Blumenthal's video gained 400,00 views before YouTube removed it for unspecified terms-of-use violations. The "Jewish Telegraphic Agency" quoted Blumenthal as stating: "I won't ascribe motives to YouTube I am unable to confirm, but it is clear there is an active campaign by right-wing Jewish elements to suppress the video by filing a flood of complaints with YouTube". Referring to death threats he had received for publishing the video, he ascribed individuals "emotional need to stop this video by eliminating" him as "a feature of right-wing psychology around the world". Blumenthal saw his interviewees as part of the "indoctrination" of Taglit-Birthright tours intended for diaspora Jews, in which he had himself participated in 2002. Around 2009, he described himself as a "non-Zionist" liberal, and considered the identification of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism as a "cynical ploy by the Israel lobby".