Israel’s Info War Has Intensified – Though Lobby Groups Losing Shine
By Iqbal Jassat
In his eloquent words, Ramzy Baroud, the editor of Palestine Chronicle, beautifully captured Israel’s disastrous public image by forecasting the battle of narratives as:
“The final reckoning unfolds in the information warzone. The coming months and years mark the most critical fight for truth in the conflict’s history”.
It is an undeniable fact that the humiliation the Zionist regime is facing has sunk to such levels of opprobrium – public disgrace arising from the genocide in Gaza – it is left with no hope of recovery from it.
Buying support by dishing out billions of dollars to rebrand itself as the only western outpost able to “defend” the West against “Islamist radicals”, may resonate among racist rightwingers, but not the rest of the world.
Indeed, given Israel’s well-known history of deceit and wilful use of hordes of misinformation peddlers armed with pre-scripted talking points, it is no surprise that many people, including human rights organizations across the world have turned their backs on Zionist hasbara (propaganda).
Interestingly, prominent hasbara outfits directly linked to the whitewashing of the settler colonial regime’s barbaric policies such as AIPAC in the US or the SAZF in South Africa, have lost the gloss in their “polished” advocacy.
In the aftermath of the resounding victory of Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, in New York’s mayoral election, it is revealing to learn that congressional candidates, including some Jewish Democrats, have promised not to take contributions from AIPAC.
This is a remarkable shift evident in a Forward report by Jacob Kornbluh who spells out that as criticism of Israel increasingly becomes a litmus test for progressive candidates seeking to define themselves against establishment Democrats, a New York congressional hopeful is making an attack on AIPAC central to his campaign.
“In doing so, he’s brushed aside his past support for the group and reversed earlier positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The person mentioned in the report is a former state legislator Michael Blake.
We learn from the report that Blake, a former state legislator who ran for mayor in the Democratic primary, accused Rep. Ritchie Torres, a three-term pro-Israel progressive from the Bronx, of putting Israel’s military interests ahead of addressing his district’s affordability crisis.
“Ritchie Torres cares more about Bibi than he cares about the Bronx, more about AIPAC than he does about your academics,” Blake said in his campaign launch video last week.
Kornbluh also confirms that polling shows AIPAC’s influence is increasingly unpopular among some mainstream Democrats. Also interesting is that a plurality of New York City voters said that Mamdani’s criticism of Israel resonated with them.
The mood swing away from Israel is evident too in a CNN exit poll which revealed that Mamdani’s anti-genocide stance was a factor in the support he received from voters.
Politicians who previously supported Netanyahu and his criminal gang of warlords, have realised that to continue doing so, was a liability – not in tune with a voting public opposed to Israel’s horrific genocide and war mongering.
The question explored by the Foreword is whether after Mamdani and Gaza, Democrats are turning against Israel?
In the case of Blake, we learn from the report that by targeting AIPAC, “Blake is betting that criticism about the lobby’s influence now resonates with a diverse, younger electorate”.
The logic advanced by Blake that neither AIPAC nor Netanyahu represent “where most people stand” in the US, can certainly be applied in South Africa too.
The SAZF’s allegiance to the Zionist regime is not shared by South Africa. Not its government, nor its citizens.
By its own mandate and mission:
“The SAZF looks after matters relating to Israel and its image in South Africa. As advocates for Israel in this country, our mission is to build strong support and love for the Land and State of Israel”.
To illustrate how disconnected the SAZF is from South African values, the South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) recently condemned it for its “provocative decision” to hold their upcoming ‘Zionist Connect’ conference in Cape Town.
In a lengthy statement the SAJFP highlighted that the ‘Zionist Connect’ event sought to serve “pro-war propaganda for Israel and contributes to the ongoing dehumanisation of the entire Palestinian people.
“It is a dehumanisation that allows for the relentless murder of Gazans, which many experts and organisations have termed a genocide, and which has only slowed due to the tenuous current ceasefire”.
As in America and in key European capitals, South Africa’s media, public intellectuals and civil society have to contend with a huge amount of lies peddled by Israeli-linked Hasbara outfits.
Fortunately, the flushing out of deliberately contrived untruths has been actively pursued by numerous outfits including Media Review Network, laying bare the outrageous “polishing” of Israel’s pariah status.
However the warning issued by Baroud may not be ignored: “The Israel government is fighting with every resource at its disposal to dominate the information war”.
Iqbal Jassat
Executive Member
Media Review Network
Johannesburg
South Africa