by Noam Chomsky
By late June, concern over the “ hasbara failure” was already considerable: “Ya’acov Meridor, who is in charge of Israeli relief efforts in Lebanon, accused the Western press of ‘poisonous lies’ in its accounts of the destruction, and Health Minister Eliezer Shostak asserted that the International Red Cross [was] deliberately inflating casualty figures to tarnish Israel’s name.”* U.S. television coverage was blamed for Begin’s (allegedly) hostile reception in the Senate, and the director of the Israeli government press office, Ze’ev Chafetz, accused European news agencies of “disseminating ‘propaganda”’ because of their “Palestinian bias,” also stating “that some U.S. reporting had been inaccurate and harmful to Israel’s cause.”259 His predecessor as government press chief, however, saw things differently:
There was news management. It flopped miserably because it was impossible to manage news under these conditions. But the government thinks it flopped because it was not skillful enough. They keep looking for technical
* See above. In the Jerusalem Post (July 15, 1982), Rabbi Professor Eliezer Berkovits explained further that “The self-righteous international condemnation of Israel should be treated with contempt: it has no moral significance. Nor should the International Red Cross be excluded from our contempt. Their monstrous propaganda lies against Israel have the familiar ring of medievalism.” The criticism of Israel “is explained by the moral decay engulfing the West,” where “everything is for sale, newspapers, TV stations, universities, national policies, ideals, the human conscience, the very future of man.” As for Israel, “There has never been an army in human history that has acted as humanely as the Israeli Defence Forces have in Lebanon… Those concerned with the truth will agree that the military action against the PLO was a classic case of selfdefence…not for nothing have [the IDF] been enthusiastically welcomed by the Lebanese as liberators,” etc. Rabbi Professor Berkovits is identified as “the author of many articles and books on Jewish philosophy. Theology and Halacha.” Recall also that the IDF regarded the ICRC as a “hostile organization” whose relief activities must be blocked, as reported by Col. Yirmiah: see section 5.3.
explanations.260 Meridor was particularly incensed about what he called the “lies” reported by the media with regard to “the bodily injury and physical damage caused by the Israeli attack, and insinuated that this is part and parcel of the media’s regular policy of toeing the PLO line.” He reported the total number of Lebanese civilians killed in the war in the South, now completed, to be 314: 10 in Nabatiye, 54 in Tyre and 250 in Sidon, “including terrorists and their hostages” (his words). He stated that fewer than 20,000 Lebanese lack shelter, and the IDF is looking after them, cooperating fully with the Lebanese authorities.261 On how the IDF was looking after them, see the reports by Col. Dov Yirmiah, who was in the unit that was supposed to be caring for the population, section 5.3. Recall that it was Meridor whose sole orders concerning the Palestinians were “Drive them East.”
There surely was news management, leading to a debate in the U.S. concerning censorship. IDF officials in charge of press contacts report that they divided foreign correspondents into “positive” and “negative” (whose number “was greater than the number of the ‘positive ones”’). The negative” ones who were judged “hostile to Israel” were given “special treatment, either prohibited from entering the IDF-held areas completely or given “unattractive” travel conditions.262 These procedures are likely to be considerably more effective than direct censorship, which is highly visible and therefore harmful in its impact. Journalists presumably learn to be careful to avoid being categorized as “negative,” thus denied the opportunity to do their work. The greatest problem faced by the news managers, however, was that the war was also covered from the other side, where they had no control.
