4 June 2010

Mark Regev - Israel's Goebbels






One of the features of most right wing states and regimes is that they continually seek to put a PR gloss on their iniquities. Some like Israel are more successful than others. Or rather Israel used to be successful.

America had and has Hollywood to turn every crisis into a drama. Hence in John Wayne’s Green Berets and Rambo, the US wins the Vietnam War. Hitler during his day did even better.

Charlie Chaplin had to flee the USA as he was considered a subversive and his attempt to portrayh Hitler had to be turned into a film about a Ruritanian dictator instead.

Hitler had Leni Riefenstahl, the wold’s most famous and innovative director. And most of all Hitler also had Goebbels, his propaganda chief and Berlin Gauleiter, whose whole modus vivendi was based on the idea that the bigger the lie the more likely it was to be believed (although like so many sayings it was misattributed, coming from Hitler in Mein Kampf).

It is, therefore ironic, that the Goebbels technique has been adopted so heartily by Israel and no one is a better exponent of the big lie technique. The only problem is that people are starting to see these pathetic lies for what they are.

Below is an interview by Jon Snow with him. Notice he isn't good on specifics. And anything he finds difficult 'did you fire phosphorous bombs, fleschettes and fragmentation boms - 'we shall have to have an inquiry' is his standard response, as if Israel doesn't know what Israel is doing!

As Snow successfully gets under his skin he is left deranged and shouting at the end. I haven’t seen the latest Snow interview with him but my wife tells me it’s even better!

And what better big lie than the idea that a small unarmed boat, the Mavi Marmora was engaged in a ferocious attack on defenceless Israel’s Navy Seals, because they really wanted a fight!

As the captives make their way home, we went up to Heathrow this morning to welcome 2 of those returning, the true stories are starting to come out.

Below is one such description of the terrible attack on the poor defenceless pirates!
American, 19, Among Gaza Flotilla Dead

Furkan Dogan Was Shot Five Times, Including Four Times in Head

By ZOE MAGEE

June 3, 2010 "ABC News" -- A U.S. citizen who lived in Turkey is among the nine people killed when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship heading for the Gaza Strip, officials said today. The victim was identified as Furkan Dogan, 19, a Turkish-American. A forensic report said he was shot at close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, according to the Anatolian news agency.

Dogan was a high school student studying social sciences in the town of Kayseri in central Turkey. He was born in the United States and moved to Turkey at the age of 2. He will be buried in his hometown tomorrow.

Dogan's body was returned to Turkey today along with eight others, all Turkish nationals, who were on board the Mavi Maramara.

The ship was sponsored by a Turkish charity, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) and was carrying aid to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade. The charity released the names of all nine dead. All are male and the ages range from 32 to 61.

The Mavi Marmara formed part of a flotilla that was organized by the Free Gaza movement and intended to break the three-year Israeli blockade on the embattled Palestinian enclave.

Israeli commandos rappelled onto the decks of the six ships Monday, but on the Mavi Marmara the passengers battled the soldiers with metal rods, wrested weapons from soldiers and, according to the Israeli military, fired on them. Nine people died and more than 30 were wounded, including several Israeli troops.

The activists on board the ship told a very different version of events from the one released by the Israeli military.

A Canadian on board, Farooq Burney, described watching an elderly man bleed to death. The head of a Turkish charity that organized the aid flotilla said an Indonesian doctor was shot in the stomach and a photographer was shot in the forehead.

Flotilla Passengers Dispute Israeli Version of Flotilla Raid

"They [Israeli commandos] were trying to land on the boat. So obviously there was this hand-to-hand combat and during that process the people on the boat were basically able to disarm some of the soldiers because they did have guns with them," Burney told Reuters. "So they basically took the guns away from them and took the cartridges out and threw them away."

Asked if anyone had used the guns against the Israeli commandos, Burney said, "No, not at all."

