Tell Congress to stop the Biden administration from funding wars in Ukraine and Israel
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Read Part 1 here first.
(LifeSiteNews) — In 1984 a propaganda campaign which continues to this day was commenced to change the American public’s perception of Israel.
This was the year which saw AIPAC began distributing its “college guide” to the perception of Israel on U.S. campuses, and in which the American Jewish Congress sponsored a conference.
This conference recommended a concerted campaign to change the minds of Americans about Israel. Called “hasbara” in Hebrew, this was undertaken to counter the impact of the horrific images generated by Israel’s 1982 war in Lebanon. The Washington Post reported in 1982 that Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin had complained of a “battle over the truth.” What was the battle?
Begin’s government claimed only 600 civilians had been killed by Israel, whilst U.S. “intelligence officials labeled as accurate an estimate of 10,000 civilian deaths … first received from the Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations. [Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Charles] Percy added that the ‘unconfirmed’ estimate may be as high as 14,000.”
READ: US too concerned by ‘political, economic’ gains, says Lebanese bishop in urgent peace plea
The headline was “Numbers Game Clouds Toll in Lebanon.” Israel has been playing this game ever since, denying the reality of casualty figures in its Gaza war, even as The Lancet and its own intelligence sources admit they are accurate.
Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the early 2000s, says about his experience with the Israeli regime: “I never, ever believe Israeli figures. The Israelis are patent liars. Let me say that again: They are liars.”
Whilst it downplays casualties, Israel also pursues the Dahiya doctrine, which “calls for the use of massive, disproportionate force and the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Why is it called Dahiya? It is named after the site of a former Israeli war crime.
“The doctrine is named after the Dahiya suburb of Beirut, where the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah has its headquarters, which the Israeli military leveled during its assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 that killed nearly 1,000 civilians, about a third of them children, and caused enormous damage to the country’s civilian infrastructure,” the Institute for Middle East Understanding explains.
This is one example of an “unpopular policy” that the use of propaganda is intended to promote. This is the purpose of “hasbara.”
Those attending the 1984 hasbara conference included advertising specialists, PR gurus, journalists, and “leaders of major Jewish groups.” Amongst its activities, its records include its members “participating in major pro-choice marches and events, influencing U.S. Congress and state legislatures on abortion decisions.”
NPR reported this year that these “hasbara” efforts now target U.S. lawmakers directly – to support the Israeli “campaign” in Gaza.
READ: Pope Francis calls for prayer and fasting on October 7 to bring peace to the world
According to a documentary titled The Occupation of the American Mind, the “primary aim of the conference was to develop strategies to spin unpopular Israeli policies – and to counter negative press coverage by shaping the media frame in advance,” according to the report. What was the goal of the conference? The Israeli-based advertising executive Martin Fenton is quoted as saying, “Face it. We are in the business of changing people’s minds. Of making them think differently. For that we need propaganda.”
You can read about the 1984 American Jewish Congress move towards the capture of the American mind for Israel in its own report here. With sections on “Israel’s Public Image,” “The Possibilites of Hasbara,” and “Presenting Unpopular Policies,” it reads like a how-to book on the sale of perpetual war and genocide as the patriotic duty of Americans.
Fenton’s 40-year-old strategy of hasbara has produced a media environment in the United States where basic facts are denied, and the reality of Israel’s actions carefully managed out of sight of the American people. It is one of the most successful campaigns of an Israel lobby which has, according to a report by Cambridge University Press, brought America to the edge of the abyss.
U.S. officials deny knowledge of assassinations
Why did this latest attack on Israel take place?
Iran says that the wave of terrorist assassinations carried out by Israel prompted its missile strike. Israel has carried out more assassinations than any other nation, in a campaign of terror which predates the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed these latest assassinations were committed by Israel without warning the U.S. Similarly, Israel’s terrorist attacks across Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq using remotely-detonated pagers and walkie-talkies was reportedly carried out without the knowledge of the U.S. – though Jake Sullivan responded with “admiration,” as Ynet reported. Other officials, it says, “fear escalation behind U.S.’s back could launch all-out war in the Middle East.”
