MB: I'm glad you asked that. In my last book tour for Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, I got books for Fresh Air and Terry Gross. I didn't understand the significance of the show until my interview aired. She actually let me give my analysis uncensored on the Christian right and the Republican Party. Within five minutes of the show airing I went onto the Amazon page for my book and was number eight overall for books on Amazon. I was beating Glenn Beck, whose book was being bulk bought by conservative organizations.
People were eating it up, because they finally heard an analysis, even about the Republican Party, that had been sort of off-limits in the mainstream media. My publicist has tried to book me on Terry Gross again. If people hear my analysis, I think they are hungry to hear about my journalism and experiences. Terry Gross's producer has flat out rejected it. I have not gotten onto any mainstream media.
DB: Do they say why they aren't interested?
MB: I was asked to submit something by the New York Times op docs, a new section on the website that published short video documentaries. I am known for short video documentaries about the right wing in the U.S, and extremism in Israel. They solicited a video from me, and when I didn't produce it in time, they called me for it, saying they wanted it. So I sent them a video I produced with my colleague, David Sheen, an Israeli journalist who is covering the situation of non-Jewish Africans in Israel more extensively than any journalist in the world.
We put together some shocking footage of pogroms against African communities in Tel Aviv, and interviews with human rights activists. I thought it was a well-done documentary about a situation very few Americans were familiar with. We included analysis. We tailored it to their style, and of course it was rejected without an explanation after being solicited. I sent it to some other major websites and they have not even responded to me, when they had often solicited articles from me in the past.
It is clear what is going on here. Luckily, the Nation magazine will show this documentary later this month, appearing with an excerpt from my book. There are some brave people out there who are willing to allow me to have an audience, but that's what's going on with this subject. There are so many great journalists who are doing such a better job than the mainstream correspondents posted in Jerusalem. Many of these journalists are Palestinian. Others, like Nora Barrows-Freedman, who works with the Electronic Intifada, are denied a mainstream audience. It's not like you are attacked -- it's that you are denied an audience. There is a curtain of silence around this issue. What I am trying to do is break though that curtain.
DB: The book, certainly, and other work you are doing, are very significant in that regard. Every time there is a new manager here at KPFA, they get a visit from the Israeli consulate. Inevitably my name comes up because they are complaining about my bias. I am anti-Israel, and don't give both sides of the story. Have you ever heard that?
MB: Of course, lack of balance. You must balance human rights with apartheid sometimes, Dennis, don't you get it?
DB: I don't get it. You point out that many world leaders, at least in private, have had a problem with Bibi Netanyahu. You have an interesting few quotes that come from the G-20 conference in 2011. Can you talk about what former [French] President Sarkozy and [U.S. President] Obama (who seems to love meeting with Netanyahu) said about meeting with the guy?
MB: This was a fascinating and overlooked episode that upset the Israeli embassy in the U.S. It upset Netanyahu and Sarkozy. They [Sarkozy and Obama] were caught on open mike at the G-20. Sarkozy said to Obama, "I can't stand Netanyahu. He's a complete liar." Obama said, "You think you can't stand him? I have to deal with him every day."
Obama wasn't exaggerating. He's had to meet with Netanyahu more times than any other foreign leader. Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of a country with about seven million, compared to the U.K. which is an international power with a special relationship with the U.S. When Netanyahu's father died, Benzion Netanyahu, Obama issued an effusive press release praising this character who had himself called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, made racist statement after racist statement about Arabs, calling them desert people who are primitive by nature.
When the father of David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the U.K. died, Obama issued no press release -- nothing was said. It is clear what is going on here. He can't stand him but must constantly meet with him. Netanyahu is back in the White House again to demand more sanctions against Iran from Obama.
This week, Obama must deploy endless resources, hours, to babysit Netanyahu. Obama should be called the Bibi sitter. This goes back to Netanyahu's relationship with the press. You brought up the intimidation and pressure you get . Time magazine hired a good correspondent, Karl Vick, who I know from Israel, is one of the few decent correspondents out there. He did a story about Netanyahu and whether Israel wants peace. He said why Israel doesn't want peace. Netanyahu has pretty clearly come out and said Israel doesn't seek a comprehensive solution with the Palestinians. He says they need to keep the conflict at low ebb, to maintain the occupation and manage it.
Conflict management is Netanyahu's open strategy. Karl Vick talked about that and how Tel Aviv is doing quite well, while Palestinians might be mired in increasing levels of misery. Why does Israel need a two-state solution if Tel Aviv is doing so well? Netanyahu's people were furious about this article. I know from a source at Timemagazine, that people at Time-Warner, the parent company of time, were furious about the article, and they exert a lot of pressure on Time because these are pro-Israel donors and they have big connections with Netanyahu.
So Time magazine sent its managing editor, Richard Stengel, in May 2012 to meet with Netanyahu. He arrived ready to relay a heavy dose of "Bibi-think" to the American public. The result of the interview that Richard Stengel returned with was a bizarre article, a fawning profile of Netanyahu arguing with god, who dubbed Netanyahu "King Bibi" who conquered Israel and god said will, Netanyahu now make peace or war? This was on the cover of Time -- the same exact cover Time ran when Netanyahu was Prime Minister 16 years before asking, can he make peace?
You can't take Netanyahu at his word when he says he doesn't want to make peace. It's these pressures inside the U.S. that prevent it from happening. Some journalists are sent to Israel to write press releases for Netanyahu, and others who are doing their job reporting the facts on the ground are themselves intimidated and punished. Luckily Karl Vick is still there doing a decent job. Consider this quote from Netanyahu: it sums up the Israeli public relations operation in two lines. "It doesn't matter if justice is on your side. You have to depict your position as just." So that's what they are doing.
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