As Israel's Netanyahu hysterically calls US campuses "horrific..German[y] in the 1930s", remember who took him to power: the divisive US operative Arthur Finkelstein, who also gave us autocrat Viktor Orban, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and indirectly, Donald Trump. 1/
From 1970, Finkelstein changed politics in the US and around the world with virulently negative campaigns that pushed fear & division ("rejectionist voting"), microtargeted messaging, 3rd party spoilers, and a complete disregard for truth and values. 2/
nytimes.com/2017/08/19/us/…
Finkelstein, who was both Jewish and gay, won races for homophobic candidates with antisemitic messaging. It's beyond twisted. He got Bibi elected in 1996; Bibi referred him to Viktor Orban - and to help Orban win he created the George Soros conspiracy. 2/
buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgra…
It was Finkelstein who pushed Trump to hire Paul Manafort, deep in Ukraine fuckery in 2016 and formerly in business with Finkelstein protege Roger Stone. Trump's campaign used Finkelstein's tactics: polarize the electorate, make people fear each other. As Bibi is doing now. 3/
Manafort had learned in Ukraine how to create violent, astroturfed protests, whose players looked enough like normal folks they stymied law enforcement. In 2006, he shut down the US Marines and NATO. On Jan 6 the Capitol attack used the same gameplan. 4/
taskandpurpose.com/news/manafort-…
For 5 decades Finkelstein's proteges ("Arthur's Boys", including Roger Stone, Terry Dolan, Frank Luntz) have helped make US politics divisive and deeply twisted. Dolan, secretly gay, co-founded the Moral Majority and helped elect anti-gay candidates. 5/
archive.harpers.org/1987/08/pdf/Ha…
Finkelstein and his gay proteges fanned anti-gay hate. He and his Jewish proteges built anti-Jewish conspiracies. What Netanyahu is doing tonight is straight from Finkelstein's playbook: stoke fear and division, no matter who it hurts. US reporters must call him on it. 6/
This account focuses on Jan 6 - but J6 is Finkelstein's legacy too. Roger Stone's Proud Boys led the attack. ESI, who'd worked with Paul Manafort, ran the rallies. And the QAnon conspiracies that inflamed the rioters were pushed by a staffer of Ron Paul - Terry Dolan's client. 7/
Today saw three red flags: Bibi's speech, and visits to Columbia by Mike Johnson (J6 organizer) and Gavin McInnes (Proud Boys founder). As in 2020, protests can be used to stoke fear and violence. The only way to fight back is with sanity and calm. 8/
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