As if the iniquity just surveyed were not enough, it turns out that Amnesty International had also joined in the international conspiracy to defame Israel, not for the first time (see chapter 4, section 5.1). An AI letter requesting the government of Israel to conform to international standards in treatment of prisoners received the following response from the Attorney General of Israel:
It is somewhat surprising that AI, as an impartial worldwide movement, independent of political grouping and ideology, has chosen to base its approach to the Government of Israel upon press reports, especially when it has become patently evident that such reports have been grossly and, to a certain extent, even deliberately exaggerated and fabricated... Accordingly we find it difficult to accept this reliance by AI upon such reports and consider them as not warranting substantive or serious reply. 263
To summarize, it is difficult to fault the hasbara efforts, given the nature of the forces engaging in a “pogrom” or ‘psychological war” against Israel in the summer of 1982: the Kremlin and its immense international information system, the powerful and devious Wafa, the American and world press and television which were deliberately fabricating reports when they were not being deluded by the WafaKremlin psy-war campaign, AI and the international relief agencies that were consciously falsifying the facts to raise more money, the U.S. government still pursuing its traditional “Saudi policy” with a fraudulent pretense of “even-handedness.” Small wonder, then, that much of the world thought that there had been a “bloody war” in Lebanon, not a humanitarian rescue effort to liberate innocent people held hostage by “a gang of thugs.”
The hasbara campaign was far from a total failure, however. Norman Kempster mentions Peretz’s article “Lebanon Eyewitness” as a “spectacular” result of “the showpiece of the hasbara effort,” namely, “the guided tour of Lebanon” in which “visitors were shown the war from the Israeli point of view,” citing his statement, quoted above, that “Much of what you have read in the newspapers and newsmagazines about the war in Lebanon—and even more of what you have seen and heard on television—is simply not true.” Kempster notes that the guided tours were “superbly done,” at least “from the standpoint of the publicrelations professional,” avoiding signs of damage and arranging talks with selected Lebanese in Christian towns. See note 253.
One staple of the criticism of the media was that the early casualty figures were derived from the PLO (“we know now that the source was the PLO, which spread these figures as part of its psychological warfare campaign”).264 It was also commonly alleged that the media relied on the Palestinian Red Crescent, which it either failed to acknowledge as part of the PLO or confused with the Red Cross. These charges are false, as can easily be determined by reviewing the press record (see, for example, the Claremont Research collection cited above, note 36). The usual source for figures was the Lebanese government or police, or international relief agencies. Palestinian sources were rarely used, and where used were clearly identified. Perhaps there were exceptions, but nothing has been produced to suggest a pattern of error or deception, as claimed. In contrast, Israeli sources were generally regarded as reliable (not by Israeli soldiers, however; see section 5.2) and sometimes even considered “authoritative” (see, for example, section 5.3); I noticed no charge that Israeli sources should be dismissed. Furthermore, as noted earlier, it now appears that the early figures were generally accurate, and summary estimates that confirm them are now cited in the Israeli media. Recall also that all the figures are very likely to be underestimates, given that months after the fighting ended bodies were still being dug out of the rubble, and that many, particularly Palestinians, were killed without record, not buried or buried in mass graves. This conclusion seems quite plausible, unless we are to believe that the Israeli sources cited above, and the Lebanese government and police, are also part of the international conspiracy to defame Israel. With regard to the Lebanese, the assumption does not square too well with the doctrine concerning their joy at being liberated, as already noted, unless perhaps we invoke some Peretz-style musings about the “Arab national character.”
The storm over “ hasbara failure” elicited some ridicule in
the Israeli press. An article in Haolam Haze asked: “How are we to explain that an Arab child weeping next to his mother’s body proves our justice”? It goes on to comment on the use of the word “hasbara” (“explanation”) for what is ordinarily called “propaganda” or “psychological warfare.” The assumption behind this curious usage, which appears to be rare among the nations of the world, is that
obviously the Israeli government is right in all that it does. Therefore, all we have to do is to “explain” its motives and then any sensible person shall support it. Anyone who won’t be persuaded by the hasbara is anti-Semitic (if he is a Gentile) or self-hating (if he happens to be Jewish), like [Austrian Prime Minister] Bruno Kreisky, for example. This blind belief in the power of hasbara is typical of all the Israeli establishment. If the Gentiles don’t wholeheartedly support Israeli government actions and policies, then something must have gone wrong with hasbara. Hasbara is at fault. Therefore the hasbara must be changed, just as one changes a sparkplug in a car. It reminds me of the cheated husband who catches his wife making love to his friend on a couch in his house—and decides to burn the couch.265
The problem, however, is that “no hasbara can change basic facts,” though much effort is devoted—often successfully, at least for an American audience—to proving otherwise.
