>From: "Yusupha C. Jow" <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: : Robert Fisk: Truth is a scarce commodity as propaganda war gets into its strid >Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 12:08:23 EDT > >Truth, as Winston Churchill notoriously said, must be protected by "a >bodyguard of lies". But Churchill, who once described pre-1948 Palestine as a >"hell-disaster", could never have known the deception, dishonesty and sheer >fantasy of today's propaganda in the Middle East. Is the conflict here a "war >against terror" or a struggle against Zionism? > >Anyone who does not know the cost of trying to answer that question has only >to refer to a document recently published by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign >Affairs, which asks the question: "Is anti-Zionism different from >anti-Semitism?" > >Here's part of the answer: "Just as anti-Semitism denies Jews their rights as >individuals in society, anti-Zionism attacks the Jewish people as a nation >... It is no coincidence that the recent censure of Israel in international >forums and the media has been accompanied by a sharp increase in anti-Semitic >incidents." The message is simple: to criticise Israel risks the charge of >racism; better, therefore, to keep to the safe line that Israel is fighting a >"war against terror" rather than reoccupying the land of a subject people. > >As usual, the Israelis are initially winning the propaganda war. The evil >campaign of Palestinian suicide bombers and the eloquence of at least some of >Israel's spokesmen easily crush the efforts of a colonised and occupied >people whose corrupt leader, Yasser Arafat, appoints his own cronies as press >officers, men who are often uneducated and incomprehensible in English. > >Marwan Kanafani, Mr Arafat's man in Gaza, speaks good English but comes >across as a used-car salesman. His man at the UN rants and raves like a >Nasserite. Mustafa Barghouti – who may or may not be on Israel's latest >"wanted list" – announced yesterday that the Israeli reoccupation of >Palestinian cities was "the worst crime of the 21st century". Ruthless and >brutal the Israeli invasions have been, but at least one event in the United >States in the autumn of last year suggests his remarks are ridiculous. > >The Israelis produce spokesmen who seem calculated to appeal to an American >audience. Ranaan Gissin and Dore Gold come across as tough, uncompromising >figures in the US. In Europe, however, they look respectively like a New York >taxi driver and an undertaker. Mr Gissin's performance on the BBC earlier >this year – trying to reassure the world that Ariel Sharon had "paid the >price" for being personally responsible for the 1982 Sabra and Chatila >massacre – was positively creepy. > >Far better was the public performance of Uri Dromi, Yitzhak Rabin's former >spokesman and a one-time Israeli Air Force C-130 pilot, who used to come >across as a thoughtful, intelligent and sometimes troubled man who believed >in the State of Israel but acknowledged its flaws. > >The "nice-cop/bad-cop" routine of Mr Sharon and Shimon Peres also serves its >purpose in the outside world. If Mr Sharon appears suspect – not least >because of his ghastly role in Sabra and Chatila – the Labour Party's Mr >Peres, holder (with Arafat, let us quickly forget) of the Nobel Peace Prize, >gives the present very extreme Israel government a humane face. > >Mr Peres appears to present the friendly, humanistic, honourable Israeli >government which the world wants to believe in. Journalists who ask Mr Peres >soft questions – which means just about all of them – have to forget that it >was he who launched Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" operation, which led to the >1996 massacre of 108 Lebanese civilians at a UN camp in Qana. > >The government in which Mr Peres serves is, after all, the same government >that is building illegal colonies on Arab land for Jews, and Jews only, at a >greater speed than ever; destroying the physical symbols of the Oslo >agreement; and re-occupying the West Bank. If Mr Peres was opposed to these >ruthless policies, he could leave the Sharon government. But he chooses not >to do so. > >In the present conflict, the Israeli Army's use of the "closed military >area", which bans journalists from any district where Israeli soldiers are >misbehaving or killing the innocent, has dissuaded many reporters from >entering the newly-occupied Palestinian cities. > >Thus Israel can boast of its army's highly professional and moral soldiering, >supposedly risking the lives of its men to protect the innocent, while >castigating journalists who do break the military rules for their eyewitness >reporting of the lack of discipline of Israeli troops and their reckless >killings. Rotting bodies in the streets of Bethlehem and Ramallah are >portrayed as Palestinian propaganda – providing few journalists see the >bodies with their own eyes. > >Thus the false news of a Catholic priest killed in Bethlehem on Tuesday was >condemned by an Israeli spokesman as a Palestinian lie – even though the >inaccurate story was originally put out by a Catholic church agency and then >broadcast on Israeli as well as Palestinian radio. > >In his latest bunker-prison, Yasser Arafat rages against journalists who ask >about suicide bombers – as if it is somehow indecent to mention the massacre >of Israelis and the role of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a satellite of Mr >Arafat's own Fatah movement. > >Far more culpable is the Israeli press, usually so courageous in denouncing >Israel's role in atrocities, but which has largely left its readers ignorant >of Palestinian suffering. In Tuesday's edition of Ha'aretz, Aviv Lavie >remarked that Israeli journalists "cease collecting facts and asking >questions, and instead turn to beating the war drums – yesterday, Ma'ariv 's >editor, Amnon Danker, ran a front-page article devoted to smashing, killing, >trampling and destroying – it's time to say goodbye, at least in the >meanwhile, to a free press". > >On the same day, The Jerusalem Post ran a haunting full page of >passport-sized snapshots of the more than 60 Israeli men, women and children >killed by Palestinian suicide bombers over the previous month. It was a page >of memory and pain. But the paper has no plans to run a similar page of >photographs of the innocent Palestinians who have been killed by Israel's >supposedly "elite" army. > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface >at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html >To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: >[log in to unmask] > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~