“Support IDF clip - for your blog” said the email.
A nice email from the pretty young lady (thank you, google) who works for an Israeli government organisation raising funds for the Israeli Army (and who had clearly never read my blog) suggested I post a clip on my blog. And she asked so politely I find it hard to say no: here it is. There! My hasbara!
Hasbara? Qu’est ce que c’est?
Hasbara: from ‘lehasbir’, ‘to explain’.
Hasbara is a uniquely Israeli concept, which goes far beyond ‘public diplomacy’ as used by their MFA. It is not only a government-led policy, where the State tries to embellish its image abroad. Israel has elevated hasbara to almost a national duty, the kind that everyone needs to engage in, constantly, whatever they do or say, whomever they speak to, whatever the topic. ‘'Everyday activism' is the euphemism for this constant service to forward a set of ideas.
National effort’ was the term used by journalist Anshel Pfeffer here.
Some use it interchangeably with 'advocacy', 'public relations', or simply 'Israel activism'.
Promoting state propaganda would normally be ‘frowned upon’ in a democracy - even in an autocracy, for that matter. Not in Israel: it’s nearly a virtue.
But the hasbara/propaganda goes beyond embellishing the country’s image - a thing which we could simply consider to be patriotic (albeit a little hypocritical at times) and in which we’ve all engaged at one point or the other; but the purpose - and specificity - of hasbara is to defend Israel’s actions whatever they may be (despite what some will pretend).
The danger of such course of action, of course, is visible to anyone with a little perspective: it suppresses critical thought.
By enlisting people voluntarily or otherwise in the State ‘war effort’ - as hasbara sees that Israel is constantly under media attack and as such in need of 'fighting back' - it is creating an atmosphere where those who choose to think for themselves, and refuse to participate in this blanket justification of everything the government does, are branded as unpatriotic or worse.
Many Israeli and Jewish organisations engage not only in hasbara, but also in hasbara teaching - developing the masses of 'hasbaraniks'.
The Jewish Agency for Israel, a quasi-governmental organisation, does a lot of such work; this Hasbara Handbook they sponsor is a good example of the kind of skills they seek to transfer to their foot-soldiers, and the kind of propaganda they want them to engage into.
And propaganda is not a word they shy away from: the section entitled “Seven Basic Propaganda devices” (I kid you not) explains the basics of opinion manipulation and discussion-murking.
It’s so beautiful I can feel my ears warming up.
Others take the intensive and more expensive way: generous fellowships are awarded to bring over Jewish students from abroad and turn them into Israeli megaphones. Relatively expensive brainwash indeed. Others, more modest, do the same with local courses in North America.
Another type of Hasbara: CAMERA, a pro-Israel group, launched a campaign to
edit Wikipedia entries related to Israel. Read this, it's fascinating.
In a time of war, public advocacy is needed; in a time of massive human rights violations, and the large ensuing international criticism, blind defense à-la-hasbara is much required.
Several weeks ago Haaretz informed us of an Israeli government programme to recruit volunteers to do online hasbara; the war terminology - “an army of bloggers”, said the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption - did not go unnoticed.
I was surprised the Government was so openly organising the ‘civilian’ hasbara effort, rather than just encouraging it without being officially associated to what most people say or write. Clear strategic thinking or despair and brashness, I wasn’t sure.
The article also gave the email address - a government one - to sign up.
I signed up!
A day or two later, I received an email - in Hebrew - from the ministry of Immigrant Absorption, with a basic “thank you for volunteering, we will pass on your email to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc” and my favourite “I hope that, together, we will succeed in changing the anti-Israeli trend on the internet”.
Signed by Yoash Ben Yitzhak, Spokesperson and ‘supervisor for the Hasbara’.
It took them another week to get their act together; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the person of seriously disorganised Alon Gilad ([email protected]) - a dude who puts smiley faces in his work emails - of the Hasbara department of the MFA.
He requested people to sign up to Giyus.org and to download their news tool, which provides alerts for anything regarding Israel with buttons to reply - with the pre-distributed talking points - and to forward the story and comments to politicians and Congressmen with pre-written emails, objecting, whining, or approving and supporting.
For instance an article about the US’s boycotting the Durban II Racism conference gives way to a button that, once clicked, automatically sends an email to the UK prime minister, the German chancellor, the Czech presidency of the EU, the Hungarian president’s office, and the Danish prime minister, asking them to follow suit.
I found this particularly interesting because Giyus - acronym for ‘Give us your united support” is a not-for-profit, defining itself as “a coalition of Jewish and pro-Israeli organizations working together to help the Jewish community voice its opinion in an effective, active manner.”
