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Home > Exposed: Pro-Israel Modern Day McCarthyites Going to Extremes to
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________________________________________
Exposed: Pro-Israel Modern Day McCarthyites Going to Extremes to Slime Human
Rights Activists
By Max Blumenthal [1], Julia Carmel [2] / AlterNet [3]
September 30, 2015
This article is part one of a four-part investigation.
The Israel lobby is redirecting resources to a new project after its failure
to stop the Iran nuclear deal despite spending an estimated $30 million to
halt it. Following the defeat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
ordered a campaign against the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)
movement that is spreading on American college campuses. The funding is
flowing from donors closely linked to Netanyahu's government. But the effort
has almost instantly run into trouble. It is inspiring an atmosphere of
incitement and intimidation, and the FBI is now investigating violent
threats made against BDS activists.
The BDS movement has gathered momentum at a staggering pace since it was
devised by Palestinian civil society groups in 2005. With its call for
grassroots level boycotts to pressure Israel into respecting the human
rights of Palestinians, the movement has spread across European capitals and
found fertile soil on American college campuses. Groups like Students for
Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace now boast chapters at
almost every major university, and student governments at most University of
California campuses have passed resolutions to divest from occupation-linked
corporations. The trend is sending shockwaves through pro-Israel circles,
prompting a desperate multi-million dollar campaign to crush it.
The anti-BDS effort is a new wrinkle in the old culture war. It involves old
actors and new activists. The old ones consist of neoconservative operators
who have learned how to create causes to benefit from millions of dollars
given by right-wing donors. Infused with new millions from the likes of
billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Paul Singer, they are recruiting from a new
generation of conservative activists gathered around right-wing
organizations and social networks. The sensibility of these activists is
virulently Islamophobic, anti-Arab and conditioned by the cultural
resentments of the far right. Those attracted to this crusade are typically
Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians enraptured by Israel's settlement
enterprise, the militarized occupation and the Republican Party. They also
feel that they are just as threatened by Black Lives Matter as they are by
the BDS movement. With encouragement from veteran right-wing operatives,
these heavily funded and promoted young zealots have turned to surveillance
of their opponents, engaged in monitoring Palestine solidarity activists on
social media and at public events and are compiling selective dossiers to
smear activists as anti-Semites and even terrorist sympathizers.
The directive for the anti-BDS movement comes from Jerusalem, where the
Israeli government has also provided an example, introducing measures to
defund human rights NGOs and approving sanctions against Israeli citizens
who support BDS. Netanyahu has created a special ministerial post [4] for
countering BDS, and the Israeli army recently announced [5] its intention to
monitor groups involved in boycott campaigns across the globe. Ofir Akunis,
a rising star of the Likud Party and member of Netanyahu's cabinet,
distilled the government's mindset when he insisted [6] that Senator Joseph
McCarthy, the Communist witch-hunter of the early 1950s, "was right in every
word he said."
In the aftermath of Netanyahu's failed campaign against the Iran deal, his
American front groups and funders are still holding the reins of the
pro-Israel lobby and riding it further toward the far fringes of the right
wing. Its new efforts are driving a polarizing atmosphere at every
institution where its presence is felt.
One of its main expressions can be found on the website of a semi-secret
organization, created, as Akunis suggested, in the spirit of Joe McCarthy.
This website attempts to stigmatize college students for their political
views and deprive them of future jobs as punishment.
McCarthyism 2.0
Neoconservative ideologue Daniel Pipes acted as a go-between for Canary
Mission
Canary Mission made its debut in April as a website tarring students with
derogatory labels [7] - "fake Jew" was how the site labeled one leading
Students for Justice in Palestine activist. Even more disturbingly, its
anonymous operators published bits and pieces of information with the stated
aim of denying future employment opportunities to the students they had
targeted.
Claiming to be operated by "students and concerned citizens," who were not
identified, Canary Mission is essentially a blacklist of students, academics
and activists involved with pro-Palestine solidarity activities on campus.
"It is your duty to ensure that today's radicals are not tomorrow's
employees," the anonymous female narrator of a promotional video [8] posted
on Canary Mission's website declared. In their campaign against supporters
of the BDS movement, Canary Mission's masked staffers have vilified more
than 140 activists, many of whom are current or recent students enrolled in
the University of California system.
Canary Mission does not list the names of any of its staff members,
financial backers or affiliated organizations. It is an anonymous venture;
those involved have taken extensive steps to conceal their identities. No
reporter has yet been able to connect Canary Mission to any single funder or
organization, despite the fact that the organization solicits tax-deductible
donations via its website and mailing list. However, according to our review
of IRS 990 tax filings, Canary Mission is not currently registered as a
501(c)(3) nonprofit, suggesting that the group's donations are instead
channeled through an unknown pro-Israel parent organization that is
registered. (Any organization that solicits tax deductible donations without
maintaining valid IRS status is in violation of multiple federal laws).
