Max Blumenthal is the M. Night Shyamalan of political Internet “filmmaking.” The brash politico experienced early success with his brave foray into the bow-tied underbelly of conservative politics, producing “CPAC 2007: The Unauthorized Tour.” The young filmmaker was praised for his innovation–using the exact same style as Michael Moore, but on the Internet, to isolate right-wing cranks and their most egregious quotes through his skillful manipulation of Windows MovieMaker. Since then, he’s become increasingly predictable and self-derivative, diving into crowds of conservatives with his video camera to deliver scoops like, “Hey, some College Republicans say doofy stuff,” and “Christians will tell you they believe things that are in the Bible, if you ask.” Add the ponderous, self-important narration and unnecessary face-time for Blumenthal himself, and you feel like you’re waiting for the unsatisfying twist ending to “Lady in the Water.” Blumenthal’s latest creation–this time in conjunction with Alternet.org instead of The Nation magazine–takes him onto the streets of Manhattan, where he attempts to find right-leaning, pro-Israel demonstrators saying crazy things. He finds next to nothing, at a rally of thousands, but that doesn’t keep him from using misleading headlines and editing. The video is entitled “Bomb a Ghetto, Raise a Cheer,” and the header on his written account is “Pro-Israel Rally Attended by Big-Time NY Dems Descends into Calls for ‘Wiping Out’ Palestinians”–which, come to think of it, is as inappropriate as calling Shyamalan’s latest snoozefest “The Happening.” No one in the video actually does call for the “wiping out” of Palestinians. Blumenthal conveniently deprives viewers of the context necessary to make the distinction, but it’s far more likely (obvious, even) that the people in the video are talking about Hamas terrorists, not all Gazans. Blumenthal asks, “How many civilian casualties would it take before you questioned the attack,” to which one man answers, “There’s not a number involved,” before the film cuts abruptly and suspiciously to another woman who answers the same question, “until they wipe them all out. They gotta go strong with this.” The next woman on the tape refers to someone as a “cancer” that must be burnt out or removed, but Blumenthal doesn’t allow her to specify whom exactly. A man says, “They are forcing us to kill their children to defend our children,” and it’s not delivered as a rallying cry, but as an angry lament. It doesn’t much matter to Blumenthal, but the statement is also demonstrably true. Hamas deliberately puts women and children in harm’s way by shooting rockets from population centers and civilian facilities, like schools and hospitals, making it nearly impossible for Israel to defend its children without endangering the children of Gaza. In an extreme example, prominent Hamas cleric Nazir Rayan explicitly instructed his children to stay inside his house to be “martyred” with him after he had been warned the IDF would take him out.
Blumenthal is incredulous of charges that Hamas endangers civilians by placing munitions inside schools, despite the fact that such practices have been documented by none other than the NYT. He mocks people who simply say, “even when they’re in a school, you have to get them out,” once again depriving the viewer of the context necessary to determine who “they” is, though any reasonable person would conclude it’s a pronoun for “terrorists.” His money quote comes at the very end of the video when he asks a man, “So, what if Israel went in and just wiped Gaza off the map? What would be so wrong with that?” The man pauses, clearly unwilling to go where Blumenthal is leading him. When he starts to answer the question, Blumenthal cuts away, presumably letting the man’s hesitation speak for itself instead of letting the man actually speak for himself. Why? Because the man did not oblige him with a politically convenient and cruel soundbite. Video can be a very manipulative medium, and political filmmakers of any stripe can be tempted to push boundaries to make their films prove their preconceptions. Blumenthal’s failure to turn his subjects into unbalanced warmongers even with his leading questions, selective edits, and sheer determination is indicative of the true spirit of the rally in New York City, January 11. If Blumenthal really wanted shocking footage, he could venture into London’s anti-Israel protests where “Kill the Jews” is not an uncommon message. Or, “the Jews are our dogs” is a nice chant from Montreal. Ft. Lauderdale is closer by, where a woman in a hijab shouted “back to the oven” to Jewish counter-protesters. These outbursts are far more disgusting than anything in Blumenthal’s video, and are apparently unprovoked by a director with an agenda. The Left often invokes its all-purpose moral relativism to deflect responsibility for the tone of such gatherings–both in real life and in online comment sections–arguing that every large gathering of political activists will produce a few bad seeds. But just browse YouTube’s Gaza protest clips from around the world. Many of the shouts, signs, and speeches are far more offensive than Blumenthal’s expose, and they’re taped by the very people who organized the rallies, not by political adversaries on a mission for gotcha moments. This is how many of them want to be seen. The distinction is profound. Blumenthal’s video is here:
