We’re now in the midst of one of the most transparent rounds of peace process kabuki since Oslo, with everyone agreeing that talks won’t and talks can’t work – and everyone is manuevering to ensure that the other side will get blamed for the eventual breakdown. Just this morning Abbas declared that there could be peace in a week if Israel made the massive concessions he’s requesting, a statement that’s problematic at least insofar as he’d get rolled by Hamas in a week if Israel withdrew. He’s not worried though, because Israel won’t withdraw precisely to keep Fatah from getting overthrown – and so Abbas gets to maintain his status quo authority while also also reaping the benefit that goes along with perceptions of Israeli intransigence (“intransigence” itself being a particular phrase that anti-Israel foreign policy experts have been trying to mainstream).
Meanwhile Hamas has become the only government in world history to massively renovate its port while under a supposedly crippling naval blockade. Putting aside where they found the material for the renovation in the midst of modern-day Auschwitz, shouldn’t those resources have gone to a project that had a chance of enhancing Gaza life? Unless the whole point was for nothing to arrive, so they could draw attention to stunts like the Freedom Flotilla, which it was. Entire media wars are now being fought counter-factually – not just what could have happened but what never was going to happen. And in that context all that matters is messaging and media manipulation, which is what tonight’s episode of One Jerusalem Radio’s Omri Ceren Show is turned over to. We’ll probably begin with how Hezbollah manages to establish total media control and then move into how Iran’s other proxies are doing it.
As always you can tune in live at 6:30pm – just a few minutes from now – either by going to the main show page or by visiting the page for tonight’s episode. The chatroom and switchboard will of course both be open. Official blurb:
Omri covers the increasingly sophisticated media war being waged against Israel by official and unofficial – but very well-funded – Palestinian groups. Fatah has allocated $50 million in international aid for a “Jerusalem Intifada,” while Hamas increasingly relies on UN organization and international NGO’s to act as mouthpieces. Driving these strategies is a correct sense that global media outlets have declared open season on the Jewish State, and that no smear is too absurd to gain traction. Omri will take calls and discuss numerous anti-Israel escalations which have occurred in just the last 10 days, focusing both on examples of rank bias and on how they were read by Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
See you in a bit.
References:
* U.S. to set deadline for Middle East peace [FP Mideast]
* MK Ezra: Netanyahu, Abbas too weak to make peace [YNet]
* Abbas: Second intifada was one of our worst mistakes [Ha'aretz]
* Foreign Policy Expert Marc Lynch: Obama Should Blackmail Israel With The Goldstone Report [Mere Rhetoric]
* Israel Publishes Gaza Travel Guidebook For Pro-Hamas Freedom Flotilla [Mere Rhetoric]
* Journalism Expert: Hezbollah Established Total Media Control By Threatening, Attacking Reporters [Video] [Mere Rhetoric]
* The Media Inftifada [One Jerusalem Radio's Omri Ceren Show]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* The Omri Ceren Show
* Diplomacy
* Anti-Israel Diplomacy
