Sexy Soldiers: Israel's Underhanded PR Campaign

The United States has a very strong political and military connection to Israel.  This much is indisputable.  We have supported Israel since its inception as a nation, and they are amongst our very closest allies.  That there are strong emotional and fiscal ties as well is a controversial statement only in scope.  The conspiratorially-minded might believe there is a large Jewish network of billionaires and businessmen whose influence on American politics is unrivaled by any other lobbyist group.  They are probably right.  However, alarmist theories are unlikely to encourage accuracy and will only bring on accusation of antisemitism from a deeply entrenched and well-support lobby.

I find the US political ties to Israel historically comprehensible and, from a national security standpoint, logical.  What disturbs me is the level of willful ignorance that is perpetrated in US foreign policy circles about Israel's ongoing abuse of Palestinians, and its very manipulative and successful brainwashing of both American and Israeli youth towards the Palestinian population.  Israel's behavior in this regard strongly belies their sincerity about achieving peace with Palestine, as well as their commitment towards generally accepted principles of human rights.

The following article examines the purpose and effects of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program, which takes American youth of Jewish heritage on a 10-day, all-expenses paid, excursion to Israel to learn about their birthright.  The program has so far had 340,000 participants, at an average cost per capita of $3000.  Ostensibly, this trip is a way for post-diaspora teens to meet and learn about their Jewish Israeli counterparts.  The achieved effect of the program is to creative pro-Israel youth who will support future pro-Israel foreign policy in the US.  Essentially, it is a very clever PR strategy.  A bit underhanded, but ultimately not totally objectionable.  The problem arises with the way the program is organized.  First, the participants are escorted by the Israeli military (made up of average people, as all Israeli citizens perform a stint in the military usually in their late teens or early twenties).  The escorts live and sleep in close contact with the American teens, and the predictable result is often romance or sexual relationships.  Such relationships are encouraged.  Second, the entire trip is more-or-less one big party.  The Americans are encouraged to have a great time.  Dancing is the advertised highlight.  Third, the word 'Palestinian' is used interchangeably with terrorist, and 'Arabs' are described as the 'people from Saudi Arabia.'  Fourth, the founders and donors of the program have expressed the understanding that Palestinians didn't exist 'forty-two years ago,' thereby trivializing the continuing brutalities against Palestinian people.  If they don't exist, how can their rights be violated?  The result of the program is that the Israeli military seems sympathetic and sexy; Palestinians are an ethnic group of questionable existence whose only real actions are terrorist; and Israel is just a fun-loving society.

This is not to say that the expressed purpose of the Birthright program would not be admirable.  The problem is that the effective (and encouraged) result is the propogation of mistaken and biased views towards some very widely condemned behaviors.  I'm not sure the author's description of Israel's actions towards Palestinians as 'ethnic cleansing' is entirely accurate, but it certainly approaches the truth.  Evidence of extremely condemnable behavior towards Ethiopian Jews subjected to involuntary long-term birth control does not detract from her argument.  Neither does evidence of wide-spread Anti-Arab sentiment among the Israeli population; intense hatred towards Palestinians by the Israeli youth; and lack of internal support for a 2-state solution.  Most recently, there was a hubbub over a published photograph of an Israeli sniper's crosshairs fixed on a Palestinian child's head.  Internally, Israel does not support peace with Palestine, and there is strong ethnic-based hatred towards Palestinians which does approach attitudes associated with ethnic cleansing.  But, as I said it my previous post "Israel - Gaza - Palestine," what did we expect when we created a nation with the express purpose of creating a purely Jewish ethnic state?  Apparently, there is no room for tolerance.

Note: Original article is no longer available.  Another critique here.