9/11: Open Letter & Challenge to ADL’s Abe Foxman. By Alan Hart

Via: Alan Hart.

Dear Abe Foxman,

In your lengthy article Decade of Deceit: Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later, you label a number of named writers and commentators including me who say that Israel’s Mossad was or even might have been involved in the 9/11 terror attack as anti-Semitic, and you assert that they are demonizing “the Jews”. You also say: “Anticipating criticism, a number of these anti-Semitic conspiracists now try to immunize themselves against charges of anti-Semitism by making disclaimers up front about not being anti-Semitic. Their own works and record, however, blatantly contradict their innocuous self-characterizations.”

I have to assume that I am one of the “number” in the above quotation because when you introduce at the end of your piece a few sentences of what I have said on the subject of 9/11, you do so with these words:  “After pre-emptively trying to dismiss charges of anti-Semitism, Hart asserts…”

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Behind Brand Israel: Israel’s recent propaganda efforts. By Ben White

Via: Electronic Intifada.

“The Delegitimization Challenge” report from the influential Israeli think tank the Reut Institute has put the spotlight on efforts by Israel and the Zionist lobby to counter the growing movement for justice in Palestine, and specifically, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. The work done by Reut has rightly attracted attention, but it is only one (particularly prominent) example of a wider trend, as the Israeli government and global Zionist groups mobilize to fight the threat to the apartheid system.
It was an issue discussed when Israeli policymakers convened for the recent Herzilya Conference where there was a session called “Winning the Battle of the Narrative: Strategic Communication for Israel.” There was also an associated working paper, prepared by a team that included Ido Aharoni from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), along with senior officials from the prime minister’s office, public relations firms and two key lobby groups — The Israel Project in the US, and Bicom from the UK (“Winning the Battle of the Narrative” (PDF)).

An additional working paper produced for the Herzliya conference was called “The ‘Soft Warfare’ against Israel: Motives and Solution Levers,” produced by a mix of academics and representatives from the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), the Institute for Policy and Strategy, NGO Monitor and Israel’s MFA (“The ‘Soft Warfare’ against Israel: Motives and Solution Levers” (PDF)).

At the end of last year, another significant conference was convened by Israel’s MFA in Jerusalem, called the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism. Convened by far-right Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Likud Minister of Knesset and settler Yuli Edelstein, included in the program was a working group called Delegitimization of Israel: “Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions.” The aim was to “come up with imaginative, effective and successful solutions to counter this evil [of BDS],” forging strategies of “defense” and “offense.”

J STREET – The New Smiling Zionist Lobby. By Mark Bruzonsky

Via: MiddleEast.org.

AIPAC, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has done its job for decades. The Israeli Zionists, including the new J Street minions, appreciate that and know it will continue pushing and cowering, threatening and intimidating. The Bad Cop is not going away, and in fact is more powerful than ever.

Still, the Israelis Zionists, themselves of somewhat different shades, also know that different times call for different measures and different tactics. They know as well that different people respond to different approaches and that the great majority of American Jews are liberal and solidly behind Obama. They know as well that liberal American Jews are increasingly uneasy about an Israel too much in the negative news and a “Jewish Lobby” too exposed.

And so with the new J Street, it’s not so much that they are hedging their bets, rather they are simply playing all sides of the street.

After the 1982 war the Israeli Zionists and their American Jewish patrons realized it was time to start diversifying. AIPAC, the Capitol Hill giant, then created the Near East Institute (NEI), which became it’s media and think-tank arm. Years before JINSA, The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, had been spun off to deal with the Pentagon. Other organizations, including ADL and the Presidents Conference, were further bulked up to deal with the White House and State Department. Many major magazines and media organizations were controlled, and in some cases bought outright, by Zionist personalities, a few biggies like Marty Peretz and Mort Zuckerman actually publicly stating they were pledged to help and defend Israel.