{"id":1630762,"date":"2024-04-26T05:55:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T05:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=319954"},"modified":"2024-04-26T05:55:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T05:55:02","slug":"manipulation-politics-israeli-gaslighting-in-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/26\/manipulation-politics-israeli-gaslighting-in-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Manipulation Politics: Israeli Gaslighting in the United States\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
\"\"

Photograph Source: U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv – CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The Middle East will not be the same in the wake of 7 October 2023. More was breached on that day than the prison wall that Palestinian fighters burst through.\u00a0\u00a0The fantasy Israel has staged-managed, and the United States has parroted, for over seven decades has finally seen the light of day.\u00a0\u00a0The global community can no longer be gaslit.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Merriam-Webster defines gaslighting as \u201cthe act of grossly misleading someone especially for one\u2019s own advantage.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The term has resonance for what Israel and the United States have successfully done over a number of generations\u2014create a benign identity for Israel that has never corresponded with its ruthless settler-colonial reality.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

The awful truth is that it has taken the death of over 34,000 Palestinians for many in the United States and the world to say \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The mainstreamed Israeli \u201cgood guy\u201d narrative that has colonized the U.S. body politic for so long is being whittled away by the horrific images of daily genocide and ecocide from Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

A country does not become cruel overnight.\u00a0\u00a0It takes intent, years of practice and strategies to effectively hide the cruelty.\u00a0\u00a0Since it declared itself a state in 1948, the occupied territories known as Israel has relied on an elaborate state-run public relations industry to convince Western audiences, particularly Americans, of its bravery and noble intentions.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

For over six months, Israel\u2019s brutality has been brought into the living rooms of America.\u00a0\u00a0Until then, Israel had made certain that its foundational myths and beacon of democracy tale dominated American politics and government, religion, journalism, academia, cinema and television.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Those who have been successfully gaslit, whether consciously or unconsciously, and who wish to maintain existing power structures continue to deny the genocide being live-streamed before their eyes, and have galvanized to crush those opposed to Israel\u2019s war on Palestinians.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

American Politics and Government<\/b><\/u><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

For decades, Israel has manipulated U.S. politicians emotionally and financially to advance its expansionist ambitions.\u00a0\u00a0Israeli lobby groups, like the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), have poured billions into the coffers of receptive politicians.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Pro-Israel spending has fueled Congress\u2019<\/span>s overwhelming support for the apartheid regime.\u00a0\u00a0Rarely, if ever, do they question why aid is being given to the\u00a0fourteenth richest\u00a0<\/a>(per capita) country in the world.\u00a0\u00a0From 1990 to 2024, for example, the \u201cI am a Zionist,\u201d president, Joe Biden has received$5,736,701<\/a>\u00a0from pro-Israel lobbies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

In 2024, AIPAC plans to\u00a0spend $100 million\u00a0<\/a>in an effort to unseat progressive members of Congress (eight in number) who have been critical of Israeli policy and who have called for a ceasefire in Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

In January 2024,\u00a0The Guardian newspaper\u00a0<\/a>published its analysis of campaign data.\u00a0\u00a0It found that congressional members supportive of the war received the most money from Israel lobby groups.\u00a0\u00a0It also revealed that 82 percent of its members support Israel; 9 percent are supportive of Palestine; and 8 percent were equally supportive of both.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Religion<\/b><\/u><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s leaders have also capitalized on the powerful force of religion to whitewash their settler-colonial project. They have exploited the ideology of biblical chosenness and divinely sanctioned land ownership to legitimize land theft, to dispossess the Palestinians and to sell its genocidal war on Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

An\u00a0Israeli Democracy Index, 2013<\/a>\u00a0survey revealed that two-thirds (64.3 percent) of Israeli Jews consider Jews to be the \u201cchosen people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The prominence of this belief has resulted in attitudes and government policies of exclusion, entitlement and ethnic chauvinism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s war rhetoric has been suffused with violent biblical references.\u00a0\u00a0He has cynically ascribed the term\u00a0Amalek\u2014the staunch enemy of biblical Israelites\u2014to Palestinians.\u00a0\u00a0The far-right in Israel has, for a long while, used such\u00a0references<\/a>\u00a0to justify killing Palestinians.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

The Evangelical right has stood solidly with Israel; even more so during its war on Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0The Israel, Zionist lobby and Christian Zionist (religious right) alliance have had enormous influence over U.S. Middle East policy.\u00a0\u00a0For every one Jewish Zionist, there are\u00a030 Christian Zionists<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Netanyahu has courted Evangelicals cognizant of the power they exert within Congress.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Christian Zionism demands of its followers absolute support for Israel, believing that the Rapture and Second Coming of Christ require the gathering of all Jews in Israel, and that supporting Israel will bring God\u2019s blessing on them and on their nation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Many American evangelicals, have been cheering Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, believing it to be a prelude to the end times prophecy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Christian Zionists have found powerful allies in the White House and in the U.S. Congress.\u00a0\u00a0In the Trump White House, for example, evangelicals held seats of power with the likes of former Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

