National Republican Club Hosts Israel-Bashing Authors

Capitol Hill Club set to host Max Blumenthal and Miko Peled

The Capitol Hill Club, a private Republican club in Washington, D.C., whose membership roster includes every Republican in Congress, is hosting an event for anti-Israel authors who claim the “Israel lobby” controls the government.

The event on Tuesday night, titled “Where is the War in Gaza Going?” is slated to feature Max Blumenthal, a writer who has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and anti-Israel activist Miko Peled, who has criticized “spheres of Jew­ish influ­ence here in the U.S.”

According to the invitation, the speakers will provide “unique first-hand knowledge” of the “Israeli lobby, and congressional cravenness.”

Blumenthal and Peled will also “unveil the massive de facto or de jure censorship that has rendered Palestinian viewpoints virtually inaudible in the establishment media amidst the daily thunder of Israeli propaganda,” the invitation said.

It is unclear which member of the Capitol Hill Club is sponsoring the event. Members of the Republican club include lobbyists, campaign staffers, and political consultants, in addition to lawmakers.

The event’s organizer is the Committee for the Republic, which “sponsors speakers monthly on challenges to the American Republic, including the military-industrial complex,” according to its website. The group’s board includes anti-Israel former Republican officials, including ex-ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman.

The Capitol Hill Club declined to comment.

Blumenthal, the son of former Clinton hatchet man Sidney Blumenthal, has a long history of anti-Israel activism and befriending anti-American dictators. He recently floated theories that the Israeli military, not Hamas, was to blame for the Oct. 7 massacres of Israeli civilians. He has also compared the Jewish state to Nazi Germany and defended Hamas terrorism.

Blumenthal’s controversial remarks have drawn criticism even from left-wing activists and groups. The Nation magazine’s Eric Alterman slammed Blumenthal’s 2013 book Goliath as the “The ‘I Hate Israel’ Handbook,” calling his arguments “carelessly constructed” and misleading. Blumenthal was also disinvited from speaking to a far-left German political party.

Peled also has a history of controversial statements. He has called Israel a “terrorist state” and an “apartheid regime.”