That the MFA decide to rely on them adds another layer of informality to the process, further taking the commands away from the MFA. Again: laziness, amateurism, or strategy?
This warning from the email I found surprising:
And the talking points?
Well, the MFA wrote their own talking points in a memo sent to their volunteers; nothing too dramatic though, the stuff of Israeli official declarations really.
They complemented their used-up talking points with links external websites such as Aish Ha-Torah (who was behind the racist and anti-Muslim documentary “Obsession”, if you recall) or Bicom, or even extremist blogs.
I was left a little disappointed: I understand the need of the MFA to cover its back and loosen the ties to the ‘end product’, by outsourcing the designation of the bad guys and the formulation of the talking points to others.
But this also allows it to be more extreme, both in the arguments and in the victims of those coordinated hasbaranik attacks.
Luckily, the hasbaraniks are easy to spot: their comments usually follow the "good-article-thanks-for-bringing-it-up-but-the-Israeli-government-is-right-and-you're-wrong-because-of-the-following-talking-points-pasted-below". Check them out on The Guardian's Comment is Free pages, or on BBCNews...
The latest email from the MFA’s Information Department ([email protected]) requested some Hasbara be done with respect to the centenary of Tel Aviv, with this link (there! Another contribution to the hasbara effort!! Where’s my reward??) provided for material.
E-hasbara is bound to improve with time. So should our response. Counter-propaganda; and by which I do not mean to respond in kind. Rather than fighting lies with lies, we need to respond to hasbara with the truth.
But we are distanced in the logistics. Very much so. Until we are capable of leveraging strong support and of developing internet tools that would be reactive and easy to use, we'll be losing the race.
And, frankly, losing a battle to propaganda and lies because they come in an organised format is simply shameful.
A nice email from the pretty young lady (thank you, google) who works for an Israeli government organisation raising funds for the Israeli Army (and who had clearly never read my blog) suggested I post a clip on my blog. And she asked so politely I find it hard to say no: here it is. There! My hasbara!
Hasbara? Qu’est ce que c’est?
Hasbara: from ‘lehasbir’, ‘to explain’.
Hasbara is a uniquely Israeli concept, which goes far beyond ‘public diplomacy’ as used by their MFA. It is not only a government-led policy, where the State tries to embellish its image abroad. Israel has elevated hasbara to almost a national duty, the kind that everyone needs to engage in, constantly, whatever they do or say, whomever they speak to, whatever the topic. ‘'Everyday activism' is the euphemism for this constant service to forward a set of ideas.
National effort’ was the term used by journalist Anshel Pfeffer here.
Some use it interchangeably with 'advocacy', 'public relations', or simply 'Israel activism'.
Promoting state propaganda would normally be ‘frowned upon’ in a democracy - even in an autocracy, for that matter. Not in Israel: it’s nearly a virtue.
But the hasbara/propaganda goes beyond embellishing the country’s image - a thing which we could simply consider to be patriotic (albeit a little hypocritical at times) and in which we’ve all engaged at one point or the other; but the purpose - and specificity - of hasbara is to defend Israel’s actions whatever they may be (despite what some will pretend).
The danger of such course of action, of course, is visible to anyone with a little perspective: it suppresses critical thought.
By enlisting people voluntarily or otherwise in the State ‘war effort’ - as hasbara sees that Israel is constantly under media attack and as such in need of 'fighting back' - it is creating an atmosphere where those who choose to think for themselves, and refuse to participate in this blanket justification of everything the government does, are branded as unpatriotic or worse.
Many Israeli and Jewish organisations engage not only in hasbara, but also in hasbara teaching - developing the masses of 'hasbaraniks'.
The Jewish Agency for Israel, a quasi-governmental organisation, does a lot of such work; this Hasbara Handbook they sponsor is a good example of the kind of skills they seek to transfer to their foot-soldiers, and the kind of propaganda they want them to engage into.
And propaganda is not a word they shy away from: the section entitled “Seven Basic Propaganda devices” (I kid you not) explains the basics of opinion manipulation and discussion-murking.
It’s so beautiful I can feel my ears warming up.
Others take the intensive and more expensive way: generous fellowships are awarded to bring over Jewish students from abroad and turn them into Israeli megaphones. Relatively expensive brainwash indeed. Others, more modest, do the same with local courses in North America.
Another type of Hasbara: CAMERA, a pro-Israel group, launched a campaign toedit Wikipedia entries related to Israel. Read this, it's fascinating.
