Noam Chomsky: Russian Interference Isn’t Influencing US Elections—But Israel Definitely Is

 World-renowned author and lecturer Noam Chomsky pointed out in a  recent interview that Israel has actually had far more influence in the  United States political system than Russia ever has, in the wake of mass  media hysteria about alleged “collusion” in the 2016 election. In an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Chomsky said: 

So, take, say, the huge issue of interference in our  pristine elections. Did the Russians interfere in our elections? An  issue of overwhelming concern in the media. I mean, in most of the  world, that’s almost a joke. First of all, if you’re interested in  foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have  done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what  another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support. Israeli  intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians  may have done, I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of  Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the  president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try  to undermine the president’s policies—what happened with Obama and  Netanyahu in 2015. Did Putin come to give an address to the joint  sessions of Congress trying to—calling on them to reverse U.S. policy,  without even informing the president? And that’s just a tiny bit of this  overwhelming influence. So if you happen to be interested in influence  of—foreign influence on elections, there are places to look. But even  that is a joke.

Chomsky went on to point out that: 

That’s only one part of it. Lobbyists practically write  legislation in congressional offices. In massive ways, the concentrated  private capital, corporate russector, super wealth, intervene in our  elections, massively, overwhelmingly, to the extent that the most  elementary principles of democracy are undermined. Now, of course, all  that is technically legal, but that tells you something about the way  the society functions. So, if you’re concerned with our elections and  how they operate and how they relate to what would happen in a  democratic society, taking a look at Russian hacking is absolutely the  wrong place to look. Well, you see occasionally some attention to these  matters in the media, but very minor as compared with the extremely  marginal question of Russian hacking.

Chomsky is one of the few intellectuals in the public eye who can get  away with being so critical of Israel, because he has Jewish heritage,  despite being non-religious. It is common for anyone critical of  Israel’s policies to be labeled as an anti-semitic. Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, another outspoken critic of Israel, said in a 2016 interview that anyone who speaks out about the apartheid state is labeled as anti-semitic. 

“The only response to BDS is that it is anti-Semitic, I know this  because I have been accused of being a Nazi and an anti-Semite for the  past 10 years. My industry has been particularly recalcitrant in even  raising a voice [against Israel]. There’s me and Elvis Costello, Brian  Eno, Manic Street Preachers, one or two others, but there’s nobody in  the United States where I live. I’ve talked to a lot of them, and they  are scared s***less….” he said. 

“If they say something in public they will no longer have a  career. They will be destroyed. I’m hoping to encourage some of them to  stop being frightened and to stand up and be counted because we need  them. We need them desperately in this conversation in the same way we  needed musicians to join protesters over Vietnam,” Waters added. 

In recent years, as the horror that the Israeli government unleashes  upon the prisoners of Palestine has been exposed, global public opinion  is finally beginning to shift against the apartheid state. In response,  the governments in the U.S. and Israel have both been forcing  legislation to keep a lid on the genocide that is taking place. 

Last month, The Free Thought Project reported that South Carolina passed a law to legally define criticism of Israel as “anti-Semitism,”  showing a concerted effort to stifle criticism of a government that is  indiscriminately killing innocent people, and keeping an entire  population in poverty and constant terror. 

As The Free Thought Project also reported, 41 other members of Congress came together to champion proposed legislation in July 2017 that would “make  literal criminals of any Americans boycotting Israel—a brazen, if not  explicit, attack on the BDS Movement, incidentally exploding in  popularity worldwide as the belligerent nation continues its occupation of Palestinian lands.” Governments are not alone in this suppression of information either,  tech corporations that now control the media narrative are also taking  efforts to prevent people from seeing the true face of the Israeli  military. 

YouTube has been engaging in censorship of Israeli war crimes,  as journalist Abby Martin called attention to earlier this year when a  video that she made about the violence in Isreal was flagged as “hate speech” and blocked by YouTube in 28 countries. Journalist Max Blumenthal, who was featured in the interview,  suggested that pro-Israel lobbyists have major tech companies on their  payroll: 

“My comments were based entirely on my  extensive journalistic experience in the region and my analysis was  clinical in nature. At no point did I denigrate anyone based on their  faith or ethnicity. The trend of censoring material that  presents Israel in a less than favorable light has only intensified as  establishment attacks on critical voices expands. This latest episode  confirms my view that the pro-Israel lobby and its willing accomplice

Despite the best efforts of the Israeli government and their NATO  allies, the world is beginning to wake up to the struggle of the  Palestinian people. Even the United Nations is taking a new interest in  the situation, with the recent announcement of a war crimes investigation of the Israeli government’s actions.