Mark Levin calls for a boycott of social networks, and attacks the left in a special interview with "Israel Today" on the occasion of the publication of the Hebrew translation of his book "Agents of Ignorance"
"It is impossible to talk about the United States and its values without talking about Israel." Levin
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Radio and television broadcaster and Jewish-American author Mark Levin has a devout audience of no less than 14 million listeners, who receive his teachings on his daily radio show and the weekly television program on the Fox network without filters.
In the days when many believe that the mainstream media in the US is blatantly interfering in local politics for the benefit of Democrats, and after four years in which President Trump was a stationary target for commentators, Levin feels he is a voice for tens of millions - besides his listeners - who fear some are trying to marginalize them.
On the occasion of the publication of the Hebrew edition of his book "Agents of Ignorance" (translated by Ilan Hazuti and published by Sela Meir), which was published in the United States three years ago and led the New York Times bestseller list for weeks, Levin says in an interview with Israel Today What motivated him to explore the roots of the media and why, in his opinion, the processes he goes through are so dangerous to the great democracy in the world, among other things, for him, to understand the nature and depth of danger, one must understand how the American media treats Israel. The full interview aired at the book launch event.
Levin, who has held several positions in President Ronald Reagan's administration, is known for his conservative views as well as the uncompromising style in which he expresses his views - mainly towards the Democratic Party in the US, but also about what is happening here in Israel. Which is a disaster, "he says," and so is the American media.
But at least in the US we have conservative radio channels. There are some in Israel as well, but not many. We have Fox, we have some programs that promote conservative positions - you have nothing like that in Israel.
"You have largely biased media that supports the left, And while the left in Israel today is politically small, the media remains extremely biased.
In my view, they are engaged in a constant effort to undermine the conservatives, the hawks, the Netanyahu government - and yet the citizens of Israel have rejected the media in a big way.
"Our media is the communication of one party. We call it 'the media of the Democratic Party, that is what it is. We have people in the media who have worked administrations of Democratic presidents, campaigns of Democratic presidents, are working with members of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, and vice versa.
" The problem The second in Israel, and I hope it does not complicate me, is the fact that the socialist founders adopted the Italian parliamentary system.
So you have 412 parties running for Knesset and if you manage to get three people to defect you might have a coalition.
There is a constant state of confrontation - it is not stable enough for democracy in my eyes. "
Biden is behaving like a king
How do you treat the US media that attributes incitement to rebellion to Donald Trump?
"He did not lead a revolt. Had the US president wanted to lead a revolt, he would not have sent 200 militiamen from across the country to Capitol Hill.
I think he would have sent the Marine Corps.
But that's not the point.
What about their left and language and their incitement?
How do we know that it does not anger people and push them to do deeds that are better not to do?
But nonetheless, it is a bit difficult to preserve a republic, a cultural society and a rational discourse when you have a media that has no interest in reporting the news.
There are many ways in which news can be influenced.
One is censorship, not reporting the news - even though it is worth reporting.
A second way is of course political bias.
"I am 63 years old and I have never seen anything like what is happening in our country. Communication is no longer exactly a profession, they are social activists, today in communication schools they teach something called 'social activity'. It started 100 years ago in our country, since the days of progressive movements "And neo-Marxism - and you have it in your country too. You have it even in your Supreme Court. By and large, nothing is taught, science, math, history, languages, literature, without it having an angle of social activism."
We all remember President Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, who boasted that he influenced the media discourse on the nuclear deal with Iran so that everyone would understand that it needs to be supported.
Where do you identify danger when a clear axis is formed between the administration and the media?
"The media is part of the country only when the left controls the country. Otherwise, they try to undermine the government as much as possible. They work with the bureaucrats, but not only with the tiny handful of elected officials and have appointments in our massive bureaucracy and yours. You can see the attitude here to Biden. He does not convene press conferences, but he is not challenged. He signs orders as if he were a king, we do not do that in the United States.
"Biden signs very radical orders, he legislates things from the executive branch. We have a system of balances and brakes here, which is somewhat symbolic. We do not hear talk of dismissal, we do not hear talk of law violations when it comes to Biden. I call the media in our country, when it comes to Biden and Obama. Not only do they not want to report on them, they are also protective of them - in the campaign and when they are in power.
"What I do in the book, is not only do I give my opinion, but I have hundreds of references, a huge number of examples.
There are also media people, veteran liberal journalists, who say 'we must not do this', and yet they still do it.
It gets even worse.
Whether it was the media, or Hollywood, or academia, or the Democratic Party, they were all taken over by this progressive or neo-Marxist movement.
Everyone is moving in the same direction and when I write my books, I go deep into some of these things and it's really quite depressing. "
Perhaps the most obvious example of the merger between government and media networks was the case of Ben Rhodes, who as Obama's deputy national security adviser was responsible for marketing "the nuclear deal with Iran, in which time he served his brother as president of ABC. In an interview he boasted Rhodes how created a" sounding board "echoed its propaganda preventing truthful reporting on the content of the agreement. how do you characterize the merger between telecommunications minister?
