Frontpage Magazine has a disturbing expose on American funding of the Palestine Academic Society For the Study of Academic Affairs (PASSIA) — the PLO lobby group in Jerusalem “which trains PLO media professionals in the art of transforming the image of the Arab-Israeli struggle into an Arab David against an Israeli Goliath.” According to this report, American taxpayers are actually bankrolling the ongoing, organized Palestinian campaign to lobby Congress and influence the Western media.
PASSIA produced a booklet to educate Palestinian activists how to effectively manipulate the media. It includes this suggestion:
In order to influence the general policy in one way or another, all [Palestinian organizations] should know how to influence the media. The best known way to do this is to come up with a hidden agenda, and deciding on the most suitable time to release information to the media in order to direct the media towards a predetermined slogan, a defined demand. The best method for exerting pressure, is to transform a problem into a public opinion issue, using the media.
Another portion of the booklet (funded by U.S. taxpayers) transcribes a PASSIA seminar that featured speakers Eric Weiner of National Public Radio and Lyse Doucete of the BBC:
Readers are first told by Weiner that, “being balanced, according to their mandate, can be frustrating” and urges the audience/reader “to present your stories on a human level and not rely on the facts.” Present tear-jerkers in which Israelis “have to justify their [Palestinians] existence, which makes it easier to get through to us.”
Ms. Doucete, who refers to homicide bombers as “honor” killers, believes “her job is to translate” rather than simply report the news, because “Israel is led by a Prime Minister who believes that it is not Israel’s policy that is wrong, just that they have to explain it better.” And so she admonishes the Palestinians, “if you want to beat the Israelis, you have to beat them at their own game.” Thereupon follows eight pages of clear instruction on how the Palestinians can manipulate the press to their own advantage. Weiner again: “The fact that you have 1,000,000 pounds from the British government is not particularly interesting. But, if you explain why it is going to make such a difference by saying, ‘Did you know that since the closure was imposed we haven’t been able to get paper through to Bethlehem?’ . . . we are far more likely to be interested.”
Read the whole article here.
This is certainly a matter that requires follow-up in Washington. Could it be that while American foreign policy demands the uprooting of Palestinian terror, another federal body is funding the campaign to whitewash that terror via the media — while demonizing Israel?
Read the article, then express your concerns to your Congressional representative. To find contact info for your representative in the House click here and for a list of Senators click here.
