Hillary Clinton praised a book written by the anti-Israel activist Max Blumenthal in emails released by the State Department on Tuesday, garnering Blumenthal his most prominent public endorsement since David Duke’s website gave another of his books its stamp of approval.
Clinton called Blumenthal’s book Republican Gomorrah—which sought to document radicalism in the GOP—"great" in a Sept. 11, 2009 email to the author’s father, Sidney Blumenthal, a long-time Clinton confidante.
"Max is #10 [on the Amazon bestseller list], now ahead of Glenn Beck; #1 political and history book," wrote the elder Blumenthal.
Clinton replied with a congratulatory note.
"[Max] should be--I just finished the book and it's great. Congrats to all!" she wrote.
A few days later, Clinton emailed Sidney Blumenthal again and asked, "Is Max still rising up the best seller list?"
The book Republican Gomorrah is described as a "bestiary of dysfunction, scandal and sordidmess [sic] from the dark heart of the forces that now have a leash on the [Republican] party."
Since writing the 2009 book, Max Blumenthal has turned his attention to anti-Israel activism. His latest book, Goliath, was published in 2013 and drew parallels between Israel and Nazi Germany.
The book, which included chapters such as "The Night of Broken Glass" and "The Concentration Camp," earned a spot on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of top 10 anti-Semitic slurs of 2013.
The left-leaning writer Eric Alterman also criticized it in a review for the Nation, writing that it "could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club." After the article, Sidney Blumenthal launched an email campaign attacking Alterman.
However, Goliath was reviewed favorably by David Duke’s official website, which called Blumenthal’s work "extremely valuable in teh [sic] study of Jewish extremism, as he is not shy about using his Jewish name and looks to gain access to Jewish extremists in order to document the ugliest side of Zionism."
Max Blumenthal did not respond to a request for comment.