The AIPAC link reminds us that the British Israel lobby is part of a wider international network centred in Tel Aviv. A recent documentary called the Occupation of the American Mind provides an
in-depth account of Israel’s PR war in the USA, and shows that propaganda in western countries has been at least as important to Israel as its military and other endeavours in Israel/Palestine.
From the late 1940s, it successfully portrayed itself as a David that managed to conquer an Arab
Goliath, whereas the reality (well known to the British forces on the ground) the Arab side was never any match (see Suarez, 2016). Since then the PR has typically consisted of: (a) framing all Palestinian resistance as terrorism, while presenting all Israeli action as self-defence; (b) failing to state the context in which the violence has developed, notably Israeli’s unremitting armed seizure of territory, and; (c) endlessly denouncing the Hamas Charter, while keeping quiet about the Likud Charter. Since 2003, there has been a major and sustained push to redefine the word anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel and BDS.
