Max Blumenthal | 6 Mar 2024
Lede: Leaked Israel lobby presentation urges US officials to justify war on Gaza
with 'Hamas rape' claims
Two prominent pro-Israel lobby groups are holding private briefings in New York
City to coach elected officials and well-known figures on how to influence
public opinion in favor of the Israeli military's rampage in Gaza, The Grayzone
can reveal. These PR sessions, convened by the UJA-Federation and Jewish
Community Relations Council, rely on data collected by Frank Luntz, a veteran
Republican pollster and pundit.
The Luntz-tested presentations on the war in Gaza urge politicians to avoid
trumpeting America's supposedly shared democratic values with Israel, and focus
instead on deploying "The Language of War with Hamas." According to this
framing, they must deploy incendiary language painting Hamas as a "brutal and
savage... organization of hate" which has "raped women," while insisting Israel
is engaged in "a war for humanity."
...
Luntz acknowledges Israel's mounting PR problems in a slide identifying the most
powerful tactics employed by Palestine solidarity activists. "Israelis attacking
Israel is the second most potent weapon against Israel," the visual display
reads beside a photo of a protest by Jewish Voices for Peace, a US-based Jewish
organization dedicated to ending Israel's occupation of Palestine.
"The most potent" tactic in mobilizing opposition to Israel's assault on Gaza,
according to Luntz, "is the visual destruction of Gaza and the human toll." The
slide inadvertently acknowledges the cruelty of Israel's bombardment of Gaza,
displaying a bombed out apartment building with clearly anguished women and
children fleeing in the foreground.
-- Cont'd at https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/06/leaked-israel-lobby-officials-war-gaza-mass-rape/
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