"Yes, we took their guns. It would be self defence even if we fired their guns," Bulent Yildirim, chairman of the IHH, said.

"We told our friends on board we will die, become martyrs, but never let us be shown... as the ones who used guns," he said, adding that people shouted that the weapons should not be used.

"By this decision, our friends accepted death, and we threw all the guns we took from them into the sea," Yildirim said.

Thousands of mourners flocked to the funeral held for the Turkish activists today in Istanbul. Coffins of most of those killed, draped in Turkish and Palestinian flags, were brought to Istanbul's Fatih Mosque for the service before the bodies were taken to their home towns for burial.

"Turkey will never forget such an attack on its ships and its people in international waters. Turkey's ties with Israel will never be the same again," Turkish President Abdullah Gul told a news conference.

"Israel made one of the greatest mistakes in its history. It will see in time what a huge mistake it made," he said.

Equally harsh words are being used by the Israelis.

The alliance is dead, a senior official in Jerusalem said Tuesday night, according to Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "The Turks are right about one thing: Irreversible harm has been caused to the relations. In the situation that has been created, Turkey will no longer be a strategic ally of Israel."

Israel and Turkey face many challenges in which both have strong mutual interests, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David said.

"Hopefully, we'll overcome the shadows that we see today," he told ABC News.

Israel's Next Test: the Rachel Corrie Due in the Area Friday

Meanwhile, Israel is preparing for a new ship to run the blockade, the Irish ship MV Rachel Corrie, due to arrive in the area Friday.

"The Rachel Corrie will not be allowed into Gaza," David said. "We are watching it and waiting to see what will happen. Hopefully, the people on board will direct to the port in Ashdod. "The naval blockade is still in effect and the ship will not be allowed to enter into the naval blockade area."

Former U.N. assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, who is on board the Rachel Corrie, told ABC News that they do not intend to stop their mission or head to the Israeli port of Ashdod instead.

"It's a totally unacceptable embargo. There's no justification for it, there's no legality for it, it's not endorsed by the U.N., it's not endorsed by anybody else. It's an Israeli military zone which is without legal status," he said in a phone interview from the ship today.

The Rachel Corrie expects to be boarded by the Israelis Friday when they are approximately 80 miles off coast.

"When they tell they are about to board we will cooperate because it's too dangerous not to do so, particularly as you say it may be at night which is the usual tactic. We're not fools, we're not about to throw away our lives."

"We're very upbeat and having seen the appalling consequences of Monday we're more determined than ever to try and make this work," Halliday said.

Reuters, ABC News' Simon McGregor-Wood and Sara Sorcher contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

raedJerusalem, June 3, (Pal Telegraph) Head of the Islamist movement in the Palestinian occupied territories of 48, Sheikh Raed Salah, confirmed today that a soldier from the commandos unit tried to assassinate him during his presence on board of the fleet to break the siege on Gaza. He added in remarks to reporters in the Israeli court, "The Israeli soldier searched thoroughly for me in order to assassinate me, but then opened fire on another person that looks very much like me which shows his persistence on killing me, as that innocent person died immediately.”

The Hebrew mass media promoted the news that Sheikh Raed Salah is seriously injured and taken to a hospital a few hours after the massacre, which was denied by his wife and she assured that the injured is another man and not her husband.

He stressed that the piracy committed against the fleet of freedom was a crime, adding " Its our right to defend ourselves, and Its our duty to help the vulnerable", pointing out that the fleet was under the auspices of Turkey, and Turkey should support the people who were on board the fleet.



13 comments:

  1. Mark Regev - Israel's Goebbels?

    Completely wrong! Goebbels needed a "kernel of truth". Regev doesn't even need that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Mark Miwurdz Regev, was 'interviewed' on the 5.45 pm ITN TV news this evening claiming that the MV Mavi Marmara had radical Islamic extremists on-board, unlike the MV Rachel Corrie today which he claims had none.

