Promoting Propaganda Through Cut & Paste Tactics
Some people keep posting ambiguous statistics to support their character assassination efforts against these college student protests while never providing context for those numbers.
"There Are Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics."
— Benajmin Disraeli
Disclaimer: In all areas where I quote an independent author or someone who works for an agency, I have edited their words for content.
I’ve been reading claims that are designed to smear the pro-Palestinian protesters and tie them to terrorist organizations and their supportive nations—some of which just happen to be allies of the United States—and below these words is what I’ve highlighted. And it’s usually the same exact phrasing, too, which tells me that these people are merely cutting and pasting this allegation from a dubious partisan source. And there’s never any context provided for some of those statistics, or the subsequent allegations made on behalf of those statistics, as they're connected by nothing more than unfounded allegations that have yet to be proven factual. And that’s where I come into the game.
The often-parroted claim:
“Arab donors have funded 273 universities in 48 US states and Washington, DC, including elite universities. The largest recipient is Cornell University, with over $1.8 billion in 130 transactions, followed by Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and Texas A&M. George Washington University has received the most gifts and contracts, with 1,172. The top five recipients have received 45% of the total value, and the top 15 have received 66%.”
I just thoroughly sourced—and it took me a hot minute to perform this task—multiple articles concerning all of what is alleged to be true, and sure, the funding is there, but there's a lot of conflation going on in those articles with no real substantive evidence whatsoever to prove the allegations being made by those people of those journalists quoted. I won’t post all of the content from those sources here because it would take up too much space, but I will give you their source information at the conclusion of this article so you can examine it for yourself.
Also, what I noticed was that every one of those articles written about this subject was written almost verbatim from multiple different sources. That's a red flag in the journalism world. We've seen this type of garbage before, only in other types of stories. Also, they're seemingly all getting their initial "information" from a source that’s known to be pro-Israeli government and has allegedly parroted that government’s talking points about previous stories concerning Palestinian-Israeli stories. And that source is the “Jewish News Syndicate (JNS).” Although I’m not sure one should use the word “syndicate” for part of their title; that’s just my two cents.
But I digress.
The author of the original piece dated June 14, 2023—this article was updated by the same author in May of 2024 and published in the “Jewish Virtual Library,” an affiliate of JNS, and they’re affiliated with the “Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE)"—"What are Arab donors to universities buying for $10 billion?" With a sub-headline that reads, "Sadly, most faculty who agitate against Israel do so without needing such funding as motivation." And the author of that article that all other outlets have piggybacked off is Mitchell Bard, whose bio reads: “[Mitchell Bard] is a foreign-policy analyst and an authority on U.S.-Israel relations who has written and edited 22 books, including ‘The Arab Lobby,’ ‘Death to the Infidels: Radical Islam’s War Against the Jews’ and ‘After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine.’”
And AICE’s first page holds a quote praising their organization by none other than Israel’s current Prime Minister who’s been accused of war crimes in Gaza by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I believe that, working together, we can make history and create a better future for the region and beyond.”
And just below that quote, and another quote by current American president Joe Biden, offering the obligatory statement of how the United States will always include “an unshakeable partnership between our two nations,” it reads,
“The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) was established in 1993 as a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship by emphasizing the fundamentals of the alliance — the values our nations share.”
And just below those words is AICE’s “Mission Statement,” which includes, in part,
“To manage and expand the Jewish Virtual Library, the most comprehensive online resource on Jewish history, politics and culture, to provide a one-stop shop for users from around the world seeking answers to questions on subjects ranging from anti-Semitism to Zionism.”
“To explore issues of common historical interest to the peoples and governments of the United States and Israel.”
“To educate the public about the dangers of the anti-Semitic boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign.”
According to Claire Berlinski, in her January 6, 2011, article, "Agents of Influence,” for the National Review, “Bard is a former editor of the Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (‘AIPAC’) weekly newsletter on U.S.-Middle East policy. Before working for the AIPAC, he was a polling analyst for the George (H.W.) Bush for President Survey Research Group during the 1988 presidential election.” And according to a December 12, 2013, C-SPAN article, Baird (sic) is also “the director of the Jewish Virtual Library.”
