Saturday 20th of April 2024

on smoke & mirrors .....

on smoke & mirrors .....

More than 50 years ago, Vance Packard shook the commercial world with the publication of his book The Hidden Persuaders. It was, as the book jacket claims, "A revealing, often shocking explanation of new techniques of research and methods of persuasion."

Packard revealed, "If people couldn't discriminate reasonably, marketers reasoned, they should be assisted in discriminating unreasonably, in some easy, warm, emotional way."

Much merchandizing success, according to Packard, "...hinged, to a large extent, upon successfully manipulating or coping with our guilt feelings, fears, anxieties, hostilities, loneliness feelings, inner tensions".

Packard raised serious questions of morality related to the "people-manipulating activities of persuaders ... and their ability to contact millions of us simultaneously", giving them "the power to do good or evil on a scale never before possible in a very short time".

Among the most evil of the hidden persuaders are the political propagandists. Their "evil" stems from the fact that they have a political agenda, which discriminates unreasonably and is designed to manipulate emotions.

The manipulative approach to politics is, of course, not a discovery of the 1950s, or even the 20th century. Napoleon Bonaparte set up a press bureau that he called his Bureau of Public Opinion. Its function was "to manufacture political trends to order".

Just as Napoleon Bonaparte believed that "public opinion is a mysterious and invisible power, to which everything must yield", Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian author of The Prince, described the arts with which a ruling prince can maintain control of his realm.

In a document published by The Israel Project entitled "The Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary", Dr Frank Luntz unmasks a modern-day propaganda campaign that would have made Napoleon and Machiavelli proud.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23510.htm

meanwhile .....

'The Israel Project', a US media advocacy group, has produced a revised training manual to help the worldwide Zionist movement win the propaganda war, keep their ill-gotten territorial gains and persuade international audiences to accept that their crimes are necessary and conform to 'shared values' between Israel and the civilized West.

The manual teaches how to justify the slaughter, the ethnic cleansing, the land-grabbing, the cruelty and the blatant disregard for international law and UN resolutions, and make it all smell sweeter with a liberal squirt of the aerosol of persuasive language. It is designed to hoodwink us ignorant and gullible Americans and Europeans into believing that we actually share values with the racist regime in Israel and that its abominable behaviour is therefore deserving of our support.

Israel is hoping for a PR massacre. The other side - the Palestinian Authority and the PLO - don't take communications seriously and have neglected to correct Israeli distortion. They are happy, it seems, for Israel's one-sided definitions to prevail, which of course makes the task for Israel so much easier. This latest propaganda offensive is potentially the 'coup de grace' to finish off the tormented Palestinians. See it here.

And the manual will no doubt serve as a communications primer for the army of cyber-scribblers that Israel's Ministry of Dirty Tricks is recruiting to spread Zionism's poison across the internet.

This quote at the beginning sets the tone: "Remember, it's not what you say that counts. It's what people hear."

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15429

bulletproof .....

There's a name on every bullet, and there's someone responsible for every crime.

The Teflon cloak Israel has wrapped around itself since Operation Cast Lead has been ripped off, once and for all, and now the difficult questions must be faced. It has become superfluous to ask whether war crimes were committed in Gaza, because authoritative and clear-cut answers have already been given.

So the follow-up question has to be addressed: Who's to blame? If war crimes were committed in Gaza, it follows that there are war criminals at large among us. They must be held accountable and punished. This is the harsh conclusion to be drawn from the detailed United Nations report.

For almost a year, Israel has been trying to argue that the blood spilled in Gaza was merely water. One report followed the other, with horrifyingly identical results: siege, white phosphorous, harm of innocent civilians, infrastructure destroyed - war crimes in each and every report.

Now, after the publication of the most important and damning report of all, compiled by the commission led by Judge Richard Goldstone, Israel's attempts to discredit them look ludicrous, and the empty bluster of its spokespersons sound pathetic.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115240.html

Some added opinions John.

G'day John,

I believe that there has to be a set of rules like the U.N. Charter under which any nation committing crimes against humanity MUST be dealt with by the International Criminal Court and punished accordingly.

 

However, as long as America has the power to support; excuse and protect the actions of ANY criminal society they choose, like the Zionists and their so-called democratic voters, then the current hot-bed of the Middle East cannot find a just and lasting peace.

 

I also believe that the articles in Haaretz and other influential Jewish newspapers, currently in occupied Palestine, merely add their patronising ”opinions” to the relevant parts of the Jewish 2009 propaganda programme.

