Simon Plosker
With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020.
Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias.
Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.
The MidEast PR Machine: From Assad to the Palestinians
Reading time: 5 minutes
However, before writing off Iran as a rank amateur in the field of propagandist sophistry, it is worth noting that the regime has found a way of getting its message across in a far more subtle manner. Iranian funded Press TV, recently removed from the UK’s airwaves, tries to sell itself as a credible media outlet, all the while manipulating the viewer to see the world and Israel through the distorted lens of Iranian anti-Western doctrine.
Recent events in the Arab world, in Egypt, Libya and Syria, have rightly led the Western media to actively question the statements coming from the regimes in charge. Why then is there a moral blind spot when it comes to Israel?
Is Israel really equally capable as the Syrian regime of shelling a hospital or indiscriminately bombing civilians? The propagandists say yes, but sober analysis proves beyond doubt that that is false.
Why are official Israeli statements treated in the same way as the wholly untrustworthy statements of its corrupt Arab neighbors? And why do Palestinian spokespeople get a free pass with the media when it comes to making dubious and sometimes outrageous claims against Israel?
Or is it just that Israel’s enemies understand the audience better than we do?
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Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com, flickr/laverrue, flickr/FreedomHouse.
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