In late 2011, Blumenthal joined Lebanon's "Al Akhbar" newspaper primarily to write about Israeli–Palestinian conflict and foreign-policy debates in Washington, DC. When he left the publication in June 2012 in protest of its coverage of the Syrian Civil War, he considered the newspaper to have a pro-Assad editorial line followed by such individuals as Amal Saad-Ghorayeb. He wrote that it "gave me more latitude than any paper in the United States to write about ... Israel and Palestine", but he had ultimately tired of "jousting with Assad apologists". He added: "In the end, Assad will be remembered as an authoritarian tyrant." Blumenthal formerly contributed weekly articles to the "AlterNet" website, serving as a senior writer from September 2014.