In a time of war, public advocacy is needed; in a time of massive human rights violations, and the large ensuing international criticism, blind defense à-la-hasbara is much required.
Several weeks ago Haaretz informed us of an Israeli government programme to recruit volunteers to do online hasbara; the war terminology - “an army of bloggers”, said the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption - did not go unnoticed.
I was surprised the Government was so openly organising the ‘civilian’ hasbara effort, rather than just encouraging it without being officially associated to what most people say or write. Clear strategic thinking or despair and brashness, I wasn’t sure.
The article also gave the email address - a government one - to sign up.
I signed up!
A day or two later, I received an email - in Hebrew - from the ministry of Immigrant Absorption, with a basic “thank you for volunteering, we will pass on your email to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc” and my favourite “I hope that, together, we will succeed in changing the anti-Israeli trend on the internet”.
Signed by Yoash Ben Yitzhak, Spokesperson and ‘supervisor for the Hasbara’.
It took them another week to get their act together; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the person of seriously disorganised Alon Gilad ([email protected]) - a dude who puts smiley faces in his work emails - of the Hasbara department of the MFA.
He requested people to sign up to Giyus.org and to download their news tool, which provides alerts for anything regarding Israel with buttons to reply - with the pre-distributed talking points - and to forward the story and comments to politicians and Congressmen with pre-written emails, objecting, whining, or approving and supporting.
For instance an article about the US’s boycotting the Durban II Racism conference gives way to a button that, once clicked, automatically sends an email to the UK prime minister, the German chancellor, the Czech presidency of the EU, the Hungarian president’s office, and the Danish prime minister, asking them to follow suit.
I found this particularly interesting because Giyus - acronym for ‘Give us your united support” is a not-for-profit, defining itself as “a coalition of Jewish and pro-Israeli organizations working together to help the Jewish community voice its opinion in an effective, active manner.”
That the MFA decide to rely on them adds another layer of informality to the process, further taking the commands away from the MFA. Again: laziness, amateurism, or strategy?
This warning from the email I found surprising:
“Please do not forward this Email or any of our emails, if you want
to forward a link, just copy it to a new email”
I wonder why...to forward a link, just copy it to a new email”
A talking point repeated ad verbatim - and ad nauseam - during the war.
Story explained here.
Story explained here.
And the talking points?
Well, the MFA wrote their own talking points in a memo sent to their volunteers; nothing too dramatic though, the stuff of Israeli official declarations really.
They complemented their used-up talking points with links external websites such as Aish Ha-Torah (who was behind the racist and anti-Muslim documentary “Obsession”, if you recall) or Bicom, or even extremist blogs.
I was left a little disappointed: I understand the need of the MFA to cover its back and loosen the ties to the ‘end product’, by outsourcing the designation of the bad guys and the formulation of the talking points to others.
But this also allows it to be more extreme, both in the arguments and in the victims of those coordinated hasbaranik attacks.
Luckily, the hasbaraniks are easy to spot: their comments usually follow the "good-article-thanks-for-bringing-it-up-but-the-Israeli-government-is-right-and-you're-wrong-because-of-the-following-talking-points-pasted-below". Check them out on The Guardian's Comment is Free pages, or on BBCNews...
The latest email from the MFA’s Information Department ([email protected]) requested some Hasbara be done with respect to the centenary of Tel Aviv, with this link (there! Another contribution to the hasbara effort!! Where’s my reward??) provided for material.
E-hasbara is bound to improve with time. So should our response. Counter-propaganda; and by which I do not mean to respond in kind. Rather than fighting lies with lies, we need to respond to hasbara with the truth.
But we are distanced in the logistics. Very much so. Until we are capable of leveraging strong support and of developing internet tools that would be reactive and easy to use, we'll be losing the race.
And, frankly, losing a battle to propaganda and lies because they come in an organised format is simply shameful.
32 comments:
What's with the "we" and "they?" What happened to "I" and "Thou?" (ht M. Buber)
Great post!
Brilliant, Mo! This is another gem from your collection of utter cynicism; another minor contribution to the Arab Cause of genociding the Jews :)
In a Missile East where journalists are tightly controlled by whichever armed faction that happens to have the upper hand; in a Missile East where the notion of Taqiyya was invented and re-interpreted to justify any lie; in a Missile East where Palestinian journalists practically unanimously define themselves as weapons against Jews first and foremost... where blood libels against Jews are invented and pushed on eager Western media...