When we contacted him by email, Middle East Forum founder Daniel Pipes [9]
stepped forward to act as a de facto spokesman for Canary Mission. A
hardline neoconservative ideologue and former George W. Bush administration
appointee to the US Institute for Peace, Pipes has called [10] for razing
entire Palestinian villages and urged the US [11] to "help whichever side is
losing [in Syria] so as to prolong the conflict." While Pipes denied that he
had any involvement in the Canary Mission venture, he admitted to us that he
knew who was behind the site. Claiming to be communicating messages from
Canary Mission's real administrators, Pipes provided us with comments on
their behalf.
When we asked why Canary Mission's creators have insisted on remaining
anonymous, Pipes stated, "I was told they do not want to distract from the
subject at hand."
Pipes later explained to us that "[Canary Mission's goal of] collecting
information on students has particular value because it signals [to] them
that calumnying [sic] Israel is serious business, not some inconsequential
collegiate prank; and that their actions can damage both Israel and their
future careers." He justified the site's tactics by adding that
"anti-Zionist elements frequently engage in exactly this practice of
aggregating information."
Besides Middle East Forum, Pipes is the founder of an online venture called
Campus Watch comprised of dossiers on professors he considered "anti-Israel"
- a blacklist with a strong resemblance to Canary Mission that targeted some
of the very same individuals, and which also encouraged pro-Israel students
to surveil their professors. [12] He has accused Arabs and Muslims [13] in
the US of hatching a secret plot to "make the United States a Muslim
country" and warned that "Middle East Studies has become the preserve of
Middle Eastern Arabs, who bring their views with them." Many of those who
appear on Pipes' Campus Watch blacklist report being bombarded with violent
threats and hostile email campaigns from mostly unnamed sources.
Unlike Campus Watch, which Pipes freely acknowledges as his own, Canary
Mission's administrators have gone to extreme lengths to keep the site's
funders and orchestrators a top secret. And it appears to be with good
reason: Not only does Canary Mission seek to deny future employment
opportunities to students who participate in Palestine solidarity
activities, it also seems intent on cultivating an atmosphere of
intimidation in which activists, academics and journalists are fair game for
threats that include rape and violence and insults that are often racist.
Just a few weeks after the site's launch, threats leveled by anonymous
Twitter accounts, including several linked to Canary Mission, prompted an
active FBI investigation.
FBI investigates hate crimes, domestic terror
As a third-year law student at Boston's Northeastern University who has
actively campaigned with the school's Students for Justice in Palestine
(SJP) chapter, Max Geller is no stranger to character attacks and threats
from pro-Israel activists. When the Boston-based right-wing Zionist donor
Charles Jacobs - a possible orchestrator of Canary Mission - began lobbying
Northeastern U's administration to ban the school's SJP chapter, he set up a
Facebook page called "Exposing Islamic Extremism at Northeastern." Soon, the
violent threats came pouring in [14], with one commenter on the page writing
of Geller, "I would seriously introduce that kid to the inside of an
ambulance." When his parents' home address appeared on the Facebook page,
Geller said he began receiving threats targeting his family.
Geller pointed to the website [15], a defunct anti-Palestinian blacklisting
site operated by the violent extremist Jewish Defense League, as the true
model for Canary Mission. "The dossiers and the website [of Canary Mission]
seem to be primarily concerned with impacting Google search results," Geller
told us. "But the presence of Twitter handles and personal Facebook pages on
the dossiers seem to be devoted to getting activists threatened. Canary
Mission seems to be specifically designed to give individual students a cost
benefit analysis as to whether they work with these activists that appear on
the website."
Noting that he and several other activists who appeared on Canary Mission
had already received a renewed torrent of violent warnings, Geller
reflected, "If joining a divestment campaign on campus translates into
getting rape threats and racial epithets thrown at you, some people might
just second guess whether they want to do that. So this website is not just
about not getting people employed, it's about much more, which is why they
give people ways of getting in touch with the activists who are profiled.
And by getting in touch, I mean bullying and threatening."
Among those who have been bombarded with violent abuse since appearing on
Canary Mission's website is Rebecca Pierce, a Jewish African-American
videographer and recent graduate of University of California-Santa Cruz. On
June 2, less than two weeks after Pierce appeared [16] as Canary Mission's
"Radical of the Day," she began receiving racist attacks [17] and rape
threats [18] from @RememberMasada, an anonymous Twitter user followed by
Canary Mission's Twitter account. (Masada may have been a reference to the
defunct blacklisting site Masada 2000). "I know all you niggers hate Jews
because you're envious of us," wrote @RememberMasada [17]. The account went
on to call Pierce a "kapo," or Jewish concentration camp guard, telling her,
"Only good kapo is a dead kapo."
After @RememberMasada threatened to rape Pierce, another Twitter user named
@HippyKiller12 suddenly materialized. "I found you on Canary, God bless
those people," the user said [19]. "If SJP is allowed on campus, why not
KKK?"
When Pierce protested her inclusion on the Canary Mission blacklist,
complaining of racist abuse and violent threats, Canary Mission's Twitter
account addressed her directly with an ominous reply: "[W]e got your request
to be off the CM list. If you're able to demonstrate good behavior for a few
years it will be considered."