 

Such a “programme” could only be perpetrated with the complicity of the relevant governments which would knowingly permit the dangerous and misleading garbage produced by media tyrants like the Murdoch Jewish lobby in Australia and its supporters.  Their power is so concentrated now that the Rupert Murdoch offspring James, has already broadcast his fascist demands in our country – whose serving personnel gave their lives to prevent.

 

Money is surely the root of all evil and the centuries of money-lending by the Zionists have given them the power to control governments and, if there is elections, then they control the information the people receive – even as they are doing now in our country.

 

History has shown that Hebrew/Canaanites (just one of the Semitic Tribes) are not known for their heroism on equal terms with the ancient cultures – and nothing has changed.  While anti-Nazis from many countries gave their lives to change the evil that caused enormous misery to the Jews; Gypsies; Russians; the mentally disabled and homosexual which they considered as untermenschen – those surviving, and their relatives, are now witnessing an uncontrolled and irresponsible duplication of the evil the Zionists want us to believe they abhorred.

 

How long and how much suffering will 0.2 % of the world’s population consider is sufficient to obey their God’s command that they must establish superiority of all things - human and animal - by simply killing them?

 

And in conclusion John – IF the number of non-Jews, who died in the non-Jewish concentration camps during WW 2 were not deserving, even of a mention in the Holocaust claims, why then were the reported 5 illegal Jews killed in Palestine territory (by the starving and pitifully armed Palestinians) worth the rape; brutalising and murder of 1300 Palestinian civilians in the Jewish concentration camp of Gaza?

 

Freedom and equality are disappearing entitlements of humanity.

 

Cheers John.  God bless Australia. NE OUBLIE.

 

 

 

Who do we trust John?

G'day John,

It beggars belief that Haaritz – probably a major Zionist instrument – is sincerely criticising the actions of the “Goliath” Zionist military murders when they depend on the “good will” of that fascist government for their very existence.

 

The Zionist military of occupied Palestine are indeed fascists who depend on the superiority of the weapons supplied by the American Military/Corporate to enforce their demands on defenceless people.  Could this be due to the over-extended military personnel of the US being the biggest terrorist nation in the world’s history? And the Zionists are a counterpart of the Roman method of utilising subservient nations?

 

Or – is the tail wagging the dog?

 

Gus and I seemed to agree on deception being a business tool. I believe that all advertisements are propaganda and over the top or close to it. If this is so, what enormous power does the Zionist council have due solely to their wealth?

 

I may be wrong here John but, is the mouth-piece of the Palestine Zionists an “Australian” named Regev – or something similar? As an older Australian I remember “Lord Haw Haw” and the propaganda that he expected us to believe because he was a New Zealander?

 

In those days John, the enemy wore a uniform of which they were proud and, although their politicians were no longer their Warrior Kings leading them into battle, at least you knew who you had to kill or he would kill you.  So be it with the business barons among the politicians.

 

I wonder what uniform the victims of the Gaza Holocaust wore.

 

Cheers John.  God bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

 

 

truth ....

Yes Ernest.
In the words of Emile Zola ...
If we shut up truth & bury it under the ground, it will but grow, & gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through, it will blow up everything in its way.

muddy waters indeed .....

Yes Ernest. You may be interested in the article "Zionism vs Zionism" .... the following is a short extract .....

But most Israelis were blind to that reality. For them, and for the governments they elect, feeling like an embattled victim of persecution is an essential part of Zionism.

Though all nations are prone to blaming others for their problems, few if any seek out that sense of embattled victimization as eagerly as Israel.

Mainstream and right-wing Zionism has always been tangled up in this catch 22: wanting to be normal, yet at the same time wanting to be seen as totally unique, singled out, attacked more unfairly than any other nation and, thus, quite abnormal. The more Israelis have tried to become normal by naming and defeating their enemies, the deeper they've entrenched themselves in their myth of being the uniquely persecuted people.

It's hard for many Israeli Jews to say what it would mean to be Israeli (or to be Jewish, most might add) if there were not oppressors to denounce and resist.

Hence the natural response, for most, to something like the Goldstone report: Don't read it carefully. ("There was a very quick rejection of the report," in Israel, Goldstone commented "even before anyone read it.") Certainly, don't investigate its claims and reflect on why such war crimes could have happened.

Instead, just denounce it as "a feat of cynical superficiality," because "the verdict was sealed before the probe had begun," as the Jerusalem Post editorialized. When you're already sure that everyone hates you, everything and anything becomes further proof that everyone hates you, and that your only option is to fight back.

