The Hasbara Culture, Part 1
Part One
I am a professional poker player. I would not have known what that was in Boro Park Brooklyn, when I started studying the Talmud full time at 13. I was supposed to become a Rabbi and a scholar. That however did not work out. But Jewish culture is still what i am a product of.
Thus I have been watching from afar, at first with curiosity, then confusion, and lately with greater and greater concern, about what has happened to the Jewish community that i was once part of, and that was something me and other Jews could be so proud of. And maybe as an outsider to that world right now , I can give a perspective that won’t just become another ideological and political football to kick around. That people won’t dismiss so easily because of perceived motives and agendas. I don’t have any motives or agendas other than what is obvious from these pages. And of course there are people out there, who see more than i see, who understand more than i understand, who i am sure can say what i am trying to say a whole lot better than i will. But I also know they they have jobs and families and other life responsibilities that i just don’t have. So i took time off from my gambling some months ago to write about these things.
I believe the state of Israel is killing Jewish culture. Jewish culture is turning into all hasbara all the time. Jewish culture has become a hasbara culture. What is hasbara? It is taking a reality in the world and putting a dishonest spin on it.
Let us use the instructive example of the Palestinian led “Boycott Divestment and sanctions movement(BDS). What has been the discourse in Israel, and the Jewish community, about this Palestinian led rights movement? From Wikipedia:
The campaign was started on 9 July 2005 by over 170 Palestinian non-governmental organizations in support of the Palestinian cause for boycott of Israel, disinvestment from Israel and international sanctions against Israel. Citing a body of UN resolutions and specifically echoing the anti-apartheidcampaigns against white minority rule in apartheid era South Africa,[2] the BDS campaign called for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law”.[3]
What will the ADL use its good name to say about BDS, that is sure to have support of lots of politically involved idealistic Americans?
The message is that
“BDS is a modern version of an irrational hatred of the Jewish people.”
The problem is, that statement is obviously not true. BDS is not a modern version of an irrational hatred of Jews. And it’s not even an innocuous lie; It produces hatred in the world. It leads impressionable Jews to hate people who support BDS, on the basis of this horrible untruth. It also leads supporters of BDS to resent Jews for this Jewish defamation campaign against their character. And it would be one thing if Greenblatt said BDS were anti semitic, to claim BDS supporters don’t like Jews. Or even to claim BDS is anti semitic, because being in favor of a one state solution to the Israeli Palestinians conflict, would mean the end of the one Jewish state, and that is ipso facto anti semitism, as many now claim. But that is not what Greenblatt is saying here. What Greenblatt is saying is not a serious statement. And it makes Jewish culture not serious as well. Because no serious person believes that “BDS is a modern version of an irrational hatred of the Jewish people. It’s a ridiculous statement.
Yet the organization which bill itself AS
“the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency, ADL fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all.” is spreading this untruth.
If the ADL were interested in understanding BDS they might start from imagining things from the Palestinian perspective. Its always important to remember at this juncture that the Palestinians are people too. The place of Jews and Zionism is what one would expect from an occupied people like them. They have their own very real narrative just like Jews do. BDS would exist whether it was Jews who occupied the Palestinians or anyone else. The Jewish journalists Peter Beinart and J.J. Goldberg have persuasively argued to the Jewish community, that the Palestinians have come by their anti Zionist narrative “honestly,” and it’s not a story about anti semitism. And it’s outrageous and immoral to taint the Palestinian national movement as anti semitic. But these journalist make their points using reason and logic which doesn’t merit the attention in the Jewish community like it used to. http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.713040
http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/30/hatreds-ancient-and-new/
Ultimately it is Benjamin Netanyahu’s whose hasbara playbook, the ADL and the American Jewish community has been following the past decade if not longer. But Netanyahu is no ordinary hasbarists. He has added quite a bit of venom to traditional Israeli hasbara. He has “improved’ hasbara by adding a dash of hate. Both his foreign and his domestic policy is turning hate into an art form. It is to impugn Jew hatred in every direction. Netanyahu ideological foundation is this statement.
“”There is no lack of bitter enemies today, the will to destroy the Jewish people has not changed. What has changed is our ability to defend ourselves and our determination to do so.” http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/netanyahu-israel-must-prevent-the-elimination-of-the-jewish-people-1.408603
That idea about the world, means being in an ideological war footing all the time. It is to spot grievances wherever one looks in the world. It is to turn every issue into a question of good vs evil.
So the “idea” behind the tweet will come from Israel, The it’s all about irrational Jew hatred.
This Wikileak cable finds Israeli Amb. Ron Dermer telling Hillary’s people what the secret is.
“The key is to expose BDS as anti-Semitic..” https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/272
This is what Netanyahu has in mind, in another email, when he talks about the need to “attack attack attack” BDS. That ADL tweet is what attack “attack attack looks like to Netanyahu.” ..http://mondoweiss.net/2016/10/panicked-netanyahu-rallying/
How powerful is the hasbara culture? It’s so powerful that this “defamation” by the “Anti Defamation League” is happening while the ADL is running a campaign called “imagine a world without hate.” And the same ADL sends that hateful tweet out and no one even notices. Thats culture. That’s powerful culture.