And over at the “Media Bias/Fact Check” website, they ranked JNS as “right-center bias.” Which isn’t horrible, but more context is available on that same website that highlights more about the JNS, and it’s not all that flattering.
According to Media Bias/Fact Check,
“These media sources are slightly to moderately conservative in bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor conservative causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information but may require further investigation.
“Overall, we rate the Jewish News Syndicate as right-center biased based on its editorial position in support of the Israeli government. We also rate them mixed for factual reporting due to poor sourcing techniques and the promotion of one-sided propaganda.”
And when attempting to source where their funding comes from, it gets a bit hazy—that is, until we dig further into this fact-checking website’s profile of the JNS.
“Funded by / Ownership
“There is zero information regarding ownership, and there isn’t advertising. However, they claim to be a reader-supported 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. There is no funding information for this website; therefore, it is assumed donations generate revenue.”
One should probably never “assume,” as the other shoe dropped, and it was Sheldon Adelson’s size 8 Bruno Magli.
“Analysis / Bias
“Although JNS uses neutral language in their headlines and articles, they typically source through quotes: ‘Trump: Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was the pinnacle of my first year.’ They also use right-biased sources, such as Israel Hayom. We also found instances where they did not provide hyperlinked sourcing. American business magnate Sheldon Adelson (deceased) owns Israel Hayom. Adelson was also a JNS donor and a large contributor to Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 election campaigns.
“In this review, we found excessive use of loaded emotional wording favoring the Israeli government, such as when the IDF slays dozens of terrorists in the Gaza Strip and the government approves a plan to rehabilitate Gaza-border towns. Further, op-eds frequently favor Israel and denigrate the Palestinians, such as this: where are the ‘peaceful’ citizens of Gaza? In general, the ‘Jewish News Syndicate' holds right-leaning biases and sometimes promotes pro-Israeli government propaganda.”
Although Sheldon Adelson is deceased, his wife, Miriam Adelson, still runs Sheldon’s show. And in a recent interview on the YouTube podcast known as “TRT World,” the interviewer asked “The Grayzone’s” Max Blumenthal—author of four books, two of which garnered him public acclaim with “Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party” in 2009, which made the Los Angeles Times and New York Times bestseller lists and was awarded the 2014 “Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book” for “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel,” which was published in 2013—about Sheldon Adelson’s influence on both domestic and geopolitical outcomes.
“Joe Biden and Donald Trump are a perfect example of who their two top donors are: Joe Biden's top donor is Heim Saban, and Donald Trump's top donor is Sheldon Adelson. Heim Saban says he's a one-issue guy, and his issue is Israel. Heim Saban is a Hollywood billionaire mogul with Israeli roots. Sheldon Adelson is dead, and his Israeli wife has taken over his foundation.
“Adelson said he regretted joining the US military and wished he could have fought for the Israeli military, and he said that he had hope to see a nuclear weapon dropped on Iran; he is the top donor to Trump and to figures like Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio, all of these neoconservative pro-war Republicans. Heim Saban and Sheldon Adelson's foundation work together through something called the 'IAC,' the 'Israel American Committee,' which supplements AIPAC as a bastion of bipartisan pro-settler Colonial Israeli influence not just on Capitol Hill but in state houses across the US.”
And there it is: the ties that bind. An inside look at how your sausage is not only made but packaged, produced, and marketed to you by copious amounts of special interest enterprises.
And not to break my original promise of giving you other sources to compare and contrast with what JNS originally wrote on the subject of Middle Eastern donations to American universities, here they are: “The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy,” “The Jewish Star,” “FOX NEWS,” “KDNL; ABC Channel 30,” “Campus Watch: Middle East Forum,” “New York Post,” “U.S. News,” “The Wall Street Journal,” “FOX Business,” and “City Journal,” just to name a few.
And there you have it. Always double-check the original sources of the information you're receiving, and also make sure other outlets aren't basically cannibalizing or almost plagiarizing one another's stories.