In this same memo to Clinton, Blumenthal told her that U.S. approaches to Hamas “should be more open.” And he makes very clear that the U.S. must distance itself from Israel, stressing that: “The US should not be in the business of reinforcing Israeli propaganda on the incident. No assistance should be provided on its public diplomacy.”
Over the next few days Blumenthal sent Clinton at least a half dozen more emails about the Mavi Marmara incident. Every Blumenthal memo contained either his own thoughts or articles on the incident, each of which placed all of the blame squarely and unequivocally on Israel.
During this same time period Max Blumenthal wrote a hit piece (with several more to come), claiming the violence was planned in advance by the Israelis. He refused to even consider what turned out to be the truth: that the violence was started by the weapons-carrying terrorists and their supporters, all of whom were trying to break a blockade that even the UN has said was legal, and with the Israeli response only escalating in response to the brutal bludgeoning of their troops as they boarded the ship.
Four days after the Mavi Marmara incident, Sid Blumenthal sent Hillary Clinton four articles. One was by his son, another was titled “Israel as a Strategy Liability?” a third from the Washington Post: “The U.S. Needs to Keep Nudging Israel on a Gaza Fix,” another by a Jewish critic of Israel, “Operation Make the World Hate Us,” and the final, a letter to the New York Times from a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, also castigating Israel for the incident.
Did Clinton actually listen to Blumenthal? Although Blumenthal had direct email access to the-then Secretary of State, maybe he was just writing to a blank wall.
We know that isn’t true, because dozens of times Clinton either responded directly to Blumenthal, or forwarded on his emails to others, asking them to “please print” or “fyi” or to “forward without headers.”
Sometimes Clinton initiated the contacts. Occasionally she asked personal questions of Blumenthal or wished him a “mazel tov” – on his mother’s marriage – or told him how “moving” she found Max Blumenthal’s article about a murdered Palestinian Arab (who was, by the way, killed by other Arabs, but you’d never know that from the bulk of the article which went on and on about the horrors of the “occupation”), or discussed plans for dinner in Georgetown, or asked how well Max’s (viciously anti-Israel) book was faring.
Just one more example of the close relationship between Hillary Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal follows.
Just after midnight on May 31, 2010, Blumenthal sent Clinton yet another email, this one with an article from an Israeli newspaper, detailing yet another stage of the Obama-Netanyahu lack-of-love-fest. Clinton wrote back to Blumenthal at 6:58 a.m. the next morning, asking: “Are you up? Can I call?” to which Blumenthal replied an hour later: “Call anytime. Sid.”
Later that same morning, Blumenthal sent another quick email to Clinton, this one entitled, “one more quick thought.” The body of the memo contained just ten words: “Without ‘tough love,’ any support for Israel will lack credibility.”
And it’s true — Sid’s love for Israel comes through loud and clear in all of his emails to the Secretary. And her appetite for the emails, and for Blumenthal’s take on every aspect of Middle East policy, tells American pro-Israel voters everything they need to know about the Israel policy that would be followed by a Hillary Clinton administration. It’s all there in black, white and REDACTED.