03/14/16 – Grant F. Smith – The Scott Horton Show

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All right, you guys, welcome back to the show.
I'm Scott Horton.
It's my show, the Scott Horton Show.
First up on the show today, it's our friend Grant Smith from the Institute for Research Middle Eastern Policy.
That's IRMEP, I-R-M-E-P, irmep.org, and he's written a ton of books, I don't know, a dozen or something, about the criminal activities of the Israeli government and the Israeli lobby in the United States, including the theft of weapons-grade uranium and all kinds of stuff.
Divert is the latest book.
And he has helped to put on two of these conferences, and this will be the third conference along these lines, anyway, at the National Press Club.
It's Israel's Influence, Good or Bad for America.
The first one was in 2014, and this one is taking place this Friday, if I counted on my fingers correctly, March the 18th, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Welcome back to the show.
How are you doing, Grant?
I'm doing well.
Thank you so much.
And you did count your hands and fingers, right?
It's Friday, and people need to get there early, 8 o'clock preferably, not 9 a.m., so it's going to be big.
It's probably, I think we've had double the people sign up that we have in previous years, so I know.
Oh, really?
Oh, yeah.
Great.
This is taking off.
It's been building steadily.
Well, now, wait a minute.
That one in 2014, was that not the biggest room at the National Press Club?
It's the biggest room, but they had a balcony, though, right?
They have balconies, exactly.
You're going to need that balcony, buddy, I'm here to tell you, because that place was packed.
Yeah, well, it's going to be packed again.
We're not probably going to be able to keep one section walled off for lunch.
They'll have to serve those outside, but this is going to be the most amazing event on this subject that's ever been held, and I just, I'm so excited about it, because the number of students, journalists, concerned citizens, people who don't know anything about these topics, the number of people coming, and the diversity that we see in that ticket registration is just amazing, and unlike other events where some of the speakers had to go early, but we have asked every single one of them to hang around and be part of the conference and talk to people, and some of them are even running little tables and exhibitions in the adjacent room, which is the second biggest room they have at the National Press Club, so if you really want to meet these people, these amazing speakers we have, you need to go and stream this event from your eyes, ears, and hands into your brain and be a part of this historic event.
Awesome.
All right, so, well, go on.
You've got until 42, so just keep telling them about it.
Yeah, okay, so we're opening up the exhibition hall and registration at 8 a.m. in the National Press Club, and there'll be some welcoming remarks and housekeeping, but then we launch right into panel one at 9 a.m., which is Israel's influence on Congress and government agencies.
I'll be kicking off with a historical review and review of some really interesting polling data.
Well, let's talk all about that in the second segment about, give us a little preview of your talk.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
But go ahead with the rest for now.
Okay, so then we've got Dr. Roger Mattson, former executive at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and an ongoing industry consultant who is presenting his findings from his new book about the diversion of weapons-grade uranium from the United States.
This is something he has been studying for decades and was involved in aspects of the investigation when it first started in the mid-'70s.
So he will be also available later signing his new book, as will Professor Kirk Beatty, who has written an extensive study on Congress and how it shapes Middle East policy, and particularly the role of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.
His analysis is unique because he has interviewed more than 150 staffers on the Hill who have said some incredible things about which bodies are present and not in the war of ideas on Capitol Hill and just how influential AIPAC is in the minds of the members of Congress.
And so we then go on to an important keynote presentation by columnist at Haaretz, Gideon Levy, who has come in to talk about what politicians, members of Congress and media elites who are constantly visiting Israel on the dime of an AIPAC cutout organization, junkets that continue to go on, more than 1,000 so far, what they're being told as opposed to what's really happening on the ground and what harm that overall special relationship may be doing to the United States.
This is an extremely important journalist who's coming from Israel to give this presentation.
And again, like all other speakers, he's going to be available for media interviews, interacting with people, book signings, et cetera, et cetera.
So then we go into morning break, exhibition hall.
Our second major panel is Israel's influence on U.S. foreign policy.
It's being moderated by Dales Persansky, who's an editor at Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, which is also the co-sponsor, along with the American Educational Trust.
So Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson is kicking off that panel.
This is Secretary of State Colin Powell's former chief of staff.
And he's not going to be talking about, you know, I don't know, minor things.
He's diving deeply into how Israel's influence over the U.S. has affected America's strategic approach to the Middle East.
And I can't think of a more timely topic than that.
Jim Loeb is coming on to give us a history and overview of American neoconservatives.
Yeah, Jim.
Yeah.
Their role in promoting the 2003 invasion of Iraq and how Israel affects their thinking.
And then there'll be a drum roll and fireworks to go off as Justin Raimondo.
Wait, wait, wait.
Let me say about Jim real quick.
