{"id":315277,"date":"2026-04-27T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=315277"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:58:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:58:45","slug":"big-brother-and-the-israel-advocacy-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/04\/big-brother-and-the-israel-advocacy-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Brother and the Israel Advocacy Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

20 Apr 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0In George Orwell\u2019s\u00a0dystopian novel<\/a>\u00a0Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>, Oceania is a totalitarian society where Big Brother demands unquestioning conformity and obedience; where the Thought Police constantly monitor and punish every infraction of the rules; and where the Ministry of Truth proclaims,\u00a0\u201cWar is Peace,\u201d \u201cFreedom is Slavery,\u201d\u00a0and \u201cIgnorance is Strength.\u201d\u00a0According to the story\u2019s protagonist, the greatest heresy in Oceania is common sense, and the most essential command is to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.\u00a0Ultimately, nobody escapes this\u00a0total surveillance state\u00a0\u2014 \u201cBig Brother Is Watching You!\u201d \u2014 because those who rebel in any manner are identified, captured, broken, and often \u201cvaporized\u201d as if they had never existed.<\/p>\n

I sometimes find myself recalling Orwell\u2019s Oceania when I read the daily distressing and outraging news from Palestine and the broader region. I think about how, much like Big Brother, today\u2019s Israel Advocacy Machine demands complete allegiance, compliance, and submission. And how it, too, often goes to extraordinary lengths to silence and discipline those who question or reject its deceptive and deceitful propaganda.<\/p>\n

For example, Oceania\u2019s ruling Party \u201cfreezes history\u201d whenever necessary to fit their preferred narrative, convinced that \u201cWho controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.\u201d Israel advocates attempt something similar when they promote the view that Israel\u2019s relevant history seemingly begins and ends with the horrific Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Through this distorted lens, they disregard\u00a0decades<\/a>\u00a0of Palestinian suffering and oppression while claiming\u00a0<\/strong>that, in any moral reckoning, nothing Israel has done since that day can be counted against it. By their account, all Israeli atrocities over the past two-and-a-half years either never happened or are\u00a0fully<\/a>\u00a0justified<\/a>\u00a0(Israel\u2019s own version of Oceania\u2019s \u201cdoublethink.\u201d) Of course, incontrovertible evidence of Israel\u2019s\u00a0war crimes<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0disdain<\/a>\u00a0for basic\u00a0human<\/a>\u00a0decency<\/a>\u00a0has exposed that fiction. In recent weeks, Israel\u2019s\u00a0indiscriminate assault<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0residential neighborhoods<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0civilian infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0in Lebanon and Iran has also laid bare any lingering pretense that \u201cself-defense\u201d is always the sole basis for its acts of mass violence and devastation.<\/p>\n

Consider too that in\u00a0Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>\u00a0Big Brother rewrites history as needed and ensures that Oceania\u2019s citizens live in constant fear for their safety. During a daily mandatory ritual called \u201cTwo Minutes Hate,\u201d telescreens everywhere display rage-inducing fabricated images of enemy soldiers \u2014 a reminder that Oceania is in a state of perpetual war and loyalty must therefore be absolute.\u00a0<\/em>For many years, beginning long before October 7th, the\u00a0Israel Advocacy Machine has been pursuing its own\u00a0<\/em>Orwellian campaign of\u00a0<\/em>control<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0disinformation<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>focused on the demonization and delegitimization of the Palestinian people.\u00a0<\/em>Palestinians of all ages have been\u00a0dehumanized<\/a> and portrayed<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0animals<\/a>\u00a0posing an existential threat to Israel\u2019s survival. And their brutal and merciless expulsion decades ago from what is now the state of Israel has been repeatedly discounted or denied.<\/p>\n

