For years I have heard considerable frustrations from American supporters of Israel about the extremely inadequate information that comes from Israel. Globally it is obvious that the Palestinian story, decidedly a distorted, often fabricated story, comes loud and clear for decades. Most of the Arab world and many left leaning people in Europe and even much of the US media believe them. My friends ask me why are the Israelis unwilling or incapable of telling their own story effectively.

There are a number of reasons, but one important reason is that many Israelis believe in “facts on the ground,” that is: reality, will determine events and words are often useless. There is some truth in that, but, in the long run, I am not sure it is true. This real war is more than 60 years old, has killed twenty three thousands Israelis, has created tens of thousands of injuries, and will continue, I believe, for decades. The American and European governments wishful thinking that this is a limited struggle of “land for peace” are ignorant of reality. This is a war and Israel must win this war in order to survive and it needs wider global support to win it.
I am not even sure if enough Israelis understand that this is a real war. They are, understandly, so eager for peace.

There is a related critical reason which the Israelis are unable to fully grasp that I would like to emphasize below: People “think” with their emotions, not with their intellect. As my friend tells me: humans are emotional beings that sometimes think. Notice the following case:

Hamas accused Israel last Friday of killing innocent civilians on the beach of Gaza. The painful picture of the crying little Palestinian girl for her dead father was circulated immediately around the globe by the internet and by Arab and European TV.

Israel military was hesitant and said, we are investigating it, and we will let you know the results when available. A typical person would surmise, the Israelis did it, they are stalling, otherwise they would have rejected the accusations immediately. The Israelis murdered the family. Period!

This is a large part of the reason why Palestinian propaganda is so successful- the ignorance of the Israeli military, media and government of the nature of propaganda. Israelis institutions are full of intelligent, highly educated people that are generally unable to understand, to grasp, that the world is populated mostly by emotional, and not well educated people. People do not think first, their emotions control their belief.
Israel should have rejected the accusation forcibly and immediately, even if not sure yet.

Israelis (obviously I generalize) want to be correct, factual, have unquestionable proofs. They take time to investigate and when they come with an answer, it will be factual, but it will be too late- the damage to Israel’s reputation had already been established.
The Israelis try to appeal to the intellect, to the person who wants systematic analysis, of proofs beyond doubts. There are very few people like that in the world- even in our Western world, even in the US. Most people are impacted by emotions first, facts to a much less extent. They are not bad, or uncaring people, they are normal people, overwhelmed with the demands of life. And we all are aware of the immense complexity of modern life. Most people, even educated people, spend very little time looking for the facts that Israelis supply some time later.

Remember the first powerful Palestinian global propaganda? The pictures of Palestinian father and son hiding from bullets and the son killed “by Israeli fire”. In the eyes of many people especially in Europe and Middle East, the Israelis did kill this little innocent Arab boy in the beginning of the Intefada. It was a lie, a well orchestrated lie, but it does not matter. It took the Israeli and other investigators over a year to supply “proofs” that the boy actually died from Palestinian fire. Who cares? By now the world has moved so much forward, the propaganda damage has been well established.

And here is a much more serious case of Israeli propaganda mistake, in my opinion. I grant you, it is a very difficult issue and I would like you to think about it.

When I was in Israel in May 2004, the Palestinians blew up two Israeli armored trucks in Gaza and killed the nine Israeli soldiers inside. The trucks contained explosives and the bodies of the Israeli soldiers were blown up. Within a short time Palestinian TV showed Palestinians youth playing football with the heads of several of these Israeli soldiers. The president of Egypt, Mubarak, called the Palestinian leaders and gave them hell to stop re broadcasting this gruesome soccer in human remains. He was concerned about the damage to the Arab cause by showing this inhuman behavior.

I watched hour after hour of Israeli television that night. Person after person, leader after leader form the right to the left and in between were in shock. “How can we deal with people like that?” was a common comment. Their face grave, their agony deep. Israel was in shock and mourning.
But the Israelis did not disseminate this story globally, nothing. They said it will desecrate the dead. I do not think so. It seems to me that by exposing the gruesome Palestinian behavior global support would increase and thus the number of future Israeli dead might be reduced. People must grasp the core attitude of many Palestinians to human life.
The Israelis would not have desecrated the dead, in my opinion, by telling the facts. They did not have to use the TV pictures, mind you.
No one outside Israel probably heard about this gruesome event. None of my friends here in the US, no one I have ever asked knows about it.

Israelis felt it was such a desecration that they kept it to themselves. Said nothing to the global media.
I think it was a mistake. They should have exposed it globally and powerfully in order to save more Israeli lives.

I wonder what you think about that.

Matania
6-06