When The Israel Lobby was published, the authors, Walt and Mearsheimer, were smeared as anti-Semites because they dared to talk about Jews exercising influence in the United States. Of course they were goyim (as some non-Jewish critics of Israel now like to refer to themselves with perverse pride). But here is the Reut Institute, a leading thinktank in Israel, offering advice on how to change Israel’s reputation in the face of the delegitimization campaign. Note the emphasis on elites and influence in point 18 (and remember that Reut cultivates Arianna Huffington):
17. Brand Israel – The perception of Israel as a violent country that violates international law enables delegitimizing forces to portray the country as an apartheid, pariah state. Israel’s re-branding can yield strategic implications which will improve its ability to communicate its message and reduce the Delegitimization Network’s ability to achieve its goals. In this context, the importance of international aid should be emphasized (in addition, of course, to its clear moral value).
18. Relationship-based diplomacy with elites and ‘influentials’ – An effective barrier against delegitimization is a network of personal relationships. Working within identified hubs, Israel should aspire to maintain thousands of personal relationships with political, financial, cultural, media, and security-related elites and influentials.
19. Harnessing the Jewish and Israeli Diaspora communities – There are a significant number of Israelis abroad, such as academics, business people, and students. These communities should be harnessed to Israel’s cause before they embark on their international interactions. Additionally, Israel should make a concerted investment in Jewish communities, without taking their commitment for granted.
P.S. The shtadlin, or court Jew, is a traditional power figure in Jewish ghetto life. We are no longer in the ghetto. We must come up with different ways of attaining validation/security in western society.
YEP – it’s much easier to buy corrupt people on the top than convince the public of Israel’s Hasbara propaganda lies.
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com
So true…
It should read: “A guide on to how to sweep the dirt under the carpet on Israeli war crimes.”
Don’t sneer. It is much cheaper, too. Buying the elite works until there is a Black Swan event: when the economy collapses, a war starts or a country is invaded and masses finally pay attention, the results can be ugly.
There is no sympathy from the goyim who were never “cultivated” (for reasons of economy) at the very time such sympathy is desperately needed. This has always been the historical pattern.
You might study the Parsees, a MDM for over 1000 years in India who have apparently cultivated healthier relations with the Hindus around them, given that they have never suffered pogroms.
This is just an extension (new attack mode, attacked the speakers, not the content of the speech) of Brand Israel, new twist since the tourist thing and hasbara have not stopped the rise of, for example, the BDS movement and related solidarity
activity–Finklestein,back in 2006 on Israeli PR that’s been failing even since–”Duetschland Uber Alles” replaced by “Imagine.”
link to normanfinkelstein.com
“…we should seize this opportunity to reframe the debate away from the messy complexities of Israeli politics and Israeli-Palestinian disputes to the simple question the blacklisters-demonizers-slanderers raise about accepting or repudiating Israel’s right to exist. And we should recall, that just as 40 years ago the prospects of freeing Soviet Jewry seemed dim, just as a century ago the dream of a Jewish state
seemed impossible, sometimes the good guys win, conditions improve, grassroots movements shape historical earthquakes.”
link to israelinsider.ning.com
This is the seminal Zionist idea that launched the delegitimization campaign–reduce all objective criticism of Israeli policies, defacto and dejure, to: They’re all anti-semites
who’s sole goal is to erase the valid legal existence of Israel, the state.
The appearance of the delegitimization campaign is a clear and desperate indicator that Israel has been losing the faith of the West that Israel is a “nice state,” a suitable
state member of the nice states group, as distinguished from all the despot states like, say, all the Arab states and China, for example.
The Israeli concern is that one day the US public will get both sides of the I-P story, and when they do, suddenly, Israel will be alone with nothing it its tin cup.
I was looking at part of the report that references the “The Delegitimization Network” that tarnishes Israel’s reputation. So it seems that criticizing Israel is knocking it off it’s pedestal. Seems to me that Israel is doing a fine job itself. Then it goes on to say that: “The Delegitimization Network [is] aiming to turn Israel into a pariah state by undermining its moral legitimacy and ultimately aspiring towards eliminating the ‘Zionist entity”
Maybe just a tad over the top.
“Israel must depend on influential elites in politics, finance, media, to counter delegitimization”
Ah-ha! Now I understand why Witty posts here so much!
Israel is the most dependent country that ever existed.
Because they own nothing that is legitimate.
Everything in their possession has either been robed under the gun or swindled through blackmail.
Brand Israel – it sounds ridiculous all by itself
Is it possible to market your way out of sustained mass murder?
They’re gonna have to change their name :-)
You know, like Black Water did.
Iz?
Jayland?
Shtolenland? Victimland?
I think the above names suit. Me I prefer it to change to ‘Palestine’.
