HASABRA, ACCORDING TO at least one site means “Public diplomacy in Israel, also known as Hasbara (Hebrew: הַסְבָּרָה), refers to public-relations efforts to disseminate positive information abroad about the State of Israel and its actions. (https://tinyurl.com/3n6b58px)
Israel has lots of people working in public relations, in Hebrew, יַחֲסֵי צִבּוּר, but it never promoted national hasbara.
HASBARA’s root (soresh) is HESBARE; (הסבר) it means to explain, to expound, to educate.
To ask someone to explain something, you tell them להסבר — to explain.
Since even before Israel’s creation as a modern state, Jews have been trying — and failing — to explain Israel to the world in a language the world can understand.
HonestReporting CEO Daniel Pomerant (https://youtu.be/sO7_SC-T438) does about the best job of explaining hasbara I have seen or read. (The 3:27 minute video is in Hebrew with English sub-titles; it behooves everyone who either is pro Israel or at least open minded to watch it. Leftists need not apply.)
Pomerant makes the point that Israeli “hasbara” fails to talk to the world in terms the world can understand, assuming the world is willing to understand.
People, primarily “The Media,” report rumors and fairy tales.
They write from far away.
Come to Israel and see the “apartheid” lie.
Come to Israel and see how the government abuses Muslims — by putting them in positions of authority over Jews ! in the police, in government, in the justice system, in education at all levels, and based on recent stays in Israeli hospitals, in all areas of medicine: doctors, nurses, aides.
Note there is a distinction between Israeli Arabs and Muslims, Israeli or not. Not every Arab is a Muslim and not every Muslim is an Arab; just ask an Indonesian if he (or she) is an Arab.
Where else but Israel would the government countenance people in people promoting the over-throw of the government IN THE GOVERNMENT? Israel not only has Members of Knesset who promote the state's demise: “from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean) Palestine will be free,” they have the democracy not available to them in a Jewish-free “Palestine” or Gaza.
Perhaps the media mavens forgot that Jews cannot live or work in “Palestine” or Gaza. These places are, as the nazis hoped to make the world, “Juden frei” — free of Jews.
On the other hand, as long as they are allowed by their PLO/PFLP and Hamas masters, many if these people come to work in Israel on a daily basis.
(There were more, but the BDSers forced some employers (e.g., SodaStream) away and the “Palestinians” lost their jobs and income.)
They also come to Israel for medical attention where, again based on personal experience, they are treated as well as a Jewish Israeli.
While on the subject of “poor Muslims,” the media should take a drive between Hadera and Afula.
Look to the right as you travel west toward Afula and admire the single-family (vs. condo) homes. These homes are owned by Israeli Muslims. An Israeli Jew would be hard-pressed to buy anything similar anyplace in Israel.
Before modern Israel Samuel Langhorne Clemens visited “Palestine” in 1867.
He apparently was not impressed with either the Muslim or Jewish inhabitants, but his writings make it clear that “Palestine” was hardly an advanced country, flowing with milk and honey, with every Muslim sitting under his fig or olive tree. According to Clemens, the land was barren and the Muslims wanderers (Bedo?). He fails to cite any Muslim cities. (So much for the PLO/PFLP claims.) That is not to deny that there were no Muslims in what became Israel.
In 1929, having coexisted for decades, the Muslims of Hebron (where the patriarchs and most of the matriarchs are entombed in land purchased by Abraham to bury his wife, Sara) went on a rampage that left 67 Jews dead – their homes and synagogues destroyed – and the few hundred survivors were relocated to Jerusalem. The aftermath left Hebron barren of Jews for the first time in hundreds of years. (https://tinyurl.com/bjj6y7wt) Muslims attacking Jews is nothing new in Israel, yet the media typically ignores it until the police and army step in, then the reports are all about the Jews suppressing the poor Muslims — and no context.
For more than a decade I worked for newspapers, big and small, daily and weekly. I covered all “beats” and did my best to be like Jack Webb’s Sgt. Joe Friday and report “just the facts.” (Truth be told, Webb allegedly never said that [https://tinyurl.com/wzaaezxw].)
I‘m glad I no longer am associated with the media. I never was good at making excuses for others. Worse, there is no excuse for today’s too-lazy-to-check “journalists.”
Even worse are bloggers who claim this or that and fail to provide citations. Where did they get the information? Was it written on a bathroom wall? How distant was the unidentified source of the information from the actual event? Via the “great circle” route, the distance between New York City and Tel Aviv is 5,664.21 miles or 9,115.67 km (https://www.distance.to/Tel-Aviv/New-York). Why go all the way to Israel when a person who never has been outside the U.S. knows it all? Facts are irrelevant.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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