With regard to this response from their own official Twitter account, Canary
Mission's staffers stated through Pipes, "It is not our responsibility to
respond and deal with Twitter trolls who follow either us or Miss Pierce.
"Having said that, we took her complaints seriously and looked into the
offending account and noticed it had already been banned by Twitter. We
ourselves abhor all forms of physical violence and racism - this is why we
started Canary Mission in the first place. Rebecca Pierce allies herself
with racists, radicals and bigots."
Rania Khalek, a journalist and outspoken BDS advocate who has contributed to
AlterNet, was also targeted by @RememberMasada [20]: "@RaniaKhalek is an
evil Arab supremacist whore who should be raped to death." Two days later, a
Twitter user named @RaniaKhalekRaped and featuring a photo of Khalek and two
female relatives as its avatar began bombarding her with death threats [21]:
"I'll tie you up and burn you alive, carve a swastika onto each of your
tits," wrote @RaniaKhalekRaped. "I know you Arabs like swastikas."
The Canary Mission dismissed any responsibility for these threats, telling
us through Pipes, "Rania Khalek is not currently profiled by Canary Mission.
It is a stretch of the imagination to blame us for complaints against her."
Another pro-Israel Twitter user calling themselves @BobbyShaftoe314
fantasized about the Israeli Mossad [22] assassinating one of this article's
authors, Max Blumenthal. The same user has engaged in ongoing friendly
Twitter [23] exchanges with the account [24] anonymously maintained by
Canary Mission.
When Khalek contacted the FBI about the threats, FBI Agent Keith Pali
informed her that his bureau had launched an investigation through its
Counter-Terrorism division. On Aug. 12, Khalek received a letter from FBI
Victim Specialist Greg Lott informing her that "a criminal investigation can
be a lengthy undertaking, and, for several reasons, we cannot tell you about
its progress at this time."
A separate FBI Counter-Terrorism investigation published this May [25] found
that right-wing extremists are "expanding their target sets to include
Muslims and Islamic religious institutions in the United States." The
investigation cited anti-Muslim bloggers like Pamela Geller (no relation to
Max Geller) as inspirations to the militia-oriented radicals seeking to
attack Muslim targets in the US. Though the FBI bulletin did not make
mention of it, pro-Israel organizations within Geller's ideological network
are adopting tactics previously identified with violent extremist outfits
like the Jewish Defense League. Chief among them is the shadowy Canary
Mission.
"Canary Mission is the first organized attempt to get [Palestine solidarity]
activists in this country threatened," Max Geller stated. "No good can come
of this website existing. It can only legitimize volatile people's
narratives and motivate them to do violent things. And I also think the
creators of this project wouldn't feel that bad if some lone wolf was
radicalized by what they read and did something crazy. In fact, it might be
what they're hoping for."
Canary's links to the Israeli government and settlement enterprise
Hasbara Fellows Complete Their First Day of Social Media Training At Aish's
World Center
Overlooking the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem stands a cavernous
complex of offices called the Aish World Center [26]. Operating on prime
occupied land awarded to it by the Israeli government, Aish is a modern
Orthodox, pro-settler organization that exists for the ostensible purpose of
educating unaffiliated Jewish students in religious practice. While the
group invests some of its energy on Jewish education, it also functions as a
nerve center for pro-Israel fundraising and hasbara, or propaganda. Through
Aish, an array of pro-Israel and anti-Muslim propaganda vehicles have been
produced, from the virulently Islamophobic Third Jihad and Obsession [27]
films distributed en masse to American swing state voters on Election Day to
Set The Red Line, [28] an astroturfed film project hyping the threat of
Iran's nuclear program. With help from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Aish
created a so-called Hasbara Fellowships [29] program to train Jewish college
students to propagandize for Israel on campuses in the US.
Our investigation into Canary Mission and its affiliates has identified Aish
as an apparent administrator of the blacklisting website.
In August, Canary Mission shut down its Facebook page after a group of
Internet sleuths obtained the recovery email for the site, which they then
supplied to us. It was a Gmail address belonging to Todd Rosenblatt [30], a
Jewish American photographer and video editor working at Aish's World Center
in Jerusalem. Rosenblatt has promoted and apparently participated in the
Onward Israel Video Activism Summer Fellowship that Aish advertises on its
website. This program is operated by a former Aish staffer named Jonathan
Bash who was recently identified by reporter [31] Joshua Nathan-Kazis as one
of the likely administrators of Canary Mission.
Bash identifies as the director of a little-known hasbara operation called
Video Activism that appears to be one of the many front groups spun out by
Aish. This group coordinates the Video Activism Summer Fellowship through
the Jewish Agency, which is funded largely by Israel's government. Despite
denying any role in Canary Mission, a video posted by Bash's organization
this July "features a voiceover by a narrator who sounds identical to the
narrator who did a voiceover for a video posted by the Canary Mission in
May," according to Nathan-Kazis. Bash has promoted the Canary Mission's
promotional video [32] on his personal YouTube channel.
