Two prominent pro-Israel lobby groups are holding private briefings in New York City to coach elected officials and well-known figures on how to influence public opinion in favor of the Israeli military’s rampage in Gaza, The Grayzone can reveal. These PR sessions, convened by the UJA-Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council, rely on data collected by Frank Luntz, a veteran Republican pollster and pundit.
The Luntz-tested presentations on the war in Gaza urge politicians to avoid trumpeting America’s supposedly shared democratic values with Israel, and focus instead on deploying “The Language of War with Hamas.” According to this framing, they must deploy incendiary language painting Hamas as a “brutal and savage…organization of hate” which has “raped women,” while insisting Israel is engaged in “a war for humanity.”
In one focus group, Luntz asked participants to state which alleged act by Hamas on October 7 “bothers you more.” After being presented with a laundry list of alleged atrocities, a majority declared that they were most upset by the claim that Hamas “raped civilians” – 19 percent than those who expressed outrage that Hamas supposedly “exterminated civilians.”
Data like this apparently influenced the Israeli government to launch an obsessive but still unsuccessful campaign to prove that Hamas carried out sexual assault on a systematic basis on October 7. Initiated at Israel’s United Nations mission in December 2023 with speeches by neoliberal tech oligarch Sheryl Sandberg and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and speaking fees from Israel lobby organizations, Tel Aviv’s propaganda blitz has yet to produce a single self-identified victim of sexual assault by Hamas. A March 5 report by UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence Pramila Patten did not contain one direct testimony of sexual assault on October 7. What’s more, Patten’s team said they found “no digital evidence specifically depicting acts of sexual violence.”
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How many kidnapees has Hamas executed? From what I’ve heard they’ve been mostly been dying from Israeli bombs and bullets, and from the abysmal conditions that Israel has created. This sounds like yet more Israeli State bullshit.
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It did not warrant military intervention. In fact, As an Occupier, Israel Has No Right to “Self-Defense”. What were those kidnapped occupiers doing on stolen land in the first place? The occupied Palestinians have a right to struggle against their occupiers by all available means, including armed struggle.
Who is this “they”? I don’t know what hypothetical argument with which hypothetical people you’re talking about.
That’s a good article about the “self-defense” pretext for aggression. Here’s another one:
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/27551/No,-Israel-Does-Not-Have-the-Right-to-Self-Defense-In-International-Law-Against-Occupied-Palestinian-Territory
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Israel is built upon cry bullying. This is definitely working. They even did research into how to maximally demonize Palestinians to justify their own war crimes which is what this post is about .
Israeli propaganda has affected your own world view, even mine. Because we still don’t know how many people were truly killed by Hamas and how many of it was friendly fire.
2023-12-12: Israeli army rules out investigation for friendly fire incidents on 7 October
We know that Hamas did kill at least some non-combatants. The question is how many. And the IDF still actively prevents that question being answered.
I just don’t think the question matters. How many hostages killed would make Israel’s one state solution and the violence required to establish it either right or even viable?
Is this the first Israeli conflict you’ve followed? This is just the IDF playbook. Slander, deflect, lie, and deny.
I guess I’m wondering if this particular ploy works and on who? And maybe the talk back shouldn’t be “you’re lying” but more like “who cares?”
Nothing can justify genocide.
I feel like it’s an attempt to manage or split the demand from the anti-genocide folks. You add rape to the mix, and suddenly a lot less people are arguing for a total ceasefire. Lower demands, soften protests, create dispute. And for some, it really gives a blank check.
It’s not about getting everyone on board. It’s about breaking up the consensus.
I think you’re right, they are just chipping off one group.
This is exactly what they are doing, except they aren’t targeting all of us to such a degree. They only need to persuade a small percentage of opponents into inaction on the issue. They only need to persuade a small percentage of neutrals into support.