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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/whats-al-jazeeras-undercover-film-us-israel-lobby/23496">https://electronicintifada.net/content/whats-al-jazeeras-undercover-film-us-israel-lobby/23496</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">What's in Al Jazeera's undercover film on
the US Israel lobby?</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/asa-winstanley">Asa
Winstanley</a></span> <span class="field
field-publisher">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-03-05T17:29:00+00:00">5 March 2018</span></span>
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<article class="node-23496 node node-story view-mode-full
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<p>The leading neoconservative think tank <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/foundation-defense-democracies">Foundation
for Defense of Democracies</a> is functioning as an
agent of the Israeli government, Al Jazeera’s
forthcoming investigation on the US Israel lobby will
reveal.</p>
<p>According to a source who has seen the undercover
documentary, it contains footage of a powerful Israeli
official claiming that “We have FDD. We have others
working on this.”</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/sima-vaknin-gil">Sima
Vaknin-Gil</a>, a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/meet-spies-injecting-israeli-propaganda-your-news-feed">former
Israeli military intelligence officer</a>, is said
to state that the foundation is “working on” projects
for Israel including “data gathering, information
analysis, working on activist organizations, money
trail. This is something that only a country, with its
resources, can do the best.”</p>
<p>Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, commonly
known as FARA, US organizations and individuals who
work on behalf of foreign governments are required to
register with the counterintelligence section of the
Department of Justice.</p>
<p>A search on the <a href="https://www.fara.gov/">FARA
website</a> shows that the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies is not registered.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera’s film reportedly identifies a number of
lobby groups as working with Israel to spy on American
citizens using sophisticated data gathering
techniques. The documentary is also said to cast light
on covert efforts to smear and intimidate Americans
seen as too critical of Israel.</p>
<p>Israel lobby groups have placed intense pressure on
Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera, to shelve the film,
fueling speculation it may never be aired.</p>
<h2>Covert agent of Israel</h2>
<p>Sima Vaknin-Gil, who holds the <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Fighting-BDS-469521">rank
of brigadier-general</a> in Israel’s military, is
now the top civil servant at Israel’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ministry-strategic-affairs">Ministry
of Strategic Affairs</a>.</p>
<p>The ministry is in charge of running a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/meet-spies-injecting-israeli-propaganda-your-news-feed">covert
campaign</a> of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/bds-winning-admits-top-israeli-sabotage-strategist">sabotage</a>
against BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions
movement in support of Palestinian human rights.</p>
<p>Vaknin-Gil’s ministerial boss is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gilad-erdan">Gilad
Erdan</a>, a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.</p>
<p>Soon after she was appointed to lead the ministry at
the start of 2016, Vaknin-Gil <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/meet-spies-injecting-israeli-propaganda-your-news-feed">promised
to</a> “create a community of fighters” who would
“flood the internet” with Israeli propaganda that
would be publicly distanced from the government.</p>
<p>As well as getting <a
href="https://www.salon.com/2013/08/05/home_depot_founder%E2%80%99s_quiet_10_million_right_wing_investment/">funding</a>
from <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/sheldon-adelson">Sheldon
Adelson</a>, the anti-Palestinian billionaire and <a
href="https://lobelog.com/trumps-biggest-donor-pushed-for-jerusalem-embassy-move/">number
one donor</a> to Donald Trump’s presidential
campaign, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
has close ties to the United Arab Emirates.</p>
<p>In <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2017/06/03/hacked-emails-show-top-uae-diplomat-coordinating-with-pro-israel-neocon-think-tank-against-iran/">hacked
emails last year</a> the Emirati ambassador in
Washington encouraged the foundation to push for
