WEBVTT - Hasbara, Pt. 1 with Matt Lieb 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:02.920 Also media. 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:09.320 Hey everyone, this is it could happen here and I'm 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.240 your guest host, Matt Leeb. I'd say most of you 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:16.160 probably know me from Robert and Sophie's podcast Behind the Bastards, 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.919 which you know I've become kind of notorious for the 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.000 time that I use a jar jar beank soundboard during 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.960 a series about doctor Mangela. Yeah, I don't have that 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.000 soundboard with me today. Sorry. Fewer of you might know 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.440 me from having the world's only sopranos Slash the Wire 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.239 Rewatch podcast pod Yourself a Gun, But the fewest of 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:40.520 you might know me from my brand new podcast, Bad Hasbara, 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.239 the World's most moral podcast, in which me and some 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.839 of my other anti Zionist or non Zionist Jewish friends 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.240 and our other friends and our other guests guests who 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.200 you know you've maybe heard, like Charene here, we have 0:00:55.440 --> 0:01:01.720 casual conversations about Israeli propaganda and Israeli propagandists. For some 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.560 of you, this might be your first time hearing the 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.640 word has bara, and that's why the homies at cool 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.640 Zone Media invited me here today. So this episode is 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:18.520 all about has barah aka Israel's public relations and propaganda machine, 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.800 and I am thrilled to be joined by my friend 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:27.000 and one time cat sitter, Charine Uness. Hi Scherene, Hi, Matt. 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.320 What an intro? Yeah, I'm excited to learn more about 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:34.000 this actually also excited to know how you properly say 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.240 has bara because I don't know to say. 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:44.319 It right ba lah Yeah it's Barra. Yeah, that's I mean, yeah, 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:48.240 the law you know, with the with the throat has 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:50.680 ba raw. 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:52.880 You heard it here first. 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.160 Yes, you heard it here first. I'm not I'm not 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.320 the greatest at doing you know, Israeli accents or whatnot. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.440 So throughout this podcast, I'm probably gonna be butchering a 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.680 lot of Hebrew words. Uh and you know, just you're 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:08.760 just gonna have to deal with it. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.799 Yeah, and that's totally fine. That's just part of the game. 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.440 I've just pronounced every name I've ever said on this. 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.400 Show, so yeah, yeah, I mean you should hear me 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:23.040 trying to pronounce Arabic names like I can't do it. 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.079 I mean I attempt, Yes, that would. If there's any 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.200 that happened in this episode, please but before we get 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.680 into talking about has blah blah, I want to start 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:40.359 with a quick story, Saren, Are you familiar with the 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:41.880 Birthright Trip? 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:43.560 Yes, i am. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.600 It was one of those things where I was very 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.360 excited to one day do the Birthright Trip, and I 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.840 didn't really even question. I knew, like, you know, it 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.200 was a little bit, you know, they were trying to 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.880 whine and dine me to go there and you know, 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:03.080 maybe move or what not. But I didn't know how 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.360 much they wanted me to move there until I went. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.920 So for me, my Birthright trip is kind of why 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:15.000 I'm here today talking about Hasbara. It's why I started 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.280 a freaking podcast about it. It's when I first started 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:26.000 clocking Israeli propaganda. So I went in January twenty twelve. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.320 If you don't know Birthright, it's pretty much a two week, 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.320 all expenses paid trip for young Jews from all over 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.880 the world to go to the Holy Land, reconnect with 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.720 their Jewish roots, float in the dead seat. It is. 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:45.520 It is a propaganda tour of apartheid state. And you know, 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:47.640 I'm not going to get too much into the history 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.080 of Birthright, you know and all the like far right 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.360 wing funders like Sheldon Adelson and stuff. There's like not 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:55.880 enough time for that. But I'm mentioning it because it 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.920 was the first time I saw how hasbara was more 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.160 than just propaganda and how in my opinion, it more 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:10.160 closely resembles like indoctrination, and the organizers at Birthright did 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.680 like a masterful job of this. Like I went on 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.240 a trip of American Jews who were like me, like 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:20.320 they were like secular from mixed or like intermarried families, 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.719 non bar mitzvah. It was all like other matt Leab 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.800 type Jews, like ethnic Jews, right, And I realized this. 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.920 I think it was like day two of the trip. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.400 One of the Israeli tour guides literally gave us a 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.000 bar mitzvah like all at the same time we had 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.800 a group bar mitzvah yeah, And they did it by 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:48.159 saying like, okay, well now bar mitzvod. It just means 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.760 you're a man. Now, everyone here is a man. Now 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:55.440 choose an Israeli name, and which was like for me, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.240 I remember feeling a little, you know, I was like, wait, 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:05.800 there's supposed to be a theme party and fucking like, 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.760 yah's supposed to yeah, DJ, my dad's gonna buy me 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:10.960 a car, or at least me a like a Honda 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.720 like I thought it was more than that. At the 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:15.800 very least, I thought I would have to like memorize 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:17.520 a tour a portion, but no, you just go to 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.479 Israel and you know a tour Guiy does it for you, 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.480 so like it really works though, like you really you 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.400 you go there being like you know, I'm European Jew, 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.720 and you leave there and you're like, I invented falafel. 