When Victims Rule (pdf)

JEWISH INFLUENCE IN THE MASS MEDIA (PT. 2)
In 1986 Ari Ben-Menashe, a controversial figure who asserted an identity as
an Israeli undercover agent and arms dealer, claimed that he had dealt directly
with Maxwell as a “sayan” (Jewish “assistant” for the Mossad) in soliciting his
help for an Israeli coverup, to impugn actual photographs taken inside Israel’s
nuclear weapons plant by defector Mordechai Vanunu as fraudulent. As Seymour
Hersh tells it:
“Maxwell made it clear at the brief session, Ben-Menashe recalled,
that he understood what had to be done about the Vanunu story. ‘I
know what has to happen,’ Maxwell told Ben-Menashe. ‘I have already
spoken to your bosses.’” [HERSH, p. 312]
Whether this interchange was true or not (some have challenged Ben-Menashe’s
credibility), Maxwell’s Daily Mirror printed Vanunu’s true story as “a
hoax or something even more sinister – a plot to discredit Israel.” [BOWER,
p. 462] Maxwell, a British citizen, notes Seymour Hersh, “was well known for
his closeness to Israel’s top leadership,” and even ordered that the Vanunu photographs
be delivered to the Israeli embassy. [HERSH, p. 312] Maxwell’s funeral
in Jerusalem was attended by the most powerful Israeli government officials,
including prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, and cabinet ministers Ariel Sharon,
Moshe Arens, Ehud Olmert, and Shimon Peres. President Chaim Herzog was
among Maxwell’s eulogizers, noting his rise as a media mogul, thus “influencing
a large sector of mankind in many countries.” [LYNFIELD, p. 7] “Regaled at
his graveside by the Israeli government as a hero,” notes Tom Bower, “he was
condemned in London as a fraud.” [BOWER, p. xiv] Maxwell’s lawyer in Israel,
Yaacov Ne’eman, eventually became the Israeli Finance Minister under
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [MACHLIS, p. 30] In 1995 Maxwell’s
widow was selected by the American Zionist Youth Federation to be the Grand
Marshall for New York’s Salute to Israel parade.
Maxwell’s intrigues were diverse. Nicholas Davies, the former Foreign Editor
at Maxwell’s Daily Mirror, notes that “for decades Maxwell had been involved
with the KGB, not, as far as is known, as an active agent or in spying activities, but
according to KGB sources in Moscow, he acted as a conduit, a banker, ‘laundering’
the KGB’s money outside the Soviet Union.” [DAVIES, N., p. 7]
Another Jewish entertainment/media mogul in Britain over the last few decades
has been Lew Grade (born Louis Winogradsky). Grade founded the Associated
Television Corporation (ATV) and was the Managing Director of
ACC (Associated Communications Corporation), which owned ATV. Grade
built the largest chain of theatres in the world. His brother, Bernard Delfont
(born Boris Winogradsky), became the CEO of EMI’s entertainment division
and a nephew, Michael Grade, became Director of Programming for the BBC
as well as the CEO of Channel 4 and the director of First Leisure. By the 1960s,
notes Michael Pye, “the Grades were the most powerful force in British show
business, the three brothers [Lew, Leslie, and Bernard Delfont at their company
called the Grade Organization] had television in the Midlands, a string of London
theatres, and a vast agency business.” [PYE, p. 234] In 1980, music critic
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