Walla, Mo, you're right. In Missile East, Hasbara is evil Zionazi propaganda meant to conceal our multiple genocides of Palestinians, our evil Zionist Death Rays/Whores/Boars/Candy/Balloons/Rats/Lasers/etc, our evil and repeated destructions of Dome of the Rock. Hasbara is not, of course, an attempt to explain our actions to the world in the face of constant, determined, ubiquitous stream of lies from our genocidal enemies (to which you happily assign yourself).
And you are the one to expose it! Yes! Amen! Allahu akbar! See how the sons of apes and pigs tremble at your cunning linguistics! You may not wear a bomb belt, you may not be timing qassams to hit Sderot as children are leaving kindergartens, you are not even torturing and executing "collaborators" on the streets for the vile crime of not being eager enough to murder Jews... but it's good to see you're doing your bit in the small way you can.
I am sure Allah will grant you victory and six more million dead Jews before oil money runs out and the Arab world becomes one huge Somalia :)
Abu Saar, *you* are accusing Mohamed of being cynical? I can only assume this comment is a Purim joke.
Otherwise I'm going to have to revise my opinion that you're an obnoxious-but-intelligent guy.
Just for starters, how did you arrive at the opinion that "Palestinian journalists practically unanimously define themselves as weapons against Jews first and foremost..."? Inquiring minds would love to know.
Also, genocide is not verb.
Lisa
Dotty -
ah, good question. I and Thou would surely be better suited for nearly anything.. propaganda functions by us and they, even when the speaker has nothing to do with the us and they in question!
Bint Battuta -
Glad you like it! thanks for the link!
Au Sa'ar - for some reason I just can't get mad at you. Honestly! :)
Funny you should say Somalia though: Daniel Levy has a very good article titled "A short path from Gaza to Somalia" which I recommend.
Oops, sorry. It's on Haaretz; I almost forgot that anyone who doesn't agree with you, you automatically brand as a terrorist supporter...
Lisa:
See, Abu Sa'ar is somewhat my barometer: when I trigger such a long and tentatively insulting response from him, I know something I said must've been right. :)
Back to work now!! :-P
Lisa -
I have accused Mo of cynicism some time ago, half-jokingly. I half-jokingly stand by it: I appreciate a good cynicism as much as the next raccoon. I am always obnoxious and intelligent only when not stoned out of my mind.
I am yet to see a Palestinian journalist who would not define himself as a "resistance fighter" - with the notable exception of Khaled Abu Toameh (if an Israeli Arab living in Israel and working for an Israeli paper can be defined as a Palestinian journalist). There is ample proof in both words and deeds from, well, pretty much all and any Palestinian media. I don't have the time to find links to Palestinian journalists and media organizations openly declaring "resistance" to be their purpose. You're a journo, though, so I am sure you know it as well as me :)
Genocide didn't use to be a verb; it has since got out of the closet and diversified. Think of it as a meme shift, like LOLspeak or Shakespeare's mutilations of English. A language in which nothing new transpires is a dead one, ya Lisa.
Mo - LOL at the barometer :)
Yes! Barometer indeed! You've been gone for too long, mate. I need my cynical feedback!!
Re: Palestinian journalists: you're very mistaken. I am actually yet to see one who defines him/herself as a 'resistance fighter'; their journalistic ethic is far too important for such petty ideological positionings.
Re: Khaled abu Toameh, well, I'll consider him a Palestinian journalist if he considers himself as such!. But I think he, like most journalists here and beyond - just think of themselves as journalists.
I am tempted to tell you about Taghreed El Khodary and Ibrahim Barzak, who covered the war on Gaza from within the Gaza Strip. They wrote in English; google them. Ayman Mohyeldin for AJE. The fantastic work of the people at Ramattan. Etc, etc, etc.
Seriously - there's a world out of there that I urge you to explore. Don't let Missile-East-Myopia (MEM) conceal it from you.
Mo-Ha-Med;
There definitely seems to be radicalization on you part lately. What was once a complex issue for both parties has become 'Lord of the Rings' or 'Star Wars: The Empire strikes back'.
As for the Hasbarah, I completely agree with Mr. Abu'Saar:
What is wrong with the Israelis promoting their POV on the web, using Wikipedia, blogs, and forums?
Why is it OK for Palestinian activists to use the web to organize calls of boycotting Israel, etc' but wrong for Israeli organizations, government affiliated or not, to do the same?
As your research demonstrated, this is not done in hiding, but rather openly, with easy joining access. The fact that it’s well organized doesn’t make it Sinister and Evil, as you present it (and you do, definitely that’s the 'feel' generated by reading your post).