Yeah.
For people who don't know, Jim Loeb has been writing about the neoconservatives since the 1970s.
He knows everything about every single one of them.
He's the world's greatest expert on their movement.
And I mean, not the, oh, people who agree with them are all neocons.
But I mean, you know, the actual 75 actual neocons in the world.
He has got their ass.
Sorry.
And, you know, who doesn't know anything about them?
Current college students and people who are maybe just coming into foreign policy and international relations right now.
They don't know who the neoconservatives are.
And other than Jim Loeb and certain other parts of the media, you hardly hear anything about them anymore, although they're still very active.
Oh, the Scott Horton Show also does some reporting on them.
But there's certainly another luminary at Antiwar.com, Justin Raimondo.
He'll be the anchor of that panel.
And he'll be talking all about Israel and foreign policy issues in the presidential campaign, whether unconditional support for Israel has finally become a political issue and whether Americans will ever have, or at least in this election cycle, any sort of choice at the voting booth between these two big schools of thought, neoconservatism and pro-Israel Middle East doctrine.
So this will be, of course, right before lunch.
And then we'll be talking about responding to Israel's influence on campus and in court.
There are a number of extremely interesting legal actions that have been filed in DC District Federal Court.
Janet McMahon, an editor at The Washington Report, will be moderating that panel.
The first up is Tariq Rady, who will discuss his activism at George Mason University and kind of give an overview of the often misreported key aims of Palestinian solidarity movements on campuses and the attempts to thwart them on campus.
Maria LaHood, who's a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, will be there talking about concerted attempts to silence criticism of Israel in the U.S., in particular, looking at a plaintiff she defended, Steven Salita.
In the case of Olympia Co-op and other attacks on speech that are occurring right now, including some legislative attempts to ban various parts of this movement.
This is a huge issue right now, the free speech rights of Palestinians in America and BDS and all this stuff.
I'm sorry to stop you, but we got to take this break.
We'll be right back.
Everybody with Grant Smith.
He's told us all about his awesome conference this Friday in D.C.
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All right, you guys, welcome back.
I'm Scott Horton.
It's my show, Scott Horton Show, et cetera, et cetera.
I'm talking with Grant Smith because the Institute for Research Middle Eastern Policy is putting on a thing this Friday with the Washington, I always say it wrong, Wormia, the Middle East report thingamajig.
They're putting on this deal, Israel's influence, good or bad for America.
It's at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
It costs 80 bucks and you get lunch and many speeches and panel discussions with the very best that Grant could have possibly picked to come and present their case here.
Israel's influence, good or bad for America.
It's this Friday in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club.
Get there early, 8 o'clock in the morning, or come later if you like sleeping in.
But anyway, show up.
It's going to be great.
Grant was there two years ago and it was awesome and this one promises to be even better.
He hadn't even finished telling you about all the great people that are going to be here.
Make sure and save yourself some time to tell us a little bit about the talk that you're going to give too.
Please continue, Grant, if you would.
Yeah, great.
If people want to get that $80 price, and that includes a delicious boxed lunch plus a reception that follows with some nice beverages, you need to enter the discount code PARTNER2016 or INFLUENCE, all caps, and you'll get that $20 off.
So I think it's important that people capture that value.
And if you're a member of the press or a student currently enrolled in college, you can just go to israelsinfluence.org and request a free ticket and you will get a free ticket.
So I might have to be up in the balcony though at this point.
So anyway, we were on Susan Abulhawa and her presentation is all about why a group of Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans are suing the U.S. Department of Treasury in order to hold this key part of U.S. government accountable for all of the tax-deductible charitable funding that they watch flowing between the U.S. and Israel into Israeli settlements and other activities that are displacing indigenous peoples in that region.
Her entire legal team, Martin McMahon in particular, who's leading up her lawsuit, will be available and present to talk about these types of initiatives.
So that's another added benefit of actually being there is to be able to talk to such people who will be circulating around in the audience and helping out with questions if necessary.
David Araf is going to be talking about another lawsuit, another legal team about the flotillas that were intercepted in international waters and how they're responding to that with a legal challenge as well.
It'll be an afternoon break at 3 o'clock.
At 325, Rula Jibril comes on and talks a little bit about voices that are censored-slash-prohibited on mainstream media and how it's helping spread Islamophobia.
If anyone wants anything recent on Rula Jibril, all they should do is go to a recent article about her on The Intercept about how a former AIPAC PR guy tried to get her knocked out of a Voice of America appearance and swap in a Washington Institute for Near East policy analyst in her stead.
This is the level of fear that AIPAC and other parts of the lobby have of this woman for her very frank and professional analysis that's been given all over the world.
She's a journalist who started out in the region and being a broadcaster on Italian television as an anchor.
