During his regular segment on the national John Batchelor Show, Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein blamed the news media for “fueling” an “atmosphere” of anti-Semitism in the U.S. by repeatedly propagating a false narrative that President Trump and top administration officials are anti-Semitic.
Klein contended that the constant stream of news stories attempting to link the White House to anti-Semitism may have created a dangerous environment in which “you have some (anti-Semitic) nut jobs come out of the woodwork” and target Jews in the U.S.
Klein further said the news media was largely silent about the potential for an anti-Semitic resurgence when the Obama administration allowed the passage of an anti-Israel United Nations Security Council resolution declaring Israeli communities in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem to be illegal. The move, Klein argued, “puts the anti-Semitic BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign on the steroids.”
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Klein was asked by Batchelor to comment on the reported spate of recent domestic anti-Semitic acts and threats. Klein responded that there is one “entity that needs to be blamed here in part. And I am talking here about the media.”
He continued:
We don’t know yet who is behind some of the threats. One of them turned out to be a fake news reporter who resigned in disgrace… Clearly we are seeing something. And so, the question is who is behind it? We don’t know. Is it overseas? Is it domestic?
But what I can say is that I believe personally as a reporter – especially one based in Israel and one who has been involved for 11, 12 years reporting on the threats of anti-Semitism – to me I believe that the news media has reached a height of total irresponsibility. Because what they have been doing since Donald Trump has been elected and even before that is spewing this completely fake news narrative. That Donald Trump is almost Hitlerian. That his top advisors – and I know them very well, they are fighters of anti-Semitism – that somehow, they are anti-Semitic.
So, they have built this false narrative in America. And I believe that when you have major stories in major news outlets and major networks actually having segments, I’ve seen many of them, debating whether Trump or whether his top advisors – some of them the closest friends that Israel has ever had in the White House – whether they are anti-Semitic. This…creates an atmosphere of alleged anti-Semitism. And maybe you have some nut jobs come out of the woodwork…”
Klein raised questions about the news media’s intentions:
But to me also I don’t understand where the news media was before Donald Trump. Where they were reporting on the rise of anti-Semitism alongside the BDS movement? Or what about reporting on the possibility for anti-Semitic acts or anti-Israel acts after President Obama pushed through the United Nations resolution against the so-called settlements? Meaning Jewish communities in the West Bank… eastern Jerusalem. Which now delegitimizes those communities. Which delegitimizes Israel and sends a message. Puts the anti-Semitic BDS campaign on steroids. So, I am singling out the media for fueling some of this atmosphere that is now allowing some of these atrocities.
On his own radio program on last Sunday, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” Klein also accused the news media of “hypocrisy” for minimizing Obama’s longtime alleged anti-Semitic ties, including to his controversial pastor of nearly twenty years, Jeremiah Wright Jr.
Referring to Obama, Klein stated, “This is a president who signs a deal with Iran, which wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and is an anti-Semitic, terror-supporting entity. And now the media is generating this fake news story with Trump, the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House?”
Last week of a former Intercept reporter was arrested for allegedly calling in at least eight phone threats against Jewish institutions, including Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) and a bomb threat to the Anti-Defamation League. The reporter, Juan Thompson, was fired from the online publication for fabricating sections of stories.