" all anti-Semites are going to talk In front of J Street and getting certificates of appreciation and pats on the back, they feel like they talked to Jews, and I will be yes, I said that on the radio too, these are Jews who hate themselves.
I do not know what their problem is, but this problem has existed and there has always been a corner of Judaism made up of self-haters and I argue that these are some of them.
Then the anti-Semites, but not only they, but also those who are critical of the current government in Israel, come to these groups and lecture them and feel that they have spoken to Jews, and they get coverage, when it is clear that they did not (spoke to Jews; kg) ".
The book does not focus on Israel, but why does it still appear in it?
"It is impossible to talk about the United States and its values and the American media without talking about Israel and Israel's values and the way it is covered in the United States.
After the Holocaust, until 1967, Israel received a lot of positive coverage.
But since then it has only gotten worse and as Israel gets stronger, the more independent it becomes, whether it is in the economy or in security, it gets more and more negative coverage in America.
"" Some of the media here present Israel as an apartheid state.
You see how this argument was made.
An apartheid state, a racist state, the same things they say about our country - they say about Israel.
So it's a little hard to write a book I called 'Agents of Ignorance' and ignore what is happening in Israel.
"" It's hard to ignore it as a Jew too, I see the parallels.
I see the hostility towards Israel, the hostility towards the USA. If we ignore the elites, I think the Amarini people and the Israeli people have such a strong bond and such immense love for each other. Deducting all racist agents and all academics, and deducting Hollywood, the media and politicians, I really feel that this is the case. "
At the end of the day, people will revolt
in President Trump's time, and especially in its last part, it seems that social networks have betrayed their role as a platform for all opinions.
Suddenly, this place where conservatives could get real information and communicate their ideas freely, censored.
Censored the US president while in office, blocked him.
"Donald Trump was elected thanks in part to Twitter, they said George W. Bush was elected thanks to the Internet.
The high-tech giants are dominated by multi-billionaires, multi-billionaires who are pretty liberal and all Democrats, and I think they decided that would not happen again.
So they were very biased in the way that they allow people to publish news information.
"I closed my Facebook and Twitter accounts myself. I gave them about a month, I brought with me some people I managed to Perlor (a popular social network among conservatives). Perlor had about 21-20 million users, 5.5 million of whom were my followers. The media tried to eliminate Perlor. And her reputation. They call them 'right-wing'. In the US 'right-wing' is a derogatory nickname, I know in Israel not so much, but in the US yes.
"I told everyone, let's move on to Perlor, I do not even know what their tendency is, But I will not agree to be censored.
Enough of the letters Cain, enough of everything else, I do not need some leftist billionaires like Zuckerberg or the clown with the beard Jack Dorsey (CEO and founder of Twitter) to tell me what to do and put all the conditions and censorship. ? '
"So I said, 'You know what, I'm flying out of here. But now I do not have Perlor."
Do you feel that the events on Capitol Hill were a step up in terms of the attitude of social networks to the right?
"When the thugs broke into the Capitol, Facebook and Twitter saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. And they are still taking advantage of that opportunity as the rest of the left in our society is doing. Trying to use that as an excuse to turn the US on its face. But there will be resistance. I will not shut up, broadcasters. Others will not shut up, my friends on Fox's programs will not shut up. Those companies control the platforms. They can turn off the switch on podcasts, but I think if they continue like this in the US the people will revolt.
You can't continue to call such a large public venomous nicknames and expect it to pass quietly. "
We are ready for competition
We are in a new era that did not exist just a few years ago when you wrote this book, an era where the most powerful censors in the world enter the right with the help of Facebook, Twitter and everything else.
"I say on American radio - we need to learn from the BDS movement, use their tactics, not the violence. We need to do BDS against them, we need a boycott against the high-tech companies, and if it's not high-tech, then the advertisers. You know. "They can not survive without advertisers, they take our information, they steal it from us, sell it to each other and to commercial entities."
One of the problems with saying you want to leave Facebook or Twitter is that people really want their voice heard.
What are you supposed to do?
"People have given up a lot more for freedom than for Twitter and Facebook. So my advice is, give it a year, and then more companies will emerge. Because after Perlor will crack how to do it, others will be able to do it too. Water always finds the cracks, freedom always. Find the cracks and we'll find the cracks and we'll take advantage of them. We will compete with these people once and for all. We oppose their attempt to crush us and their attempt to use the government to give themselves an advantage. We have to fight it, so either you are in this war or not. Try other sites. "
Finally, what place does Israel have for you personally?
"Every time I come to Israel, at the Western Wall or elsewhere, people approach me. I really appreciate your people and it is always nice when someone approaches me and says in an Israeli accent that he is listening to my program. Israelis ring my program at 3 or 4 in the morning, or 2: "In the morning. A lot of them are Americans living in Israel or Israelis. I just want you to know that 14 million people hear you, so feel free to call the program."