Wiesenthal Center taking-points on Israel - Multi-million dollar effort

Maan - Iqbal Jassat

This time the Simon Wiesenthal Center has produced a brochure titled “2010 Top Ten Anti-Israel Lies” that they plan to distribute to millions of people worldwide.

It’s a multi-million dollar propaganda exercise that they hope will counter what they perceive to be "a worldwide frenzy of intimidation" and "threats" directed against Israel "that has backed its supporters into a corner."

It’s an exercise that they believe will help to restore normalcy in the relations between the United States and Israel which many commentators acknowledge are severely strained and tense. They allude to this by admitting that its no secret that these ties reflect a new reality and not what they once were.

Apart from being a reaction to the battering that Israel has undergone in the court of public opinion, especially following its horrific violations during the Gaza massacre and since then with the inhumane blockade of Gaza’s occupied people, the new propaganda blitz is also designed to equip Zionist groups with stock responses.

The ten themes it covers reflect some of the most difficult charges Israel has had to endure and overcome. Though the Wiesenthal PR exercise attempts to rebuff the validity of these varied charges, their responses remain unconvincing.......

Lets take a look at some of the so-called "lies" and the responses by the Wiesenthal Center:


1) Israel was created by European guilt over the Nazi Holocaust. Why Should Palestinians pay the price?

Response: Three thousand years before the Holocaust, before there was a Roman Empire, Israel’s kings and prophets walked the streets of Jerusalem.

2) Had Israel withdrawn to its June 1967 borders, peace would have come long ago.

Response: Since 1967, Israel repeatedly has conceded, "land for peace."

3) Israel is the main stumbling block to achieving a two-state solution.

Response: The Palestinians themselves are the only stumbling block to achieving a two-state solution. With whom should Israel negotiate?

4) Nuclear Israel, not Iran, is the greatest threat to peace and stability.

Response: The US and Europe can afford to wait to see what the Iranian regime does with its nuclear ambitions, but Israel cannot.

5) Israel is an apartheid state deserving of international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns.

Response: In fact, Israel is a democratic state.

6) Plans to build 1,600 more homes in East Jerusalem prove Israel is “Judaizing” the Holy City.

Response: Ramat Shlomo was not about Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

7) Israeli policies endanger US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Response: An imposed return to what Abba Eban called “1967 Auschwitz borders” would endanger Israel’s survival and ultimately be disastrous for American interests.

8) Israeli policies are the cause of worldwide anti-Semitism.

Response: From the Inquisition to the pogroms, to the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, history proves that Jew hatred existed.

9)Israel, not Hamas, is responsible for the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. Goldstone was right when he charged that Israel was guilty of war crimes against civilians.

Response: The UNHRC is obsessed with false anti-Israel resolutions.

10) The only hope for peace is a single, binational state eliminating the Jewish State of Israel.

Response: The one-state solution is a non-starter because it would eliminate the Jewish homeland.

It is apparent from the above that the Wiesenthal Center, as an integral cog in Zionism’s myth-making outfit, is facing enormous pressure to mount a fresh global campaign of misinformation at a huge financial and moral cost.

... the responses seek to convey a narrative that fortunately has been debunked quite convincingly by many eminent Jewish historians and human rights activists... [e.g. "Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict" ]    

Iqbal Jassat is the chairman of the Media Review Network based in Pretoria, South Africa  Full story