Fascinating person.
You interviewed her, you know, but she'll be there as well.
And then our final panel is going to pick up on Israel's influence on mainstream media.
Philip Weiss will be there from Mondo Weiss.
I know you've had him on your show many times.
He's going to be giving an analysis of whether mainstream media of Israel-Palestine is getting better, getting worse, some of both.
From his unique perch, he probably writes four or five articles about that topic, analyzing mainstream coverage every single month.
So that's going to be fascinating.
And then finally, the producer of Valentino's Ghost, Why We Hate Arabs, which is a documentary that answers questions about why both media and government perpetuate storylines that create loathing among many Americans of Arabs, Muslims, and Islam.
There will be a special screening of that starting at eight o'clock and running up until we begin this program.
But she will be kicking off a discussion at the end as well with 14 minutes of clips carefully selected from that that should create a very interesting and dynamic final question and answer period.
So last year, it wasn't her, it was somebody else on somewhat the same subject.
It was right when I tuned in on the live stream was right when they were wrapping up.
I think I saw about five minutes of it, but the point being all the spin, all the anti-Muslim and anti-Arab spin in Hollywood movies going back for decades.
Yeah, it's that would have been Jack Shaheen, perhaps.
He also showed clips from his documentary, which was kind of a similar topic.
It was cultural stereotypes.
And he also showed clips from his his documentary.
So, yeah, it's I think it's I think it never stops being timely.
Definitely powerful stuff, very educational stuff.
I mean, I think any of any of us could have guessed about that.
But it's something else when you actually see a real presentation from somebody who did the work, you know.
Right.
It's the homework that counts.
Yeah.
These people have all they're all experts in their own right on one or other aspects that can be put together into a conference about Israel's influence.
Of course, a lot of the influences from lobbying organizations here acting on Israel's behalf.
But the overall theme, I think, organizes and summarizes quite well the expertise of every single one of these panelists.
Right.
All right.
Now, and did you say something about live streaming earlier?
Because I live in Texas and I'm not going to be able to skate all the way there.
Yeah.
For those of you who can't come and stream it again from your eyes and ears to your brain, you could you can what you need to watch out for are at the conference red website announcements.
Israel's influence, excuse me, Israel's influence.
Dot org, air map, dot org, W.R.M.E.A. Dot org.
The Washington Report, the co-sponsor.
Watch out for upcoming announcements of video streams so that if you can't make it, if you can't come in and be part of this, that you can at least capture that from your desktop.
And people can follow your map on Twitter as well.
Correct.
Right.
You can follow our MEP on Twitter.
We'll certainly put out any announcements.
Israel's Israel influence with no ass on Twitter.
It'll also be tweeted from there.
And again, the main website is Israel's influence.
Dot org.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So.
All right now.
And tell us a little bit about your topic, too.
Again, we're talking everybody about for for people tuning in like this Friday, the 18th National Press Club, Washington, D.C. all day.
Awesome conference on the Israel lobby in the U.S. et cetera, et cetera.
I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
Yeah, sure.
Well, my topic is really about, you know, this this whole concept that Benjamin Netanyahu has when he was talking to West Bank settlers in 2001.
What is it?
Why does Benjamin Netanyahu think that America is something you can easily move, which is his view of America and really going through 10 different ways that Israel moves America by using its influence in the United States, mainly as a as a product of three hundred and thirty six lobbying parts of the lobby, not all of them lobby Israel affinity organizations that take various actions, sometimes in concert, sometimes just regionally, sometimes very locally to promote agendas and to promote the latest program, whether it was the big drive for a confrontation with Iran and then later against the Iranian nuclear program agreement that came out last year, whether it's constant pressure on media organizations, whether it is local actions which are not reported as lobbying activities and the aid gotten out of state organizations, whether it's economic development or trade missions or out out building buildings for Israel affinity organizations with U.S. taxpayer funding from the state coffers or buying Israel bonds.
So really drilling down on how Israel affinity organizations move America and also some of the, of course, bad outcomes of that.
And you and I were joking around a little bit and you gave me a great idea.
And I've got to credit you for this about what is the end results of the constant disinformation that comes out of this lobby, which terrify wait, wait, wait, the drums playing.
I want to make sure the live audience can hear the information one more time.
And then I'm sorry, you can finish up the anecdote over time in the break here.
But everybody go to Israel's influence.
Org.
It's the the Washington report on Middle East affairs and earmet.org and Grant Smith's group.
Great conference this Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Israel's influence.
Dot org.
All right.
Now, go ahead.
OK, so, you know, we are somewhat of an island of misperception right before in 2014, before they came to a head.
Wait, you and me or the USA?
No, no, no.
