By | August 19, 2024
Israel too often fails to identify, and disseminate, the information most useful to its public relations campaign. In the same way, when faced with endless claims about the “occupied West Bank,” Israeli spokesmen seldom go on the offensive; now it should. First, it must explain the Mandate for Palestine’s express provisions to “encourage close settlement by Jews on the land.” What land? the spokesmen should ask rhetorically, and answer their own question — “the land that the League of Nations assigned to be part of the future Jewish state — all the land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea.”
The West Bank (known since Biblical times as Judea and Samaria, but renamed as the “West Bank” by Jordan in 1950, in an obvious attempt to efface the Jewish connection to the land) is not “occupied” by Israel; it belongs by right, because of the Palestine Mandate, and 3500 years of history, to Israel. It had been “occupied” by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, but after the Six-Day War, Israel was able to finally exercise its pre-existing right to that land. Israel’s PR spokesmen should always be on the offensive, insisting on Israel’s right to all the land “from the river to the sea” and explaining that it will not give away any of its already minuscule territory — it includes one-six-hundred-and-thirtieth of the land area that the twenty-two Arab states possess — in order to create a twenty-third Arab state. But, those same spokesmen should say, Israel would be willing to allow the Palestinian Arabs a large degree of autonomy. To quote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lapidary formulation, “I’m certainly willing to have them [the Palestinian Arabs] have all the powers that they need to govern themselves, but none of the powers that can threaten us.” That is both memorable, and for many people, eminently reasonable.
Mitchell Bard makes some useful recommendations here: “Preparing for the coming PR war,” by Mitchell Bard, JNS, August 8, 2024:
We know Israel will be accused of disproportionality, provoking a refugee and humanitarian crisis, denying health care, and committing “massacres” and “genocide.” Israelis will be charged with being aggressors and compared to Nazis. The usual epithets unrelated to the war will be tossed around, such as comparing Israel to South Africa and accusing it of “settler-colonialism.”
The Israelis need to have spokesmen who possess complete fluency in English, are articulate, lucid, able to think fast on their feet, and well-versed in debate. These spokesmen have to speak to the world immediately after an event, before the Palestinian version takes hold in the public mind. For example, the recent attack on a building in Gaza was described by Hamas as a “school” before the IDF made a statement. The Israelis should not have waited for Hamas to describe that attack, but immediately, just after it took place, Israeli spokesmen should have told the world that “the IDF struck a school-and-mosque complex earlier today in Gaza City, in the part of the building was being used as a Hamas command-and-control center. We have identified by name nineteen of those killed who were Hamas members and within a day or two should be able to identify many more Hamas members who were killed. Meanwhile, we urge the media to withhold repeating Hamas-supplied figures on casualties. It should remember the journalistic fiascos of that nonexistent ‘massacre at Jenin’ where ‘500 civilian casualties’ ended up being reduced to ’52 casualties, at least 45 of them Hamas members.’ Or how those ‘500 civilians’ supposedly killed by an Israeli airstrike at Al-Ahli Hospital turned out to be 50 civilians killed by a missile launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad at Israel, that misfired and landed, not on the hospital, but in a parking lot next to the hospital. The media need to be repeatedly reminded to be on their guard about accepting Hamas’ version of events.”
You are calling for the Jewish state to become a terror state
Dreuveni
That’s the response of political bankruptcy which you represent but we knew that
McDermott is in the right direction but there are some problems
The real problem is that the government of Israel is a government of the bosses regardless of who wins the bourgeois election
Just like America… whichever side wins. The bosses keep the power.
Israel is a complete failure because it’s leadership is a complete failure
Israpundit was set up and was a coalition of interests so then belman could rapidly choke it up. Peloni reflects all that.
It is totally in failure.
More interested in stoking the cold war embers
As is jihadwatch and McDermott should look at its own bankruptcy there
Robert Spencer puts preserving decaying capitalism above all other things INCLUDING ISRAEL and the discussion to articles there is the discussion of flunkeys
The point is that the Jewish state is so tied up in deep hatreds among Jews nothing positive can or will emerge
The lesson that should be taken to heart by Jews is how Leon Trotsky and Lenin taking the lead aided Jews to vanquish the huge pogrom affliction of Jews in Ukraine area 1919 to 1923
WHICH WAS FORERUNNER TO THE HOLOCAUST
But noone in Israel, israpundit or with sites like jihadwatch have the political perspective to do that. They hate Trotsky so deeply they avoid this seminal period in Jewish history like the plague
Jews will return to Trotskyism AS THEY THEN DID or they will perish
I agree whole-heartedly with the sentiment of this article but would add a little more. Israel is often accused of genocide, mass indiscriminate killings, poisoning the wells, denying medical care, food and fuel, and so on. It’s time for Israel to take them at their word and actually do these horrific things for a predetermined period of time. Israel should tell the world that they intend to do what they are being accused of and start shelling and bombing indiscriminately, denying all the things they are accused of not providing and then going through with the threat.
A period of two weeks might be adequate.
That is the only way that anyone will ever learn. This is akin to a mother telling her bothersome kids that there will be no mobile phones, TV or candy for a predetermined period of time and then sticking to her guns!
How often have we seen this minimally invasive behavior adjustment carried out?
All too seldom.
The whole world would be up in arms immediately, even when Israel would tell them that the “punishment” period is predetermined and dependent on behavior improvement. The Arabs have never stopped short of kicking their opponents on the ground after the bell.
As far as all the false reporting that is presented to the world is concerned, stop presenting the facts at the bars in the safety of downtown Tel Aviv where no-one is in danger of being indiscriminately killed by a Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi or Iranian missile, aimed on purpose on civilian areas, because Israel makes every effort to protect its own. Instead, they should all be bussed to the front to see, with their own eyes, what is going on. If they still can’t get the news right, the busses need to get a little closer. Since reporters are pathologically unable to present the facts as given to them by the Israeli authorities, they should be brought to a position where they can verify the facts for themselves. Reporters who insist on getting it wrong should have their press identification confiscated and shown the boarding gate. Sure, there is “freedom of the press” but when that turns into libel, “freedom of denial of access” to the press should be brought into play. Like most other countries around the world, even Israel has the right to keep some things away from the public eye. By the way, US law doesn’t apply directly in Israel, only through the Supreme Court.