Whose Propaganda Exactly?

Israel's 'propaganda' arm doesn't appear to be too successful. There is nothing that this country can do to attempt to explain herself to the international community that isn't labelled as an criminal attempt to deprive the human rights of the Palestinians. On the other hand, the long-practised propaganda of the Palestinians whose accusations against Israel, however absurd and patently racist and perniciously removed from reality, is accepted, no questions asked, and their cause taken up by passionate human rights advocates.

Those advocates are strangely silent about the not-so-hidden agenda of the Palestinian Authority and its supporters; the agenda that not only seeks to vilify and shame Israel, but to eventuate in its unfortunate disappearance through absorption in a larger Palestinian state. The same advocates seem somehow never to know, nor to care, that a viciously violent campaign is waged through bombs and murders both attempted and successful. Nor that Palestinian Arabs are taught from a young age to gird themselves for battle.

Let Israel attempt to show the world how it struggles and largely succeeds to accommodate all its population, inclusive of the 20% of its citizens without Jewish heritage, and it is accused of isolating and depriving that 20%. Accusations and calls for boycotts abound around the world, and take place in halls of academia, union halls and now film theatres as well. Initiated by a piqued director whose filmic portrayal of the anguish of gays would find sympathy in Israel and condemnation, imprisonment and sometimes death in Arab states.

The ten films of Israeli provenance selected by the Toronto International Film Festival to highlight the centennial of Tel Aviv through its City-to-City program, are not being condemned in and of themselves, claim those celebrities who have chosen to protest their showing and TIFF's highlighting of Tel Aviv. It is the timing that is off; so soon after the State of Israel protected its people by seeking to bring a halt to the incessant rocket attacks from Gaza.

That old human-rights war horse, Jane Fonda, joined by another social-malaise-mentor of newer vintage, Naomi Klein, merely wish to point out that pluralist, egalitarian, democratic Israel is defined by her true image, that of an Apartheid State, as Jimmy Carter is so fond of pointing out. And, as such, neither the country nor any of its cities, however liberal and lively, can be redeemed by an approving cinematic audience.

But it seems that this anti-Israel, covertly racist agenda has its counterpart in individuals, inclusive of a goodly celebrity-quotient who view Israel and her tribulations otherwise, and who will take the option of vigorously supporting her right to existence as a respected state among authoritarian, dictatorial, theocratic, sheikdoms and kingdoms whose cognizance of human rights are somewhat dim.

Thank heavens for the existence of balance, moderation and creative intelligence.