel.” But if anyone thinks “being friendly to Israel” means encouraging Israel to take more land, encouraging Israel to expand its illegal settlements in the West Bank, encouraging Israel to ramp up hostilities with its neighbors, then I think those people need to look in the mirror and assess the consequences of their priorities, because these sort of initiatives have very dangerous consequences for Israel’s long-term survival. If they want to be in a permanent state of war, I think Christians United for Israel, those are great allies for Israel, and Christian Zionists in general.
What’s your Jewish background like? Are you involved at all in communal activities or communal activism?
I’m not in the army of God, I’m more in the secret service, which means I go to shul on the High Holy Days, or when I feel like it. Sometimes on a Friday I’ll go. I haven’t gone in quite awhile, because I just haven’t been connected to any element of the Jewish community, because I’ve been so transient as a reporter living in so many different cities. But recently I took Hebrew lessons with a Lubavitcher rabbi. I’ve traveled to Israel. I went to Hebrew school, so I have sort of a traditional Reform Jewish background. My faith right now is pretty much dormant — not in the army of God.
Was this Christians United for Israel video a way of weighing in on an issue that you feel is of import to you specifically as a Jew?
It’s a very personal issue. The Christian right and Israel are both issues that are really personal to me. Number one, because I think the Christian right wants to relegate American Jews to second-class status by removing the Establishment Clause, eroding the First Amendment and smashing the wall of separation. They’ve openly intimidated and attacked Jews who’ve tried to combat their efforts. For instance, Mikey Weinstein, who heads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told me he gets dozens of death threats every week for what he’s trying to do — to protect, for instance, his son, a Jewish cadet in the Air Force Academy, from Evangelical proselytization. And the fact that they’ve allied themselves with Israel is just extremely dangerous, because I care about what happens with Israel, and I care deeply about the Palestinians. And I think our history as Jews now, because of Zionism, is inextricably linked with that of the Palestinians. I really want to see a settlement. So this organization and this movement of Christian Zionism personally troubles me a lot, and I think it should trouble not only Jews, but anyone who wants to see some sort of a peaceful resolution to what’s happening across the Middle East.
Are the videos going to be your new focus? Are you still going to be doing journalism? Or, given the great response the videos have received, do you think you’re going to be moving more in that direction in the future?
I’m actually going to be writing a book that’s either going to appear during or after the election about the culture and political psychology of the right, and that’s where I’m going to be putting my energy this year. And if there’s any room to do videos, I’m going to continue to do them. But I have nothing planned, and I think because people recognize me so much, I might have to wear, like, a John Edwards wig and a Geraldo mustache to get into the next conference.
You grew up in the thick of things politically. How has that affected your outlook?
I grew up in Washington and saw things from the inside. It’s had a profound effect on me. Number one, I don’t have any reverence for powerful people or influential people. I just see them as my equal. I can even see through the veneer they put up. At the same time, there was a period in my life when I wanted to divorce myself from politics and from Washington. But when Bush was elected, a lot of the things that my father had written and that he had told me about the conservative movement started to ring true, and I started to understand why he had pursued this career and also who the forces were that tried to destroy him. During the Clinton scandals, I just saw it as a dirty business that I wanted no part of. I just wanted to stay away from the personal destruction of it. But when these forces that tried to destroy Clinton came into power, it was really illuminating for me. That’s partly what propelled me into journalism. But not all of what propelled me into it. I just love reporting. I love the craft and the process of it. So that’s the main reason why I do this.
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It would behoove anyone seeking objectivity, to realize that Max chooses his interview subjects quite well, by the way they look and act, say "the more passionate ones", as exists in any movement. While there were 4000 people there, many who are very reasonable, educated and worldly, Max intentionally chose who he did. As he says in this piece above, he wanted to get a laugh out of his audience and show them the "funny" side. The author even states that Blumenthal's method is in the "offering up red meat to those looking to have their stereotypes of conservatives confirmed". Objectivity takes more courage, it requires fairness and time to actually understand and listen to the other side. Anyone wanting -
Anyone wanting to just believe what he is inclined to believe can feel safe at home with Max, but anyone looking for integrity should look elsewhere.
In this article it is claimed that "you have to recognize that Israel’s survival depends on a permanent settlement with the Palestinians". No, Jews must take into account that the conflict with the Palestinians will continue for generations. One must be hopeful that a settlement could be reached. One must strive for a settlement as well. However, for all their bad decision making throughout the decades of conflict, one constant theme has always guided Palestinian society: They will not go for any arrangement that is seen as a clear Israeli interest, and they as a society are willing to suffer the consequences for rejecting such an arrangement. If Israel's survival depends on a permanent settlement, then you can be quite sure that no permanent settlement will be reached. No, Israel's survival has to be a "given" - it has to be clear that Israel will continue to thrive despite any circumstances.
Max Blumenthal is one very sensible, reasonable man. He obviously cares deeply about his heritage. He is sensible enough and reasonable enough to realize that what has happened, and is happening to his country, and to the Palestinian people -- is not the long-term solution to a very complex problem. Neither will the solution be found with the meddling efforts of the Christian/Zionist movement in the United States. Endless war is not a solution to any problem. His videos have exposed a lot of the problems. Would that he, and they, can ultimately be part of the solution.
Max Blumenthal just let's the conservatives speak. And they do a fine job of exposing themselves for who they truly are.
