Are propagandists reading same script?

I'm beginning to think that Israeli politicians, officials, diplomats and spokespersons are walking about with cloned brains. Since their country's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza they've been appearing on Western and Arab television channels masked with the same benign expressions and spewing the same lies.

Listen to any of them and you'll hear the same message repeated over and over again in their attempts to dodge awkward questions. When asked about the huge number of Palestinian casualties, for instance, they invariably look suitably saddened before insisting that almost all are Hamas fighters.

They conveniently ignore the fact that a quarter of the dead and 40 per cent of those injured are unmistakably civilians.

The Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor has been particularly busy writing newspaper columns and indoctrinating Sky News viewers.

Naturally, Sky News has to be fair and balanced like its sister network Fox. That's why the rotund Prosor has practically moved in to the building. He's no doubt happy to escape from the angry protestors surrounding his home.

Every time Sky shows a demolished Palestinian house a roofless building in the southern Israeli towns of Sderot or Askelon inevitably follows. And somehow this Rupert Murdoch-owned network manages to equate the slaughter of 500 Palestinians with poor Israelis seeking refuge in bunkers to escape Hamas rockets.

Prosor encapsulates Israel's propagandist line in an opinion piece published in the Daily Telegraph on December 31. He begins with, "In August 2005, Israel left Gaza. Every soldier was withdrawn. Every Jewish colony evacuated. Politicians staked their reputations on a courageous step towards peace. They hoped Gaza could provide a blueprint of Palestinian autonomy, a precursor to a Palestinian state?"

War of attrition

If you know anything about Gaza you will realise how nonsensical this contention really is. The Israelis physically withdrew from Gaza because it became a drain upon its monetary and security resources.

Then rather than facilitate its civil and economic blossoming Israel continued to cut Gaza off from the West Bank, kept control of its airspace, coastline and borders and, later, waged a war of attrition upon its people. Hamas leaders would have had to be magicians to create a flourishing mini-state.

Prosor recounts how 5,000 "missiles from Gaza have blighted the lives of Israeli civilians since 2001." Note he avoids saying how many Israelis have died as a result. This is because casualty figures are comparatively minuscule when compared to Palestinian deaths due to Israel's targeted assassinations, bombs and missiles.

Then he lauds the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who initially pointed the finger of blame at Hamas, and writes, "Hamas has betrayed the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian national movement, previously based on secular, nationalist aspirations has been hijacked by religiously inspired lunacy."

Well, well, well. Does Prosor believe his readers are all suffering from chronic amnesia or Alzheimer's?

First of all, it wasn't so long ago that Israel was labelling Fatah a terrorist organisation. Indeed, its leader Yasser Arafat was kept prisoner in his Ramallah headquarters, which was regularly shelled.

Moreover, he neglects to explain why so little progress was made between the Israeli government and President Abbas towards a Palestinian state during the Egyptian-brokered six months ceasefire that ended late last month or why Israel failed to advance the peace process before Hamas was elected when Abbas was in charge following Arafat's death.

But Prosor's untruths are nothing compared to those of his boss Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has stated that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. When she first uttered this ridiculous statement I contemplated purchasing a hearing aid. If we needed proof that the first casualty of war is truth her words are it.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian Territories Maxwell Gaylard says: "There is a critical emergency right now in the Gaza strip." The UN says Gaza is suffering power outrages for up to 16 hours daily, running water is only available every five to seven days.

A number of charities and human rights organisations have confirmed this tragic state of affairs as have the few television reporters actually on the ground. Israel has, of course, barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza. It wants no third party witnesses.

Oh, I forgot. Israel does not target civilians just as it didn't target them in Lebanon during the summer of 2006 when 1,200 died.

Believe it or not, Livni has summoned the chutzpah to blame Al Jazeera for broadcasting video of Israel's crimes. She says Al Jazeera's reporting is inflammatory. But we should not be surprised when the former motto of the Mossad was "By way of deception, thou shalt do war? Just don't be fooled!"

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com

Israel is moving towards a point of no returns, which will be dangerous for Israel in a long run.
Raza Shah
Dubai,UAE
Posted: January 06, 2009, 12:55