{"id":279660,"date":"2024-11-04T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=279660"},"modified":"2024-11-02T05:28:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T05:28:10","slug":"how-a-secluded-1984-conference-forged-israels-unprecedented-influence-over-us-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/11\/how-a-secluded-1984-conference-forged-israels-unprecedented-influence-over-us-media\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Secluded 1984 Conference Forged Israel\u2019s Unprecedented Influence Over US Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sol Goldstein, spokesman for a group of Jewish organizations, holds up a German language newspaper with headlines questioning the validity of the Holocaust, at a news conference in Chicago, 14 Jun 1978. Photo | AP<\/p><\/div>\n

31 Oct 2024 <\/em>– As Israel\u2019s October 1 invasion of Lebanon unfolds, the media\u2019s complicity in shaping public perception raises urgent questions, particularly when viewed through the lens of a controversial 1984 conference where influential advertising and media figures gathered to refine Israel\u2019s narrative strategies. This conference laid the groundwork for a sophisticated propaganda campaign\u2014Hasbara\u2014that sought to sanitize Israel\u2019s actions and cast its military operations in a favorable light. Today, as Western journalists\u00a0whitewash<\/a>, distort, and\u00a0conceal<\/a>\u00a0Israel\u2019s the realities of Israel\u2019s deadly campaign of violence, the enduring legacy of this meeting becomes alarmingly clear, revealing how narratives crafted decades ago continue to shape the coverage of a conflict that claims countless lives.<\/p>\n

In the first week of October, Israeli forces\u00a0fired 355 bullets<\/a>\u00a0at a car containing a five-year-old, then shot at rescue workers who rushed to save her life. A horrific crime \u2013 yet, per many Western media headlines, she\u00a0was simply<\/a>\u00a0a \u201cgirl killed in Gaza.\u201d The circumstances and perpetrators of her death, if mentioned at all, were invariably buried at the bottom of reports, well hidden from the 80% of the news-consuming public\u00a0who only read<\/a>\u00a0headlines, not accompanying articles.<\/p>\n

By contrast, on\u00a0October 15<\/a>, Sky News was very keen that its viewers know the names and faces of four \u201cteenage\u201d IDF soldiers \u201ckilled\u201d in a \u201cHezbollah drone attack,\u201d humanizing and infantilizing individuals who, by mere token of their service in Israel\u2019s military, are by\u00a0definition<\/a>, guilty of genocide. In passing, the same report briskly noted: \u201c\u201823 die\u2019 in Gaza school strike.\u201d Their identities, ages, and photos, let alone clarity on who or what murdered them, weren\u2019t provided.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the inverted commas incongruously hovering around the number of Palestinians killed subtly undermined that claim\u2019s credibility while reducing the child victims to an afterthought compared to the considerably more important quartet of deceased IDF genocidaires. MintPress News senior staff writer Alan MacLeod\u00a0put it<\/a>\u00a0succinctly when he Tweeted, \u201cIn years to come, students in university departments around the world will be studying the propaganda embedded in this headline. It\u2019s truly incredible how much propaganda has been packed into 16 words.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mainstream media\u2019s\u00a0systematic use<\/a>\u00a0of distancing and evasive language, omission and other duplicitous chicanery to downplay or\u00a0outright justify<\/a>\u00a0Israel\u2019s murder of innocent civilians while simultaneously dehumanizing their victims and delegitimizing Palestinian resistance against brutal, illegal IDF occupation is as unconscionable as it is\u00a0well-documented<\/a>. Amazingly though, \u2018twasn\u2019t ever thus. Once upon a time, mainstream news networks exposed Israel\u2019s war crimes without qualification, and anchors and pundits openly condemned these actions on live TV to audiences of millions.<\/p>\n

The story of how Western media was transformed into Israel\u2019s doting, servile propaganda appendage is not only a fascinating and sordid hidden chronicle. It is a deeply educational lesson in how imperial power can easily subordinate supposed arbiters of truth to its will. Comprehending how we got to this point equips us with the tools to assess, identify, and deconstruct lies large and small \u2013 and effectively challenge and counter not only Israel\u2019s falsehoods but the entire settler colonial endeavor.<\/p>\n