    The ITN journalist and news editors didn't think fit to question his version of events.

    Submission to authority being a primary asset for corporate journalists and their careers and one they are unable to perceive even.

    ps
    Billy Bragg on this week's panel of Radio 4 Any Questions is absolutely awful I'm afraid -
    Any Questions?
    BBC Radio 4

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Tony. Off topic but further to your responses to my posts at SU I'm providing some links that seem to back-up Blankfort's criticisms of AFL-CIO and their investment in State of Israel bonds.

    http://www.dumpisraelbonds.com/ct_letter_sept_09

    .htmhttp://hurryupharry.org/2009/11/02/afl-cio-leader-promises-support-for-israel/


    All the best.
    Omar

    ReplyDelete
  4. jock mctrousers6 June 2010 at 11:32

    I suppose this is on topic re propaganda. I saw you (Tony Greenstein) very briefly on the BBC's 'the Big Question' with Nicky Campbell this morning (Sunday). I suppose you'd asked to be included to discuss the question 'is Israel acting immorally'? That's a difficult question, eh? Well, you know about the 'transmission problems'. For anyone who should read this who doesn't know, the question about guns was constantly interrupted with 'we're working on the problem' type messages; then at one point, there was a 'return' to the programme with Campbell saying " I hope you've enjoyed the debates we've had, and the ones we're going to have..." I guessed right - the Israel question was NOT one of the ones 'we're going to have'. Missed out completely. I didn't expect the show to be on the BBC iPlayer yet (and I expect that there will be some reason not to put it there), but I had a look at the Big Question site anyway and noticed there's a messageboard with a column of discussion headings. All the other topics were there EXCEPT guess which, but there was a MYSTERY FORUM entitled " No discussion title/ HIDDEN". Entering I found:

    " This posting has been temporarily hidden, because a member of our Moderation Team has referred it to the Hosts for a decision as to whether it contravenes the House rules in some way. We will do everything we can to ensure that a decision is made as quickly as possible."

    Followed by 3 posts from zionists justifying the Israeli assault on the flotilla, and one post wondering whether the 'technical difficulties' were in fact censorship. This is it. Can the BBC get any more pathetic?

    Nicky Campbell actually used to host an extremely daring morning show on radio 5 live, between 9/11 and the Hutton report roughly. It was the only place in mainstream radio or tv where the truth got an airing - there were live broadcasts from Bethlehem, with the mayor on all morning answering questions, Ramallah, interviews with reps from Hamas and Hezbullah. After Hutton, Campbell got moved to the before 9am breakfast spot and must have been told to keep it innocuous, because that's what it is; and the after-9 spot then feature the usual bland fare from some new cheeky chaps and chapesses like that Manchester woman and the Irish guy. But there seem to be signs that the Beeb is again dipping a toe in the water of controversy - maybe feeling, probably correctly and sadly, that the new Tory lot won't be quite so viciously censorious as NULab - Campbell has a couple of mornings again in his previous spot and from the little I've heard it seems at least a little more 'serious' than the pre-9am stuff; and the Big Question occasionally gets a bit risque, just a tad.
    So keeping fingers crossed that I might see you on the iPlayer. LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mark, there was and is a kernel of truth to Regev's utterances. He doesn't deny that people were killed on board the Mavi Marmara. He just blames it on those who died. In fact this is identical to the Nazis who also blamed the Jews for what befell them. I am particularly thinking of the speech of Hitler of 30.1.33 and repeated many times subseaquently where he 'prophesied' the annihilation of the Jewish race. Needless to say it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    Yes Regev and the Zionists are trying to turn the Rachel Corrie into the 'good guys' (relatively) so as to support their argument that it was only the nasty terrorists who were responsible for the Israeli's evil attack. Agreed I heard Bragg and he was pretty pathetic.