P.S
Lisa, calling someone obnoxious instead of addressing his points is not very journalistic...
G
Mo:
From your list I can only accept El Khodary as a relevant example. Even though she's, well, pretty much American. Mohyeldin is completely American. And calling Barzak objective is an insult to objectivity.
G:
But I AM obnoxious, it's a reasonable observation :)
Abu Saar, my intelligent-but-obnoxious friend, Taghreed was born, raised and educated in Gaza. What makes her pretty much American?
First, I would just like to point out that Giyus means Recruitment in english . I fully understand the israeli Hasbara, again I see it as a key weapon for Israel's survival. It is very hard for the israelis to stand still while watching the whole world standing against the israeli actions in the west bank and Gaza.
What I do hate about the Hasbara is the constant blame for the others. If an organization in Norway organized an event to support the orphans in Gaza , the israeli response would be :"Anti-Semitism on the rise". If Google organic search results show pro-palestinian websites first when searching keywords related to arab-israeli conflict they will end up getting mad at Google's search algorithm.
It is the constant accusation that something is wrong with the event/person/Search Engine/country/organization/demonstration when that "thing" isn't satisfying israel that I hate the most.
Abu Sa'ar:
You have a full misunderstanding for al-taqiyya . What about al-taqiyya in Judism?:)
Mo, I don't see why hasbara should be made to sound so cynical. Certainly both sides to the conflict have right, and a duty, to present their point of view to the public. Organized hasbara is an unfortunate necessity simply because so many people on both sides are ignorant of the facts.
But giving out talking points so that the blogosphere and twitter universe become deluged with canned and unthinking responses seems to me to be a bad way to convince any thinking person of anything. While it may rack up points in the battle over who has more on-line supporters, it the end intelligent and truly curious people will be turned off. Better for each side to make the facts (as they see them) and narratives and defenses easily accessible to whoever wants and needs them, and allow people to formulate their own blog posts, twitters, and op-eds.
Khaled -
A milder version of taqiyya was indeed invented in Judaism and for kind of similar purposes (to hide one's religion to avoid death).
It never developed into an accepted religious sanctification of any lie for any religion-related purpose, though. Not that I know of, maybe it did in some obscure sect or something - I am not an expert on Judaism. It's a boring religion without the sex and violence that are the charms of Islam. NM, though - I brought taqiyya up mostly because it seemed to fit amusingly in the rant. Kind of like accusing Mo of being a cunning linguist :)
As for Hasbara - exactly. Israelis suspect that the Arab media and, frankly, almost any Arab-influenced, Jews-related communique is just another weapon used by Arabs to further the Arab Cause of genocide. Not surprising, really, since most of these communiques are just that. Every time I see another fat, well-dressed woman from Gaza, surrounded by her countless fat, well-dressed progeny on the ruins of a Hamas outpost - weeping and screaming about the outpost being their home and about how hungry and poor and obviously genocided they are - I care a little less about Palestinians and believe them a little bit less. By now, I care more about silicone flakes on Mars than I do about Palestinians and I would sooner believe Madoff than a Palestinian official/journalist/commenter/etc.
And yeah, there are plenty of moronic protests by pro-Israeli activists. I don't know why Jews are so terrible at administration. Should have got a German to handle Hasbara, we'd have the world fawning at us :)
Mo and Lisa:
I was wrong about El Khodary. Pardon my inattentiveness, she's Palestinian rather than pretty much American. I will just have to invest in research and provide links on the explicit anti-Israeli non-objectivity of the overwhelming majority of Palestinian journalists. Kind of silly as it's proving the blithely obvious. But mind you that my starting point on journalism is that most o'them should be tarred and feathered for sabotage of humanity; I quit my journalism studies because they were just so damn immoral. Arab World journalists tend to be even less burdened by objectivity or professional ethics (5 on 1 to 10 Pravda Scale) than their Western counterparts; Palestinian journalists do not seem to be aware of these foreign notions (12 on 1 to 10 Pravda Scale). Yes, they are not a uniform group and as such have their own exceptions (despite my literary exaggeration ) - but exceptions they are.
A day shall come when the avenging ghosts of Anthony Blair and Oriana Fallaci will come ariding from Journo afterlife and spill their wrath on what passes for that profession nowadays; terrorist stringers will be thrown into the deepest Pit of Rejects; "journalists" who never set foot in the places they write about will squirm, impaled on discarded pens and scorned by ten thousand Winston Churchills.
I meant Eric Arthur Blair, of course. Pfft.