\u2018Neighborhood Bully\u2019<\/h3>\n

On June 6, 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. The effort was ostensibly intended to drive Palestinian Liberation Organization freedom fighters away from their positions on Israel\u2019s northern border. But, as the IDF savagely pushed ever-deeper into the country, including Beirut, it became clear that ethnic cleansing, massacres, and land theft were \u2013 as in Palestine \u2013 the true goal. Throughout the Lebanese capital, news crews from major networks and reporters from the West\u2019s biggest newspapers were waiting.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s rapacious bloodlust and casual contempt for Arab lives had hitherto been, by and large,\u00a0successfully concealed<\/a>\u00a0from the outside world. Suddenly, though, scenes of deliberate IDF airstrikes on residential housing blocks, Tel Aviv\u2019s trigger-happy soldiers running amok in Beirut\u2019s streets, and hospitals overflowing with civilians suffering from grave injuries, including chemical burns due to Israel\u2019s use of\u00a0phosphorus shells<\/a>, were broadcast the world over, to nigh-universal outcry. As veteran NBC news anchor John Chancellor\u00a0contemporarily explained<\/a>\u00a0to Western viewers:<\/p>\n

What in the world is going on? Israel\u2019s security problem, on its border, is 50 miles to the south. What\u2019s an Israeli army doing here in Beirut? The answer is we are now dealing with an imperial Israel, which is solving its problems in someone else\u2019s country, world opinion be damned.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Global shock and repulsion at Israel\u2019s conduct would only ratchet during the IDF\u2019s resultant illegal military occupation of swaths of Lebanon. In September 1982, an Israel-backed armed Christian militia, Phalange,\u00a0entered Sabra<\/a>, a Beirut neighborhood home to many Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Nakba. Over a two-day span, they slaughtered up to 3,500 people while mutilating and raping countless others. Again, unfortunately for Tel Aviv, mainstream journalists were on hand to document these heinous crimes first-hand.<\/p>\n

To say the least, Israel had an international PR disaster of historic proportions on its blood-soaked hands. The risk that further exposure of its genocidal nature might decisively and permanently shift global opinion in favor of the Palestinians and the Arab world more generally was significant. The attack on Lebanon had already spurred Western news outlets to critically reassess other illegal annexations and occupations in which Israel was and remains engaged. As ABC News reporter Richard Threlkeld\u00a0commented<\/a>\u00a0at the time:<\/p>\n

Israel was always that gallant little underdog democracy fighting for survival against all the odds. Now, the Israelis have annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, settled down more or less permanently on the West Bank, and occupied close to half of Lebanon. In the interests of self-defense, that gallant little underdog, Israel, has suddenly started behaving like the neighborhood bully.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So it was that in the summer of 1984, the American Jewish Congress \u2013 a major Zionist lobby organization \u2013\u00a0convened a conference<\/a>\u00a0in Jerusalem, Israel\u2019s Public Image: Problems and Remedies. It was chaired by U.S. advertising supremo\u00a0Carl Spielgovel<\/a>, who a decade earlier provided pro bono advice to the Israeli government on strategies for publicly communicating why Tel Aviv refused to adhere to the terms of the Henry Kissinger-brokered 1973\u00a0Sinai Accords<\/a>. Spielgovel\u00a0later recalled<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It occurred to me then that the Israelis were doing a good job at training their military people, and they were doing a relatively good job at training their diplomatic corps. But they weren\u2019t spending any time training information officers, people who could present Israel\u2019s case to embassies and TV anchormen around the world. Over the years, I made this a personal cause celebre.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 1984 Jerusalem conference offered Spielgovel and a welter of Western advertising and public relations executives, media specialists, editors, journalists, and leaders of major Zionist advocacy groups an opportunity to achieve that malign objective. Together, they hammered out a dedicated strategy for ensuring the \u201ccrisis\u201d caused by news reporting on the invasion of Lebanon two years earlier would never be repeated. Their antidote? Ceaseless, methodical, and wide-ranging \u201cHasbara\u201d \u2013 Hebrew for propaganda \u2013 for \u201cchanging people\u2019s minds [and] making them think differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Big Scoop\u2019<\/h3>\n

The AJC subsequently\u00a0published records<\/a>\u00a0of the conference. They offer extraordinarily candid insight into how multiple Hasbara strategies, which have been in perpetual operation ever since were birthed. For example, basic propaganda messages were agreed upon. This included messages that are echoed by Israel\u2019s supporters to this day, emphasizing Israel\u2019s regional importance to the U.S. and Europe, Western cultural and political values, geographic vulnerability, and supposed striving for peace in the face of implacable Palestinian belligerence and intransigence.<\/p>\n

