Comments on: How to sell Americans on… the war on Gaza!

By: 3arabawy BookMarx 09/27/2009 (a.m.) at 3arabawy

3arabawy BookMarx 09/27/2009 (a.m.) at 3arabawy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:32:10 +0000

[...] How to sell Americans on… the war on Gaza! | KABOBfest [...]

By: How Israel defends genocide and apartheid 101 « erase and rewind

How Israel defends genocide and apartheid 101 « erase and rewind — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:01:00 +0000

[...] from the 116-page report are available on KABOBfest here – via whom I was alerted to the story. Here are some choice bile-inducing excerpts that [...]

By: Arayus

Arayus — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:09:52 +0000

Further confounding the decentralization of Pro-Palestinian groups is that we have to take into account the fact that most advocates for justice in Palestine are split on a few core issues; namely the one or two state solutions.

In any case I'm of the opinion that all advocates for justice in Palestine should focus on the occupation because whether or not a one state or 2 state solution comes about, it wont mean shit if there is a brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

By: Sean2009

Sean2009 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:45:23 +0000

I have to admit I felt gratified at the part where they were emphatic that you "CANNOT attack the Palestinian people" (or the Iranian people) or you would alienate Americans. You have to show empathy for the Palestinian people as part of the tactic to convince Americans, and you have to attack their leaders instead. Now, if these guys have in fact test marketed their hasbara and know the audience it is targeted at, this means that three decades of relentless anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian propaganda haven't succeeded in totally dehumanizing the Palestinian people in the minds of most Americans. Most Americans still sympathize with the Palestinians even if they buy into a lot of the rest of Israeli propaganda. I am usually pretty cynical but that made me feel a certain amount of hope that people are thinking things through for themselves more than I would have imagined. Otherwise, they would advise their Goebbals wannabes to stick to the "Arabs are all terrorists" theme and leave it at that.

By: lyn11

lyn11 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:51:15 +0000

It doesn't help that Israel has made such a calculated campaign of assassination and imprisonment of anyone who might show leadership competency, as well as (historically) professors, intellectuals, writers, on top of their campaign to discredit and sideline them. It doesn't help that (in fact) Israel with the help of the US selects who they'll talk with and in so doing selects to a great extent who ends up in leadership role, those, that is, more likely to cave, those more amendable to bribery. Leaders with charisma aren't the point. Israel has none (did you think Ariel Sharon had charisma?) but in carefully studied manner puts appealing spokespeople on the media (like the woman IDF officer during the Gaza offensive).

Stories of victimhood are also stories of struggle and survival against overwhelming odds. Stories of victimhood are also stories retaining one's human dignity, society, and culture in the face of those attempts to erase your people as a people. Against such unfair attempts to villify you as a people. It's the struggle of the whole world, to see that a just world is created, that mass murder by state authority are not permitted, covered up or unatoned for. That states shall not impliment policies of expulsion and discrimination against persons due to their religion or ethnic group, as Israel is, nor present lies to the world about what it has done and is doing. Leaders aren't the point.

--- On Sat, 7/11/09, IntenseDebate Notifications wrote:

By: Nth Republic

Nth Republic — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:31:08 +0000

That's true. I certainly wouldn't want to place all of the blame for the vacuum of quality leaders solely on external forces. Fatah and some of the smaller PA parties do their fair share of eliminations as well…

By: yaman

yaman — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:25:16 +0000

I think a lot of people do this and end up re-inventing the wheel, so there's a lot of failed start-up sites like this. The problem is that a clearinghouse can't be successful without organizational links and connections. If we could get a group of the two dozen most prominent anti-war and pro-Palestinian activist organizers in the country together to agree to commit to this site-- as in refer to it, help gather/produce content for it, and spread it within their organizations-- then we'd be on the right track in following this track. Otherwise it's just going to be another pro-Palestinian blog, which is fine, but it won't have the effect you're intending. I'd be down to help with this if we could get it together. As for AAPER, I think they've been in "planning" phases for a long time, but they've recently started to pick up speed regionally and with a very compelling campaign aimed at building momentum called Five for Palestine. Check it out. I think it looks promising.

By: Sean2009

Sean2009 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:06:44 +0000

Sad that I never even heard of AAPER, though that only goes to prove your point that the pro-Palestinian side is heavily decentralized . Many voices get lost in the mix.

One possible solution would be to create a centralized clearinghouse on the Web that could be used a guide and repository for every pro-Palestinian as well as legitimate anti-war group out there. Rather than everybody doing their own thing, efforts could be coordinated through this central website and if you wanted to get involved directly with a group in your area or simply find out what you could do as an individual, this would be the place to go. If you wanted to educate people on the realities of what is happening in the Mideast, you could send them to this one spot where there would be educational materials that have been designed by many people open-source style with the best arguments being included, and which would represent a consensus of sorts.

By: yaman

yaman — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:14:36 +0000

Yeah, I know there is no shortage of Palestinians who have the capability and ingenuity to do this, it's just that they're either eliminated early on or the PA cultivated by Israel squashes them.

By: Arayus

Arayus — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:29:01 +0000

Sorry, for the misunderstanding.

However, we all know a Nelson Mandela like person leading the Palestinian cause would either end up imprisoned with multiple life sentences or die in a hellfire missile attack, like Nth Republic stated. =(