Israeli satirist B. Michael wrote a column expressing his views on the hasbara campaign. The occasion was a celebrated incident in which President Reagan was reported to be distressed by a picture of a severely injured child, even placing it on his desk. The child was allegedly found, only slightly injured, a proof of the anti-Israel bias of the media and a great triumph for hasbara. Michael’s column is entitled: “The Miracle Child”:
Mr. Reagan! Mr. Reagan! Look what we have found! A little boy with two hands! A perfect child! A real sweetie! He’s like new! Just a little burned in the face, and one shoulder is out of joint. He was the best we could find. Now can you see what liars the Arabs are? We knew right away they were frauds and we decided to prove it to you. Do you realize how much time we spent searching among the bodies, until we had found a little boy in such excellent condition? We did it all for you.
This boy has not suffered one bit, on the contrary, he enjoyed all the noise and the fireworks. Just ask his father about it. No, sorry, don’t, because his father was killed by the same bombardment that did not do any harm to this little boy. Ask his mother! She knows the truth. Only don’t look for her in her home. Look for her in some other place, because her home was reduced by the bombardment that was such fun for the boy to the rubble which buried her husband.
This will teach you to believe the media, Mr. President. You should have known that they are controlled by international petro-dollar consortiums. Now go and put on your desk the new picture of the cute little boy who not only has two whole arms, but even two whole legs. Each time you are going to look at him, Mr. President, you are going to remember that nobody was killed in this war, no stone was loosened by it, no children were hurt and no homes were destroyed. You will recall that not a single family was made homeless by us; it’s all propaganda. There were just a few traffic accidents, some people had heart attacks and a crumbling building happened to collapse because of the weight of the ammunition stored on its roof. There was nothing else. And next time anyone sends you any nasty picture of a wounded baby, please let us know right away. We will send you by return mail a color photograph of a jolly, healthy child. 266
Perhaps if this had been taken as a model for reporting, even the New Republic, Commentary, Jane Fonda, and the Anti-Defamation League would have been satisfied that the menace of anti-Semitism has been at least partially overcome.
7.3 The Israeli Media The Israeli media too were the target of attack; from two sources, in fact. As we have already seen, military correspondents were bitterly criticized by soldiers at the front for repeating government lies (see section 5.2). At home, the media were denounced for the opposite reason. The diplomatic correspondent of the Jerusalem Post writes that
Mr. Begin reportedly took heart from a warm reception he received from worshippers at a Jerusalem synagogue on Yom Kippur [September 27, shortly after the Beirut massacres]. His devotees may have drawn encouragement, too, from the report that a crowd of angry stallholders and shoppers in the Jerusalem vegetable market the previous day mobbed [an Israeli] radio van, chanting “Begin, Begin,” and pouring out their wrath upon the media for bringing Israel to its present sorry state.267
The press reports the same incident: The rioters kicked the [Israeli Radio] van and then attacked the three radio employees inside. “How much were you bribed to do the job for them?,” they shouted at one of the reporters. Radio technician Mordechai Maimoni, who had been held prisoner by the al-Amal forces in Lebanon, said that “the terrorists treated us better than did this mob.” The mob blamed the radio reporters for the incidents in Beirut and cursed them for reporting the mass demonstrations of Peace Now.268
The “incidents” in question were the massacres at Sabra and Shatila. Maimoni’s use of the term “terrorists” for the Lebanese Shiite militia that was resisting the Israeli invasion alongside of the PLO deserves special notice. In fact, Lebanese who resisted the Israeli invasion did become “terrorists” officially, which makes sense, given that it was an operation to liberate the Lebanese from terrorism. It is, then, not too surprising to learn that many of the prisoners at the Ansar prison camp described earlier are Lebanese, almost half according to Le Monde.269
8. The Image Problem 8.1 In Lebanon
T
here were certain hasbara problems in Lebanon too, or rather, there would have been, if anyone had cared. Israel’s image was not improved, at least for the Lebanese, by the behavior of the