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:37.120 So the Hasbara highlight of the trip for me was 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.800 this like mega like birthright mega event. It was in 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.760 Jerusalem and a huge arena in which they had like 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:50.880 Israeli speakers, donors, rappers, and there was like a there 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.240 were rappers at one point who just started rapping about 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:59.720 things that they claim Israel invented, like iPhone, computer chips 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:04.640 and like the cherry tomato, which was you know like 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.880 and by the way, a not insubstantial amount of the 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.560 trip was spent telling us about how Israel invented the 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:17.480 cherry tomato. Like we went to places like you know, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.920 farms and stuff where they showed us this like drip irrigation. 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.080 Multiple people were just like, man, we invented the cherry tomato. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.520 Here can you believe it? And I was like this 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.920 seems like a lot of effort for just this one 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:38.839 particular thing, which may or may not be true. But yeah, 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:43.600 So the headliner of the mega event of that night, 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.680 the cherry tomato on top, if you will, was a 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:55.160 speech by none other than Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu. 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.880 Straight up, the Prime Minister of Israel was the headline 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.960 speaker of this birthright event and an arena filled with 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:09.440 like twenty thousand teens and like early twenty somethings, which 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:16.080 was kind of like amazing, Like, you know, listen, here's 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.440 the thing I knew. Benjamin netnya who I like, I 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:22.160 knew enough about Israeli politics to know that, like he 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:27.320 was a fucking right winger and bad. But like I 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.160 have to admit, even I, you know, as a twenty 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.360 six year old who kind of was starting to get 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.280 like woke on Palestine, you know, so to speak, like 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.120 even I was like kind of like, whoa this is. 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.440 I'm a little charmed, a little honored to see the 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.280 Prime minister here. He took time out of his busy 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:48.960 schedule of doing crimes, probably to address us. And you know, 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:53.480 I actually found the speech of that night. I actually 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.080 have some clips from it that I want to play. 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.000 That is incredible, that's great. 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.880 So yeah, he he was like casual, he was off 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.160 the cuff. They wrote a speech for me. 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:06.160 I'm not going to read it. 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.440 Like he even did a little bit of crowd work. 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:15.720 Anyone here named Rachel. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.360 So that right there is what we in the Jewish 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:26.000 community call Rachel profiling. That's when you just start in 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.320 front of a group of Jews and you ask whose 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.200 name to Rachel. Shout out to Rachel Blumenthal for telling 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.080 me that joke. In college. It was. It was like 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.880 a crash course in Hesbara. Like he told us we 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:39.240 were from Israel. 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:44.600 At one point, you all come from great countries, great countries. 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:46.720 Did you all come from here? 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:49.360 All of you? 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:51.480 That's your birthright. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.439 He was telling us that, like you know, once again, 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.319 it was everything they invented phone, you know, the cell phone, ships, 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.920 blah blah blah. He was telling us to make aliat 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.560 to Israel, which means to you know, move to return, 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.600 to come back. You know. Essentially what he was vying 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.240 for was like move to Israel and start a family. 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.600 It's very like sex based, like the way it works. 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.679 The big thing I took away was him telling us 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.800 that he wanted us to go back home and tell 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.600 people the truth about Israel. 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.360 But the most important battle that we have to fight 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.120 is the battle for the truth. And all of you 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.560 can become ambassadors for the truth and ambassadors for Israel. 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.400 And of course, you know, he then proceeded to tell 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:42.920 us what the truth about Israel was. 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:48.880 Go back your respective countries and tell the truth about Israel. 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.440 The only way to fight a live to tell the truth. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:56.200 Tell him about a country where people are free, free 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.439 to initiate, free to work, free to speak, the country 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.680 where you can criticize the Prime Minister although he never 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:06.880 makes mistakes. This is a country which has in which 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:11.120 Arabs have full right something they've been denied in all 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.960 the vast lands around us. And a woman in this 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:20.400 country can sit anywhere she wants. That's our position. This 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:21.520 is a free country. 