Us in the United States, Americans, people who hold US citizenship and simply live here.
So, OK, well, I mean, you asked me, you say, Grant, do you think do you think Americans even know who occupies who?
And that I thought was a very poignant question.
And so I did four different polls using Google Consumer Research.
And I found out if you ask a Canadian whether Israelis occupy Palestinian land or Palestinians occupy Israeli land, the majority, some 51 percent, think that the Israelis occupy Palestinian territory.
If you take that question across the pond to the UK and ask the Brits.
Fifty seven point seven percent think that Israelis occupy Palestinian territory.
If you go down south to Mexico and say, well, they let's see in this case, it's here and ask them the same question.
You find out that fifty five percent of Mexicans, the majority in all of these countries, think Israelis occupy Palestinian territory.
Only in the United States, an island of misperception in the northern hemisphere.
Do you find forty eight point two percent think that the Palestinians occupy Israeli land and that is the majority or rather the majority of Americans when you ask them the most fundamental question driving conflict right now, they think the situation is opposite of what it actually is.
And this is, I think, a statistically significant red warning flag.
How can you possibly conduct policy when every single American has this conception that not only is the United States in grave danger, but we have this ally on the other side of the Atlantic that is similarly valued, looking out for us, a victim of these issues and not not the aggressor?
You know, how can we possibly have good policies when so many Americans believe things that are fundamentally flawed and missing misinformation, basically?
It's really amazing.
Forty nine point two to thirty nine point eight, it says here.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, I mean, I think it's I think it's illuminating.
This is obviously not the kind of poll that Gallup is going to take.
This is not the kind of thing that is going to be reported by establishment media.
But I mean, it's embarrassing, frankly, and it's it's the kind of information people can use to begin to say, look, you know, if we can't even have a serious fact based discussion because so many people are misinformed, where is this misinformation coming from and why am I in the form of tax deductible contributions given by any other people subsidizing the gap and subsidizing this information indirectly by our very pliable federal agencies, which rarely do anything and reason why they're subject to so many lawsuits, rarely do anything to enforce laws and to really confront some of these major problems, whether it's illegal settlement funding or just the propaganda that's that's driving bad policy.
So a very in-depth look, fact based, looked polling based looks and happy that Kirk Beatty will be really looking at Congress.
I'm not going to be talking so much about that, but rather just what's going on across America.
Yeah, well, you know, I got to say, too, here that I'm so disappointed in the Canadians.
I mean, fifty one to thirty four, I guess is pretty good.
But fifty one and then the Brits, too, with all their history in Palestine and in the world wars and everything else.
And they're at least, you know, on that side of the Atlantic Ocean from here.
And yet they don't seem to be doing that much better than, well, the Canadians.
Anyway, the Americans are just shameful here.
But the Brits to be where they are on this, I think is still, you know, they're pretty out of bounds here.
Fifty seven percent when that ought to be 90.
Come on.
Right.
But still, you know, still the highest score.
Yeah, well, that's true.
So and for the reasons I just cited, probably just the just the fact the geography.
But well, comments in that survey are fascinating, too.
One, the first person compared it to two fleas arguing over which owns the dog they live on.
So there are a lot of very dry Brit comments on that as well.
But he's it's a fascinating survey, and it's one that we'll be talking about at some length during this conference.
So the other one, of course, is we also surveyed again what Americans think of foreign aid to Israel.
The same survey that we did in 2014 will be looking at changes in public opinion on that as well.
So very important to do these types of surveys.
And it's good to have a forum, whether it's your show or this conference, to be able to tell people about these results and what they imply.
Yeah.
Well, thanks for breaking the story here.
It's bad news, but I'm happy to hear it.
All right.
Again, everybody.
Huh?
Don't forget that it was a very good idea you gave me on the last show.
Oh, well, there you go.
You're welcome.
All right.
So Rula Jebriel, Gideon Levy.
Wow.
That's going to be great, man.
I'm a big fan of his.
Susan Albuhalla.
You'll have to say Huwaita Araf, Kirk James Beattie, Katherine Jordan, Maria LaHood, Jim Loeb.
Yay.
Roger J.
Mattson, Tarek Rady and Justin Raimondo, along with Grant Smith, the great Philip Weiss, our hero, and then Lawrence Wilkerson making up, doing penance for his role in lining us into the war in Iraq.
Good for him.
Janet McMahon, who is great.
And Delinda Haney, Dale Spruzanski.
Yep.
All right.
So everybody go to Israel's influence dot org.
That's Israel's influence dot org.
And get your tickets.
It's this Friday, the 18th of March at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
You can get there.
It will be awesome.
Thank you so much, Grant.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for spreading the word.
Oh, yeah.
All right.
We'll be right back here with Gareth.
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