But Israel and its staunch supporters are losing ground on all of these public relations fronts. Despite the\u00a0killing<\/a>\u00a0of hundreds of journalists and media workers, heart-wrenching reports from Gaza, including images of some of the thousands of children who\u2019ve been slaughtered<\/a> or orphaned<\/a>, have proven difficult for the world to simply ignore. Fanatical West Bank settlers\u00a0 ransacking and razing<\/a>\u00a0entire villages have prompted expressions of\u00a0concern<\/a>\u00a0from even some of Israel\u2019s most friendly allies. Newly discovered\u00a0official documents<\/a>\u00a0from Israel\u2019s founding leave no doubt that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homes by ruthless terror offensives. And at least some sympathizers who\u2019ve opted for willful ignorance are now finding it increasingly difficult to overlook the unfolding livestreamed genocide.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more parallel with\u00a0Nineteen Eighty-Four\u00a0<\/em>worth highlighting here. To eliminate noncompliant speech and independent thought, Big Brother creates \u201cNewspeak\u201d \u2014 a new language with far fewer words. A Party disciple explains it this way:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words\u2026The great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well\u2026The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought\u2026In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Israel Advocacy Machine appears to have adopted its own version, with a similar goal: to control the narrative about Israel by tightly restricting language so that unwelcome ideas and truths become much harder to express or even think. Words like \u201cPalestine,\u201d and \u201cPalestinian\u201d therefore don\u2019t appear in the \u201cNewspeak for Israel\u201d dictionary. They\u2019ve been replaced with \u201canti-Israel,\u201d anti-Zionist,\u201d and similar expressions that blur the distinction between victim and perpetrator. This figurative erasure of the Palestinian people matches their literal removal and destruction, and it facilitates the fading of Israel\u2019s war crimes from minds and conversations. In much the same way,\u00a0\u201coccupation,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201capartheid,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cgenocide\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and other Israel-offending words are also missing from the \u201cNewspeak for Israel\u201d dictionary. They\u2019ve all been supplanted by one word that Israel advocates are encouraged to use as often and as loudly as possible: \u201cAntisemitism\u201d (with an implicit exclamation point). The ultimate goal is a \u201cGreater Israel\u201d in both word and deed.<\/p>\n

Big Brother\u2019s iron grip persists throughout\u00a0Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>, but the novel\u2019s appendix suggests that Newspeak is never fully adopted in Oceania, and that the regime is eventually overthrown. So too, the Israel Advocacy Machine is showing signs of faltering. Here in the United States, the longstanding\u00a0\u201cPalestine Exception\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the vigorous suppression and punishment of speech defending Palestinian rights and freedom \u2014 is losing its hold. Today, the American public increasingly understands who the Palestinian people are and how they\u2019ve been profoundly misrepresented and mistreated by Israel and its supporters. National\u00a0polling data<\/a>\u00a0confirm these promising developments, as do recent\u00a0statements<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0shifts<\/a>\u00a0in the positions of many political leaders in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know exactly how Israel\u2019s dedicated advocates will now respond as their hall of mirrors collapses, their propaganda balloons burst, and their desperation grows. But what\u2019s clear is that we can\u2019t take for granted the growing tide of support for Palestine. It reflects the tireless efforts of many courageous defenders of human rights who\u2019ve risked their livelihoods, their freedom, and, in some cases, their very lives. In ways large and small, we can all help fight the erasure of the Palestinian people by elevating their cause in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. You won\u2019t hear it from the Israel Advocacy Machine, but \u201cNever Again\u201d is now, and for all people.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

This opinion piece reflects my personal views and not those of any group with which I am affiliated.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Roy Eidelson is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network<\/em><\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of <\/em>Eidelson Consulting<\/em><\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of <\/em>Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/em><\/a>, former executive director of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, and a member of the <\/em>Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/em><\/a>. Roy is the author of <\/em>Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What\u2019s Happening, What\u2019s Right, and What\u2019s Possible<\/a> and can be reached at <\/em>reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I sometimes find myself recalling Orwell\u2019s Oceania when I read the daily distressing and outraging news from Palestine and the broader region. I think about how, much like Big Brother, today\u2019s Israel Advocacy Machine demands complete allegiance, compliance, and submission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1235,3287,1924,865,855,88,427],"class_list":["post-315277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-1235","tag-anti-zionism","tag-authoritarianism","tag-genocide","tag-george-orwell","tag-israel","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315277","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=315277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315278,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315277\/revisions\/315278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}