Sunday, May 29, 2016

When All Else Fails...

"The aim of propaganda is always, in some sense, to obscure true meaning. This can take the form of oversimplifying, dissembling, or straight out lying, depending on the propaganda outlet in question. For Israel... it now seems that defending Israel on moral or political grounds to Americans is at best a tricky prospect, or at worst a disaster. The marketing of the Israeli tech industry glowingly described in Start-up Nation to American audiences is a way of glossing over Israel's fiercely militaristic nationalism with a sort of TED talk-esque futurism, eschewing concrete political analysis for trite self-help and some light PR thrown in for good measure. In the tech industry, Israel has found an ideal facade - forward thinking and uplifting in an apolitical, technocratic way that promotes the 'desert bloom' myth while encouraging continued investment and erasing the crimes which so much of that investment funds." (Giving up on political propaganda, Israeli consulate turns to TED-style inspirational conference, Rob Bryan, mondoweiss.net, 27/5/16)

3 comments:

Grappler said...

The problem for Zionism is not the marketing, it is the product!

"Desert bloom"? To those who don't know (and I know you do MERC), I suggest Alan George's "Making the Desert Bloom: A Myth Examined". To quote:

"When Britain received the Mandate for Palestine most of the cultivable lande was already under cultivation".

Incidentally, in the next paragraph, it says "Land purchased by the Jewish National Fund, the major Zionist land acquisition agency, was exclusively for settlement by Jews and could not be leased or resold to Arabs, who could not even expect to be employed on it."

I wonder what Australians would say if, say, the Chinese immigrant community adopted a similar policy.

MERC said...

For Alan George see my 25/11/08 post Sir Bob Wows the JNFaithful at Galah Dinner.

Grappler said...

Great post from 25/11/08, MERC.