WarSclerotic

Blumenthal repeatedly told Clinton the U.S. must punish Israel for “wrongdoings.” Clinton’s response? ‘Pls print.’

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Published: March 4th, 2016

Source: The Jewish Press » » The HillaryFiles Continue With More Israel Trash Talking From Blumenthal

Hillary Clinton. July 7, 2015
Photo Credit: screen capture

The second in a series.

On May 31, 2010, there was an historic confrontation between the Israeli Navy and six ships sailing from Turkey, seeking to blow up the internationally-recognized legal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Starting the very morning of the incident, Sidney Blumenthal began emailing Hillary Clinton, haranguing her to treat this grave tragedy as a whip with which to lash Israel.

Blumenthal also sent screeds written by his unhinged son Max, who insisted that the entire incident was orchestrated in advance by a bloodthirsty Israel as a means to blow up the peace process.

But this confrontation, known as the Mavi Marmara raid – after the lead Turkish ship  – or as the Gaza Flotilla built to a crescendo when the IHH-terrorists aboard the ship ignored repeated warnings to change course and steer towards the Israeli coastal town of Ashdod, just north of Gaza. When the ships refused to heed the directions, elite IDF naval commandos were lowered from helicopters by ropes, onto the ship’s deck.

As soon as the Israelis landed aboard the Mavi Marmara, they were attacked by demonstrators who used clubs to beat them, as well as knives. Weapons were also stripped from the Israeli soldiers, and used against them. One soldier was thrown over the deck.

By the time the attack ended, seven IDF soldiers were wounded and nine Turkish citizens were killed when off-board soldiers came to their colleagues’ rescue.

Eight out of the nine who died aboard the ship were later identified as members of Turkish Islamist organizations. Half of those killed had written wills or informed others that they sought to die as martyrs. Not a single human rights activist were among the victims on May 31, as they all stayed below deck, choosing not to join in the fracas with the antagonists carrying an array of weapons.

Early that very afternoon, Blumenthal père wrote to Clinton, viciously comparing the Flotilla raid to the 1976 Entebbe raid, in which Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother, Yoni, was tragically killed despite the complete success otherwise.

“The raid on the ship to Gaza resembles the raid on Entebbe, except that there are no hostages, no guns, it’s not in Africa, and it’s a fiasco; otherwise, it’s Entebbe,” Blumenthal wrote to Clinton. He went on, warning Clinton that the international press will want to know how the U.S. is going to respond to Israel’s calamitous actions, and pointed out that the U.S. shouldn’t look as though it was secretly supporting Israel on this.

Finally, Blumenthal pointed out the likelihood of harm to the peace process and to embarrassment to Obama just on the eve of Netanyahu’s visit. Blumenthal then suggestively asks, “Or are the Israelis bone stupid? I don’t think so. Cheers, Sid.” In other words, this is what the Israelis intended.

Clinton forwarded this email to her deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, with an “FYI” and “ITYS” notation.

By the next morning, Blumenthal had written a seven-point memo to Clinton suggesting ways in which she and the United States should respond to the flotilla incident. Amongst other points, he told her that “someone in authority needs to read Israel the riot act”; Michael Oren should be given the “full dress Biden treatment”; that the “Gaza embargo is obviously wildly counterproductive,” which “has to end” and that end “should begin now.”

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 caused 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 brutally 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.