Juan Cole: Top Five Reasons Israel Is Losing the Public Relations Battle

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/289-134/12380-top-five-reasons-israel-is-losing-the-public-relations-battle

ight wing Israeli officials are concerned about attempts to ‘delegitimize” Israel, and fund former officials and intellectuals to attempt to combat this perceived trend. But it seems obvious that Israel is gradually sinking in the perception of the outside world, and there are concrete reasons for this change. Most of them derive from the train wreck that is Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Israeli blockade on the civilians of the Gaza Strip. Others derive from the hawkishness of the Likud government and its Kadima predecessor. They have nothing to do with anti-Israel sentiments or hatred of Jews. No one is condemning the municipality of Haifa or the administration of Tel Aviv. The criticisms are criticisms of aggressive expansionism and a trigger-happy government. The criticisms are getting louder and more mainstream, with potentially deleterious effects on Israel’s economy as time goes on.

[dipsydoodle]

1. From January

UK set to talk tough to Israel as Abbas visits.

The British government has stepped up its war of words with Israel over settlement building in advance of an official visit next week by Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Ministers have grown increasingly frustrated by what they see as Benjamin Netanyahu's intransigent position on the issue, which is seen as a serious hurdle to peace in the region.

The Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies have been called in for a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron and officials just before Mr Abbas's arrival on Monday.

The meeting is the first of its kind since the election and has led to speculation that senior members of the Jewish community are being "softened up" for British concessions to the Palestinians or even some form of economic or diplomatic action against Israel.

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/61836/uk-set-talk-tough-israel-abbas-visits

[Igel]

2. I think there is some anti-Jewish sentiment. But Cole can't see it.

Those on "your side" you treat with indulgence. You make excuses for them when they do something questionable and arguably intentional. You have empathy for them, and if they make a mistake, well, that's okay, forgiveness is a given. They don't have fears; they have valid concerns. And if they have 'concerns' about somebody you don't like, they must be very real and valid concerns, no questions asked.

Those on "the other side" you treat with veiled intolerance. You don't make excuses for them, in fact you tend to view things that can be taken negatively in a bad light. If it's arguably intentional it was; if it might be horrendous, obviously that's how you need to understand it. You have little to no empathy for them, and if they make a mistake they at the very least need to set it right and most likely need to pay some sort of penalty in addition. Since they're likely to be afraid of those you have empathy for, their fears can only be paranoid or faked to mask aspirations to greater power, and their concerns, where they intersect "your guys'" interests are meaningless.

These views color facts. They provide the basis for internal spinning of facts, for nice cognitive bias that excludes pesky facts that disrupt our outrage and which produces a handy set of assumptions that work for us.

And, even if you're reasonably indifferent to one side, allying with the other sets up the group boundary dynamics. You might choose your side because of ideology--oppressor/oppressed (poor Palestinians since 1967, poor Jews during the war and in the ME in the 1920s-1950s); or economics (who has the oil and who has the more dynamic economy); or religion (Abrahamic religions, but one killed Jesus while the others have the Islamic conquest). The other side becomes progressively more other as time goes on. You make exceptions--we all have 'friends' from the other side that absolves us of any charges of racism and bias we might level at ourselves. But the rule stands.

This is generally true when group boundaries are set up. Because of the bias filter you never see your own bias. You only see that of the other side--which, being the other side, can't just have a confirmation bias but has to either be evil and out to destroy your guys or, if they're removed from the theatre of operations, at the very least must know how false their conclusions are or be utterly blind and stupid. Otherwise they'd be on your side.

It's not anti-Semitism or being anti-Palestinian, per se. But a certain blindness that results in and from antipathy is a sort of anti-Semitism lite or anti-Arab lite.