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:27.720 So him going up there telling me that what he 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.240 wants from me is to go back home and be 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.120 an ambassador for Israel and tell the truth about Israel. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.200 You know, it was the first time I realized that 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.839 he was giving me a job to do. And this 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.720 is a job that I think a lot of Jewish 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.960 people who may be listening to this podcast can relate 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:50.480 to the job of telling the truth about Israel and 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:55.200 the job of you know, stopping the slander that is 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.800 out there about Israel in the media and on the internet, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.480 press and all that stuff. And it was the first 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.640 time I realized that, like, oh, part of the hasbara 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.720 isn't just you know, some government thing. It's like, my job, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.480 My job is to is to tell the truth. And 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.880 he said something in that clip, the only way to 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.480 fight allies with the truth. And so I am going 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.000 to follow his advice. That's what I'm going to do, Shreen. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.960 I'm going to tell people the truth about Israel. And 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.679 I think I think it's time to do it. So 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:45.920 let's get into it. Let's talk about the truth. Let's 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:50.280 get into talking about hasbara. What is it? What is it? 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:55.120 And so loosely, hasbara is it's a modern Hebrew word 0:11:55.200 --> 0:12:03.800 derived from the word lasbier hasbier meaning to explain or explanation. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.760 I say loosely because it's kind of a made up word. 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.360 So you know, a lot of words in modern Hebrew 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:12.760 are sort of made up words. Remember, Hebrew is like 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.360 an ancient liturgical language, and modern Hebrew was created by 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.760 like Jewish linguist nerds who wanted to revive the language 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.160 to be a spoken one, and that's how you got 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.200 modern Hebrew, which is fine, there's nothing wrong with the 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:30.040 reviving a dead language. But because of that, a lot 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.920 of the words in modern Hebrew are kind of inventions. So, 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:41.000 according to Mosaic Magazine, has bara is strictly a twentieth centuryism. 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.439 You won't find it in Eliezer benu Huda's a monumental 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:49.000 complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew, whose second volume, 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.840 in which hasbara appears only as the first word of 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:57.640 hasbarat Panim, was published in nineteen oh two. So it's 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:00.120 not something that you see in kind of like the 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.480 original beginnings of, you know, the creation of modern Hebrew. 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:11.000 Like colloquially, his bara like refers to like media pr branding, 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.080 mud slinging. It's kind of a like a sort of 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.000 like catch all term for general propaganda used to create 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.640 a narrative based on Israeli government talking points meant for 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:26.160 a foreign, usually American or just generally Western audience. People 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.520 who deal in hasbara are called has barists or has baristas, 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:31.280 which is fun. 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:32.920 That's that's true. 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.280 Yeah, yeah, I mean listen, has Barista, I think gives 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.520 a gives it a little bit more flair, you know, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.760 kind of imagine someone kind of like making you coffee, 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:44.839 but instead of coffee, it's they make you lies. 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:47.760 So nope, I'm not gonna do that. 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:55.240 Sorry, I like it. I wish I never was born. Well, 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.000 so there's all sorts of like has bars like. Some 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:02.200 of them have like a official positions within the Israeli government, 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.920 such as the head of the IDF Spokesperson's unit, Daniel Hagari, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.520 who you might remember is the guy from that video 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.960 taken at the you know, the children's hospital, you know, 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.720 in Gaza, and he's like pointing at what he thought 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.240 was a list of his Israeli hostages, but was like 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.760 literally just a calendar, didn't have any names. It was 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.120 just he was pointing at days of the week thinking 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.400 they were names because that's what a calendar has. And 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.680 also it's so fucking weird that they can't read Arabic, like, yeah, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.240 you're in the Middle East, you are the spokesperson. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.360 I think something interesting about how Hebrew was revived as 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.720 well is that a lot of words were taken from Arabic, 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.120 a lot of words are very similar to Arabic, so 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.960 it's like even more funny that they were they can't 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.320 even read the language that they kind of took a 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:53.880 lot of words from. 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.280 But I'm saying that, like yeah, in Israel, it's almost 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.760 like the appropriation was just part of the process of 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.560 the cleansing, you know, just like stealing something, saying it's 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.480 ours and then not even being able to identify an 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:13.280 Arabic word that you yourself say. So, yeah, so there's him. 