In an interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky accused the media of focusing "on issues which are pretty marginal."

U.S. intellectual Noam Chomsky has declared that "Israeli intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done."

In an interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Chomsky accused the media of focusing "on issues which are pretty marginal," using scapegoats to divert attention from the real structural problems of society and democracy.

"Did the Russians interfere in our elections? An issue of overwhelming concern in the media. I mean, in most of the world, that's almost a joke," said Chomsky. "Israeli intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done."

In 2015, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the U.S. Congress to try to undermine Obama's policy on Iran. The end result was renewed opposition to the "nuclear deal," an agreement current U.S. President Donald Trump is now trying to dismantle.

The TV broadcast of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint meeting of the US Congress, is run in an electronics store in Jerusalem, Israel, 03 March 2015. Photo | EFE

Speaking at the time, Netanyahu said: "Obama's stance... is expressed in unacceptable and threatening phrases. That deal would not prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them."

Chomsky said: "Did Putin come to give an address to the joint sessions of Congress trying to... calling on them to reverse U.S. policy, without even informing the president?

"Their own representatives pay no attention to their voices. They listen to the voices of the famous one percent: the rich and the powerful, the corporate sector.

"You can predict the outcome of a presidential or congressional election with remarkable precision by simply looking at campaign spending... Lobbyists practically write legislation in congressional offices.

"So, if you're concerned with our elections and how they operate and how they relate to what would happen in a democratic society, taking a look at Russian hacking is absolutely the wrong place to look."

Chomsky also addressed relations between the U.S. and Russia, saying Trump is right when he says they should improve even if the U.S. committed "the worst crime of the century in the invsaion of Iraq, much worse than anything Russia has done."

The U.S. linguist Noam Chomsky (r) and Uruguay's former president Jose Mujica (l) take part in the "Challenges for the Construction of Solid Democracies" conference in Montevideo, Uruguay. July 17, 2017. Photo | EFE

"Right at the Russian border, there are very extreme tensions that could blow up anytime and lead to what would in fact be a terminal nuclear war, terminal for the species and life on Earth," Chomsky said.

He also spoke about the U.S. president's policies on global warming: "the most dangerous and destructive" issue facing the planet.

"Donald Trump... is perfectly aware of the dangerous effects, in the short term, of global warming," said Chomsky, pointing out that Trump recently asked the Irish government for permission to build a wall to protect his golf course there from rising sea levels.

"I don't know what word in the language... that applies to people of that kind, who are willing to sacrifice... the existence of organized human life... so they can put a few more dollars in highly overstuffed pockets. The word 'evil' doesn’t begin to approach it," Chomsky concluded, adding that these are the issues the media should be addressing.