But that is the inevitable result of “defending” Israel being the top priority for the ADL. And this is the ADL under the more universalist stewardship of Jonathan Greenblatt, not the more recently retired Abe Foxman. Mr. Greenblatt doesn’t even think he is even doing anything controversial with his BDS line. He is just repeating conventional wisdom about BDS. This understanding of BDS is culture already. In his mind everyone knows BDS=Modern version of irrational hatred of Jews.
How does something like that happen? How does this type of culture develop? Let’s see if we can detect how “ modern version of irrational hatred of Jews” become conventional wisdom, becomes culture about BDS.
Lets look in on how Likud #2 Gilad Erdan, whose ministry is charged with combating BDS, describe the motivations, the values of a BDS supporter, to the Jerusalem Post annual conference in NYC earlier this year,
“I would like you to imagine two people,
On the one side, picture a sophisticated university professor, who believes that Israel is the root of all evil. On the other, a young man from Hebron, taught to hate from a young age, and motivated by Islamic extremism. At first glance, they have little in common. Sure, neither is too keen on Israel. But they come from different backgrounds, move in different circles, and express themselves in different ways.
The professor acts out his hostility towards Israel through leading BDS campaigns: Organizing boycotts of Israeli academics. Using intimidation to prevent Israeli voices from being heard. And spreading bile and lies about Israel in his classroom.
The young man’s hatred is expressed through taking a knife or gun, and going out to murder Israelis.
While he dare not admit it, the BDS leader has more in common with the terrorist, than with genuine human rights activists.”
Is this true? Is this an accurate description of the more often than not, idealistic people who support BDS? It’s not. But Erdan doesn’t care, nor does Netanyahu what’s true and what’s not about BDS. They want their Diaspora audience to believe this hasbara about BDS. They need the Jewish diaspora to be a partner in their war against BDS. And in their view the more hatred between Jews and BDS supporters the better. Netanyahu thrives in that world. And the ADL thinks it’s their responsibility to follow his lead. Leaving right and wrong aside, the the ADL should be very concerned with who ends up believing this nonsense they're selling.
Serious people know what BDS is about. And they draw their conclusions about it like intelligent people do on every issue, not by listening to slogans and fear mongering by political operatives. It’s the Jewish community that is susceptible to these scare tactics. And they are nearly the only people who are going to believe this fear mongering about the anti semites of BDS. So what happens is that an alternative Jewish reality is being created here, that is not an accurate presentation of the world.
But it’s worse than just not understanding the world. This ADL message/campaign against BDS is an example of the constant agitation about the enemies of the Jewish people that serves Netanyahu interests just fine. He doesn’t mind deceiving and even poisoning the minds of Jews. But why is the ADL involved in this. How does this poison serve the ADL and the American Jewish community? Does the ADL not know who Benjamin Netanyahu is?
Not know what netanyahu said to his rival Kahlon about his winning electoral strategy?
“You will not get the votes of the Mizrahi voters. Only I know how to get them … I know who they hate: The Arabs. And I know to deliver the goods for them.” http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.742061
Yes indeed Benjamin Netanyahu is certainly an expert in “delivering the goods” in trafficking in hate. And he knows “the goods” that have to be delivered to the Jewish diaspora about BDS. The goods are “BDS is a modern version of an irrational hatred of the Jewish people.” The result of this is a perpetuation of the idea of Israel under siege, of Jews under siege, that is Netanyahu’s shtick that helps keep on getting him reelected. Israel has never been more secure, but Netanyahu has made Jewish culture, hysterical. As i have written before, Netanyahu outrageous behavior on these and other issues has led to a crisis like environment in Israel among former security officials. They have come to conclude he basically cares only about staying PM. And to that end he will do anything he can get away with.http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/netanyahu-agonistes/
To its credit the ADL disassociated themselves from the recent Netanyahu “no Jews” ethnic cleansing charge against the Palestinians. But that’s like Republican politicians condemning one Trump statement.
Benjamin Netanyahu has learnt he can get away with a lot. He can get out his voters on election day by saying the Arabs are coming out in droves, he can give a prepared speech to the WJC saying the Mufi swayed Hiler to “burn” the Jews, and he never suffers any personal consequences.
But make no mistake about it. Benjamin Netanyahu does not care about the diaspora Jewish community. He barely cares about Israeli Jews. As the people who know him best keep on saying Benjamin Netanyahu cares about one thing and that is staying in power.
There are some who say “wait isn’t it the money?” Isn’t that why are there anti BDS laws springing up all over the country?
My answer is sure Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban financial might are important, but it’s not enough. If BDS is viewed sympathetically in American culture there is nothing Adelson or Saban with all their money, could do about it. In fact it’s not even enough to have Netanyahu and Erdan spouting hasbara about BDS.
