Has the Israeli PR machine hit a brick wall?

While the sounds of heavy artillery and shelling might have receded now that Hamas and Israel have entered a tentative truce, the fate of Palestine as a nation under foreign occupation remains very much at the core of this conundrum. The Palestinian dossier has never been an easy one to crack as too many emotions, narratives and ideologies have come over the years to feed the flames of hate and propaganda.

But regardless of one’s religion, political affiliation or ethnic background remains a reality which no one should ignore – the fate of two people lie in the balance. While undeniably Palestinians have suffered tremendous offenses by the hands of Israel; which enormity and depth should not be belittled or shadowed by the guilt associated with the Holocaust, there is no denying that Israelis have become embedded in the regional population make-up.

But let us go back to Israel’s claims that its people retain an inherent and inalienable right to self-defence against the Palestinian people; which in principle it is crucial to note, lies at the core of Israel’s existential assertion. Since the very inception of the State of Israel, Israel has affirmed its right to be on the notion that it is.

Moreover, Israel has defined itself as a sovereign entity based on the negation of Palestine. This, one might argue has actually fed Israel’s paranoiac perception of Palestinians as a threat. Israel’s axis has been built around the idea that it stands in the middle of a furnace and thus would have to defend itself violently against all foes. A country eternally at war, Israel does not know how to live in peace. And since its identity was moulded by war and in war, Israel simply cannot imagine that Palestine could ever be without the subsequent negation of its own “Jewish” state. This is the problem with Zionism; its ideology is by definition all exclusive, it leaves no room for peaceful coexistence.

Since 1948 Israel has exerted tremendous efforts toward its PR machine, having understood only too well that should the world wake up to the enormity of its plan – the carving of Greater Israel at the heart of Arabia – its ambitions would never come to pass.

But as decades have gone by and Israel’s impudence and contempt before international law have begun to catch up with its officials, slowly denting the once ever-slick Zionist PR apparatus, the realities of a life under Israel’s flag have daunted on the world.

Having committed one too many atrocities, Israel’s narrative is fast losing its righteous gloss. After all, could there ever be a justification for the conscious targeting of children by IDF troops; or the kidnapping of children for that matter?

Palestine was never a state

Palestine was never a state, or so Israel has said since 1948. If Israel was ever to be and more importantly if Israel was ever to last, Israel would have to find a way to legitimize its existence by rooting its creation deep into international law.

As noted by Aasim Zafar Khan in a report published earlier this month in the International News, “David Ben Gurion, the executive head of the World Zionist Organization and the founder/first prime minister of Israel, understood that if the Jews were ever going to get their own state, they needed international legitimacy and support.”

Running short of ammunitions to justify its disproportionate and let’s remember, unilateral declaration of war on Gaza, Israel has reverted to its negationist narrative by arguing that since there was never such a thing as a Palestinian state, the world should not fret over Palestinians’ rights and instead support Israel’s push for complete control over Gaza and the West Bank.

Only this April, Naftali Bennett, Israel Economics Minister and Jewish Home party leader stressed in response to accusation Tel Aviv had sabotaged peace talks with the Palestinian coalition government, “There has never been ‘Palestinian state’ – that’s one of the big lies that they’ve managed to press forward. The reality is that it’s been the Jewish land for 3,000 years, it’s still our land.”

Responding to his interviewer’s claim that “there has been Palestinian life in Jerusalem for thousands of years,” he retorted: “You’re talking about a Palestinian presence? Has there ever been a Palestinian state? Show me what its flag was, show me what its anthem was, show me who its leader is – show me anything that mentions the word ‘Palestinians’ more than 65 or 80 years ago.”

Bennett’s comments summarize the core of Israel’s ideology – Palestine does not exist as a legitimate entity, its people are not a real people and therefore there can never be such a thing as ethnic cleansing, only the re-appropriation of what has always been Israel’s land.

But such rhetoric has lost its echo over the past weeks, its logic drowned in the blood of Palestinians women and children. Israel’s claims, its excuses, its justifications of the unjustifiable, the intolerable and unbearable can no longer fly in the face of reality.

Israel’s PR machine has hit a brick wall.

The jack is out of the box

As Israeli officials busy themselves with rationalizing their attack on Gaza civilian population, laying bare the extent of Israel’s manipulation playbook, its PR techniques and rationale, the world has eventually caught up with what Israel truly is about and what it stands for – for the sake of achieving its hegemonic ambitions Israel is willing to disappear Palestine from the face of earth and deny its people ever existed, all the while arguing such acts are legitimate and moral.

If Israel has been able to dodge allegations of war crimes and human rights violations before, the death of over 1,000 civilians, among which hundreds of children have put a spanner in the works; that and the explosion of racist tirades by Israeli officials. Let’s just say that when officials argue that a final solution on Palestine is necessary and moral one has lost the argument.

In June of this year, weeks before PM Benyamin Netanyahu actually decided to strike Gaza, feigning to seek revenge for the kidnapping and subsequent death of three youth in the West Bank, Moshe Feiglin, the Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, and an elected lawmaker representing the Likud Party of Prime Minister Netanyahu used an Op Ed in the Israel National News to call for the “elimination” of Gaza as a final solution to the “Palestinian Problem.”

Feiglin actually mapped out a clear and detailed plan to secure the destruction of Palestine and elimination of all Palestinians.

Feiglin’s calls for ethnic cleansing were soon echoed by fellow MP Ayelet Shaked and later on the Times of Israel when it published an article written by Yochanan Gordan rationalizing Israel’s right to genocide against the Palestinian people.

When Israel’s Prime Minister declares that there will never be a state of Palestine as long as Israel stands, it would be fair to say that whatever appearances of restraint and measure the self-styled Jewish state ever attempted to convey has long been dispelled by the depth of its own morbid ambitions.

Israel can no longer claim to be anything else but a terror state.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.