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.400 Then there's like everyone if you've been on Twitter, you've 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.600 seen a lot of Alon Levy who he's His official 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:25.240 title is the official Israeli government spokesperson, and that's through 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.560 the basically the office of the Prime Minister. He's a 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.000 British guy. Like he raises his eyebrows. It's like the meme, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:37.240 you know, like he goes like, oh, that's what he's 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.760 famous for. Then there's a lot of these like non 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:45.800 governmental like Israeli Civil Society haspara organizations like Stand with 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:50.560 Us or like a PAK, the Washington Institute for Near 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.960 East Policy, the Anti Defamation League, Christians United for Israel, 0:15:55.120 --> 0:16:00.640 the Israel on Campus Coalition. I mean, they're of them 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.600 tons of them. And then of course there's people who 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:05.040 are just in it for the love of the game, 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:09.480 like celebrities, artists, you know, actors, you know, who make 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.920 like Israel public advocacy part of their thing. It's a 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:17.720 fascinating world filled with ghouls and goblins. So the word 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:23.120 his bara itself interestingly is hesbara. So early Zionists had 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.280 no problem calling their pr campaigns and like their branding 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.960 for a Jewish state and Palestine, propaganda. They would say 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.240 it's we got to do propaganda, because in the early 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.960 twentieth twentieth century, the term was generally considered to be neutral, 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.640 like people said they were doing propaganda when they were 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:45.120 doing propaganda. Once the word became a pejorative, they created 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.240 the word has bara, which is a nicer sounding word 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.280 with more neutral connotations. And although it's now used as 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.280 a pejorative by critics of Israel and me and stuff, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.440 the word is still used to this day in Israel. 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.440 It is still a fairly neutral word. There are has 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:06.480 Borrow workshops sponsored by Israel. They have has Barrow Fellowships. 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.680 That's the name of the fellowship. Like you can get 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.600 merch that says has Barrow Fellowship on it. And the 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.000 reason is because it doesn't translate. The word isn't translate 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.840 to propaganda. It just means to explain, which is, you know, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.639 seems innocent enough. It's not about doing propaganda. It's not 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.960 about They don't call themselves liars. They're not saying I'm 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.800 going to lie. They say they're merely just explaining. And 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:36.720 I found this speech from the Middle East Policy Council 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:41.760 that goes into depth about what has Barro is beyond. 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:48.040 Just like propaganda. Quote has Barrow links information warfare to 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.639 the strategic efforts of the state to bolster the unity 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.080 of the home front, ensure the support of allies, disrupt 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.080 efforts to organize hostile coalitions, determine the way issues are 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.800 defined by the media, the intelligentsia, the social networks, established 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.880 parameters of politically correct discourse, de legitimize both critics and 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.439 their arguments, and shape the common understanding and interpretation of 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:18.560 the results of international negotiations. So behind this term is 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:24.920 a large, well funded information warfare apparatus dedicated to shaping 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.960 you know, Israeli discourse in the media and the government 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:33.080 and academic institutions everywhere. And they use all of the 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.040 tools in their toolbox to silence criticism of Israel, and 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:42.879 what they can't silence, they soften. Sometimes it's through coordinated 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:48.000 letter writing campaigns. Sometimes it's harassment. Sometimes it's doxing. You know, 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.240 people have been doxed. So before I continue, I want 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.040 to address that uncomfortable feeling you had when I talked 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:57.120 about like Israel and the media. I want to say 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.919 that is that is not to say that Israel or 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.920 the Israel lobby or Zionists quote control the media, all right, 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:09.840 So they do not. That's why Hasbara exists, you know, 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.359 That's why the Israel Lobby exists. If they controlled the media, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.440 they wouldn't have groups like Camera, for example, constantly day 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.479 in and day out, harassing the New York Times and 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:25.880 CNN and PBS to get them to talk about Israel correctly. Okay, 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.080 So it's important when people hear these criticisms of Israel 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.560 that they don't try to see them as like otherizing 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.959 Israel or like you know, a lot of people they 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:40.840 get uncomfortable because a lot of these things will match 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:45.119 old anti Semitic tropes. But it's important to remember that 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:50.439 these lobbying groups exist in Israel. They exist in the 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.320 gun lobby, in the big oil lobby. This is not 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.959 unique to Israel. The unique thing about it is how 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:02.840 willing the America in public is and the West in 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:08.000 general is to letting themselves be lied to. That's why 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.560 I'm interested in it. But let's talk about Camera real quick, 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.399 because this is a recent thing that happened. Some news 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.640 happened recently about the New York Times and their connection 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:23.240 to CAMERA. This is from a recent article in The Intercept. 