You need the American Jewish cultural “mashgiach” Jeffrey Goldberg to weigh in. https://www.washingtonian.com/2013/01/29/jeffrey-goldberg-washingtons-most-pugnacious-journalist/
This is how erstwhile Jewish cultural mashgiach and Jewish intellectual, Leon Wieseltier thinks of Goldberg. He views Goldberg’s role in the culture as the
“ journalistic equivalent of the mashgiach. That’s the Hebrew
word for the supervisor — a rabbi or someone else of impeccable
credentials — who makes sure everything going out of the kitchen at a kosher
restaurant is truly kosher. “Goldberg is a little bit in the business of
deciding who is kosher and who is not,” Wieseltier says. The problem, he
explains, is that Goldberg fails to qualify for the role: “He’s a blogger.
He’s not an analyst, he’s not a scholar.”
I am going to be writing a lot more about Jeffrey Goldberg influence on Jewish culture. He is a unique figure in American Jewish history. I plan to demonstrate in future articles how Goldberg has dumbed down and debased the Jewish discourse on too many issues. But for now unfortunately Goldberg position on BDS will be the most influential in determining the wider American Jewish perception of it.
More than anyone else, it is Jeffrey Goldberg’s line on BDS, that will be the one that the ADL, and the mainstream Jewish culture, internalize.
This first tweet is an example of how Goldberg doesn’t even feel he needs to make an effort anymore to be honest. He has a lot of ways he can express that he doesn’t like BDS. But Goldberg just knows one way of saying these things.
Just looking at this photo, some people would admire the civic mindedness of these young women. But Jeffrey says that is a terrible mistake, they’re the modern version of the Hitler Youth. Think about how utterly poisonous it is that Jeffrey Goldberg is doing here. But like Netanyahu, this poison is his bread and butter. There is no reason to think there is anything morally wrong with these women, in fact if anything it is the reverse. Yet look what he says about them. He is connecting these women’s support for Palestinians rights to historic European Jew hatred, and that of course means the holocaust. Is that true? Do these women hate Jews? I highly doubt it. But Jeffrey Goldberg doesn’t really care if these women hate Jews. Jeffrey Goldberg doesn’t care about the hate he pumps into the world with this absurd hasbara. Because like Netanyahu, Jeffrey Goldberg needs this type of outrageous agitation culture to thrive in his personal career. And The choice between poisoning culture or Jeffrey Goldberg’s career is really no choice at all to Jeffrey. This type of agitation and defamation without a care in the world about the truth is what made Goldberg so influential. In a sense he sold his soul to become rich and famous. It is worth poisoning the world as long as you’re driving the conversation and getting more twitter followers.
Some more Jeffrey Goldberg thoughts on BDS. Those of us who thought there is nothing unusual about Jill Stein supporting BDS. Jeffrey tells us we are mistaken. She has mental problems. Again what are people who assume Jeffrey is just a run of the mill liberal, supposed to make of this Goldberg sentiment about Jill Stein. About Jews who support BDS? This is how Jeffrey Goldberg forms culture.
And Jeffrey is nothing less than relentless in his culture forming hasbara about the Jew hating BDS.
This Netanyahu/Goldberg hasbara culture needs constant ideological war to exist. And their wars are ugly. It is treating every dispute as if it were a battle of good vs evil, of truth having no particular value, of not having empathy, of dehumanizing perceived enemies, of destroying opponents by any means possible.
And maybe the unnamed Jewish journalist quoted in that Washingtonian piece is right why Jeffrey Goldberg’s role in Jewish culture is what it is,
“Here’s the real psychosis,” says a Jewish journalist who knows Goldberg but asked not to be quoted by name for fear of his ire. “At some level, American Jews want that level of aggression in a spokesman” because of their history of oppression. And Goldberg “gets pleasure out of torturing People.”
Ideas are important. Ideas are especially important when they’re used to create culture, to imbue shared values, narratives, and meaning about the world. But a culture whose ideas are just comforting public relations spin, to itself and others is a self deluded culture. An example from today’s headlines shows what i mean. Our BDS expert Erdan is repeating the comforting fiction that incitement on facebook is the reason for a Palestinian attack that killed two Israelis a couple of days ago. The head in the sand notion, that Palestinians killing Israelis has nothing to do with Israeli behavior toward Palestinians in the real world. That comforting fiction is believed only by Israelis and their most hard core supporters. Thus the education minister in the Israeli govt, Benett can call for the pardon of Elor Azaria, the Hebron executioner of an injured Palestinian caught on video. According to the Israeli narrative that Azaria killing was justifiable. Polls are very disturbing to look at at this question. And Netanyahu called Azaria’s parents and compared it to calling parents of killed IDF soldiers. That’s the tribalist discourse and actions that everyone mistakenly calls “rightwing” that is Netanyahu’s political revolution. I believe the Azaria verdict and the emotions it will unleash will force a public debate about this toxic culture Netanyahu has created. But the American Jewish community is very vulnerable while this is happening in Israel. There is no recognized American Jewish voice that can tell Netanyahu and Israel “enough!” You are on your own with this. That is the opportunity the Elor Azaria debate in Israel will give American Jews. American Jews can point and say look where your hasbara has led. We refuse to listen to the defense of killing an injured man on the ground. You are now on your own.
