‘Al Jazeera’ has ‘canned’ undercover investigation of Israel lobby — leading pro-Israel operative

Philip Weiss on June 26, 2018

For a while now we have been waiting for Al Jazeera to air an undercover investigation of the Israel lobby in the United States that it said was near completion in 2017, following up on its explosive four-parter on the Israel lobby in the U.K.

Sadly there has been a lot of informed speculation that the documentary won’t run because Israel lobby groups got to Qatari leaders, and a point man in that effort stated last night that the deal has gone down, the doc has been “canned.”

Nick Muzin tweeted last night:

Because of @MortonAKlein7‘s visit to Qatar, @AlJazeera canned an anti-Semitic documentary, anti-Israel books were permanently removed from the Doha Book Fair, and Israeli athletes and fans will be welcome at the 2022 World Cup. We should all support @ZOA_National. #TrueLeadership

Nick Muzin is a Washington consultant used to work as a registered foreign agent for Qatar and for Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. He is a longtime Israel supporter and religious Jew and winning lavish fees from Qatar, helped bring about the visits of many Israel supporters to the country, including Alan Dershowitz, Mort Klein of the Zionist Organization of America, and Malcolm Hoenlein.

Robert Fisk reported on delays to the documentary in March in The Independent and quoted the doc’s creator Clayton Swisher on the political pressure:

[A]fter months of postponement, The Lobby, which secretly filmed pro-Israeli US activists and Israeli government officials and was completed last autumn, is still no nearer to being shown – and Swisher himself has taken a paid leave of absence…

“[O]ur new documentary doesn’t seem to be getting on air.”

In his published explanation, Swisher described how his award-winning investigative unit – which he says operates “without [Qatari] government interference” – sent an undercover reporter to look into “how Israel wields influence in America through the pro-Israeli American community. But when some right-wing American supporters of Israel found out about the documentary, there was a massive backlash. It was even labelled as antisemitic in a spate of articles.”…

“Of course, our documentary is not antisemitic. It is an exploration of how Israel, a foreign government, influences US foreign policy.”

Swisher says that several “leaders of Jewish American organisations” met with Qatar’s registered agent and lobbyist, Nick Muzin – a former aide to US Senator Ted Cruz, who supported American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – “to see if he could use his ties with the Qataris to stop the airing”. Since October, Swisher says, “we’ve faced a series of unexplained delays on broadcasting our project, the likes of which I’ve never experienced. I was repeatedly told by everyone to ‘wait’

Electronic Intifada reported on a bombshell assertion in the documentary.

The leading neoconservative think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies is functioning as an agent of the Israeli government, Al Jazeera’s forthcoming investigation on the US Israel lobby will reveal.

According to a source who has seen the undercover documentary, it contains footage of a powerful Israeli official claiming that “We have FDD. We have others working on this.”

The FDD is today one of the most important thinktanks in Washington because of its evident influence on the Trump administration, and closeness to leading pro-Israel donors.

And bear in mind, Al Jazeera and Qatar’s calculations. They know where the power lies in D.C., and don’t wish to offend it.

How many mainstream U.S. media outlets are going to look into this episode of apparent censorship involving powerful actors and foreign interests? Don’t hold your breath.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/06/undercover-investigation-operative/