4 ms·

Yeah, except the hasbara efforts are real and well documented. Pretty disingenuous for you to try and present OP in such a way.

joelbluminator 5y ago
Every country in the world uses diplomacy and public relations to create a better strategic reality for itself, especially in times of conflict. Israel is no different than the U.S or Australia or the Palestinian Authority for that matter. It's pretty disingenuous of you to call it "Hasbara" when Israel does it as if it's some kind of Israeli phenomena.
- DSingularity 5y ago
  Hasbara is what the Israelis call it… what would be a more sincere way for me to refer to it?
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    Given your apparent intended meaning, “propaganda” seems most appropriate.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - joelbluminator 5y ago
    Public relations? Diplomacy? Even propaganda if you want to be negative towards Israel? Why would you use the Hebrew word for it, do you use the Hebrew word for other things as well? It's not a unique thing to Israel that's exactly my point.
    - DSingularity 5y ago
      You are missing the point, people don’t use it because it’s the Hebrew word. Hasbara is a crucial part of Israeli strategy to expand its borders and maintain its dominance of the Palestinian people. Hasbara is all about (1) obfuscating the settler-colonial nature of Israel and (2) white-washing Israeli military war crimes in Gaza and occupied territories. It’s telling that the achievement which launched the political career of the current prime-minister was astroturfing Wikipedia to promote Zionism and Israel. This stuff is important to Israel it’s not just propaganda to promote is hasbara to enable. The nature of hasbara has features which warrant distinguishing it from propaganda. For example it seemingly exclusively relies on astroturfing. That’s useful to know that there are organizations giving students fellowships [1] to promote these efforts. Another feature is in the objective. Unlike generic propaganda, the objective isn’t to promote domestic nationalism, counter competing ideologies, or to demotivate foreign adversaries. The objective is obfuscating the settler colonial nature of Israel and white-washing Israeli military war crimes. To me, this warrants calling these efforts by what the Israelis call it. 1. https://hasbarafellowships.org/ https://hasbarafellowships.org/
      - joelbluminator 5y ago
        Yeah ok man ...was nice talking to you.
benja123 5y ago
Israeli here. I don’t want to get into an argument here about the six NGOs, Israel and NSO group. I personally don’t have enough information to make an informed decision on it. There is one thing I want to clarify though. Hasbara is Hebrew for “explaining” - so when Israelis or any Hebrew speaker say hasbara it literally means “explaining” their point of view. Now more often or not, Israelis and Hebrew speakers actually complain that “our governments Hasbara/explanation was garbage” or “wow, we did a really poor job explaining ourselves there”. When you put it into that context, you need to understand from an Israeli/Hebrew speaker point of view “hasbara” is not a bad thing at all - it’s a necessity regardless of if you are pro or anti Israel. Unfortunately people who don’t understand Hebrew have turned a common Hebrew term into a derogatory attack against any Israeli or pro Israeli individual and this extremely problematic for so many reasons I won’t get into now. Regardless, every time you accuse someone of “hasbara” you are actually just accusing them of explaining themselves or their point of view and since it is everyone’s right to be allowed to explain their point of view - you really aren’t accusing them of anything bad at all.
- joelbluminator 5y ago
  It's yet another tool in the "destroy Israel" toolbox; prevent Zionists from speaking up or defending themselves. If someone says anything remotely positive about Israel (even if it's real) it's "Hasbara", some kind of black magic. Already it's increasingly difficult to identify as pro Israel in American colleges, slowly but surely it's happening.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  Hasbara refers to simply explaining the same way that Islam refers to mere submission. When people are talking about Hasbara with an uppercase H they are referring to government PR programs - ie, propaganda.

joelbluminator 5y ago

Every country in the world uses diplomacy and public relations to create a better strategic reality for itself, especially in times of conflict. Israel is no different than the U.S or Australia or the Palestinian Authority for that matter. It's pretty disingenuous of you to call it "Hasbara" when Israel does it as if it's some kind of Israeli phenomena.

DSingularity 5y ago
Hasbara is what the Israelis call it… what would be a more sincere way for me to refer to it?
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  Given your apparent intended meaning, “propaganda” seems most appropriate.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- joelbluminator 5y ago
  Public relations? Diplomacy? Even propaganda if you want to be negative towards Israel? Why would you use the Hebrew word for it, do you use the Hebrew word for other things as well? It's not a unique thing to Israel that's exactly my point.
  - DSingularity 5y ago
    You are missing the point, people don’t use it because it’s the Hebrew word. Hasbara is a crucial part of Israeli strategy to expand its borders and maintain its dominance of the Palestinian people. Hasbara is all about (1) obfuscating the settler-colonial nature of Israel and (2) white-washing Israeli military war crimes in Gaza and occupied territories. It’s telling that the achievement which launched the political career of the current prime-minister was astroturfing Wikipedia to promote Zionism and Israel. This stuff is important to Israel it’s not just propaganda to promote is hasbara to enable. The nature of hasbara has features which warrant distinguishing it from propaganda. For example it seemingly exclusively relies on astroturfing. That’s useful to know that there are organizations giving students fellowships [1] to promote these efforts. Another feature is in the objective. Unlike generic propaganda, the objective isn’t to promote domestic nationalism, counter competing ideologies, or to demotivate foreign adversaries. The objective is obfuscating the settler colonial nature of Israel and white-washing Israeli military war crimes. To me, this warrants calling these efforts by what the Israelis call it. 1. https://hasbarafellowships.org/ https://hasbarafellowships.org/
    - joelbluminator 5y ago
      Yeah ok man ...was nice talking to you.

benja123 5y ago

Israeli here. I don’t want to get into an argument here about the six NGOs, Israel and NSO group. I personally don’t have enough information to make an informed decision on it. There is one thing I want to clarify though. Hasbara is Hebrew for “explaining” - so when Israelis or any Hebrew speaker say hasbara it literally means “explaining” their point of view. Now more often or not, Israelis and Hebrew speakers actually complain that “our governments Hasbara/explanation was garbage” or “wow, we did a really poor job explaining ourselves there”. When you put it into that context, you need to understand from an Israeli/Hebrew speaker point of view “hasbara” is not a bad thing at all - it’s a necessity regardless of if you are pro or anti Israel. Unfortunately people who don’t understand Hebrew have turned a common Hebrew term into a derogatory attack against any Israeli or pro Israeli individual and this extremely problematic for so many reasons I won’t get into now. Regardless, every time you accuse someone of “hasbara” you are actually just accusing them of explaining themselves or their point of view and since it is everyone’s right to be allowed to explain their point of view - you really aren’t accusing them of anything bad at all.

joelbluminator 5y ago
It's yet another tool in the "destroy Israel" toolbox; prevent Zionists from speaking up or defending themselves. If someone says anything remotely positive about Israel (even if it's real) it's "Hasbara", some kind of black magic. Already it's increasingly difficult to identify as pro Israel in American colleges, slowly but surely it's happening.
sudosysgen 5y ago
Hasbara refers to simply explaining the same way that Islam refers to mere submission. When people are talking about Hasbara with an uppercase H they are referring to government PR programs - ie, propaganda.