    Omar, I'm not doubting that the AFL-CIL invests in Israeli state bonds. If you read the Class Nature of Zionism, written by Moshe Machover, Haim Hanegbi and Akiva Orr some 40 years ago in New Left Review they detail the links then between the AFL-CIO.

    This is not new or a revelation. The AFL-CIO has always been very supportive of US imperialism and therefore of Israel.

    Blankfort however focuses on Jews, which is what the ZIonists love. I've just come back from the Big Questions BBC programme, whcih had technical problems, but that is the Zionists first resort. Should we give them some ammo free of charge?

    Anti-semitism doesn't hurt the Zionists. Indeed Hoffman and co. love it. It does harm the palestinians though. It is a great pity that Hamas are too stupid to understand that putting support for the Protocols of Elders of Zion in their Charter just plays into the hands of the Zionists.

    But then Islamists don't have much understanding of politics or how to win friends. It's a great pity that Palestinians don't sit down and learn from the ANC in South Africa. They didn't give any room for anti-white racism because they knew it was counter-productive. Unfortunately many Palestinians are unable to distinguish between charlatans like Blankfort and Atzmon and say Chomsky (who Blankfort hates).

    That incidentally is part of the reason why the Palestinians have always come off second best against Zionist propagandists. They aren't sure what their explanations are and some of them come back to the nonsense that Blankfort and co. put out.

    Jock I know that they were having problems with the satellite throughout. I suspect, I haven't looked at the site, that they were genuine. Certainly the Zionists were pissed off!

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  6. And here is another method Mark Regev's Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda deals with rival versions of the truth -

    They walked up to the man co-ordinating facilities for journalists, put a gun to his head and shot him dead at point-blank range
    - Theresa McDermott, member of Turkey-Gaza flotilla attacked and hijacked in international waters by violent extremist fundamentalist rogue state.

    Read Theresa's account here, re-told to Scotland's biggest selling Sunday broadsheet and given news headline status along with Saturday's Palestine Solidarity march in Edinburgh -
    Fear, pain and propaganda: an activist’s story
    HeraldScotland (Glasgow)
    06 June 2010

    all the best

    ReplyDelete
  7. And like their Boer counterparts, the Zionists don't even understand why they are fast losing political support in the West, without which they are doomed.

    Like all dinosaurs they have not the ability to adapt and survive. Instead they mouthe 'anti-semitism' which fools fewer and fewer people these days

    ReplyDelete
  8. And like their Boer counterparts, the Zionists don't even understand why they are fast losing political support in the West, without which they are doomed.
    - A good illustration of this is the way Theresa McDermott's testimony (which I refer to in my previous comment) is given headline billing in today's Sunday news section of Scotland's biggest selling broadsheet newspaper - along with an essay by Ilan Pappe, and also report on yesterday's Palestine Solidarity march in Edinburgh.

    See -
    Essay of the week: What drives Israel?
    by Ilan Pappe
    Sunday Herald (Glasgow)
    06 June 2010

    Thousands take to streets in protest over Israel’s actions on Gaza aid ships
    Sunday Herald (Glasgow)
    06 June 2010


    Another illustration of the change in attitude amongst corporate news media is that for the first time, as far as I'm aware, BBC Scotland has provided a link to the Scottish PSC website in one of its news reports -
    Thousands join Gaza protest in Edinburgh
    BBc Scotland
    05 June 2010

    The BBC has even providing links to the Free Gaza and the WitnessGaza websites as well I see.


    Reich Minister Mark Regev is claiming Israel was being attacked by last week's MV Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was in international waters when Israel was forced to defend itself. At least Hitler and Goebbel's had the good grace to counterfeit an attack on Germany by Polish extremists by having it staged inside German borers, rather than outside -
    Gleiwitz incident
    wikipedia


    In a re-run of Convoy PQ 17, the British Government, and even the British corporate news media, seem quite happy about leaving British civilians utterly defenceless against threats of attack from violent fascists in international waters -
    Convoy PQ 17
    wiki

    all the best

    ps
    Captian Mark Regev aboard the USS Israel orders the crew to Panic Stations -
    The Truth About Israel's Defensive Actions Against The Flotilla
    flottilaIsrael
    Facebook

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for the reply,Tony.
    I don't claim to be a follower of Blankfort's but I just happened to stumble across a few of his articles on the web.Nothing that I've read by him so far struck me as particularly anti-Semitic, frankly.