forces that occupied Beirut. The entire 25,000 volume library of the PLO Research Center was stolen, along with a printing press, microfilms, manuscripts, archives, telephones and other equipment, while what remained was smashed. “They have plundered our Palestinian cultural heritage,” the director, Sabri Jiryis, said; Jiryis is a well-known Palestinian moderate, actually an Israeli Arab who left Israel when it was made clear that the alternative was one or another form of detention. The research center, established with the approval of the Lebanese government, had diplomatic immunity.270 In the same building, Israeli soldiers broke into the apartment of Prof. Khalidi, chairman of the department of biochemistry at the American University of Beirut. They looted extensively, taking art objects, ancient pottery, cooking pots, tools, etc. Sculptures were thrown into the street. Lecture notes and books that were not stolen were put on the floor, then soldiers “defecated on them” and “broke raw eggs on the pile.” The looting and vandalizing were stopped only through the intervention of Malcolm Kerr, vandalizing were stopped only through the intervention of Malcolm Kerr, year-old mother was also looted and vandalized, as were others, as well as schools and stores. The urology office of a Lebanese doctor was looted and about $30,000 in Lebanese pounds was stolen. As Israeli soldiers were allegedly searching for weapons, “Israeli trucks loaded with household appliances and furniture were seen driving south toward Israel,” while flatbed trucks loaded cars, taking them “presumably to Israel.” Eyewitnesses reported that appliance and television shops were cleaned out, and the director of Lebanon’s airline alleged that “even the airport’s computer reservation system was stolen.”271
At the College of Science of the Lebanese University, there was “wanton destruction and looting of scientific laboratories and classrooms by Israeli soldiers.” Lebanese report that private homes, universities, hospitals, and at least one mosque were looted and damaged. “And in its thoroughness and the particularity of its targets, the vandalism seems to many Lebanese to have gone beyond what might ordinarily be expected from troops in wartime, living with both fear and boredom.” The head of a study commissioned by the Lebanese Information Ministry gave a preliminary estimate of perhaps $100 million in damage. Apart from “random looting and damag
e,” he said, “all major institutions connected with governments unfriendly to Israel—including homes, embassies, cultural centers, banks, etc—were damaged in some way, either by being hit, looted, burned or otherwise damaged.” An American diplomat confirmed that the U.S. government had been asked to intercede to have a $375,000 bulldozer returned to the Lebanese company from which it was stolen. American marines joined in a ‘‘massive cleanup effort’’ at the Lebanese University campus, but after two weeks, “piles of garbage and broken glass lay five feet high in the corridors of the fifth floor” and many laboratories were littered with files that had been taken from drawers and thrown down, while laboratories were bare of equipment, “much of it, according to professors at the college, having been taken or destroyed by the Israelis who moved into the college between June 15 and 20.” Apart from destroying lab equipment, the soldiers took the entire scientific library at the college, along with its archives, while taking much scientific material, including the contents of the only polymer laboratory in Lebanon. At the Berbir Hospital, which Israel had repeatedly shelled, “doctors’ clinics and apartments were ransacked during a four-day period of Israeli occupation, according to doctors there.” Chairs were broken, dirt and food spread everywhere, soldiers had drawn on carpets with lipstick, defecated in pots and pans, stolen lecture tapes, cameras, etc. A mosque on the main east-west thoroughfare was desecrated. “Many of its rugs were stolen, others were defecated upon and beer cans were scattered about the floor,” according to people who live near the mosque.272
Conquering armies are rarely well-behaved, even those able to enter a virtually undefended city after it had been mercilessly bombarded and besieged (see chapter 4, note 41). Few such armies, however, are provided with a corps of admirers in the country that finances their operations who marvel at their unique moral standards, purity of arms, incredibly polite behavior “with no reported instances of looting” (Rabbi Balfour Brickner, who is far to the critical end of the American spectrum, in a religious pacifist journal; see section 6.3), etc. The behavior of this conquering army will no doubt be long remembered by the liberated Lebanese alongside of the treatment of captured prisoners, the bombardment of undefended civilian areas, and the denial of food, water and medicine to civilians.