Fortunately, not all Zionists are entrenched in this cycle of victimization and counterattack. Richard Goldstone himself said, in measured words, that "it is grossly wrong to label a mission or to label a report critical of Israel as being anti-Israel." - or, he might have added, anti-Zionist.

http://www.truthout.org/091809A?n

By the way, the "Australian" you referred to is Mark Negev .... details about him on Wikipedia here  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Regev

Cheers,

John.

Perhaps the Zionists control their media too?

G'day John,

Thank you for the link

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1115240.html

 

Very interesting indeed but, is it a case of “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”?

 

After all, the lengthy and “heartfelt” shame in the article “Disgrace in the Hague” could not have been better written than by one of the survivors of the Gaza Holocaust. As far as I can determine, the weapon most expected of the Zionists is deception and they are demonstrating this in every country where their financial power has given them disproportionate influence – like the U.S. and Australia.

 

It would not have surprised me if Gideon Levy had offered to placate the people who are horrified at what was done by saying “well we, the vigilant and independent free press of Israel consider that wrong was done and we apologize”! So now that is in the past eh?

 

I note your reference to “Zionist v Zionist” and recall a story of the Jews who were about to be captured on their mountain retreat by the Romans. They committed suicide kosher fashion but, the leader had opined that if the Romans had left them alone they would have eventually destroyed themselves.

 

I also appreciate the article re-visiting Vance Packard’s book The Hidden Persuaders which brings me to the matter of Mark Regev and the fact that this obscene liar was born in Australia.  Does he, like Rupert Murdoch, have dual citizenship?  And to which will he swear his allegiance?

 

When I was involved with Webdiary after it had been sold, one of the issues for which I was severely criticized was that I claimed the media elects or destroys governments. Your reference to Vance Packard’s book The Hidden Persuaders was an excellent and fitting expose of the power of the pen.

 

I particularly like the sentence: Packard revealed, “If people couldn’t discriminate reasonably, marketers reasoned, they should be assisted in discriminating unreasonably, in some easy, warm, emotional way”.

 

It occurs to me that the Zionists have no intention of allowing the Palestinians to regain any part of their land which the Jews have stolen.  This group of US allies has ignored every criticism of the UN and have invaded the sovereignty of many nations to oppress the people.  Will it also be a haven for international criminals of the Jewish race?  An untouchable land of a traitorous race of Canaanite Arabs different only in their language.

 

The U.S. is as guilty as the amoral new Israeli government and it is long overdue for the countries, trying to climb out of the financial pit that the Jewish controlled Wall Street CEOs have dug for them, to come out openly against these two unholy terrorist nations.

 

Cheers John.  God bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

 

 

 

Let us remember freedom and those who oppose it.

I repeat a story of which I was very impressed." I found this one preceding his so-called trial. Joined: 24 Nov 2002Posts: 5419      Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 5:33 pm Download Post    Post subject: K. Käther of the 'Self-Accusation Movement' in court !!!"   ________________________________________I received this from Dr. Ingrid Rimlad, the brilliant wife of imprisoned Thought Criminal, Ernst Zundel.  Here we have a critically important example of an interesting tactic now being employed in Germany. Essentially that tactic goes something like this; a brave and rationally minded individual says ... 'The so called holocaust story line is a load of nonsense, I can defend that statement, laws which ban scrutiny of it prove my point, now arrest me and put me on trial !'.  Below we have an outline of one man's, Kevin Käther, effort. Comments invited.  Revisionists are just the messengers, the absurdity and impossibility of the 'holocaust' story is the message.  - Hannover Quote: [Translator's preface]  Mr. Kevin Käther is a representative of the growing "Self-Accusation" movement, or citizens' demanding that they be charged and tried for crimes of opinion.  The following trial report reflects the growing courage, enthusiasm and freshness of vision among patriotic young Germans as they answer the call for a new kind of civil disobedience. They are publicly "confessing" the "crime" of expressing opinions critical of their government's inquisitorial enforcement of official historiography, as well as their government's slavish adherence to the outrageous conditions imposed on Germany by the victors of World Wars I and II in clear violation of international law.  In the tradition of Henry Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi, the new activists demand that they be tried and punished for their crimes. Growing numbers of judges and public officials are also expressing their opposition to governmental tyranny. How long will the present regime be able to resist popular pressure for human rights, a constitution and an end to military occupation by the USA? COMMENT:  (Original) I have not fully read the history of this man Ernst Zundel, who had the courage to stand up to the slavish Hebrew demanded behaviour of his own government and the oppressing presence of the US occupation forces.New Comment: IF the free world is genuinely trying to influence the non-christian nations to become - what the US calls a "democracy" - why are they supporting and condoning the Nazi methods of the Zionists? Let's try to avoid George Orwell's 1984.Cheers. God bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

true to form .....

from Crikey .....

