"Various Arab armed forces these past decades have resorted to military means to eliminate Israel from the world's map. All have failed. More than that, the wars each time strengthened Israel, and the Arabs have thus achieved the very opposite of their ambitions. This opens the way to the alternative approach of psychological warfare, a familiar element in all modern wars. PW, in the shorthand the experts use, mobilizes allies and undermines enemies. What is required is a master idea, and people to propagandize in words clever enough for the general public to accept it as the truth.
The master idea in this case is simplicity itself: Jewish nationalism, or Zionism, is an absolute evil, Palestinian nationalism is an absolute virtue. To establish this, the Jews must be shown to be wicked and wrong in every matter great and small, so that the Palestinians appear victims through no fault of their own, innocent people in special need of redress and rescue. With skill and persistence, the Palestinians and their Arab supporters have built up a worldwide PW lobby with helpers in the United Nations, the European Union, the Red Cross, the churches, the universities, and so on. One step at a time, they are subverting the legitimacy of Israel. Their multiple voices and pressures have persuaded the worldwide Left to believe that Israel is a state that ought to be dismantled forthwith. At the very least, they sap Israeli will to survive, and fortify Palestinian will to prefer armed struggle to the necessary compromises of peace.
Like much else, the Palestinian master idea is rooted in the Cold War. Backing the Arabs, the Soviet Union suffered a major defeat in the Six Day War of 1967. Trying to recover, the Soviet leadership immediately began to equate Israel with Nazi Germany, its deadliest foe. Hitherto tending to sympathize with Israel, the Left everywhere and unanimously swung against it. Here was a manipulation of opinion of the kind immortalized by George Orwell in 1984 as a Two Minute Hate. The Marxist lexicon — "imperialism," "colonialism," "occupation," "settler society" — was deployed to curse Israel. By 1975, the United Nations was declaring that Zionism is racism, and a state built on racism can only be a focus of outrage, the proper target of sanctions and boycotts. Successful American pressure on the United Nations rescinded that resolutions. The Left's inherent anti-Americanism then joined forces irrevocably with the pro-Palestinian PW.
...
The burning of books and the boycott of Jewish businesses organized by Hitler and Goebbels are models of PW designed to rally supporters and intimidate enemies. The approaching violence was evident, and so was what Einstein at the time called the "psychic illness of the masses." Yet some Jews preferred their form of rather pathetic wish-fulfillment to the terrifying reality. Felix Jacoby, for instance, a historian at Kiel University in Germany, opened his 1933 lecture course by declaring that he had voted for Hitler since 1927, and could only compare him to the emperor Augustus. Dr. Hans-Joachim Schoeps even tried to form a movement of Jews for Hitler (though other Jews replied with the grim joke that his real slogan was Raus mit Uns, or "Out with Us"). The same psychopathology is at work in Israel today. By and large, Israeli intellectuals have succumbed to Palestinian PW, and do whatever they can to weaken the will for a national existence. Appealing for mobilization against Israel in a Raus mit Uns spirit, they speak at international conferences and publish in chic outlets as though they believe with the Palestinians that the Zionist state is a misconceived project to be brought to an end as soon as possible."
From: WHAT'S IN A BOYCOTT?The campaign to delegitimize Israel has smelly historical rootsby David Pryce-Jones- Read it all here
The master idea in this case is simplicity itself: Jewish nationalism, or Zionism, is an absolute evil, Palestinian nationalism is an absolute virtue. To establish this, the Jews must be shown to be wicked and wrong in every matter great and small, so that the Palestinians appear victims through no fault of their own, innocent people in special need of redress and rescue. With skill and persistence, the Palestinians and their Arab supporters have built up a worldwide PW lobby with helpers in the United Nations, the European Union, the Red Cross, the churches, the universities, and so on. One step at a time, they are subverting the legitimacy of Israel. Their multiple voices and pressures have persuaded the worldwide Left to believe that Israel is a state that ought to be dismantled forthwith. At the very least, they sap Israeli will to survive, and fortify Palestinian will to prefer armed struggle to the necessary compromises of peace.
Like much else, the Palestinian master idea is rooted in the Cold War. Backing the Arabs, the Soviet Union suffered a major defeat in the Six Day War of 1967. Trying to recover, the Soviet leadership immediately began to equate Israel with Nazi Germany, its deadliest foe. Hitherto tending to sympathize with Israel, the Left everywhere and unanimously swung against it. Here was a manipulation of opinion of the kind immortalized by George Orwell in 1984 as a Two Minute Hate. The Marxist lexicon — "imperialism," "colonialism," "occupation," "settler society" — was deployed to curse Israel. By 1975, the United Nations was declaring that Zionism is racism, and a state built on racism can only be a focus of outrage, the proper target of sanctions and boycotts. Successful American pressure on the United Nations rescinded that resolutions. The Left's inherent anti-Americanism then joined forces irrevocably with the pro-Palestinian PW.
...
The burning of books and the boycott of Jewish businesses organized by Hitler and Goebbels are models of PW designed to rally supporters and intimidate enemies. The approaching violence was evident, and so was what Einstein at the time called the "psychic illness of the masses." Yet some Jews preferred their form of rather pathetic wish-fulfillment to the terrifying reality. Felix Jacoby, for instance, a historian at Kiel University in Germany, opened his 1933 lecture course by declaring that he had voted for Hitler since 1927, and could only compare him to the emperor Augustus. Dr. Hans-Joachim Schoeps even tried to form a movement of Jews for Hitler (though other Jews replied with the grim joke that his real slogan was Raus mit Uns, or "Out with Us"). The same psychopathology is at work in Israel today. By and large, Israeli intellectuals have succumbed to Palestinian PW, and do whatever they can to weaken the will for a national existence. Appealing for mobilization against Israel in a Raus mit Uns spirit, they speak at international conferences and publish in chic outlets as though they believe with the Palestinians that the Zionist state is a misconceived project to be brought to an end as soon as possible."
From: WHAT'S IN A BOYCOTT?The campaign to delegitimize Israel has smelly historical rootsby David Pryce-Jones- Read it all here
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