No it isn't the Pentagon Papers, but here's a small sign that the MSM is (finally) going to take on the big bad Israel lobby
Last night we did a post on the Israel Project's adoption of the term "ethnic cleansing" as a talking point for American Jews in opposing the removal of settlements from the West Bank. Repulsive. Well Newsweek yesterday published the Israel Project's "2009 Global Language Dictionary" that includes, on page 62, "The Best Settlement Argument," containing the claim, Why should peace require the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank?
Newsweek calls the pdf's publication a "web exclusive." Does this mean that the Mainstream Media are going to start reporting on the Israel lobby in an aggressive, even adversarial manner, which after all is a great American tradition with respect to corruption?
Thanks to Martin Wales for the fossicking here. The pdf after the jump.
It's important to show empathy to persuade the persuadables. Not have empathy, mind you. Just show it. If one has empathy, I suppose, the terrorists win. Ooo. I think the term "Orwellian" was created for just this text.
July 10, 2009 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
these propogandists belong in circle 8 in dante's inferno. circle 8 is just one step away from circle 10 which is lucifer.
circle 8: 10 deeper levels that include Boldia, flatterers, buyers/sellers of pardons, fortunetellers, grafters, hypocrites, robbers, evil counselors, scandalmongers, liars
July 10, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frank Luntz is very good at what he does. And, he is absolutely right about the importance of how his clients present their opinions.
It doesn't mean I don't cringe when I see or hear his advice - regardless of whether I agree with his clients' worldviews. However, I also know that those who oppose his clients' worldviews are using the VERY SAME ideas to propagandize their views.
July 10, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why should peace require the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank?
The term we use here in the United States is "redistricting."
July 11, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or gerrymandering.
July 12, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are 300 million of us who are NOT members of AIPAC and who do not benefit from weapons sale or from other military supplies to the government.
All we have to do, in conjunction with MSM, is to use our voices and our votes to kick non-representative AIPAC into the long grass from where we cannot hear their incessant propaganda.
Then maybe we can elect an administration that is truly representative of America: of Michigan, Iowa, Carolina, PA & WA etc and not just minority groups in NY & LA.
A democracy should be the voice of the people not a lobby group.
July 12, 2009 6:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
A serious, honest question: Did a single member of Congress voice the least bit of concern or dispproval of Israel's widely deplored military actions in Gaza?
July 13, 2009 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
A nice article: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgpc4hc9_127fk3wm6c9&hl=en .
July 12, 2009 8:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent article! Manages to skillfully avoid any mention of the 300 children and 115 women slaughtered by the IDF in January in Gaza - perhaps it was just an honest omission of fact in the enthusiasm to disseminate more propaganda ...
July 12, 2009 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
What's the big deal? So, an organization has a strategy for getting its ideas across by using certain terms? Any political organization worth its salt has the same thing. Hardly proves the malevolent conspiracy you seem to think Israel supporters are up to.
Ethnic cleansing is actually pretty good descriptor. The US is telling Israel where Jews can and can't live in the holy land. This is what is really repulsive -- that and the fact that usually anti-imperialist liberals have no problem with shoving counterproductive measures down Israel's throat. Just like with any imperialism, it usually makes things worse. Look what happened when the US pressured Israel to withdraw from Gaza unilaterally. Hopefully the Israelis won't be stupid enough to make the same mistake twice.
I'm a progressive and I support Obama, even if I'm opposed to his Israel policy. What really sickens me is the left's nearly universal one-sidedess about Israel. The attacks on Israel are so virulent and irrational -- no criticism of terrorism, but loads of it when Israel actually responds to it -- that pro-Israel democrats are cowed into silence.
July 12, 2009 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Would you consider the substantiated atrocity, mentioned above, as a 'response'? To most other people it appears to have been a deliberate war crime calculated to terrorize the 'enemy'.
If you disagree, - and in view of the fact that we both know full well that the 'official explanation' that these 415 babies, young children, teenagers and mothers were liquidated because they were all being used as 'human shields' against a powerfully armed militia, was a not very sophisticated excuse, - how would YOU quantify that 'response'?
July 12, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about this? The Israelis colonizers of the West Bank are allowed to stay and become not second class citizens of Palestine. In exchange the Palestinian daspora is allowed to go home and be not second class citizens of Israel. Nobody gets cleansed. Sound fair?
July 12, 2009 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
wisconsinite,
Actually, it's not. Israel is a sovereign nation state, while "the holy land" is a medieval figment of alot of people's imaginations. Meanwhile, many of these settlements extend beyond the jurisdiction of Israeli civil law and into that of international law. Or, in what amounts to a national policy of real estate speculation, into territories that no Israeli government has bothered to formally annex. And that makes the rhetoric of ethnic cleansing in this case problematic.
July 13, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
RE: the Israel Project's "2009 Global Language Dictionary"
MY COMMENT: I downloaded it to three different hard drives for safe keeping. I prefer to call it the Global Language “FICTIONARY”.
PS. For a good analysis of the "Fictionary" see -
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/6256
July 12, 2009 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink