It seems like a version of this article comes out every six weeks or so. From the Reuters article “Israel strives to re-brand image“:
Since its founding in 1948, Israel has placed a special emphasis on “Hasbara” a Hebrew word describing the drive to explain how its actions, whether military or diplomatic, are justified and meet the highest moral standards.
Yet Israel is inextricably associated with conflict and war, and perceived by some critics as arrogant and cruel in its treatment of the Palestinians and its creation of settlements on occupied land which are deemed illegal under international law.
“Unfortunately, perceptions of Israel have always been nasty,” Israeli deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon conceded in an interview.
Maybe this advertisement that Richard Silverstein posted will help.
Arie Brand
"Unfortunately, perceptions of Israel have always been nasty," Israeli deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon conceded in an interview.
This is simply not true. For a long term the idea conjured up by "Exodus", that of a pioneer state in which the desert was made to bloom, prevailed. Only very gradually has this image, post 1967, been tarnished by the horrible realities of the occupation.
Ayalon tries to capitalize on the idea of the eternally misunderstood and persecuted Jew.
Svet gornisht hilfen.
The Silverstein post was two weeks ago.
It is a testament to Israeli intransigence, arrogance, cruelty, and complete indifference towards human life of the Arab variety that whenever they carry out or enable massive war crimes against a civilian population, such as in Lebanon in the '80s (Sabra, Shatilla), or Gaza in 2009, and many places and times in between, there is never a shred of regret or soul-searching on thier part; rather, there is the birth of a new project to recast their image in a favorable light for world opinion – spinning damage control. Fortunately, more and more of the American population are now becoming aware of what the rest of the world has long known: this is a racist state.
PM
propaganda needs to keep flowing regularly for it to stand a chance at being successful….
weird re branding of the mondoweiss site in the comment section…
Paul Newman is dead. And he really was just an actor. Gradually the curtain is being drawn. Behold the horrid visage of the
Wizard of Oz.
Israel kills Palestinians when they breathe out and takes their land when they breathe in. Logic dictates that the conflict will only be resolved if and when those terrorist Palestinians will stop breathing.