moving a US military base from Qatar to his own
country.</p>
<p>The film will also reportedly show undercover footage
of a junior Israel lobbyist boasting of how close
Israel’s ties are with the United Arab Emirates and
other Gulf regimes.</p>
<h2>UAE, Israel deepening ties</h2>
<figure id="file-57626" class="media
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media-wysiwyg-align-right file file-image
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class="media-element file-figure"
src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2018-03/max-adelstein-fb_0.png?itok=58Vy_VOS×tamp=1520340426"
alt="" title=""><figcaption class="group-caption
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<p>Information removed from Max Adelstein’s Facebook
page. <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2018-03/max-adelstein-fb_0.png">Click
here for full resolution</a>.</p>
</figcaption></figure>
<p>Max Adelstein is said to be seen in the film stating
that the lobby has helped Israel and the United Arab
Emirates develop security links “all under the table.”</p>
<p>Adelstein was an intern at Washington lobbying firm
the Harbour Group. The firm’s clients <a
href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/5478-Supplemental-Statement-20171106-29.pdf">include</a>
the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>It received $2.2 million from the UAE and more than
$300,000 from Saudi Arabia during the six months
ending 30 September 2017.</p>
<p>Adelstein now says he works for AIPAC, Washington’s
most powerful Israel lobby group whose annual
conference began Sunday. (Shortly after this article
was published, Adelstein switched on <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/max.adelstein">his
Facebook</a> privacy settings and removed mention of
his AIPAC role. Screenshots of his profile have been
added.)</p>
<p>The film is said to show Adelstein boasting that ties
between the United Arab Emirates and Israel are
“getting so much better, and nobody knows it.”</p>
<p>He told an undercover Al Jazeera reporter that “The
governments have to coordinate on security. It’s all
under the table. But on trade, security, tech,
medicine, there’s a lot of cooperation.”</p>
<p>According to The Electronic Intifada’s source,
Adelstein is seen in the undercover footage explaining
that an American Jewish Committee “study tour” of the
United Arab Emirates focusing on “mutual cooperation”
was planned.</p>
<p>In January, the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, a forum of Israel lobby
groups whose membership <a
href="https://www.conferenceofpresidents.org/about/members">includes</a>
the American Jewish Committee, <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-jewish-leaders-gush-about-visit-to-tolerant-united-arab-emirates/">announced</a>
it had sent a “large delegation” of leaders to the
United Arab Emirates, where it “met with everybody at
the highest levels.”</p>
<p>The additional insight into the United Arab Emirates’
cozying up to Israel lobby groups comes as the wealthy
monarchy’s activities in Washington are facing renewed
scrutiny.</p>
<figure id="file-57631" class="media
media-element-container media-figure file file-image
file-image-png"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><img
class="media-element file-figure"
src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2018-03/max-adelstein-aipac.png?itok=mhpSsJG_×tamp=1520340960"
alt="" title=""><figcaption class="group-caption
field-group-html-element">
<p>A photo from AIPAC staffer Max Adelstein’s
Facebook profile, which has now been made private.</p>
</figcaption></figure>
<p>On Saturday, <em>The New York Times</em> <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/03/us/politics/george-nader-mueller-investigation-united-arab-emirates.html">reported</a>
that special counsel Robert Mueller is expanding his
investigation from alleged Russian meddling in the US
presidential election to “include Emirati influence on
the Trump administration” through the president’s
son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.</p>
<h2>“Anti-Semitism as a smear is not what it used to be”</h2>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jonathan-schanzer">Jonathan
Schanzer</a>, senior vice president of the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is said to be
seen in the undercover footage briefing recruits on
how to smear Palestine solidarity groups in the US who
support the BDS movement.</p>
<p>According to the source, Schanzer admits to the
undercover reporter that “BDS has taken everybody by
surprise.”</p>
<p>He calls the response by Israel lobby groups “a
complete mess,” adding, “I don’t think that anybody’s
doing a good job. We’re not even doing a good job.”</p>
