Hasbara Spam Alert
January 12, 2009 - 9:56pm
With Israel's foreign ministry organising volunteers to flood news websites with pro-Israeli comments, Propaganda 2.0 is here. -- Guardian
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Syndicate
Don't we know it! Can you say "megaphone"?
What really deserves moral censure is the reaction of many foreign governments to the election of Hamas. People like Peter MacKay rejecting them out of hand could only strengthen the hand of the rocket-firing factions and giving them no reason to do anything else.
In this sense the combattants are relatively blameless in that they are following a script written by fairly irresponsible foreign actors(who had nothing to lose and arms sales expansions to gain.)
The alternative was to support the new Hamas government in its public infrastructure and health work(which it's always been strong on and why it gets most of its Palestinian support) . That approach would have bolstered a less destructive way and undercut recruitement to the militant faction. But its problem is that it takes a whille to show results and is nowhere near as dramatic TV("good" TV for a "24" public) as blowing stuff up.
Hmmmm... Between this and the little Conservative Party scripts on their website, I wonder if this is an effective tool and if the left should emulate this?
Israel is now paying for Hasbara.
Students participating in the program will receive a two thousand dollar stipend from the Jewish Agency, part of the Israeli government, to spend five hours a week online promoting talking points provided by the Israeli government.
Source
Spector - do you think this report is legit? Not that I don't believe they'd do it. I just can't determine the primary source of the information.
It's also reported on the very respectable Electronic Intifada under Ali Abunimah's byline. I have no hesitation in accepting it as true.
That's better! It's on page 2 of this document, linked to and translated by EI. Unbelievable. But all too believable. Thanks, Spector.
Israel is now paying for Hasbara.
Students participating in the program will receive a two thousand dollar stipend from the Jewish Agency, part of the Israeli government, to spend five hours a week online promoting talking points provided by the Israeli government.
Source
Perhaps all the Canucklhead pols that sing the zio songs are picking up their stipends too...