Saree Makdisi: Obama won't solve the Middle East crisis

Freelance journalist and author Antony Loewenstein writes:

After Tuesday night's Sydney Ideas lecture by Saree Makdisi, professor of English Literature at the University of California and nephew of the late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, asked a question. He wanted to know why Makdisi had ignored the extreme Hamas charter, Palestinian rejectionism and constant Israeli peace offers since 1948. "You've only told one side of the story," Alhadeff claimed.

Makdisi responded with passion, claiming that Alhadeff and the Zionist position he represented only saw in Israel and Palestine what they wanted to see. Alhadeff started his question by saying that, "we all believe the occupation should have ended yesterday", and yet Makdisi countered that Israel's supposedly serious peace offerings were bogus as long as the occupation of the West Bank deepened every day.

It was a point he made on ABC Radio's The World Today last week. Equality, justice and peace can never be achieved when fundamentalist, Jewish colonialists continue to control vital West Bank territory.

About 200 people packed into Sydney University's Seymour Centre on Tuesday night (disclosure: I introduced Makdisi) and the crowd was diverse. Although there were few Jewish attendees - I knew maybe five - there were countless Palestinians, Arabs and concerned citizens of various ages. His talk in Melbourne last week (covered in The Age), was equally popular, I'm told, people drawn to the growing global consensus that apartheid is occurring in the occupied territories with total Western support (the audio is here).

Makdisi spoke principally last night about Jerusalem's proposed Museum of Tolerance, to be built on a sacred Muslim cemetery. He explained how the Zionist backers of the project appear oblivious or uncaring towards the sensitivities of the Palestinian population and want to create a space where Jewish "unity" is celebrated rather than real reconciliation with the Arab population.

Makdisi argued that the only way to fairly solve the Middle East crisis - he had no faith in Barack Obama, despite having known him years ago in Chicago and saying he was a good politician - was a one-state solution with equal rights for all its citizens. A democracy like any other Western state, such as America or Australia, that theoretically thrives on its multicultural mix, rather than Israel that wants ethnic and racial purity.

Makdisi's Edward Said Memorial Lecture, given last weekend at the University of Adelaide, is a catalogue of life for Palestinians under occupation, a reality rarely told in the Western media. An extract:

According to a report published in July 2007 by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), almost 40 percent of the West Bank [SLIDE] is now taken up by Israeli infrastructure (roads, colonies, army bases, etc) to which indigenous Palestinians are largely denied access. The pace of Jewish colonisation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - colonisation that has taken place on the illegally expropriated private property of Palestinian families or, equally illegally, on land that was declared state property by the Israeli army - has not significantly slackened for one moment in the past four decades, even though Israel's colonial enterprise has been repeatedly condemned as a violation of international law by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council as well as the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Makdisi's solution to the conflict is not to wait for the Obama administration to move into gear - he told me that America had shown no indication of getting serious with the peace process - but a global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targeting complicit Israeli institutions. Such thoughts, gathering pace across the world, are making defenders of the occupation status quo here in Australia rightly uncomfortable.

I spoke to several people last night who told me that such talks in Australia about occupation were happening with increasing frequency. "Twenty years ago." one attendee told me, "you never heard about the Palestinians. Now you do, but they have no power."

Antony Loewenstein is a journalist and author of My Israel Question.

hopeless .....

And in yet another vain effort to promote the great false hope's global leadership pretensions .....

The Obama administration will not allow the Goldstone report recommendations on Israel's conduct in the Gaza war to reach the International Criminal Court.

A top White House official told Jewish organizational leaders in an off-the-record phone call Wednesday that the U.S. strategy was to "quickly" bring the report - commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council and carried out by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone - to its "natural conclusion" within the Human Rights Council and not to allow it to go further, Jewish participants in the call told JTA.

The report said the U.N. fact-finding mission investigating Israel's conduct during the January 2009 war found evidence of Israeli war crimes. Israel has denied the allegations and said the report's mandate was biased - an opinion echoed by U.S. officials.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c40_a16833/News/Israel.html

Unbelievable isn't it? But not hopeless?

