{"id":75670,"date":"2015-09-27T05:57:22","date_gmt":"2015-09-27T13:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=75670"},"modified":"2015-09-27T05:57:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-27T13:57:22","slug":"max-blumenthal-how-the-israel-lobby-protected-ukrainian-neo-nazis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=75670","title":{"rendered":"Max Blumenthal: How the Israel Lobby Protected Ukrainian Neo-Nazis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Blumenthal, a journalist of the left who opposes all ethno-nationalisms including the Israel expression, writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

AlterNet has learned that an amendment to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have forbidden US assistance, training and weapons to neo-Nazis and other extremists in Ukraine was kept out of the final bill by the Republican-led House Rules Committee. Introduced by Democratic Representative John Conyers, the amendment was intended to help tamp down on violent confrontations between Ukrainian forces and Russian separatists. (Full text of the amendment embedded at the end of this article).<\/p>\n

A USA Today\/Pew poll conducted in April while the NDAA was being debated found that Americans opposed by more than 2 to 1 providing the Ukrainian government with arms or other forms of military assistance.<\/p>\n

If passed, Conyers’ amendment would have explicitly barred those found to have offered \u201cpraise or glorification of Nazism or its collaborators, including through the use of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, or other similar symbols\u201d from receiving any form of support from the US Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

The amendment was presented by congressional staffers to lobbyists from Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, two of the country\u2019s largest established Jewish pressure groups. Despite their stated mission to combat anti-Semitism and violent extremism, the ADL and Wiesenthal Center refused to support Jeffries and Conyers\u2019 proposal.<\/p>\n

According to Democratic sources in Congress, staffers from the ADL\u2019s Washington office and the Simon Wiesenthal Center rejected the amendment on the grounds that right-wing Ukrainian parties like Svoboda with documented records of racist extremism had \u201cmoderated their rhetoric.\u201d An ADL lobbyist insisted that \u201cthe focus should be on Russia,\u201d while the Wiesenthal Center pointed to meetings between far-right political leaders in Ukraine and the Israeli embassy as evidence that groups like Svoboda and Right Sector had shed their extremism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Blumenthal, a journalist of the left who opposes all ethno-nationalisms including the Israel expression, writes: AlterNet has learned that an amendment to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have forbidden US assistance, training and weapons to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1361,29615,14925],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adl","category-nationalism","category-simon-wiesenthal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t