Mo -
As for Mr. Levy... what a strange and unusual world he seems to inhabit! I wonder how he managed to get through the looking glass.
In addition, he seems to be suffering from a mental debility of some sort: equating the humanitarian situation in Somalia to that in Gaza while obviously being aware of both requires Helen-like cerebral processing.
G,
You used 'sinister'; I cannot think of a better adjective. There is something truly sinister about the organisational system that hasbara follows.
More in the next paragraph. :)
And, radicalisation, you say? Hmm, interesting comment. I'll surely keep an eye on myself. Thank you.
Haim, et al.:
We can distinguish between nationalistic defense of one's country, public diplomacy which countries engage in at some level, and the whole new level of state propaganda that hasbara is.
The State-led enterprise recruiting civilians as its foot-soldiers is reminiscent of totalitarian states, no less.
Furthermore, the content of hasbara IS sinister. It isn't PR. Not is it 'explaining the country's positions'. It's virulent attacks on anyone who disagrees, by email-spamming, by lies, insults, whatever gets the job done.
You are right, Haim, both sides are entitled to their narratives, opinions, points of view; and it's fair game to disseminate them.
But that's not what the MFA, what Giyus, what HelpUsWin are doing. That's just state propaganda coupled with intimidation.
And that's why I'm so critical.
Khaled
You need to filter Abu Sa'ar's vitriol. :) I, too, considered explaining what Taqiya is, it's origin, and more importantly its complete irrelevance both to the modern era and to the immense majority of Muslims, and more importantly that it is a self-defense mechanism, when concealing one's identity from the enemies was necessary to keep one's head on their shoulders.
Then I decided it wasn't worth it, because he wasn't even asking about that ;) Kinda like when he accuses Arabs of genocide against Jews: I let it pass because it's just a provocative tangent..
Abu Sa'ar:
Fallaci? Who calls Muslims animals, who wants to put them in ghettos, expel them from Europe? That's your criteria for good journalism? Gosh your criteria are low.
And frankly - you are in no position to pass moral judgments on Palestinian journalists. B'emet, dude.
Add to this that I find interesting that you're altering your attacks from "define themselves as weapons of resistance" to "non-objectivity". I'm guessing you realised how hollow your accusations were? If so, good!
And, no sex in judaism? From Shir-ha-Shirim to megilat Esther, no shortage of eroticism in Judaism..
You are hereby banished to Jewish day school all over again.
Also: Don't be rude to my readers. And don't you dare make fun of my linguistics!
And Levy didn't say Gaza was Somalia - he argued that it was heading there. And that Israel doesn't want to be neighbour to a failed state. Reasonable, no?
(PS - Good laugh at the Pravda index. I'll use that one. :)
Mo -
I know what taqiyya is, thank you very much. For the majority it is indeed irrelevant; for a fair number of mujahideen it isn't. I am better versed in Sharia than in Halacha for the aforementioned reason of it being more interesting. If I had the time I would engage in a discussion on the evolution (or corruption, some would say) of Islamic and other theology.
Which brings me to your misunderstanding - when I was talking about Judaism having less sex and violence, I wasn't talking about the holy books. No Jewish armies raped and massacred their way across the globe: Solomon came close (but no cigar) while the conquest of Canaan was a minor localized scuffle. There is no Jihad as one of the pillars of Judaism. Judaism is all "here's a bunch of arbitrary laws, now study and obey them!" while Islam is all "here's a bunch of arbitrary laws, now go and massacre the infidels!" :)
Fallaci had a long and illustrious career as a journalist. Her scathing invective was like a scalpel blade of clarify, laying bare the idiocies and corruptions of tyrants and elected leaders alike. Disagreeing with her personal views (that she acquired in thee final stages of her long and prolific life)is one thing; disregarding her journalistic work because of them is just foolish. One can disagree with, say, Machiavelli's views on numerous things - it doesn't make his work any less groundbreaking and sublime.
I am, alas, in no position to pass water on Palestinian journalists. For judgment I am well-situated :)
I will banter more later on :)
I don't think you need to worry about Hasbara---in the propaganda wars the Arabs are waaaaayyy ahead.
As for spamming, insults, "lies", mass emails....hmmmmm....and do you also object to Moslem "activists" screaming "Death to the Jews," beating up Jewish kids, firebombing Jewish schools and synagogues, threatening journalists and cartoonists with death......knowing you, I'm sure you find this behavior reprehensible also....my point being that while mass spamming, insulting email is not nice, it's still not as awful as what happens in Europe every time the Moslem mobs have a temper tantrum. In every country in western Europe, Jews are warned by officials not to wear a kippah or anything else "identifiably Jewish" because by doing so, we make ourselves targets of Moslems......gee, guys, spamming is nothing compared to this kind of behavior...