In another apparent slip-up, Canary Mission directed website visitors not to
its own Twitter profile, but to the Twitter account of a South African
resident of Israel named Warren "Betzalel" Lapidus. Though ostensibly
employed by Video Activism, Lapidus has listed Aish as his employer on his
Facebook page. The mistake prompted Canary Mission to temporarily take down
its website, but the damage to its secrecy had already been done.
So who or what exactly is directing Canary Mission? All clues point to Aish,
but from there, the trail could lead anywhere. Indeed, Aish is a gargantuan
organization that claims to operate [33] "30 branches on six continents."
Canary Mission appears to be a collaborative effort involving a
constellation of right-wing pro-Israel groups, most of which are based in
the United States. A video [34] promoted by Rosenblatt in May [35] and
produced by an obscure Israeli hasbara organization called the Hallelu
Foundation outlines how Aish likely administers Canary Mission's resources.
Declaring that Israel's propaganda "is as important as its borders," the
video's narrator explains that "the Hallelu fund plans to become an umbrella
organization for all Jewish organizations in Israel and abroad that deal
with hasbara. It will support them, coordinate and optimize their abilities,
so that for the first time, forces will be integrated and will have
strategic, coordinated action in this most important arena."
According to the narrator, Hallelu "plans to start a series of unprecedented
attack campaigns, the likes of which we've never seen, both in terms of
content and in range, accompanied by first class professionals."
Whether or not the Canary Mission is one of those campaigns, the Hallelu
video offers a fairly clear picture of how hasbara functions. To the extent
that Aish has a role in Canary Mission, it likely serves as a general
manager while the frontline players do battle on the American field,
conducting surveillance of campus organizers and left-wing academics, and
compiling information in online dossiers. It is a team effort involving an
array of cadres and organizations united by the singular goal of driving
Palestine solidarity activism underground.
On the eve of the anticipated launch of Canary Mission earlier this year,
key members of this network gathered in California to roll out a new
initiative that one of its leaders described as a "guerilla campaign," which
would rely on the McCarthyite tactics that are the hallmark of his career.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for AlterNet, and the award-winning author
of Goliath [36] and Republican Gomorrah [37]. Find him on Twitter at
@MaxBlumenthal [38].
Julia Carmel is a freelance writer. You can find her on Twitter at
@JuliaCarmel_ [39]
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [40]
[41]
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Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/modern-day-mccarthyists-are-goin
g-extremes-slime-activists-fighting-israels
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/max-blumenthal
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/julia-carmel
[3] http://alternet.org
[4] http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.660635
[5] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.671785
[6]
http://www.jta.org/2011/12/05/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/israeli-lawmak
er-says-mccarthy-was-right
[7] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/640914999343509505
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJgXa1Pf8p0
[9] http://www.meforum.org/blog/2015/05/canary-mission
[10]
http://harpers.org/blog/2007/09/giuliani-advisor-raze-palestinian-villages/
[11] http://www.danielpipes.org/12724/support-assad
[12] http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2006/jul/13/campus-watch/
[13]
https://electronicintifada.net/content/campus-watch-middle-east-mccarthyism/
4108
[14]
https://electronicintifada.net/content/jewish-student-receives-death-threats
-over-palestine-solidarity-work/12890
[15]
http://muzzlewatch.com/2007/03/14/notorious-masada2000-site-taken-down-time-
to-call-the-fbi/ Masada2000
[16] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/600688031587139584
[17] https://twitter.com/aptly_engineerd/status/605650854826278912
[18] https://twitter.com/aptly_engineerd/status/605656379592863744
[19] https://twitter.com/aptly_engineerd/status/604759409818877952
[20] https://mobile.twitter.com/raniakhalek/status/605621264242356224
[21] https://twitter.com/RaniaKhalek/status/606157129112817664
[22] https://twitter.com/AbbsWinston/status/620317999170387968
[23] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/600688393853349888
[24] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/600914215595954176
[25]
http://https://publicintelligence.net/fbi-militia-extremists-targeting-musli
ms/
[26] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJdeSWn58CI
[27] http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Clarion_Fund
[28]
http://americanindependent.com/218502/the-viral-campaign-to-set-a-red-line-f
or-iran
[29] http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/activists-propaganda-intimidation
[30]
http://websta.me/n/rosenblattphotography?npk=989987931886886024_309010678
[31]
http://forward.com/news/national/320473/who-is-behind-canary-mission-website
-targeting-bds-activists/#ixzz3lPg5mYiI
[32] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCThpkXYnNuEuaE9dZeafnZA
[33] http://www.aish.com/ai/96244754.html
[34]
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/israel-has-a-huge-problem-and-finally-some
one-is-doing-something-about-it/
[35] https://twitter.com/RosenblattTodd/status/600654433567969282
[36]
http://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Life-Loathing-Greater-Israel/dp/1568586345
[37] http://republicangomorrah.com/
[38] http://twitter.com/maxblumenthal
[39] http://twitter.com/JuliaCarmel_
[40] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Exposed: Pro-Israel
Modern Day McCarthyites Going to Extremes to Slime Human Rights Activists
[41] http://www.alternet.org/
[42] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Exposed: Pro-Israel Modern Day McCarthyites Going to Extremes to
Slime Human Rights Activists
Exposed: Pro-Israel Modern Day McCarthyites Going to Extremes to Slime Human
Rights Activists
By Max Blumenthal [1], Julia Carmel [2] / AlterNet [3]
September 30, 2015
This article is part one of a four-part investigation.
The Israel lobby is redirecting resources to a new project after its failure
to stop the Iran nuclear deal despite spending an estimated $30 million to
halt it. Following the defeat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
ordered a campaign against the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)
movement that is spreading on American college campuses. The funding is
flowing from donors closely linked to Netanyahu's government. But the effort
has almost instantly run into trouble. It is inspiring an atmosphere of
incitement and intimidation, and the FBI is now investigating violent
threats made against BDS activists.
The BDS movement has gathered momentum at a staggering pace since it was
devised by Palestinian civil society groups in 2005. With its call for
grassroots level boycotts to pressure Israel into respecting the human
rights of Palestinians, the movement has spread across European capitals and
found fertile soil on American college campuses. Groups like Students for
Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace now boast chapters at
almost every major university, and student governments at most University of
California campuses have passed resolutions to divest from occupation-linked
corporations. The trend is sending shockwaves through pro-Israel circles,
prompting a desperate multi-million dollar campaign to crush it.
The anti-BDS effort is a new wrinkle in the old culture war. It involves old
actors and new activists. The old ones consist of neoconservative operators
who have learned how to create causes to benefit from millions of dollars
given by right-wing donors. Infused with new millions from the likes of
billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Paul Singer, they are recruiting from a new
generation of conservative activists gathered around right-wing
organizations and social networks. The sensibility of these activists is
virulently Islamophobic, anti-Arab and conditioned by the cultural
resentments of the far right. Those attracted to this crusade are typically
Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians enraptured by Israel's settlement
enterprise, the militarized occupation and the Republican Party. They also
feel that they are just as threatened by Black Lives Matter as they are by
the BDS movement. With encouragement from veteran right-wing operatives,
these heavily funded and promoted young zealots have turned to surveillance
of their opponents, engaged in monitoring Palestine solidarity activists on
social media and at public events and are compiling selective dossiers to
smear activists as anti-Semites and even terrorist sympathizers.
The directive for the anti-BDS movement comes from Jerusalem, where the
Israeli government has also provided an example, introducing measures to
defund human rights NGOs and approving sanctions against Israeli citizens
who support BDS. Netanyahu has created a special ministerial post [4] for
countering BDS, and the Israeli army recently announced [5] its intention to
monitor groups involved in boycott campaigns across the globe. Ofir Akunis,
a rising star of the Likud Party and member of Netanyahu's cabinet,
distilled the government's mindset when he insisted [6] that Senator Joseph
McCarthy, the Communist witch-hunter of the early 1950s, "was right in every
word he said."
In the aftermath of Netanyahu's failed campaign against the Iran deal, his
American front groups and funders are still holding the reins of the
pro-Israel lobby and riding it further toward the far fringes of the right
wing. Its new efforts are driving a polarizing atmosphere at every
institution where its presence is felt.
One of its main expressions can be found on the website of a semi-secret
organization, created, as Akunis suggested, in the spirit of Joe McCarthy.
This website attempts to stigmatize college students for their political
views and deprive them of future jobs as punishment.
McCarthyism 2.0
Neoconservative ideologue Daniel Pipes acted as a go-between for Canary
Mission
Canary Mission made its debut in April as a website tarring students with
derogatory labels [7] - "fake Jew" was how the site labeled one leading
Students for Justice in Palestine activist. Even more disturbingly, its
anonymous operators published bits and pieces of information with the stated
aim of denying future employment opportunities to the students they had
targeted.
Claiming to be operated by "students and concerned citizens," who were not
identified, Canary Mission is essentially a blacklist of students, academics
and activists involved with pro-Palestine solidarity activities on campus.
"It is your duty to ensure that today's radicals are not tomorrow's
employees," the anonymous female narrator of a promotional video [8] posted
on Canary Mission's website declared. In their campaign against supporters
of the BDS movement, Canary Mission's masked staffers have vilified more
than 140 activists, many of whom are current or recent students enrolled in
the University of California system.
Canary Mission does not list the names of any of its staff members,
financial backers or affiliated organizations. It is an anonymous venture;
those involved have taken extensive steps to conceal their identities. No
reporter has yet been able to connect Canary Mission to any single funder or
organization, despite the fact that the organization solicits tax-deductible
donations via its website and mailing list. However, according to our review
of IRS 990 tax filings, Canary Mission is not currently registered as a
501(c)(3) nonprofit, suggesting that the group's donations are instead
channeled through an unknown pro-Israel parent organization that is
registered. (Any organization that solicits tax deductible donations without
maintaining valid IRS status is in violation of multiple federal laws).