As Judith Elizur, an expert in \u201ccommunications\u201d from Tel Aviv\u2019s Hebrew University, explained:<\/p>\n

Because the \u2018power dimension\u2019 of Israel\u2019s image is so problematic, it seems to me that Hasbara must concentrate on reinforcing other aspects of Israel that have a positive appeal \u2013 medicine, agriculture, science, archaeology\u2026We have been too preoccupied with extinguishing political brush fires. We need to devote more of our resources to long-range image-making. We must recreate a multi-dimensional image of Israel which will assure us the basic support we require in times of crisis.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There was extensive discussion of how to present \u201cunpalatable policies\u201d to Western populations, and counter the perception of Israel as \u201cGoliath steamrolling\u201d across West Asia, against adversaries \u201coutgunned, outclassed and outmanned\u201d with \u201cno capacity to resist.\u201d The necessity of training the Jewish diaspora in countering criticism of Israel was considered paramount.<\/p>\n

AJC\u2019s president lamented that \u201cmany American Jews\u201d had condemned the invasion of Lebanon and \u201cdid us a terrible disservice.\u201d Any such future \u201cdisagreement\u201d would make it \u201cvery difficult for us to conduct Hasbara effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph Block, Pepsi\u2019s former vice president of public relations, stressed the need for a dedicated, 24\/7 Israel press operation \u201cequipped to offer foreign journalists an occasional exclusive or scoop\u201d and engage in other media outreach to balance critical coverage and get reporters and newsrooms \u2018on side.\u2019 Block lamented that had Israeli officials not \u201cbriefed NBC and other networks appropriately\u201d and given them \u201ca big scoop\u201d during Lebanon\u2019s invasion, \u201ca different story would have reached America\u2019s 90 million TV households\u201d:<\/p>\n

News doesn\u2019t just jump into a camera. It\u2019s directed. It\u2019s managed. It\u2019s made accessible. Public relations is a process that makes news available in a particular form. In the US, PR is as important as accounting, the law and the military\u2026As a corporate spokesman for two of America\u2019s top 50 corporations, I wish I had a shekel for every time I said, \u2018no comment\u2019 to a reporter. I was always careful, however, not to antagonize or intimidate the reporter. I knew I had to live with him or her.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yoram Ettinger, media analysis chief at the Israel Information Center, concurred, declaring that media framing on Israel\u2019s actions needed to be determined in advance. \u201cActions\u201d such as \u201cblowing up houses,\u201d which were \u201cdifficult to explain,\u201d could be preemptively justified or at least relativized by placing them \u201cin context\u201d while \u201c[drawing] analogies that others will understand.\u201d This would \u201chelp others to interpret their meaning,\u201d per Tel Aviv\u2019s perspectives.<\/p>\n

The Conference hoped such efforts would mean \u201cour American friends will be able to take a more activist posture as amplifiers of our policy\u201d and assist them in \u201ctucking away the house problems in a back room.\u201d It was also suggested that on an individual and organizational level, Zionist activists serve as a rapid reaction force, deluging news outlets with complaints en masse should their coverage of Israel be at all critical. One attendee boasted of their personal success in this regard:<\/p>\n

One day CBS News Radio reported that an American soldier had been hurt by stepping on an Israeli cluster bomb at the Beirut airport. I called CBS to point out that no one had established the bomb was an Israeli one. One hour later CBS reported that an American soldier had stepped on a bomb; this time the report omitted any reference to Israel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018Frequent Violations\u2019<\/h3>\n

Another significant recommendation came from Carl Spielgovel: creating a \u201ctraining program\u201d to bring carefully selected Israeli information specialists into U.S. advertising, PR agencies, and major news outlets. The initiative aimed to equip them with industry insights, ensure Hasbara efforts were maximized, and establish close relationships between Israeli officials and the organizations to which they were assigned.<\/p>\n