<p>According to the source, Schanzer laments that
attempts to smear <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/students-justice-palestine">Students
for Justice in Palestine</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/american-muslims-palestine">American
Muslims for Palestine</a> as linked to extremist
Islamic terrorism have failed to gain traction.</p>
<p>He is also said to regret that the Israel lobby’s
habitual tactic of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/how-israel-lobby-fakes-anti-semitism">falsely
alleging</a> Palestine solidarity activists are
motivated by anti-Jewish hatred is losing its impact.</p>
<p>“Personally I think anti-Semitism as a smear is not
what it used to be,” he is said to tell the undercover
reporter.</p>
<p>Schanzer’s views echo a secret report endorsed by the
Israeli government and distributed to Israel lobby
leaders last year. That report, a leaked copy of which
was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/leaked-report-highlights-israel-lobbys-failures">published
by The Electronic Intifada</a>, concludes that
Israel’s efforts to stem the growth of the Palestine
solidarity movement have largely failed.</p>
<h2>Film delayed</h2>
<p>In October last year, Clayton Swisher, Al Jazeera’s
head of investigations, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/vindicated-uk-al-jazeera-reveal-secrets-us-israel-lobby">first
announced</a> that the Qatari satellite channel had
in 2016 run an undercover journalist in the US Israel
lobby.</p>
<p>Swisher made the announcement soon after the UK’s
broadcast regulator dismissed all complaints against
Al Jazeera’s <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/thelobby/">film
<em>The Lobby</em></a>.</p>
<p>That documentary, broadcast in January 2017, exposed
Israel’s covert influence campaign in the UK’s ruling
Conservative and opposition Labour parties. The film
revealed an Israeli embassy agent plotting with a
British civil servant to “<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/secret-video-reveals-israeli-plot-take-down-uk-minister">take
down</a>” a government minister seen as too critical
of Israel.</p>
<p>Although Swisher promised the US film would come out
“very soon,” nearly five months later it has yet to be
broadcast.</p>
<h2>Israel lobby in Qatar</h2>
<p>Over the same period, a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/qatar-turns-israel-escape-saudi-squeeze">wave
of Israel lobbyists</a> has visited Qatar at the
invitation of its ruler, Emir <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/tamim-bin-hamad-al-thani-0">Tamim
bin Hamad Al Thani</a>.</p>
<p>Among them have been some of the most rightwing and
extreme figures among Israel’s defenders in the US, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/qatar-welcomes-head-zionist-organization-america">including</a>
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and Morton
Klein, the head of the Zionist Organization of
America.</p>
<p>Multiple Israel lobby sources <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-qatar-to-u-s-jewish-leaders-al-jazeera-israel-lobby-film-won-t-air-1.5803936">told
Israel’s <em>Haaretz</em> newspaper</a> last month
that they had received assurances from Qatari leaders
late last year that the Al Jazeera documentary will
not be aired.</p>
<p>Qatar has <a
href="http://www.gulf-times.com/story/580990/Qatar-denies-it-asked-Al-Jazeera-to-drop-Israeli-l">denied</a>
this.</p>
<p>Pro-Israel groups have gone on the offensive to try
and deter Al Jazeera from showing the film.</p>
<p>“Let’s not mince words about what this was – a
well-funded, professional espionage operation carried
out by Qatar on American soil,” Noah Pollak, executive
director of the neoconservative Committee for Israel,
has <a
href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pro-israel-lobby-groups-brace-for-al-jazeera-hidden-camera-expose/article/2648315">stated</a>.</p>
<p>Ironically, pro-Israel members of Congress are now <a
href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/22/congress-investigates-al-jazeera/">pressuring</a>
the Department of Justice to force Al Jazeera to
register as an arm of Qatar, under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act, just as the Russian-funded network
RT was recently forced to do.</p>
<p>Whether this pressure will succeed in burying the
documentary for good is perhaps the ultimate test of
the Israel lobby influence Al Jazeera journalists
sought to expose.</p>
<p><em>Updated to add Max Adelstein screenshots.</em></p>
<p><em>Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist and
associate editor with The Electronic Intifada.</em></p>
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