I found the CUFI "Looking forward to Armageddon" piece interesting. The purveyors of the eschatology Mr. Bluemthal interviewed was troubling. On the other hand Mr. Blumenthal -- when he confronted Pastor Hagee -- might have got his quote from Hagee's "Jerusalem Countdown" accurate? First he told Hagee that Hagee wrote, we Jews have been responsible for our own misfortune and divine judgment because we did not keep our covenant. Then Blumenthal inferred that we are being punished for our rejection of Jesus, to which Hagee told Blumenthal, the quote was not in his book. Having not read the book, who is right? Blumenthal or Hagee? Seems to me, if you are going to make an accusation, base it on fact.
Max is an uneducated fool. He doesn't know anything about Judaism, Israel or Christianity. Max hates Conservatives when the most anti-semitic people now politically are Democrats. At least the Republicans support Israel openly and go after it's enemies unlike the Democrats who appease those who want to destroy Israel and the Jewish people. There has never been a "Palestinian people" so to claim that the "Palestinians" have been around since the Apostles is a complete and total lie. The "Palestinians", which Jews were at one time called, are Arabs who only started calling themselves that Roman word several decades ago. Most of the Arabs immigrated to Israel after it was re-founded. There are legitimate questions to raise about Evangeleical Christians but they're definately not our enemies. Many have contributed a lot to Israel both in moral and economical support. Pastor Hagee raised millions of dollars for Israel after the war last summer. Other Christian Ministers have done the same. Israel belongs to the Jews so there is no such thing as "illegal settlements." The hostilities in Israel is because of Hamas and other terrorists groups who live to kill Jews and destroy Israel. What has Max done to support Israel? The enemies of Israel and the Jewish people are not the Evangelical Christians, conservatives, or the Republican party. It's the Democrats, Liberals and people like the ignorant and hateful Max Blumenthal.
Yeah, young Republicans would rather applaud the military from a distance, and Christian Zionists "support Israel" as the rope supports the hanged man. Always worth reminding us, but not very startling or original. Maybe Max can get into AIPAC some time with a concealed camera and hear how they plan their lobbying tactics, where the money goes etc. Maybe he can eavesdrop on Alan Dershowitz's team of hotshot researchers as they construct their next hit campaign. Or snoop around the battles of the ego-tripping billionaires in the WJC. Now that would be REALLY eye-opening.
I saw the CUFI video, and I was impressed with the chutzpah that Max showed. From what I see, despite the fact that Max writes for The Nation, it is clear that he cares deeply about Israel and wishes to see her survive in just circumstances. As an ardent Zionist, I look at a group like CUFI with fear and loathing. Motives matter, and their idea of supporting a maximalist Greater Israel so that the Jews may be killed in a bloodbath on Judgment Day is beyond repulsive. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was threats from some members of groups like CUFI to stop supporting Israel if the protests against the openly antisemitic "Passion of the Christ" continued. I find Max's work worth following, even if I am bound to disagree occasionally.
I was really disappointed with Max's simplistic answer to who is a "friend" of Israel. He takes the same tired old line that all the anti-zionist take.Nothing original for someone who I imagine prides himself in being original. No, the majority of us are just like Max and want to simply live in peace with our neighjbors. When there is a peace partner there will be peace. How convenient it is to forget that they were offered peace in 2000 and responded with suicide bombings. See what has happen in Gaza.
A clever guy who just repackages the "it's the Jews fault" leftist rhetoric. While there is much to criticize about the right, it's the left that is giving a pass to the genocidal murders who are our enemy. When will we see this guy interview and ask relevant questions of the large portion of the left, huffington, kos, moveon.org who openly express anti Semitism? Of course like anyone who talks about Israel "taking more land," shows himself to be unaware of the historic facts. If he is so pro Israel, why not interview Hillary and ask her why she kissed and hugged Mrs Arafat after listening to her castigate Israel with obvious lies?
A jerk just like his dad. No story here. Keep moving folks. r/ Bedrock Guy
we did a great interview with max, too, on veracifier dot com, but we talked to him more about politics at home. if you like max, make sure you read it.
Max is brave and amazing man, and I just hope that there will be more like him.
Also, there is some zionist propaganda that should be debunked being made by some commentators.
Myth #1) Hamas charter says kill all the Jews!
False, Hamas changed its charter years ago. Their new charter does not call for the destruction of the Jews nor contain any anti-semetic phrases.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jan/12/israel
Myth #2) The Arabs NEVER want to make peace with Israel.
Completely False. Every Arab nation, I repeat EVERY Arab nation and Iran have offered a full peace to Israel based on the demands of the Quartet and the International community. The Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, repeated again in 2007, and repeated again in 2009, promised Israel full diplomatic and normal relations with all its neighbors if Israel were to allow for the creation of a VIABLE Palestinian state based on the 1967 Borders. Even Hamas agreed to this, while Hezbollah stated that they would accept any agreement with Israel that the Palestinians accept.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1035414.html
Myth #3) Hamas uses suicide bombers they are clearly crazy!
The loss of any life is disgusting and the 300 Israeli victims of Hamas suicide bombers should be mourned. However, the thousands upon thousands of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli tanks, airplanes, bombs, bullets, chemical weapons, bulldozers, and other methods of war must also be condemned. Finally, Hamas called for an end to suicide bombing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/apr/09/israel
Myth #4) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about Palestinian hatred of the Jews!
This is so false its just retarded. This conflict has to do with the simple fact that a bunch of people from Europe showed up, forced the indigenous people of the land into refugee camps, then continued to bomb them in their refugee camps, while continuing to make even more of them refugee's. Palestinians only ask that their human rights be respected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKa1kRWX0AA
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