I've Heard That Song Before

---

The Hasbara Handbook is concrete evidence that the Jewish/Zionist reactions to floods of facts are a planned and deliberate strategy for victory in social debate and in shaping U.S. policy favorable to Israel, regardless of that policy's usefulness to the American people.

---

"Hasbara, Shmuel Rosner and the Israel Factor"
by Laura Knight-Jadczyk - 01/13/07

The type of discourse described in this handbook is carried on at every level of American society: in Congress, in the Media, e.g., the recent bashing of President Carter, and most importantly, on school and college campuses across the nation. ^comment

Seven Basic Propaganda Devices Propaganda is used by those who want to communicate in ways that engage the emotions and downplay rationality, in an attempt to promote a certain message. To effectively present Israel to the public, and to counter anti-Israel messages, it is necessary to understand propaganda devices. This article applies a list of seven propaganda devices to the Israeli situation, and by doing so allows an understanding of some of the ways in which public opinion is fought for in the International arena. -- Hasbara Manual - page 32

Thus what this manual is explicitly (and revealingly) about is ways to help the user win battles, not to find out the truth of the matter.

The seven basic propaganda devices are:
Each of the seven is followed by several paragraphs of examples on how the technique is to be applied. Quite informative reading. This is, without a doubt, a very professional piece of work, and all the more chilling because of that very professionalism.

I will only quote "NAME CALLING" in full, both out of space/time considerations and because it seems to be a technique universally and invariably used; but all the entries are interesting. The emphases in the passage are mine.

Name Calling Through the careful choice of words, the name calling technique links a person or an idea to a negative symbol. Creating negative connotations by name calling is done to try and get the audience to reject a person or idea on the basis of negative associations, without allowing a real examination of that person or idea. The most obvious example is name calling -- "they are a neo-Nazi group" tends to sound pretty negative to most people. More subtly, name calling works by selecting words with subtle negative meanings for some listeners. For example, describing demonstrators as "youths" creates a different impression from calling them "children". For the Israel activist, it is important to be aware of the subtly different meanings that well chosen words give. Call "demonstrations" "riots", many Palestinian political organizations "terror organizations", and so on. Those opposed to Israel use name calling all the time. Consider the meaning of the word "settlement". When applied to Gilo, a suburb of Jerusalem over the disputed 1967 borders, the word "settlement" creates the unfortunate impression that Gilo is located in the middle of the West Bank, and occupied by religious and political extremists (the image many people have acquired of settlements). That's how the media and opponents of Israel use name-calling. Other examples include referring to the "war crimes" of Ariel Sharon, talking about the "invasion" of the West Bank when an army unit enters territory under PA sovereignty in order to find terrorists, and so on. Name calling is hard to counter. Don't allow opponents the opportunity to engage in point scoring. Whenever "name calling" is used, think about referring to the same thing (e.g. Gilo), but with a more favorable description (e.g. "suburb"). Consider calling settlements "communities" or "villages". Use the same names back; if somebody talks about Sharon's "war crimes", talk about Arafat's war crimes and involvement in terror. -- Hasbara Manual - pages 32-33

The World Union of Jewish Students Hasbara Handbook calls what they’re doing “Israel Advocacy“, but “advocacy" in this context is a blatant misnomer: what they are doing is outright sophistry and rhetorical manipulation; to be used upon those (mainly young people) who believe they’re engaging in a genuine dialogue or debate, but are really being set up and led down the garden path. When dealing with Zionist Jews, you are dealing with individuals who [are] not seeking the truth of the matter and who will discuss the question fairly with you, but rather with propagandists: who have an agenda to push: they call it “Neutralizing Negativity" or “Pushing Positivity“ (see Hasbara Handbook page 15); in other words, their goal is manipulation, not truth. who are “setting the agenda": Hasbara Handbook page 16: The person who sets the agenda will usually win the debate ... activists get to determine what to talk about ... Being proactive keeps the right issues in the public eye, and in the way Israel activists want them to be seen. It is much easier to get Palestinian activists defending Arafat against charges of being a corrupt terrorist than it is to explain to disinterested students that Ariel Sharon didn’t kill anybody at Sabra and Chatilla (which of course he didn’t). -- A. Saccus

That final parenthetical remark always gets me. Even the PTB can’t be sure that such a blatant lie will be believed without constant and mind-numbing reiteration and reinforcing. And just who are those “disinterested students" who suddenly appear? Might they not be people who are actually seeking the truth of the matter? Dangerous hombres those truth seekers...

And notice the concern -- expressed over and over again through the Handbook -- with appearances, with maintaining a façade. You don’t need to do that if you’re telling the truth, now do you?

When a speaker warns that the consequences of ignoring his message is likely to be war, conflict, personal suffering, and so forth, they are manipulating fear to advance their message. Listeners have deep-seated fears of violence and disorder, which can be tapped into by creating false dichotomies -- “either listen to me, or these terrible things will happen." Listeners are too preoccupied by the threat of terrible things to think critically about the speaker’s message. Hasbara Handbook - page 35

That’s as cold and reptilian as they come. And that's the reason for the emphasis on terrorist violence.

When dealing with Zionist propagandists you are dealing with individuals who have a strategy worked out ahead of time for when to stay and when to walk away from a debate (page 41).
When your only concern is winning, why engage in a debate which, although it might lead to the truth, won‘t enable you to win? . . . I'm sorry, Coach Lombardi, but winning isn't everything.

---

For a real-life example of Zioninst propaganda, see the comment to a previous post by a Zionist sympathizer well trained in the Hasbara Handbook: 07/30/06

---

Website: thepeoplesvoice.org