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:28.160 The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.560 or CAMERA, was founded in nineteen eighty two in response 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.919 to what it claims was anti Israel bias in the 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.920 Washington Post reporting on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Since 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:43.400 its inception, CAMERA has successfully lobbied for hundreds of corrections 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.919 in major media outlets, seeking to streamline a pro Israel 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.200 line in news reports and editorials at a smere journalists 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.760 whose work it disagrees with, and launched boycott campaigns against 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.840 news organizations it believes are not responding with enough deference 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:02.520 to its requests. So the way this group operates is 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.639 that they go through any and every article about Israel 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:10.000 looking for sentences, looking for terms, definitions, anything they disagree 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.879 with and lobby for corrections to be issued. Camera doesn't 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:18.160 do this quietly. They openly brag about it on their website. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.760 Like recently, Camera successfully lobby The New York Times to 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:26.200 issue a correction removing the word occupation from an article, 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.560 and they wrote this on their website. Quote the mask 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:34.040 slipped for the New York Times reporters kum Hamas stenographers 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:38.919 this week when they absolutely neglected to done down Hamas's 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:43.959 preferred language before passing off the terror organization's talking points 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:48.320 as original reporting. Take notice of the framing of The 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:52.480 New York Times and their mask slipping and their reporters 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:57.760 as being stenographers for Hamas. This is like quite the 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.920 accusation given the The New York Times is like has 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:06.080 and continues to have coverage described as biased in favor 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:10.720 of Israel Like. According to an Intercept analysis, it was 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.320 found that in the first six weeks of the war, 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:19.040 New York Times consistently delegitimized Palestinian deaths and cultivated a 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:24.080 gross imbalance in coverage to pro Israeli sources and voices. 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:28.720 So the exact opposite of what Camera is claiming is 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:32.000 the truth here. You know, this is. This is actually 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:35.720 a famous has Bara tactic. It is the I am rubber, 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:40.320 you are glue tactic, and it's really something to see 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:43.040 it in action, Like I don't know seen if you've 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:49.000 seen how often you've like read some pro Israeli voices, 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.439 you know has Baris online and heard them say stuff 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.480 that you're like, I know for a fact, the exact 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:58.000 opposite of this thing is true. You know what I mean? 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:03.520 Yeah, every every accusation is a confession. It feels like 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:05.639 that is true all the time when it comes to 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.400 the stuff. And also the intercept article is very good. 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:09.920 I'll put it in the description for those woe to 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:11.960 read the whole thing. I'm glad you mentioned that because 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:13.840 I didn't know that much about camera until I read 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:17.479 that article, and I was just like, what, like I 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.240 knew that that was a thing that that was done. 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:22.600 Like they would change words recently. The New York Times 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:25.040 was like a decline of death or life, like they 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.399 use the word decline to describe. 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:30.879 To describe what was happening in Gaza. They decided the 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:35.040 articles headline was going to be like death's actually declining 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:35.359 in the. 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:38.520 Gaza exactly, and like the standard ones are always there, 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:41.840 like blast or conflict or whatever it is. Those are 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:46.320 unfortunately so normal now, But to see it all laid 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:48.879 out by the intercept was really I'm really glad I 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:50.639 did that article so it will be in the description, 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:52.520 and I'm glad you mentioned it. But it does go 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:55.800 back to the idea that every accusation is a confession. 0:23:55.800 --> 0:23:58.000 I think that's something to remember every time you see 0:23:58.200 --> 0:23:59.000 a headline. 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:03.600 It's true, and it's something that you know. It's almost 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:06.359 become a cliche online because you've sa I've seen it 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:10.760 so many times people saying that, and I think it's 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:14.800 important to remember that this is sort of the tactic 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:20.199 of hesbara. Like what makes hesbara particularly notable and like 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:23.200 often hilarious is that it doesn't merely just spin narratives, 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:27.800 but it inverts them to essentially make like an alternate reality. 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:32.800 It's not just that hesbara is information warfare. Hesbara is 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:38.840 straight up info wars like Alex Jones level shit. The 0:24:38.960 --> 0:24:43.879 same way Alex Jones will run the same like fantastical 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:49.239 paranoid thread to every major news event that happens in 0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:52.080 order to reinforce his worldview and prove that he's right 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:55.040 and everyone else is wrong, you know, like that's Israel 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:58.000 does this, but with like far more money and far 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:01.160 greater success, and it kind of makes sense why they're 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:05.719 successful at it. Like Alex Jones info wars shit like 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:09.800 praise on white Christian paranoia that like the Blacks are 0:25:09.840 --> 0:25:11.800 trying to take away our guns so they can make 0:25:11.840 --> 0:25:16.520 our children trans or whatever, like total fantasy in saying 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:19.360 shit that you have to be like already far right 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:23.439 wing to believe. Well, like Israeli info wars praise on 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:28.240