Posted on 01/05/2011 10:07:18 AM PST by ventanax5
As we all know by now, Israel has lost the battle for public opinion in the west. Even the Israel government is now acknowledging this fact. Israel and its defenders have been outclassed and outmanoeuvred in a war of the mind being waged on a battleground it never even acknowledged it was on.
Calls for more and better hasbara, however, are meaningless if the message or narrative promoted by Israel and its defenders misses the point of the attack being waged upon it. And it does miss that point, by a mile.
You cannot resist or overcome a threat unless you first understand its nature.
The first thing to say is that this phenomenon is characteristic not just of the media animosity or economic or academic boycotts. It goes across the intelligentsia and political class, spreading well beyond the normal suspects on the left into the mainstream middle-classes.
In Britain, the universities, the established church, the theatrical and publishing worlds, the voluntary sector, significant elements within the Foreign Office, members of Parliament across the political spectrum, as well as the media have overwhelmingly signed up to the demonisation and delegitimisation of Israel.
The scale of this phenomenon is nothing short of a multi-layered civilisational crisis.
The west is experiencing a total inversion of truth evidence and reason. A society’s thinking class has overwhelmingly subscribed to an immoral, patently false and in many cases demonstrably absurd account of the Middle East, past and present, which it has uncritically absorbed and assumes to be true.
(Excerpt) Read more at melaniephillips.com ...
Another excellent article by Melanie Phillips.
bump
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
facts=fiction and vice-versa, what a travesty. I fear a huge war will happen. it’s inevitable and imminent. Al Jews , even those peacenik libbie jews( I also wish for peace butnot their ways) must in their hearts remember “shalom” and all it’s meaning, hope for peace in all it’s love, common sense, unconditional love and understanding, but alas, all arrows point toward war. Keep your powder dry and just in case have that back door to Petre(??) available. GID will save His people if all of us return to the One true G!D!
Start deligitimizing the Palis’ claims, and above all else, the PA. Why should we be the ones on the defensive?
Excellent excellent article. As usual Melanie Phillips gets it spot on. The world is in double denial.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.