Summary
A Jewish American writer whose opposition to US intervention in Syria and exposés of Syrian activist groups placed him at the centre of the 2016 Chicago dispute in Lybarger’s Chapter 3 (Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile, PDF p.113-114).
Details
- Blumenthal was a relentless critic of Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories and of purported Palestinian National Authority corruption, misrule and connivance with the occupation, and embraced a single democratic state position similar to Ali Abunimah’s, earning rebuke from Jewish commentators who saw dangerous Jewish self-loathing abetting anti-Semitism (PDF p.113 / printed p.92).
- He explicitly denounced the Syrian regime but came to oppose US intervention (PDF p.113 / printed p.92).
- His 2016 Alternet exposé linked Zaher Sahloul, SAMS and groups like the White Helmets to US agencies, Turkish and Qatari intelligence, Jewish organizations supporting Israel’s hard line on the Palestinians and Iran, and Syrian Islamist movements, and asserted SAMS was a key participant in pressuring the Obama and Trump administrations into military reprisals against the Syrian regime using sensationalist atrocity and chemical-weapons accounts (PDF p.114 / printed p.93, citing Blumenthal 2012, 2016, 2018).
- Ahmed Rehab of CAIR Chicago described Blumenthal, a friend and collaborator of Abunimah, as a Nazi, which Rehab denied doing (PDF p.114 / printed p.93).
Related pages
Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile · Zaher Sahloul · Ali Abunimah