But thanks for the link, in any event. I'll check them out.
And will someone please explain why Obsession is racist? I keep hearing this, but I haven't seen it and no one has explained how race enters into it.
If you go with the basic definition of hasbara -- as an explanation, not as propaganda -- you actually do a pretty decent job of hasbara!
The hasbara that's needed by Israel is not blind hasbara, "right or wrong, Israel is right," but rather hasbara that tells it like it is -- which includes some things for which Israel deserves credit, as well as some things that are not so nice.
Israel has been the victim of a lot of vicious press that tells lies or half-truths (like the supposed bombing of a UN school in Gaza). The proper response from any self=respecting blogger, journalist or other commentator is not to be a blind mouthpiece of propaganda for a party line, but rather to bring a fresh and balanced perspective to a complex situation.
Reb Barry - well thank you sir. :)
I agree. There are Israeli blogs that tell it like it is - Lisa Goldman is one of the first Israelis I read, and, as you say, there was credit for the good stuff and honest discussion of what was less so.
The UN school has been bombed in Gaza, that is a fact. (actually not one but three schools; one had the most casualties though, and was well mediatised).
The emails i get from the Government hasbara office are flabbergasting, and really ask people to regurgitate talking points, use certain terminology (ex: "use the words 'peace', 'children' frequently") and basically put forward a certain set of ideas regardless of what goes on on the ground.
Aliyah06
Yes, I object to all that you mention. Totally. (I wouldn't have used the same terminology though.)
But what does that have to do with my post?
and Obsession is a hideous piece of propaganda work that demonises Muslims and encourages people to hate them - or worse.
Abu Sa'ar
Taqiya is a concept I first learned about from reading Islam-haters and such. It's one of those obscure concepts that someone unearthed to use against Muslims, pretending that it was an underground ideology or something whereas it's completely irrelevant. And FYI, it's a concept born in Shiism and therefor is irrelevant to the Sunnis out there.
And, fyi, Jihad is not a pillar of Islam. I really wish you guys would be willing to listen a bit more, rather than perpetuate the same nonsense you're being told.
And Muslim armies did not 'rape and massacre their way across the globe'. Seriously, dude. The rules of engagement of the armies of the early Muslim era are beyond remarkable. "Harm no elderly, no woman, no child; harm no livestock, burn no trees. Respect places of worship. Do not begin the fight; only fight back. Do not fight those who do not fight you (ie, civilians).'
and that's off the top of my head, the list of rules is much longer.
Every single one of those rules, however, joyfully transgressed by the Israeli army.
As for Fallaci - she fails all criteria of objectivity as a journalist. as a writer, she may be palatable. Beyond that though, she deserves a place in the dustbin of history as yet another fascist.
Mo,
Im really surprised about the amount of energy you're ready to waste to reply to all that nosense comments...
Anyway, you do it great.
Bravo!
"But what does that have to do with my post?" Sorry for being obtuse--point was, you shouldn't worry about hasbara--Arab propaganda seems to be far more successful since it has mobilized street mobs to chant hate in unison, riot, threaten, and engage in actual violence against ordinary Jews walking the street and/or anyone else their handlers disagree with. So however silly Israeli government hasbara talking points are, it is quite tame compared to the hate-filled garbage issued by Hezbollah, Hamas and other hate-mongers.
OK, I won't watch Obsession, although I was curious--I'll take your word for it. Now, what can the Arab world do to remove such hate-inspiring filth like Horseman Without A Horse, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a Russian government forgery designed to make peasants riot against the Jewish minority and drive them into exile or kill them) or the other antiSemitic media?
Just like it would be hard to have a dialogue with people who demonize you for being a Moslem, based on something like Obsession, its hard to reach out and make peace with people who educate their children to believe Jews are the spawn of the devil, drink children's blood at Passover, and that Moslem's Divine Mission in life should be to kill us, no?
The Israeli government may be peddling hasbara, but the Moslem voices sound like they're peddling hatred. Which is far more damaging to Arab society and the peace process than mere hasbara (which no one pays any attention to anyway).
Peace, achi. Pray for it, and it will come?
Aliyah06
Right, I see your point.
On the other hand, I see a serious difference between hasbara and the propaganda you refer to.
The latter is produced and consumed locally. It's basically people convincing themselves of what they already believe. Frankly nothing too impressive - or even worth following.
