Throughout the current “March for Israel” in Washington, DC, Al Jazeera interviewed a assured younger man from Connecticut concerning the warfare in Gaza. Draped in an Israeli flag, Charlie appeared able to reply any query.
He made it clear from the outset that the continued warfare isn’t “Hamas vs Israel”, however “Hamas vs the entire world”. He mentioned he regrets youngsters’s deaths and prays for harmless lives misplaced. However he had little question about who’s chargeable for the loss of life of civilians in Gaza. Whereas Israel does every little thing to keep away from civilian casualties, he mentioned, Iran-backed Palestinian terrorists bomb their very own hospitals, use civilians as human shields, and even place youngsters subsequent to rocket launchers. Iran and its proxies are the supply of all evil in Palestine and the area, he added.
Charlie has clearly completed his homework. He has studied the Israel Mission’s “World Language Dictionary [PDF]”, memorised its strains, and repeated them verbatim, not lacking a beat. The playbook was created in 2009 after Israel’s first warfare on the besieged Gaza Strip, to information Israel’s supporters on how finest to talk to the media concerning the battle. Impressed by Israel’s main spin docs, similar to Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s directed at younger activists, in addition to politicians, pundits, journalists and extra. It tells its readers what to say, and what to not say, alerting them to phrases that ought to be used and others that mustn’t.
One in all my favorite tidbits within the playbook, as I wrote again in 2014, goes like this: “Keep away from speaking about borders when it comes to pre- or post-1967, as a result of it solely serves to remind People of Israel’s navy historical past. Notably on the left, this does you hurt.” And when civilian casualties mount throughout wartime in Gaza, the playbook recommends speaking empathetically alongside these strains of “All human life is treasured”, however emphasising that “it’s a tragedy that Iran-backed Hamas shoots rockets at our civilians whereas hiding in their very own” and that this “causes tragic deaths on each side”.
Sounds acquainted?
Like Charlie, I’ve additionally studied the spin playbook, albeit for various causes. The playbook helps me detect extra simply the spin in writings, speeches, and interviews.
Take the interview that Republican US presidential candidate Chris Christie gave to CNN the day after the “March for Israel”. He repeated the identical soundbites that Charlie invoked the day earlier than, albeit with much less tact. Having had forgotten to say “evil Iran” in his solutions, he clumsily rushed to insert it earlier than the top of the interview, as if he was being examined.
Like Charlie and Chris, Joe additionally loves the playbook. President Biden and his minions within the US administration have eagerly embraced its advice to spotlight Israel’s “proper, certainly obligation, to defend itself” in opposition to the assaults of a “terrorist” organisation at each alternative. Since October 7, america president has usually deflected criticism of US complicity within the killing of 1000’s of Palestinian youngsters, by accusing Hamas of, you guessed it, “utilizing civilians as human shields”, and even repeating false Israeli claims about Hamas “chopping infants’ heads off” and “burning ladies and youngsters alive”.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken went additional, insisting that US officers stand behind Israel‘s declare that Hamas is utilizing civilian services similar to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as “command facilities”, and including that “What we all know throughout the board is that Hamas embeds itself in civilian infrastructure – in and underneath condominium buildings, in and underneath hospitals, in and underneath faculties – and it makes use of folks as human shields”, and therefore, incriminating tens of 1000’s of docs, nurses, academics and others in warfare crimes. All of which has to date proved to be not more than propaganda utilized by Israel to justify its bombings of hospitals and faculties.
On Saturday, in an opinion article on the US imaginative and prescient for post-conflict Gaza printed within the Washington Put up, Biden wrote to the spirit and textual content of the playbook. The president omitted any point out of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the siege of Gaza, or any single a part of the tortured historical past of Palestine in favour of an increasing number of of the empty outdated rhetoric about “shared future” and “two states” that obfuscates the fact on the bottom, and serves to justify the unraveling collective punishment and genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Thoughts you, the playbook actively encourages its readers to speak in favour of the “two state resolution”, and repeat the mantra “two properties for 2 peoples”, as a result of, “given the overwhelming American help for a two-state resolution, it’s going to make help a lot simpler and quicker should you set the tone for all discussions by articulating Israel’s shared imaginative and prescient for the final word aim of two peoples, dwelling facet by facet in a long-lasting and safe peace”. However then once more, and right here comes the punchline: “Within the title of gaining credibility for why you may later say that ‘a two-state resolution isn’t achievable in a single day’, you must begin with language [that signals] how your targets align with the general public’s”.
President Biden isn’t the one world chief who seems to be following Israel’s 2009 playbook to a T. Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has additionally been very cautious to not sway removed from the rules issued by Israel’s spin docs. Requested by an opposition MP whether or not he would urge Israel to finish its “collective punishment” of civilians in Gaza, Sunak responded:
“I really consider that we should always help Israel’s proper to defend itself and to go after Hamas and recognising that they [Israel] face a vicious enemy that embeds itself behind civilians.”
For his half, United Nations Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres didn’t toe the road as blindly because the US president and British PM, and was slammed for it. After condemning Hamas’s October 7 assault on southern Israel, he ventured to remind the UN Safety Council attendees that, “It is very important additionally recognise the assaults by Hamas didn’t occur in a vacuum. The Palestinian folks have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
Oh! The nerve, the audacity! How dare the UNSG state the plain; “in what world” does he reside? He should “resign”, or so the Israeli diplomats shot again, in accordance with the Israeli playbook, which clearly states, “the first Palestinian public relations aim is to show that the so-called ‘hopelessness of the oppressed Palestinians’ is what causes them to exit and kill youngsters. This should be challenged instantly, aggressively, and instantly.”
Historical past has no place in right now’s political spin in relation to Palestinians. Their tortured previous – and current – is an inconvenience to the spinners that should be averted in any respect prices.
In his warmongering Washington Put up opinion piece, President Biden doubled on his earlier harmful theological pronouncement about Hamas’s “pure, unadulterated evil”, which may solely be defined besides by its very nature. The truth that Hamas is a product of the Israeli occupation, established in response to Israel’s decades-long repression and disposition should be ignored and discounted, come what might.
In a nutshell, Israel has the proper, certainly the duty to defend itself and its racist occupation; the proper to defend its navy occupation and racist apartheid, in keeping with the cynics and spinners, however the Palestinians don’t have any such proper to defend themselves, not to mention resist their occupiers, by any means, even probably the most peaceable means, like boycott and divestment.
Luckily, the lies have lastly caught up with the liars, as an increasing number of Western journalists, pundits and officers began to doubt the spin and query the Israeli spinners, even ridicule them, for his or her poor performances, doctored proof, and vulgar lies. Quickly, they are going to begin to query the spinners’ total deception concerning the warfare, its conduct and root causes.