When we contacted him by email, Middle East Forum founder Daniel Pipes [9]
stepped forward to act as a de facto spokesman for Canary Mission. A
hardline neoconservative ideologue and former George W. Bush administration
appointee to the US Institute for Peace, Pipes has called [10] for razing
entire Palestinian villages and urged the US [11] to "help whichever side is
losing [in Syria] so as to prolong the conflict." While Pipes denied that he
had any involvement in the Canary Mission venture, he admitted to us that he
knew who was behind the site. Claiming to be communicating messages from
Canary Mission's real administrators, Pipes provided us with comments on
their behalf.
When we asked why Canary Mission's creators have insisted on remaining
anonymous, Pipes stated, "I was told they do not want to distract from the
subject at hand."
Pipes later explained to us that "[Canary Mission's goal of] collecting
information on students has particular value because it signals [to] them
that calumnying [sic] Israel is serious business, not some inconsequential
collegiate prank; and that their actions can damage both Israel and their
future careers." He justified the site's tactics by adding that
"anti-Zionist elements frequently engage in exactly this practice of
aggregating information."
Besides Middle East Forum, Pipes is the founder of an online venture called
Campus Watch comprised of dossiers on professors he considered "anti-Israel"
- a blacklist with a strong resemblance to Canary Mission that targeted some
of the very same individuals, and which also encouraged pro-Israel students
to surveil their professors. [12] He has accused Arabs and Muslims [13] in
the US of hatching a secret plot to "make the United States a Muslim
country" and warned that "Middle East Studies has become the preserve of
Middle Eastern Arabs, who bring their views with them." Many of those who
appear on Pipes' Campus Watch blacklist report being bombarded with violent
threats and hostile email campaigns from mostly unnamed sources.
Unlike Campus Watch, which Pipes freely acknowledges as his own, Canary
Mission's administrators have gone to extreme lengths to keep the site's
funders and orchestrators a top secret. And it appears to be with good
reason: Not only does Canary Mission seek to deny future employment
opportunities to students who participate in Palestine solidarity
activities, it also seems intent on cultivating an atmosphere of
intimidation in which activists, academics and journalists are fair game for
threats that include rape and violence and insults that are often racist.
Just a few weeks after the site's launch, threats leveled by anonymous
Twitter accounts, including several linked to Canary Mission, prompted an
active FBI investigation.
FBI investigates hate crimes, domestic terror
As a third-year law student at Boston's Northeastern University who has
actively campaigned with the school's Students for Justice in Palestine
(SJP) chapter, Max Geller is no stranger to character attacks and threats
from pro-Israel activists. When the Boston-based right-wing Zionist donor
Charles Jacobs - a possible orchestrator of Canary Mission - began lobbying
Northeastern U's administration to ban the school's SJP chapter, he set up a
Facebook page called "Exposing Islamic Extremism at Northeastern." Soon, the
violent threats came pouring in [14], with one commenter on the page writing
of Geller, "I would seriously introduce that kid to the inside of an
ambulance." When his parents' home address appeared on the Facebook page,
Geller said he began receiving threats targeting his family.
Geller pointed to the website [15], a defunct anti-Palestinian blacklisting
site operated by the violent extremist Jewish Defense League, as the true
model for Canary Mission. "The dossiers and the website [of Canary Mission]
seem to be primarily concerned with impacting Google search results," Geller
told us. "But the presence of Twitter handles and personal Facebook pages on
the dossiers seem to be devoted to getting activists threatened. Canary
Mission seems to be specifically designed to give individual students a cost
benefit analysis as to whether they work with these activists that appear on
the website."
Noting that he and several other activists who appeared on Canary Mission
had already received a renewed torrent of violent warnings, Geller
reflected, "If joining a divestment campaign on campus translates into
getting rape threats and racial epithets thrown at you, some people might
just second guess whether they want to do that. So this website is not just
about not getting people employed, it's about much more, which is why they
give people ways of getting in touch with the activists who are profiled.
And by getting in touch, I mean bullying and threatening."
Among those who have been bombarded with violent abuse since appearing on
Canary Mission's website is Rebecca Pierce, a Jewish African-American
videographer and recent graduate of University of California-Santa Cruz. On
June 2, less than two weeks after Pierce appeared [16] as Canary Mission's
"Radical of the Day," she began receiving racist attacks [17] and rape
threats [18] from @RememberMasada, an anonymous Twitter user followed by
Canary Mission's Twitter account. (Masada may have been a reference to the
defunct blacklisting site Masada 2000). "I know all you niggers hate Jews
because you're envious of us," wrote @RememberMasada [17]. The account went
on to call Pierce a "kapo," or Jewish concentration camp guard, telling her,
"Only good kapo is a dead kapo."
After @RememberMasada threatened to rape Pierce, another Twitter user named
@HippyKiller12 suddenly materialized. "I found you on Canary, God bless
those people," the user said [19]. "If SJP is allowed on campus, why not
KKK?"
When Pierce protested her inclusion on the Canary Mission blacklist,
complaining of racist abuse and violent threats, Canary Mission's Twitter
account addressed her directly with an ominous reply: "[W]e got your request
to be off the CM list. If you're able to demonstrate good behavior for a few
years it will be considered."
