Photo of Obama in Muslim dress allegedly circulated by the Clinton campaign
According to Muzzlewatch, a subsidiary of Jewish Voice for Peace, and its director, Cecile Sarasky, a 15-50 million dollar anti-Muslim campaign has been initiated by right wing Zionist groups in swing states intended to undermine Obama and the Democratic presidential campaign. Well, who would have thought that the next round of “dirty tricks” to be pulled by the Republicans would be motivated by pro-Israel Likudniks, whose sole purpose is to generate Islamophobia and thus tilt the election toward McCain. In spite of the reality, Barak Obama is still viewed asa Muslim in the eyes of too many clueless American voters.
An example of McCain’s distortion of foreign policy is the intimation that if he were president, in contrast to Bush, he would strike Iran or minimally give Israel the green light for such a strike. An attack on Iran, given its pledge to retaliate, would cause extraordinary economic pain around the world, and not only to Americans. It could initiate a world wide recession. But it would probably cause the death of many innocent Iranians and Israelis alike.
In this Muzzlewatch report, Sarasky says,
Unbelievable.
We told you about the 28 million copies of anti-Muslim propaganda film Obsession being distributed to newspaper subscribers in swing states only. (Several papers said no due to its content, most were happy to take the money and run.)
No one knew much about the Clarion Fund, the mysterious group behind the production except that they coincidentally shared staff and offices with Aish Hatorah, a group that says it is dedicated to the preservation of Jewish identity, but which also runs a number of programs that promote a right-wing Israeli narrative like media watchdog HonestReporting.com, and the controversial Hasbara fellowships program which funds activities on 80 US campuses.
`It seems that the Clarion Fund, from what we can tell, is just a virtual organisation that is a front for Aish Hatorah,’ said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Well IPS (Inter Press Service), which first established the link between the Clarion Fund and Aish Hatorah, just published this explosive investigative piece, Neo-cons, Ex-Israeli Diplomats Push Islamophobic Video, revealing that the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), working with Clarion, organized the distribution, according to EMET spokesman, Ari Morgenstern. EMET is a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank essentially dedicated to educating policymakers about Israel’s and US’s shared war on terror.
Well known anti-Muslim crusader expert Steve Emerson says on their site, “Emet is dedicated to providing the truth about the Arab war against Israel to members of Congress, the media and the general public. There is no more important mission than this.”
Right wing extremists, even by US policy standards, they completely oppose the idea that Israel make any concessions, including withdrawing settlers or returning land, in the search for peace. Advisory board members include Daniel Pipes, James Woolsey, Caroline Glick and 3 Israeli diplomats. They seek a total change of US foreign policy.
Gharib and Clifton of IPS write:
Morgenstern also declined to specify the cost of the DVD distribution, but did say, `it costs a great deal — it’s a multi-million-dollar effort.’ Outside experts have estimated the cost of the operation, including reproduction and distribution, at between 15 million dollars and 50 million dollars.
Read the entire article. It’s really worth it: Neo-cons, Ex-Israeli Diplomats Push Islamophobic Video.
CAIR has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission. Stay tuned.
Earlier (Sep 14, 2008), Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam let the cat out of the bag when he asked, Did Sheldon Adelson Fund Anti-Obama Propaganda DVD?
Raphael Shore: from Aish to anti-Muslim impresario
Here’s an update on last night’s post about the dirty tricks campaign involving the circulation of 28 million DVDs of the anti-Muslim propaganda film, Obsession, in U.S. swing states. In my last post, I noted that Obsession was produced by Raphael Shore with the financial backing on an anonymous backer.
Wikipedia reports that the film’s producer is an Orthodox rabbi.
The press has already reported that Sheldon Adelson personally distributes copies of Obsession to participants in the Taglit-Birthright Israel indoctrination tours he funds. Given this, plus his deep pockets support for neocon groups like Freedom’s Watch, it almost seems a no-brainer to guess that Adelson may be the sugar daddy.
I guess it is politics as usual, in this case, the Republicans getting help from proIsrael right wing Likudniks, their dirty tricks this time being orchestrated by the interests of a foreign country.