These \u201cspecialists\u201d would operate under the guidance of a U.S.-Israeli council described as \u201cwise persons who can project different scenarios and how to cope with them\u201d on complex issues like \u201cannexation and Jerusalem.\u201d Spielgovel was careful to clarify that he was \u201cnot suggesting that we make policy\u201d but rather that \u201cwe should make the best minds available to help elucidate the consequences of certain policies.\u201d The goal, he suggested, was to reinforce to the American public that Tel Aviv remains Washington\u2019s \u201cstaunch political and military ally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spielgovel further proposed that future AJC conferences should incorporate input from \u201cyoung people\u201d and people of color to better promote Tel Aviv\u2019s image among diverse \u201cconstituencies.\u201d He argued that \u201cHasbara needs to implant in the consciousness of the world the day-to-day existence\u201d of Israeli citizens, requiring a steady stream of \u201cstories in the arts, business, and cooking sections of U.S. newspapers.\u201d Since then, a dedicated Hasbara program aimed at cultivating skilled Zionist advocates in the U.S. has operated continuously.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by its success, the operation soon\u00a0expanded\u00a0<\/a>to include school and university students worldwide, training them to act as vigorous advocates for Israel in classrooms and on campuses. Graduates of these Israeli-funded programs frequently enter influential fields, including journalism, where they continue to promote Hasbara narratives and defend Israel\u2019s actions. The impact on Western media coverage of Palestine has been profound.<\/p>\n

To a significant degree, the portrayal of Tel Aviv as \u201cthe gallant little underdog democracy fighting for survival against all the odds\u201d has been firmly reestablished. Despite the ongoing crisis in Gaza, mainstream outlets seldom provide context for Palestinian resistance to Israel\u2019s policies of annexation, occupation, and military actions. Coverage nearly always frames Israel\u2019s actions as \u201cself-defense\u201d against \u201cterrorist\u201d threats, with Western journalists keenly aware of potential repercussions for diverging from this narrative.<\/p>\n

The rapid reaction force proposed at the 1984 AJC conference remains highly active. An extensive network of Hasbara-trained individuals and Israel lobby organizations is always on standby, ready to pressure and intimidate news outlets if coverage diverges from favorable framing or casts Israel in a critical light. As a senior BBC producer once\u00a0confided<\/a>\u00a0to veteran media critic\u00a0Greg Philo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We wait in fear for the telephone call from the Israelis. The only issue we face then is how high up it\u2019s come from them. Has it come from a monitoring group? Has it come from the Israeli embassy? And how high has it gone up our organization? Has it reached the editor or director general? I have had journalists on the phone to me before a major news report, asking which words can I use \u2013 \u2018is it alright I say this\u2019?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An\u00a0October expos\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0by Al Jazeera, citing testimony from BBC and CNN whistleblowers, detailed \u201cpro-Israel bias in coverage, systematic double standards, and frequent violations of journalistic principles\u201d at both networks. According to insiders, much of this was driven by concerns over how Israeli officials might perceive and react to certain coverage. Independent activists and journalists, however, are not bound by such institutional pressures\u2014and since October 7, 2023, they have mounted a formidable challenge to Hasbara narratives.<\/p>\n

Were it not for the persistent investigations by outlets like MintPress News, The Grayzone, and Electronic Intifada, unfounded allegations promoted by Israel since the outset of the Gaza conflict\u2014such as claims of Hamas committing\u00a0mass rape<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0beheading infants<\/a>\u2014might never have been thoroughly debunked and might still shape the \u201ccontext\u201d for Israel\u2019s actions against Palestinians. Meanwhile, countless concerned citizens have actively challenged Western narratives on the conflict in real-time across social media, a groundswell of critique that may be\u00a0fueling pushback<\/a>\u00a0within some mainstream newsrooms.<\/p>\n

It is a poetic irony that the same information warfare techniques once honed under Hasbara are now being directed at Israel and its defenders. For decades, these methods allowed Israel to proceed with its gradual displacement of the Palestinian people, often with tacit approval from Western audiences. But those times seem to be fading. Today, critics and former targets of Israeli policy are effectively using these strategies, wielding what they see as their most potent tools\u2014truth and justice.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kit Klarenberg is a British investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mintpressnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

31 Oct 2024 – Exploring the 1984 conference that fortified Israel\u2019s narrative control and highlighting the troubling dynamics between media, politics, and public perception in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":238936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[2375,922,2314,88,2552,1855,234,2571,85,2497,109,70,1365],"class_list":["post-279660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-alternative-media","tag-bias","tag-corporate-media","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-mainstream-media-msm","tag-media","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-palestine-israel","tag-palestinians","tag-politics","tag-usa","tag-war-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279662,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279660\/revisions\/279662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}