Scott talks to Grant Smith about his ongoing work on the Israel lobby and its influence in America. Scott likens the story of Israel and Palestine to the history of the U.S. government and the Native Americans—for a long time everyone learned a skewed version that obscured American government crimes, but slowly the revisionist account became the widely accepted one. Scott and Smith hope that a similar transformation is on the horizon when it comes to American perception of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. One area where the extent of Israeli influence is particularly opaque is in state government lobbying. Smith has focused on covering an organization known as the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, which funnels state money into Israeli-owned projects, subsidizing many businesses that would otherwise fail, and which rarely provide the benefit to the Virginia economy that is usually claimed.
Discussed on the show:
IsraelLobbyCon 2021
Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict
How the West was Lost (miniseries)
“New York Times corrects The 1619 Project — but it’s still a giant lie” (New York Post)
“The New York Times and Nikole Hannah-Jones abandon key claims of the 1619 Project” (World Socialist Web Site)
“Zoom, Facebook and YouTube Censor SF State Palestine Class — Palestine Legal” (Palestine Legal)
“Google intensifies censorship of left-wing websites” (World Socialist Web Site)
“Expropriate, Capture & Marginalize: the Energix business model from Palestine to the US” (YouTube)
Grant F. Smith is the author of a number of books including Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, Divert!, and most recently The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org