[THS] Patrick Cockburn: Another Disaster for Israel

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Mad-Dog of the Planet


Notch Up Another Disaster for Israel's Well-Oiled Propaganda Machine

By Patrick Cockburn

http://www.counterpunch.org/

An old Israeli saying describing various less-than-esteemed military leaders says: "He
was so stupid that even the other generals noticed." The same derisive remark could
be applied almost without exception to the present generation of Israeli politicians.

Such healthy skepticism among Israelis about the abilities of their military and political
leaders has unfortunately ebbed in recent decades. As a result, Israelis are left
perplexed as to why their wars, military interventions and armed actions have so
often ended in failure since the 1973 war, despite the superiority of their armed
forces.

The latest example of this is the assault on the Gaza aid convoy by naval commandos,
a confrontation initiated by Israel which thereby ensured that the convoy's organizers
achieved their objectives to a degree beyond their wildest dreams. By using assault
troops in a police action against civilians with predictably bloody results Israel
managed to focus international attention on its blockade of Gaza, which the world
had hitherto largely ignored. The Israeli action infuriated Turkey, once its strongest
ally in the region, and strengthened the claim of Hamas to Palestinian leadership.

The capacity of Israel to shoot itself in the foot needs explanation. From the
beginning the operation was idiotic, since Israel was always likely to look bad after
any confrontation between élite troops and civilian protesters. Even more ludicrous is
the Israeli explanation that their élite and heavily armed soldiers were at risk of their
lives because they had to use thick gloves to protect their hands when sliding down
cables from a helicopter and therefore could not use their weapons.

The nature of the fiasco should cause little surprise because such botched Israeli
military actions have been the norm for years. The 1982 invasion of Lebanon was
discredited by the massacre of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by
Christian militias loosed on them by Israeli army commanders. Syria, not Israel,
became the predominant power in Lebanon. In south Lebanon, the Israeli army
fought a long and unsuccessful guerrilla war against Hizbollah. The bombardments of
Lebanon in 1996 and 2006 left Hizbollah stronger, and a similar attack on Gaza in
2008 failed to weaken Hamas.

The problem is that nobody believes Israeli propaganda as much as Israelis. Pro-
Palestinian activists often lament the fluency and mendacity of Israeli spokesmen on
the airwaves and the pervasive influence of Israel's supporters abroad. But, in reality,
these PR campaigns are Israel's greatest weakness, because they distort Israelis'
sense of reality. Defeats and failures are portrayed as victories and successes.

The slaughter of civilians is justified as a military necessity or somehow the fault of
the other side. Opponents are demonized as bloodthirsty terrorists. Comforted by
such benign accounts of their activities, Israeli leaders are consumed by arrogance
because they come to believe they have never made a mistake. Denial that errors
have occurred makes it extremely difficult to sack generals or ministers, however
gross their incompetence or record of failure.

Many Israelis privately take their own propaganda with a pinch of salt, though the
number is diminishing. But abroad, the most third-rate Israeli politicians strut before
fawning audiences as heroic defenders of the state. Not surprisingly they return
home with a dangerously inflated idea of their own abilities and in a perilously self-
important mood.

The Israeli propaganda machine, official and private, has been running full throttle in
the last few days justifying the assault on the aid convoy to Gaza. Probably
spokesmen feel they are performing well given the weakness of their case. In fact,
they do nothing but harm to Israel. The greater their success in denying gross and
culpable mistakes, the more likely it is that the perpetrators will hold their jobs – and
the more likely it is that the mistakes will be endlessly repeated.

Patrick Cockburn is the author of "Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and
the Struggle for Iraq."