Israel should confirm its legitimacy by active reforms, not denial and not buying into the hatred.
Why waste your breath on the ‘should’ world.
Israel WILL NEVER be accepted into the Middle Eastern fold.
You think Arabs are going to just forget 64 years of Israel slaughtering native and neighbor alike? You think that just because Israel whines about legitimacy and recognition, the people of the middle east will just hand that kind of respect to it?
My advise is to get used to the following because it is the truth:
Israel will NEVER HAVE PEACE OR RECOGNITION. Ever. No one in the region will ever give that to Israel. They hate zionism and they hate Israel.
No one in the mideast wants Israel to exist and that includes the people of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.
And one day this place currently called Israel, just simply won’t exist under that name. I believe the clock has already started counting down.
Nothing America or aipac can do about that – suckers!
Me? I’m alright with Israel’s downfall.
Fuck Israel.
You’re right. Israel has created it’s own death. The US is not gonna assist with Iran, and that will be the end
The future of Israel: link to haaretz.com
So many holes in that stinking sinking ship.
It’s pretty rare that I sympathize with RW on this subject, but you’ve gone and made me do it here, to at least a tiny degree. If that’s your idea of advocacy for a one state solution it needs work–all that comes through is a lot of hatred, to the point where one wonders if you actually want to see reconciliation, peace and equality between the two sides.
I don’t think we should pull our punches regarding Israel’s war crimes or pretend that Israel could have become a Jewish state without ethnic cleansing, because reconciliation requires honesty about the crimes committed, but if you just talk about how much you want to see Israel fall and do it with such glee and never mention reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, it comes across as a lack of interest in the happy ending portion of the story.
Donald,
Let me put it simply. Zionism will never be assimilated/accepted in the middle east because it’s a European ideology. Judaism is already a part of the history of the middle east and doesn’t need to establish or ‘legitimize’ itself. It’s already accepted into the fold.
I’m not worried about Judaism, it’s gonna still be around in the middle east way after zionism is dead and gone.
The problem is zionism/colonialism. And yes I sure as hell will be glad when it’s dead and buried.
And yes, you’re right, it is hatred that I feel. I’m not ashamed to say I hate zionism.
I’m not fond of it myself, but I think you needed to be clearer in your previous post. It’s sloppy to talk about the downfall of Israel–in practice it’s hard to see how a militarily powerful state (with hundreds of nukes) where many of its citizens believe themselves to be under some genocidal threat could come to an end in some dramatic fashion without a huge number of people dying in the process. I’d rather talk about a process of reconciliation (which would involve facing up to some unpleasant truths about their country and that’s where I differ with RW) that might lead to a state where everyone lives together in peace.
Sorry to say but there is a big bad war coming that will re-define the map of the middle east.
That’s the will of the people of the region, both sides.
It’s too late for a 2SS and a one state solution is impossible to work.
Added to that, the current status quo is unsustainable.
To me these are the bare bones of it.
My sympathies are totally with the Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrian – all who’ve been directly suffering death and refugeedom for the past 64 years, since zionism was forced upon them.
“I’d rather talk about a process of reconciliation ”
Me too, but there is no sign that the majority of Israelis have any interest in that, and they are the ones who will have to start.
“that might lead to a state where everyone lives together in peace”
Seems a long way off right now, but people can change if they try.
Israel cannot confirm its legitimacy because it hasn’t got any.
And as for reforms, in 1897 the Zionists said “We are the only ones who matter. The desires and interests of the Muslims, Christians, and Jews who live in Palestine count for nothing.”
The Zionists tell other people that they are of no importance, that they have no value.
How is Israel going to reform that away?
I was just watching some of he Herzliya conference on “Winning the Narrative,” where that guy from the Reut institute was speaking. Am I the only one who finds it weird to see a massive government officials and think tanks of a Middle-Eastern country gathering in a European country to discuss how they can organize hasbara internationally?! These people are openly advocating the manipulation of social media and the enlisting of their citizens and European and American citizens in the service of propagating a state message! Does that not scare, or at least disgust, anyone?
Yeah, it does disgust us, AA. Problem is, here in the USA, too much vital information is kept from the masses by our MSM and federal government.
18. Relationship-based diplomacy with elites and ‘influentials’ – An effective barrier against delegitimization is a network of personal relationships. Working within identified hubs, Israel should aspire to maintain thousands of personal relationships with political, financial, cultural, media, and security-related elites and influentials.
Carl von Clausewitz, the military historian and theorist, discussed what he labeled Centers of Gravity in his military treatise On War:
…Out of these characteristics a certain center of gravity develops, the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends. That is the point against which all our energies should be directed.
He added:
It is therefore a major act of strategic judgment to distinguish these centers of gravity … and to identify their spheres of effectiveness.
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