With regard to this response from their own official Twitter account, Canary
Mission's staffers stated through Pipes, "It is not our responsibility to
respond and deal with Twitter trolls who follow either us or Miss Pierce.
"Having said that, we took her complaints seriously and looked into the
offending account and noticed it had already been banned by Twitter. We
ourselves abhor all forms of physical violence and racism - this is why we
started Canary Mission in the first place. Rebecca Pierce allies herself
with racists, radicals and bigots."
Rania Khalek, a journalist and outspoken BDS advocate who has contributed to
AlterNet, was also targeted by @RememberMasada [20]: "@RaniaKhalek is an
evil Arab supremacist whore who should be raped to death." Two days later, a
Twitter user named @RaniaKhalekRaped and featuring a photo of Khalek and two
female relatives as its avatar began bombarding her with death threats [21]:
"I'll tie you up and burn you alive, carve a swastika onto each of your
tits," wrote @RaniaKhalekRaped. "I know you Arabs like swastikas."
The Canary Mission dismissed any responsibility for these threats, telling
us through Pipes, "Rania Khalek is not currently profiled by Canary Mission.
It is a stretch of the imagination to blame us for complaints against her."
Another pro-Israel Twitter user calling themselves @BobbyShaftoe314
fantasized about the Israeli Mossad [22] assassinating one of this article's
authors, Max Blumenthal. The same user has engaged in ongoing friendly
Twitter [23] exchanges with the account [24] anonymously maintained by
Canary Mission.
When Khalek contacted the FBI about the threats, FBI Agent Keith Pali
informed her that his bureau had launched an investigation through its
Counter-Terrorism division. On Aug. 12, Khalek received a letter from FBI
Victim Specialist Greg Lott informing her that "a criminal investigation can
be a lengthy undertaking, and, for several reasons, we cannot tell you about
its progress at this time."
A separate FBI Counter-Terrorism investigation published this May [25] found
that right-wing extremists are "expanding their target sets to include
Muslims and Islamic religious institutions in the United States." The
investigation cited anti-Muslim bloggers like Pamela Geller (no relation to
Max Geller) as inspirations to the militia-oriented radicals seeking to
attack Muslim targets in the US. Though the FBI bulletin did not make
mention of it, pro-Israel organizations within Geller's ideological network
are adopting tactics previously identified with violent extremist outfits
like the Jewish Defense League. Chief among them is the shadowy Canary
Mission.
"Canary Mission is the first organized attempt to get [Palestine solidarity]
activists in this country threatened," Max Geller stated. "No good can come
of this website existing. It can only legitimize volatile people's
narratives and motivate them to do violent things. And I also think the
creators of this project wouldn't feel that bad if some lone wolf was
radicalized by what they read and did something crazy. In fact, it might be
what they're hoping for."
Canary's links to the Israeli government and settlement enterprise
Hasbara Fellows Complete Their First Day of Social Media Training At Aish's
World Center
Overlooking the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem stands a cavernous
complex of offices called the Aish World Center [26]. Operating on prime
occupied land awarded to it by the Israeli government, Aish is a modern
Orthodox, pro-settler organization that exists for the ostensible purpose of
educating unaffiliated Jewish students in religious practice. While the
group invests some of its energy on Jewish education, it also functions as a
nerve center for pro-Israel fundraising and hasbara, or propaganda. Through
Aish, an array of pro-Israel and anti-Muslim propaganda vehicles have been
produced, from the virulently Islamophobic Third Jihad and Obsession [27]
films distributed en masse to American swing state voters on Election Day to
Set The Red Line, [28] an astroturfed film project hyping the threat of
Iran's nuclear program. With help from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Aish
created a so-called Hasbara Fellowships [29] program to train Jewish college
students to propagandize for Israel on campuses in the US.
Our investigation into Canary Mission and its affiliates has identified Aish
as an apparent administrator of the blacklisting website.
In August, Canary Mission shut down its Facebook page after a group of
Internet sleuths obtained the recovery email for the site, which they then
supplied to us. It was a Gmail address belonging to Todd Rosenblatt [30], a
Jewish American photographer and video editor working at Aish's World Center
in Jerusalem. Rosenblatt has promoted and apparently participated in the
Onward Israel Video Activism Summer Fellowship that Aish advertises on its
website. This program is operated by a former Aish staffer named Jonathan
Bash who was recently identified by reporter [31] Joshua Nathan-Kazis as one
of the likely administrators of Canary Mission.
Bash identifies as the director of a little-known hasbara operation called
Video Activism that appears to be one of the many front groups spun out by
Aish. This group coordinates the Video Activism Summer Fellowship through
the Jewish Agency, which is funded largely by Israel's government. Despite
denying any role in Canary Mission, a video posted by Bash's organization
this July "features a voiceover by a narrator who sounds identical to the
narrator who did a voiceover for a video posted by the Canary Mission in
May," according to Nathan-Kazis. Bash has promoted the Canary Mission's
promotional video [32] on his personal YouTube channel.