There are at\u00a0least 100\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0evangelicals currently serving in Congress, including the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It has become almost mandatory for members to attend AIPAC and Christian evangelical events, as well as excursions to Israel to assure the apartheid leaders of their continued loyalty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Journalism<\/b><\/u><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

American public opinion has been molded to look with favor on Israel. Mainstream journalism has become largely a stenography service for U.S.-Israeli interests.\u00a0\u00a0Most of the pundits and so-called experts on television, for example, come from think tanks funded by pro-Israel groups: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, American Enterprise Institute, Foreign Policy Research Institute, The Heritage Foundation and Council on Foreign Relations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Intellectually honest analysis or criticism of Israel is met with orchestrated pressure from Jewish lobby groups or with the dreaded label of antisemitism. Such tactics have been used to create a climate of intimidation, which has often led to self-censorship.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

It is useful to look at a few examples to understand how alternative narratives regarding Palestine have been discouraged for decades.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Ariel Sharon, former Israeli defense minister, filed a libel suit after\u00a0Time magazine<\/a>\u00a0ran a cover story in 1983 accusing him of encouraging the massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in September 1982.\u00a0\u00a0In 1984, Americans for a Safe Israel filed a petition requesting that NBC\u2019s license be revoked over its reporting of Israel\u2019s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.\u00a0\u00a0CBS faced<\/a>\u00a0similar criticism for airing veteran reporter, Bob Simon\u2019s \u201c60-Minutes\u201d report about Christians living under Israeli occupation.\u00a0\u00a0A full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal excoriating Simon appeared soon after.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s founder,\u00a0Ted Turner,\u00a0<\/a>caused an uproar when he told the\u00a0Guardian\u00a0in 2002 that Israel was engaging in terrorism against the Palestinians, resulting in threats to the networks revenue.\u00a0\u00a0Walter Isaacson, then CNN Chair, appeared on Israeli television to denounce Turner and the network\u2019s chief news executive, Eason Jordan, flew to Israel to appease the regime.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Magazines such as The New Republic, The Atlantic and Commentary have also been influential in creating an Israel-centric worldview.\u00a0\u00a0Pro-Israel syndicated columnists Thomas Friedman, Bret Stephens, George Will and David Brooks\u2014whose son has served in the Israeli army\u2014dominate the op-ed pages of major newspapers.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Since the October assault, a\u00a0number of journalists<\/a>\u00a0have faced censorship, retaliation or dismissal for presenting the Palestinian narrative or for criticizing Israeli violence.\u00a0\u00a0The firing in October of\u00a0Michael Eisen<\/a>, editor of eLife, a prominent academic science journal, after he retweeted an article from the satirical Onion titled, \u201cDying Gaza\u2019s Crticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn Hamas,\u201dreflects how censorship has reached into all media platforms.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

All<\/span>\u00a0foreign news organizations\u00a0<\/a>operating in Israel are subject to Israeli military censors. To suppress the horrors coming from Gaza, Israel has refused to permit foreign journalists independent access to that beleaguered Strip.\u00a0\u00a0Only Palestinian reporters already there have been able to report; for that, they and their families have been targeted.\u00a0\u00a0According to the\u00a0Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a>, as of 25 April, at least 97 journalists and media staff have been killed and 16 injured since the war began.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Academia<\/b><\/u><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

For over two hundred days, Israel\u2019s supporters have been straining to preserve their stranglehold over American universities.\u00a0\u00a0They are aware that people are losing their fear of\u00a0Israel\u2019s watchdogs<\/a>\u00a0like Canary Mission, Stand With Us and Hillel; groups that have made it their mission to suppress critical discussion around Israel on college campuses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Academic freedom has been denied professors who have bravely challenged\u00a0\u00a0accepted Israeli renderings.\u00a0\u00a0Professors Rabab Abdulhadi, California State University, San Francisco, Steven Salaita, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Norman Finkelstein, De Paul are among the academics who have been intimidated or terminated.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Pro-Israel forces have stepped up their pressure on administrators, as demonstrations on university campuses have grown.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Wealthy donors have used threats to withhold, or have withheld, donations if speech critical of Israel is allowed.\u00a0\u00a0Administrators have responded, dismissing professors, setting limits on free speech, conflating protests with antisemitism and using police to breakup demonstrations.\u00a0\u00a0More than 100 Columbia University students were arrested on 18 April after the university called in the New York Police Department to clear a protest encampment.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Students reported being\u00a0\u00a0sprayed\u00a0<\/a>with a putrid smelling chemical agent at a Columbia demonstration.\u00a0\u00a0They later learned that they were sprayed with a chemical called \u201cskunk;\u201d an agent\u00a0developed by Israel<\/a>\u00a0and that has been used for years by the Israeli military against Palestinians in occupied Palestine.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Earlier in April, the University of Southern California, citing unspecified security concerns, cancelled plans for a\u00a0graduation speech\u00a0<\/a>by this year\u2019s valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student.\u00a0\u00a0Disappointed,\u00a0\u00a0Tabassum said the school had succumbed \u201cto a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Pro-Israel groups have also looked to Congress to neutralize the growing pro-Palestinian protests.\u00a0\u00a0House Republicans have held hearings to \u201cinvestigate\u201d antisemitism at America\u2019s prestigious universities.\u00a0\u00a0Thus far, the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania have resigned following their appearances.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And on 24 April, Speaker Johnson called for the president of Columbia University, Nemat Minouche Shafik, to step down.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Safety and antisemitism have been used as weapons to silence campus criticism of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0In November, after Jewish students complained of feeling unsafe upon hearing remarks critical of Israel,\u00a0\u00a0Columbia banned\u00a0<\/a>its chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

