The big truth.

 

by  David Frankfurter

 

Over the years we have seen Israel on the losing end of an ongoing propaganda war that has increasingly besmirched its image in the media and has increasingly affected the realpolitik of the world in which we live and operate.

 

The pattern is consistent.  The Palestinian lobby starts with a lie which is so unbelievable that we belittle it – or even ignore it.  The lie is repeated often enough until the world believes it – and even our natural supporters in the Jewish Diaspora begin to adopt it, repeat it and reinforce it.  It then becomes a reality we have to deal with.  Eventually even the Israeli government toes the line.  Frankly we are fools.  And if we ever thought “never again!”, why don’t we fight back?

 

Let’s understand how it works.  The “big lie” was most famously defined by Hitler – in fact in a “big lie” hidden within a “big lie” – he accused the Jews of using the tactic:

 

“…in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation… would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.” —Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

 

United States Office of Strategic Services wartime description of Hitler’s Psychological Profile showed how he used the tactic:

 

“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”

 

And the Palestinians adopted Hitler’s ways.  Amongst their own public and in the international arena.

 

Let’s take, as an example, the “illegal” settlements beyond the 1967 armistice line, in what is “rightful Palestinian territory”, that have become in the world’s mind the only “obstacle to peace”.  If Israel would only abandon the settlements, the world would support Israel, peace would miraculously descend from heaven resolving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, magically diffuse over the entire Middle East, and the Messianic era would usher in world peace. Leaving aside whether one thinks that settlements are a good idea, a bad idea, should be dismantled or not, are a blessing or a curse – the fundamental assumptions are simply balderdash.

 

The Arab world rejected Israel and launched non-stop wars and terrorist campaigns against Israel’s citizens before a single settlement  existed beyond the 1967 armistice lines.  At least some “post-1967 Settlements” were re-established on Jewish owned lands, where the surrounding Arab neighbours had massacred the inhabitants during one or another of these violent attempts to purge the region of Jews.  There are many eminent international lawyers who would contend that the vast majority of the settlements in Judea and Samaria are perfectly acceptable under international law.

 

Most telling, however, is the experiment which thoroughly tested and disproved the idea that removing settlements or Jews from “Palestine” will somehow magically lead to peace.  In September 2005, all the settlements in the Gaza strip were voluntarily abandoned. The Gaza strip was made completely “Judenrein” or Jew-free.  

 

We all know the results.  The world “rewarded” Israel by allowing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon address a near-empty plenum of the UN, and then promptly placed all blame for Palestinian failures on Israeli shoulders.  Instead of an opportunity for state-building, the Palestinians chose a path of self-destruction and terrorist war against Israel.  Rocket attacks, suicide bombings, and internal violence and corruption didn’t let up for a moment.  And the infant Gaza economy was deliberately destroyed from the inside. 

 

But, we are told, Hamas did all of this, and that the Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) led Palestinian Authority is “different”, “moderate” and “responsible”.  

 

Another big lie. 

 

The very same Abbas led Palestinian Authority was in power in Gaza when Israel left.  Hamas didn’t come to power until June 2007 – some twenty months later!  And Abbas’ Fatah political party, which also controls the Al Aqsa terrorists, has (in Arabic only, of course) consistently agreed with Hamas.  Just last week, a Fatah activist once again declared on PA Television that they don’t want peace.  As Fatah strong man Mahmoud Dahlan explained on PA Television in March, the Palestinians will not recognise Israel; any contrary statements are purely designed to obtain international funds and support.  Is it any wonder that Abbas refuses Benjamin Netanyahu’s unconditional invitation to meet to discuss peace?

 

Don’t misunderstand me.  I am in favour of anything that has a reasonable chance of bringing peace to our region.  But Israel is being pushed to make huge one-sided high-risk concessions, for which it gets little or nothing in return; all on the basis of a web of lies that have been thoroughly disproved, but repeated often enough, loudly enough and from high enough places that the world either pretends to or really does believe.

 

And this is just one the most recent example of the way the Palestinians and the world have adopted Adolf Hitler’s “big lie” principle to outflank the Jews.

 

But how to fight back?  The only way I can think of is to tell “the big truth”.  Start calling out the truth loudly enough, clearly enough, often enough that it begins to stick.  Call every bluff in no uncertain terms. Don’t defend.  Fight back.  But it takes each and every one of us to do it.  Loudly.  Publicly.  Every time.

 

 

David Frankfurter

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