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Israel lobbyist outraged at foreign lobbying through Hollywood

published by Tom Sullivan on Sat, 2012-10-27 08:38

Writing in The National Interest yesterday, Susan Schmidt alerts American readers to an apparently egregious instance of foreign lobbying through the silver screen. Observes Schmidt:

Hollywood movies, the bête noire of conservative Muslim culture, are an unusual investment for Middle Eastern oil magnates. But the United Arab Emirates, the fourth-largest energy producer in the world, has committed $1 billion to bankroll films, some of which conveniently advance its economic interests.

Noting the ostensibly anti-drilling environmental message of films such as “Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hour” and “Promised Land” being funded by the UAE, Schmidt avers:

The politics of these filmmakers are no secret, but the source of some of the funding may be surprising. Image Nation is owned by a government that stands to benefit by ensuring that the United States remains dependent on Middle Eastern oil for decades.

“Is this a new form of foreign lobbying?” she asks, pointing out that there are laws against this sort of thing.

Unlike American companies, foreign entities are generally required to disclose to the Justice Department not only lobbying but also efforts to influence public opinion in the United States.

The Justice Department’s national-security division, which administers the Foreign Agent Registration Act, faces a host of new challenges in keeping up with public-relations campaigns given the proliferation of social media and television programming, some of it news, sponsored by foreign entities.

So who is this Susan Schmidt that appears to be so concerned about undue foreign influence in the United States?

Apart from being a former longtime reporter for the Washington Post, she just happens to be a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. And as those familiar with the preeminent case of foreign influence in America know all too well, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is one of the key groups that make up the Israel lobby.

Source and full piece: Maidhc Ó Cathail, The Passionate Attachment, 24 Oct 2012

Tags: 
UNITED STATES
FIFTH COLUMN
OCCUPIED PALESTINE
LOBBYING

Comments

Submitted by Heydrich on Sat, 2012-10-27 09:49.

The hypocrisy of a pro-Jewish person whining about “foreign lobbying” is comical.

On a side note, back in 2009, Alex Jones got into hot water when he said, ‘“Hollywood is owned by the Arabs and the Israelis, but the actual financing – I’ve looked into it – is mainly Saudi and Jordanian and the folks from Dubai and Qatar and a few other places. And the British of course.”

In March 2012 I claimed that Jones exaggerated, but was essentially correct. I claimed that Jews control Hollywood, but GCC oil shieks own tremendous amounts of stock in Hollywood studios and related companies. I tied this into the reasons why the GCC Arabs are allied with Israel and NATO. I said it is folly to become totally obsessed with Jews alone.  No one wanted to hear that, especially the infantile white supremacists, who called me a “Zionist.” (For those cretins, everyone is a Zionist, and probably a Jew, and even an Black Mexican Zionist Jew.)

Anyway, this author, Susan Schmidt, merely says the UAE has committed $1 billion to bankroll films that advance UAE interests, and films that turn a profit. She seems to be attacking the UAE in order to support a “drill baby, drill” viewpoint.   

Submitted by Tom Sullivan on Sun, 2012-10-28 08:55.

This one could be entered into an expanded dictionary as a classic and definitive example of chutzpah.

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