Hasbara is aimed at outside audiences. And, at times, it stoops to the level of the nasty propaganda you referred to -- but pretends to be reality.
And it's much, much better organised, more influential, and as such more dangerous.
You are right: it is hard to reach out to people who believe you're the worst people in the world.
But honestly, most of the anger and hatred is directed primarily at Israelis, not at Jews. Little difference, you may think; but when you realise that we are repeatedly taught that Moses is a big guy in Islam, that the prophet married a Jewish woman, etc etc - you'll realise that the 'hatred' is more circumstantial than perennial, and is closely related to the actions of the State of Israel rather than to Jews being Jews.
Reason to hope, I guess.
(and the whole drinking the blood of children stuff, horns, etc is actually the European anti-semitic myths. These stories just don't exist in the Arab world.)
(BTW - Horseman without a Horse, I clearly recall, was scheduled at 4 am on television. I actually don't know anyone who's watched it...)
I'll pray for it, achoti ;). But honestly, I don't see it coming any time soon.
Mo -
Taqiyya - I wasn't referring to Shia or Sunni in particular. And as I said, it is a minor issue I brought up solely because it has been used in recent years by mujahideen infiltrating the West.
Jihad - a pillar for Ismailis and equivalent to that for Shia. For Sunni it's not a pillar but sure is important. Although some (obscure) Sunni scholars did and do refer to it as a pillar.
Muslim rules of engagement - true on one hand. On the other hand, you have obligatory genocide of mushrikoon. And Muhammed's own exploits as described by his followers. The good thing about Islam is that it's so self-contradicting you can take pretty much any position and justify it. Just look at the genocide of the Hindus at the hands of invading Mughals. On the other hand you have Salah ad-Din's comparatively humane behaviour.
Frankly, I have had a few months long argument with a Hizb ut-Tahrir member about this. We shot volleys of suras at each other, fenced with quotes from various ahadeeth and sirah. It really ended in a draw (although technically I won - the HuT mujaheed vanished, hopefully into a prison).
Off I run again.
Dear Mohamed, Israeli bloggers don't need to hide their faces like you.
Israel is constantly under Propaganda war.
Remember Farfur the Palestinian suicidal mouse?
Remember how Egyptian perceive Israel?
Egyptian and most Arabs perceive Israel in two mods:
Under rated,scum of the earth,should kiss Muslim ass. OR
Super Humans (Will be in Cairo until tea time... remember? you wrote it yourself).
Hasbara its not one way talking like you dear Egyptian propaganda does, people should discus ideas and opinions and that the purpose of Hasbara.
But wait, I remember, Egyptian should not talk to a Jew, i might change you opinion.
HAHAHAHA muslim rules of engagement is almost as oxymoronic as muslim truth. Riiight, it was the protocol of "do not initiate" that landed the Moors in France and muhammad in mecca and medina (where he killed 600 innocent people). I think i'll just stop right there.
Hmm, the Moors were in Spain - where they founded an amazing civilization which has endured the test of time. They never reached France, but were defeated at the Pyrenees.
Muhammad was born in Mecca. He left to Medina after Muslims were persecuted and tortured in Mecca.
Yes, you should stop right there indeed.
Dear Mo-ha-med.
I fail to understand your response, I don't know how the History of Muslims in Spain is relevant to our discussion.
There is of course a line of propaganda: Jews lived well under Muslim regime once, why not again.
To this line of reasoning i can only say that Jews lived under a progressive rule of that time and Arabs enjoyed a golden age in their history. Today's current Arabic situation cannot be called Golden or in other optimistic name, while Jew immigrate to Israel, Arabs immigrate outside their home land, i think that sufficient to prove that something is not alright in their home countries.
Interesting to point out that many Arabs try to immigrate to Israel by marring local Arabs girls or men.
I think this is an interesting matter: Why an Arabs want to immigrate to Israel?
The Egyptian politician discussed this matter and see it as a threat to national security.
Mishkafofer --
I didn't bring up the history of Muslims Spain; Anonymous wrote about the 'moors in france' so i was correcting him/her. Even then, i didn't make an argument about Jews living under a Muslim regime. It's irrelevant.
And, no, it's obviously not a happy time for citizens of Arab countries.
As for Arabs trying "to immigrate to Israel by marring local Arabs girls or men" - we're talking about barely a handful of people here, hardly a phenomenon.
Hello Mo-ha-med
I understand that talkback system on your blog is not sofisticated as it should be. Blogger should improve it, users cannot respong to a specific talkback.
It is indeed. It's in times like these that i have severe wordpress envy.
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