The intensity of Israeli indoctrination is reflected in the reaction of some Jewish students who believe that protests targeting Israel constitute personal attacks on them as Jews.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Many young American Jews have been raised with the idealized image of Israel as a righteous state, necessary for Jewish safety.\u00a0\u00a0A\u00a0large number<\/a>\u00a0have made the free ten-day trip to Israel sponsored by\u00a0Birthright Israel<\/a>, an organization supported by the Israeli regime and wealthy philanthropists like the late Sheldon Adelson.\u00a0\u00a0Birthright, founded in 1999, has played a large role in shaping loyalty to Israel.\u00a0\u00a0Predictably, the reality of the occupation has never been a part of the group\u2019s tour.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Cinema and Television<\/b><\/u><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Israel loyalists have masterfully utilized the media to shape public perceptions and attitudes.\u00a0\u00a0Movie and television screens have been filled with an abundance of positive, sympathetic images of Israel that have shaped public perceptions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, the 1960 film, Exodus, firmly implanted the heroic image of Israel in the minds of many Americans.\u00a0\u00a0The heroism of the Palestinian people fighting to preserve their homeland from Israeli domination has yet to hit the big screen.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Beginning with the 1921silent film classic, The Sheik, filmmakers have cast Middle Easterners, Arabs and Muslims as exotic, uncultured, idiotic, lecherous and violent, indistinguishable from one another.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Although racist depictions of Arabs is not new to the film and television industry, media providers Showtime, Netflix and HBO have amped up the propaganda with series such as Homeland, Fauda (meaning chaos in Arabic), The Messiah, The Spy, and Our Boys.\u00a0\u00a0These dramas, from which many Americans draw their information, portray Israel\u2019s secret police as virtuous defenders of law, hunting down threatening Arab \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Caricatures and negative cinematic imagery have contributed to the destructive dehumanization of Arabs, as witnessed today in Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The powerful political narrative created around Arabs has allowed Israel\u2019s genocide of Palestinians to become an image on a screen or just another news event.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

For more than eight decades\u2014from photoplay sheik movies of the 1920s to the elaborately produced films of the present\u2014Hollywood filmmakers have perpetuated Middle Eastern stereotypes that have cultivated prejudice and division between peoples and nations.\u00a0\u00a0These stereotypes have created a pattern of socialization that has made the Middle Eastern world distant and vulnerable to attack.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/u><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Although the pro-Israel camp and their allies continue to dominate and influence Congress and the executive branch, they have slowly begun to lose control of the narrative.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

President Joe Biden, however, remains dedicated to the Israeli fantasy.\u00a0\u00a0He has embraced and subsidized a racist supremacist Israeli regime; a 57-year apartheid occupation; squatter colonialism and genocide in Gaza.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

While professing commitment to achieving a Palestinian state, the United States alone vetoed a 18 April Security Council resolution that would have allowed full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.\u00a0\u00a0And while Israel continues its intense bombing in Gaza, Biden signed legislation on 24 April allocating another\u00a0$26.4 billion<\/a>\u00a0for Tel Aviv to continue its atrocities.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Israeli gaslighting has reached into and exerted influence in almost every segment of American society.\u00a0\u00a0Consequently, Israel has grown into an entity unbound by borders, exempt from international law and able to commit genocide with impunity.\u00a0\u00a0The horrific images coming from Gaza are, however, are making it increasingly difficult for Israel and its U.S. allies to silence dissent and to continue gaslighting the American public.<\/p>\n

The post Manipulation Politics: Israeli Gaslighting in the United States\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Middle East will not be the same in the wake of 7 October 2023. More was breached on that day than the prison wall that Palestinian fighters burst through.\u00a0\u00a0The fantasy Israel has staged-managed, and the United States has parroted, for over seven decades has finally seen the light of day.\u00a0\u00a0The global community can no More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Manipulation Politics: Israeli Gaslighting in the United States\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1630762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1630762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1630762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1630763,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1630762\/revisions\/1630763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1630762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1630762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1630762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}