In another apparent slip-up, Canary Mission directed website visitors not to
its own Twitter profile, but to the Twitter account of a South African
resident of Israel named Warren "Betzalel" Lapidus. Though ostensibly
employed by Video Activism, Lapidus has listed Aish as his employer on his
Facebook page. The mistake prompted Canary Mission to temporarily take down
its website, but the damage to its secrecy had already been done.
So who or what exactly is directing Canary Mission? All clues point to Aish,
but from there, the trail could lead anywhere. Indeed, Aish is a gargantuan
organization that claims to operate [33] "30 branches on six continents."
Canary Mission appears to be a collaborative effort involving a
constellation of right-wing pro-Israel groups, most of which are based in
the United States. A video [34] promoted by Rosenblatt in May [35] and
produced by an obscure Israeli hasbara organization called the Hallelu
Foundation outlines how Aish likely administers Canary Mission's resources.
Declaring that Israel's propaganda "is as important as its borders," the
video's narrator explains that "the Hallelu fund plans to become an umbrella
organization for all Jewish organizations in Israel and abroad that deal
with hasbara. It will support them, coordinate and optimize their abilities,
so that for the first time, forces will be integrated and will have
strategic, coordinated action in this most important arena."
According to the narrator, Hallelu "plans to start a series of unprecedented
attack campaigns, the likes of which we've never seen, both in terms of
content and in range, accompanied by first class professionals."
Whether or not the Canary Mission is one of those campaigns, the Hallelu
video offers a fairly clear picture of how hasbara functions. To the extent
that Aish has a role in Canary Mission, it likely serves as a general
manager while the frontline players do battle on the American field,
conducting surveillance of campus organizers and left-wing academics, and
compiling information in online dossiers. It is a team effort involving an
array of cadres and organizations united by the singular goal of driving
Palestine solidarity activism underground.
On the eve of the anticipated launch of Canary Mission earlier this year,
key members of this network gathered in California to roll out a new
initiative that one of its leaders described as a "guerilla campaign," which
would rely on the McCarthyite tactics that are the hallmark of his career.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for AlterNet, and the award-winning author
of Goliath [36] and Republican Gomorrah [37]. Find him on Twitter at
@MaxBlumenthal [38].
Julia Carmel is a freelance writer. You can find her on Twitter at
@JuliaCarmel_ [39]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [40]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[41]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/modern-day-mccarthyists-are-goin
g-extremes-slime-activists-fighting-israels
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/max-blumenthal
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/julia-carmel
[3] http://alternet.org
[4] http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.660635
[5] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.671785
[6]
http://www.jta.org/2011/12/05/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/israeli-lawmak
er-says-mccarthy-was-right
[7] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/640914999343509505
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJgXa1Pf8p0
[9] http://www.meforum.org/blog/2015/05/canary-mission
[10]
http://harpers.org/blog/2007/09/giuliani-advisor-raze-palestinian-villages/
[11] http://www.danielpipes.org/12724/support-assad
[12] http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2006/jul/13/campus-watch/
[13]
https://electronicintifada.net/content/campus-watch-middle-east-mccarthyism/
4108
[14]
https://electronicintifada.net/content/jewish-student-receives-death-threats
-over-palestine-solidarity-work/12890
[15]
http://muzzlewatch.com/2007/03/14/notorious-masada2000-site-taken-down-time-
to-call-the-fbi/ Masada2000
[16] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/600688031587139584
[17] https://twitter.com/aptly_engineerd/status/605650854826278912
[18] https://twitter.com/aptly_engineerd/status/605656379592863744
[19] https://twitter.com/aptly_engineerd/status/604759409818877952
[20] https://mobile.twitter.com/raniakhalek/status/605621264242356224
[21] https://twitter.com/RaniaKhalek/status/606157129112817664
[22] https://twitter.com/AbbsWinston/status/620317999170387968
[23] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/600688393853349888
[24] https://twitter.com/canarymission/status/600914215595954176
[25]
http://https://publicintelligence.net/fbi-militia-extremists-targeting-musli
ms/
[26] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJdeSWn58CI
[27] http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Clarion_Fund
[28]
http://americanindependent.com/218502/the-viral-campaign-to-set-a-red-line-f
or-iran
[29] http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/activists-propaganda-intimidation
[30]
http://websta.me/n/rosenblattphotography?npk=989987931886886024_309010678
[31]
http://forward.com/news/national/320473/who-is-behind-canary-mission-website
-targeting-bds-activists/#ixzz3lPg5mYiI
[32] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCThpkXYnNuEuaE9dZeafnZA
[33] http://www.aish.com/ai/96244754.html
[34]
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/israel-has-a-huge-problem-and-finally-some
one-is-doing-something-about-it/
[35] https://twitter.com/RosenblattTodd/status/600654433567969282
[36]
http://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Life-Loathing-Greater-Israel/dp/1568586345
[37] http://republicangomorrah.com/
[38] http://twitter.com/maxblumenthal
[39] http://twitter.com/JuliaCarmel_
[40] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Exposed: Pro-Israel
Modern Day McCarthyites Going to Extremes to Slime Human Rights Activists
[41] http://www.alternet.org/
[42] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