G'day John,

Having served militarily with the Americans I found that the old English judgment of "they are over-sexed; over-paid and over here" is only missing the b...s... part.

The very “click the heals” trained behavior of the Nazis, which the Americans ridicule so much, is replicated in every thread of their military. Every thing they do is targeted at the false impression that they are the rightful leaders of the western world. Shades of Adolf?

The superiority of the Americans has been constantly pumped into our nation by the primarily Jewish media.  Does it ever occur to anyone that the Jews control the US entertainment industry? And that this powerful tool in our country is becoming more and more within the power of 0.2% of the world’s population? Does it concern Australians that the major forms of information in our nation is now controlled mainly by foreigners?

Does the “tribal” instinct apply to the actions of selective groups of people?

Is it a good thing that a minority of a people can control the information which is fed to our people – by any means?

Is it wise to allow a relatively small group of wealthy people, of a select race to control the “democratic” methods of information?

I suppose that I feel the frustration of the “underground” press of the nations whose government had allowed, for a start, cross-media ownership.

Who elected Murdoch as Australia’s information chief?

Cheers John.  God Bless Australia. NE OUBLIE.

 

G'day ernest .....

G'Day Ernest,
I certainly share your assessment of the US military but I don't believe that they are alone in their sense of superiority.

With so many war-mongering politicians on the loose, all intent on demonising those who would challenge their world view or resist rather than submit, it is entirely predictable that our men & women in uniform are encouraged to believe that their every action is taken in support of a "just cause".

It is informative of the lies & myths created by said politicians that so many ex-service men & women speak out against the atrocities that they themselves have committed & profoundly regret the misery they have wrought on their fellow men.

I for one believe that the abolition of "standing armies" & the private capitalistic war-making industries that depend on the creation of violence & misery in search of profit, would go a long way to redressing the propensity of our war lords to seek the solution to the world's problems through war.

The only other point I would make Ernest is in respect to your comment about the jewish race ... I don't agree with that. I see Judaism as a religion & in that it is no different to any other religion. The problem lies with Israel, a state whose very nature is rooted in the Jewish faith & which, ultimately, must mean that she will seek to persuade, influence, control or dominate the rest of humanity in accordance with the dictates of that faith - as do most religions.

twisting & turning .....

Israel celebrated at the weekend its success at the United Nations in forcing the Palestinians to defer demands that the International Criminal Court investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Israel during its winter assault on the Gaza Strip.

The about-turn, following vigorous lobbying from Israel and the United States, appears to have buried the damning report of Judge Richard Goldstone into the fighting, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians.

Israeli diplomats suggested on Sunday that Washington had promised the Palestinian Authority, in return for delaying an inquiry, that the United States would apply "significant pressure" on Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to move ahead on a diplomatic process when the US envoy, George Mitchell, arrives in the region tomorrow.

But, according to Israeli and Palestinian analysts, diplomatic arm-twisting was not the only factor in the PA's change of heart. Haaretz newspaper reported last week that, behind the scenes, Palestinian officials had faced threats that Israel would retaliate by inflicting enormous damage on the beleaguered Palestinian economy.

In particular, Israel warned it would renege on a commitment to allot radio frequencies to allow Wataniya, a mobile phone provider, to begin operations this month in the West Bank. The telecommunications industry is the bedrock of the Palestinian economy, with the current monopoly company, PalTel, accounting for half the worth of the Palestinian stock exchange.

The collapse of the Wataniya deal would have cost the Palestinian Authority hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties, blocked massive investment in the local economy and jeopardised about 2,500 jobs.

Omar Barghouti, a Jerusalem-based founder of a Palestinian movement for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, denounced the Palestinian Authority's move: "Trading off Palestinian rights and the fundamental duty to protect the Palestinians under occupation for personal gains is the textbook definition of collaboration and betrayal."

http://www.countercurrents.org/cook071009.htm

and then .....

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has reversed a decision not to endorse a United Nations report highly critical of Israel's conduct in the Gaza war.

In the face of a furious backlash in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and across the Arab world, President Abbas has now backed a UN Security Council debate on the report by South African Judge Richard Goldstone.

As furious demonstrators took to the streets in the Gaza Strip to denounce President Abbas' handling of the Goldstone Report, senior aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio that the Palestinian leadership had erred.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/abbas-backs-down-on-gaza-report-20091008-goxg.html