    I've not been particularly active in politics for the last 17 years (aside from yelling at the TV when Right-wingers and Zionists are on it) so my info may not be as up to date as yours. I'm always willing to look at any examples that you may have of his anti-Semitism. As a non-Jew I find it hard to get my head around a Jewish activist being described as an anti-Semite ( your name also pops up as such on pro-Zionist sites,too).
    I lived in Toronto up until 2000 and most Jews I knew , even those who were progressive, were quite pro-Zionist and anti-Arab. And on Canadian and US news programs the spokesmen for the pro-Zionists appeared to be mostly drawn from the Jewish community.
    I don't doubt that the Zionist lobby in the US has a large Christian-right element to it but might it be possible that some writers (like Blankfort) focus on Jews because they want to juxtapose the great traditions of intellectualism and humanism ( not to mention the lessons that should be learned from the Holocaust) against the degraded, quasi-Fascist culture that contemporary Zionism represents?
    Hope I'm not coming across as naive ( or worse, racist) but I'd be interested in your thoughts and ( any links to Blankforts work you feel is anti-Semitic). cheers,Omar

    ReplyDelete
  10. Omar,

    you will have to take it from me that I have had e-mail conversations with Blankfort which make me conclude he has crossed the border as it were.

    He is or rather was a member of the Board of Advisors of Deir Yassin remembered, which is the repository of holocaust deniers who purport to support the Palestinians.

    It included both Blankfort and Israel Shamir, who believes Auschwitz was a detention centre at worst.

    The list is wrong in any event http://www.deiryassin.org/board.html (e.g. Leah Tsemel resigned many years ago) and Pappe is no longer a member as far as I'm aware.

    Why does this matter? Because if you look for the explanation of Israel via Jews you look through the telescope through the wrong end and understand nothing. Jews change and have changed from anti-Zionist to Zionist positions.

    Yes most grassroots supporters of israel are Jewish but that is not the reason why Israel receives the highest aid of any country in the world. It occupies a strategic position in the world and is a dependable settler colonial state.

    Yes there is an obvious contrast between Jewish political positions of old and Zionism today. I am more aware than most of the vast changes in Jewish political opinions. However these are not the product of some whimsical change but the harnessing of outrge over the holocaust to imperial purposes.

    Which is why to deny the holocaust is not a great way to support the Palestinians. This blog tries to show, too rarely I agree, the actual record of Zionism when it came to fight anti-Semitism and Nazism.

    Of course my name will appear on the Zionist hate lists but these are written by crude people whose understanding of differences between Blankfort and myself are zero.

    It is also, albeit a subsidiary task, to try and break at least some Jews from Zionism.

    send me ur e-mail address and I'll mail you a text copy of our e-mails.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks Tony. I'm afraid I tried to email you but some prompt about me not having the right something-or-other installed means your e-mail won't open up and I'm a bit reluctant to post my e-mail address lest I be subject to internet nuttery. When comments are held for moderation can you not see where the message originates from? Sorry I'm not the most computer-savvy bloke around.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Omar,

    I'll try and access the e-mail account attached to the blog. Can't understand why you can't mail me though!

    ReplyDelete
  13. All so right Tony, these damned Israelis get away with murder regularly, take the unnoticed and unreported murder of Palestinian mother Tali Hatuel and her 5 kids, in cold blood,All one hears about are Hamas attacks on Israelis. the Tali Hatuel killing in on the internet...it is worth a look...bloody Israelis ....

    ReplyDelete

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