Unlike many investigative journalists, I've had considerable experience in the
field of public relations. And, judging from the reaction to the spin on the
bloody Israeli reoccupation of the OTs, many in the media could benefit from
such experience.
Kudos go to the PR firm and/or anyone else involved in the Israeli propaganda
blitz. It is a masterpiece!
The first job of any good PR man is to put the best face possible on a bad
situation in light of the facts.
"Massacre" is an interesting word, however it is also inexact. For instance,
civilians can be shot for attempting to get medical care or buried alive by
bulldozers, but this is not necessarily a massacre.
For the purposes of the PR man, focusing the discussion on "massacre" rather
than "war crimes" (which have a far more exact definition and, in fact, took
place on a large scale) does a great deal for the client. No longer does Israel
have to answer for using civilians in occupied territories as shields, making
limited numbers of summary executions of civilians, taking reprisals against
civilian properties, taking hostages, forcing civilians to enter potentially
mined areas, breaking the toes of civilians, starving civilians in occupied
areas, desecrating religious sites, deliberately depriving civilians of water
and emergency medical care, preventing emergency medical vehicles from reaching
the wounded, ad infinitum.
The next important task of the PR man in this situation is to limit the exposure
of the client. In this case the two-pronged approach was used: limit the area
of investigation to Jenin Camp in this case AND limit the powers of those
investigating the alleged massacre.
You say the client committed massacres at dozens of locations? Well, let's look
at one in particular: Jenin. Who can help it if many of the so-called massacred
are crushed, buried or shipped to other destinations? After all, didn't the
Israeli courts order the destruction of bodies to stop? And, if a better case
can be made for a "massacre" at another location, who will notice? The media
will all be focused on one sanitized location. It will be like the boy who
cried "wolf"...
The second part of the equation, of course, requires some high-powered
governmental help. Well, you've got it. You don't have to worry about a nasty
international tribunal with all kinds of subpoena powers and the ability to
impose varying degrees of sanctions for noncompliance. No, all you've got is
"an initiative of the UN Secretary General". So, if things start to unravel,
you can simply ignore them and/or provide sanitized information. "All they have
is one side of the story," can be the claim of the client who doesn't want to
fully cooperate. (And, your media hounds can claim that the investigators are
anti-Semitic, biased, engaged in a "witch hunt". For good measure, you can
claim (in Stalinesque fashion) that it was the civilians THEMSELVES who caused
all the damage, for propaganda purposes. This will make for some great press!)
For additional good measure, you can discredit the bumbling old leader of the
civilians (who was allowed to survive when the Israelis liquidated more
competent potential successors). Arafat, in this case, can be blamed for
everything. After all, no one will look too carefully at such claims. The
Israeli client can say it confiscated papers proving he ordered the "homicide"
bombings (no, don't call them "suicide", that implies some measure of
desperation!) The journalists will never think to ask why Arafat would order
bombings at the very moments when the Israelis had to perform under the Oslo and
earlier agreements? (Why wouldn't this paragon of evil simply have gotten
everything he could out of the Israelis before he started the bombing?) Or why
he would keep meticulous records incriminating him with the Israelis literally
on his doorstep? Or how he could "stop terrorism" while surrounded by Israelis
and having no police force?
One talk show host in America, Michael Savage, gives out what he calls the
"Goebbels Award" to journalists who are critical of Israel. The award rightly
should go to the crafters of the Israeli spin. Goebbels (from a strictly PR
stance) would have been proud.
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