Over 3,000 persons were injured or killed by the booby-trapped devices, one-third are reported to have been non-military civilians, including a number of children.
Col. Macgregor: U.S. ‘knew’
Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor rejects out of hand the claim that the U.S. was unaware of these moves, suggesting that Israeli and U.S. war policy is effectively one and the same – and that concerns of all-out war are being ignored.
Why, asks Macgregor, is the US moving to war on behalf of Israel?
“By what constitutional or moral standard do we wage war? We haven’t declared war. Hezbollah poses no threat whatsoever to the United States. We don’t have a treaty of alliance with Israel,” he said.
Macgregor states bluntly that the Israeli objective is to “destroy … and remove Iran as a great power in the region,” explaining, “I think there is no evidence that there’s any willingness under any circumstances in Jerusalem or Washington to contemplate any sort of talks or negotiations over anything until those objectives are secured.”
Macgregor warns that, having deliberately “provoked” this missile attack, Israel will now “go after Iran with a vengeance,” sparking a war which it hopes will draw in the United States.
An Iranian perspective
Iranian professor Mohammad Marandi was interviewed by the U.K.’s Sky News on October 2, giving a view from Tehran which contrasted sharply with that presented in the Western media.
In it, he warns Iran will “strike back harder” should Israel seek to retaliate, saying Iran’s missile attack was “a massive blow to the Israeli regime – and the history of this conflict doesn’t go back to last year, it is 76 years of … ethnic cleansing” by Israel in the region.
Marandi warned that a U.S.-backed regional war would have devastating consequences for the West: “The oil and gas markets will cause a situation where the global economy will collapse and millions of people will be on the move. So be careful about making stupid mistakes.”
Marandi was confident that Israel would be defeated in any such war, citing its inability to counter modern Iranian missiles.
Iran first launched a wave of drones and missiles against Israel in April, in response to the Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy complex in Syria to assassinate key Iranian leaders meeting in that international law-protected location. Citing this as a clear violation of diplomatic immunity, the Iranians said their response was legitimate. In this second reply to Israeli terrorism, the Iranians once again invoked international law.
READ: The world cannot ignore Israel’s continued attacks on civilians in Gaza
Israel, as peace negotiations were still ongoing regarding Gaza, killed the chief negotiator of Hamas while he was a guest in Iran, and dropped hundreds of 2000-pound bombs on the Lebanese capital Beirut. The Washington Post has confirmed that at least some of these bombs were supplied by the U.S. Israel has since continued to bomb the Lebanese capital and launched a ground offensive into Lebanon. Israel’s latest invasion of Lebanon came immediately after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the assassination by bombing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday during a break from a UN summit in New York.
The BBC reported a “huge series of blasts,” leveling six residential apartment buildings in the successful attempt to kill the Iranian-backed “resistance” leader, whose death was confirmed on Saturday.
Iran’s reply came on Tuesday night, with around 200 missiles reported to have been launched at Israel. There were no Israeli casualties.
In depth on Iran strike
In a video report for Judge Andrew Napolitano, former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter explained that if “Iran wanted to ‘do an Israel’” – bombing of civilian areas as Israel continues to do in Beirut and Damascus – “Iran would have killed thousands.” Israel bombed a civilian population center in Syria two weeks after devastating earthquakes in 2023, in one example of a long campaign of U.S.-funded regional strikes.
As Ritter explained how Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile shield failed due to being surpassed by new missile technology, he also decried mocking reports from Israeli supporters claiming that the Iranians had failed because their attack killed no Israelis.
Instead, he said, the fact that Iran attacked “military targets at night” showed not only the Iranians wished to avoid casualties, but that they had the capability to surpass the Iron Dome and successfully target objectives to do so.
Ritter argues this shows that Iran indeed has the power to destroy Israel’s infrastructure, as it has vowed to do should Israel continue to escalate the conflict. Following this analysis, which is supported by additional reports, the U.S. and Israel are pursuing a strategy towards a war that Israel cannot win.
If the United States government is indeed in control of the situation – what is the plan? Find out in Part 3…
Tell Congress to stop the Biden administration from funding wars in Ukraine and Israel