Words seem to lose their meaning among Western leaders when it comes to Palestine.

Phil Weiss and Yakov Hirsch discuss the cultural sources of pro-Israel movements in American politics. Hirsch examines what he calls “hasbara culture” – the ways that a discourse of Jewish victimhood has conquered Jewish, Israeli, and even American political culture.

Mohammed El-Kurd shares his lessons from engaging with the Western press, and how Palestinians can most effectively tell their story: “Our mission in the coming period should not only be legitimizing the Palestinian right to resist, but also legitimizing his or her right to feel anger when our land and rights are violated.”

“In Hebron, I saw what to me looked like two Americans coming towards us, but they were escorted by four or five Israeli soldiers with rifles. And I was hoping to have a conversation with them. But before I got too close– the rifle kind of came out, to push me away, when it was clearly evident that I’m a tourist. It was an unnecessary reaction. Because I wasn’t at all threatening. But these were American dignitaries, and I think it was part of the deal. To illustrate this is a dangerous place. ‘Okay, we’ll take you to Hebron, but you need to have a five-soldier escort.’ That’s the narrative that is played up. Our security is paramount no matter what happens.”

Pro-Israel advocates are attempting to sanitize new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s 2013 quote, “I’ve killed many Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that.” Jonathan Ofir shows that not only is this campaign lying, but Bennett’s statement is actually even worse than it appears.

The Israel Fellow for Carnegie Mellon Hillel flew into a rage when two Muslim student leaders refused to endorse a propaganda-filled “fact finding” trip to Israel. They say the fellow’s response serves as a microcosm of Zionist behavior and attitudes.

Park Avenue Synagogue’s Rabbi Neil Zuckerman expressed worshipful feelings about his Israeli soldier son’s M16 because it represents the “miracle” of Jewish power.

The US press is finally making room for Palestinian voices, with a stunning op-ed by Refaat Alareer in the NYT about how it feels to be pounded by missiles in Gaza. And Rula Jebreal tells MSNBC that Palestinians inside Israel experience “Trumpism on steroids.” But Israel supporters fight back, with Bari Weiss saying that killing innocent children is the price of having a state.

The New York Times runs “hasbara” or Israeli propaganda about coexistence in Haifa, including humans with wild boars. But Alice Rothchild writes that boars are actually a tool of occupation: Jewish settlements outside Nablus frequently blocked access to the local villages, burned their farms and olive trees, and raised wild pigs that they released into Palestinian farms.

The documentary “The Occupation of the American Mind” describes the successful effort by Israel to sell its brutal military policies as self-defense against Palestinian terrorism. A panel featuring Sut Jhally and Diana Buttu will discuss the film on Sunday.