Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA) describes ADL bullying â€“ full speech

Norseman
Published on Feb 12, 2023
Former U.S. Congressman Paul N. â€œPeteâ€ McCloskey, Jr., has had a long history of service to the United States. McCloskey was born and raised in California, graduating from Stanford University. During Korean War service with the Marine Corps, he earned the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.

From 1967 to 1983 he served as a U.S. congressman. He was co-chairman of the First Earth Day, 1970. He was an early opponent of American involvement in the Vietnam War, and the first Republican in Congress to call for the impeachment of President Nixon. In 1972 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican party presidential nomination.

A documentary about McCloskey, narrated by Paul Newman, can be seen at: https://iakn.us/2FkMqTQ

The video above is of a speech he gave in 2000 at a conference for the Institute of Historical Review. The topic of his speech was "Israel, the Anti Defamation League and Free Speech."

By the 1980s the ADLâ€™s main purpose was no longer to try to stop anti-Semitism and bigotry, but instead to discredit any voice that was hostile to the policies of Israel â€“ and not only to discredit people who spoke out against Israel, but to deny them a forum. McCloskey describes their work in spying on Americans.

A transcript of the talk is at:
https://codoh.com/library/document/2996/?lang=en

For more about McCloskeyâ€™s contentious relationship with the pro-Israel lobby, see former Illinois Congressman Paul Findleyâ€™s book, "They Dare to Speak Out." (A documentary about Findley is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBsrVbSyBRo )

A short excerpt of this speech can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSIOIP9fEO4&feature=youtu.be