Abracadabrah<br><br><i> I create as I speak</i>: School for Propaganda

Sunday, March 19, 2006

School for Propaganda

Writing in FrontPage Magazine, Lee Kaplan reveals the mechanics of the propaganda operation that is the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), when it hosted its fifth annual divestment conference at Georgetown University. He and many members of his organization - Stop the ISM - had to attend in disguise in order to gain admittance - otherwise they would not have been granted entry.

It is largely due to Kaplan's work that Israel now treats the ISM, not as a "fringe “leftist” group of starry-eyed “peace activists” [but as] what it really is: an arm of the PLO allied and supported by U.S. anarchists and communists bent on Israel’s destruction."

Not incidentally, Georgetown University was recently, and rather notoriously, the recipient of a $20 million dollar grant from Alwaleed Bin Talal, the Saudi philanthropist to whom Rudy Giuliani handed back a $10 million check after 9/11. Bin Talal also helped fund the families of ~~martyrs~~ suicide bombers during the last Intifada.

Here's a look at how a command of the facts disables the propagandists, as Lee Kaplan converses with a co-founder of the ISM, Huwaida Arraf:

I had just settled into a seat in the first row when I was approached by Mrs. Adam Shapiro, a co-founder of the ISM herself, Huwaida Arraf.

Huwaida greeted me: “Mr. Kaplan, I understand you think I’m a terrorist.” I replied, “No, Huwaida, I never said you were a terrorist in my articles, just a terrorist supporter and enabler.”

Huwaida knew that I had a tape recording of her saying at the previous Duke Conference that the ISM works willingly in cooperation with terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the PFLP. She confirmed this when she wrote a letter to the Washington Post just days earlier that was subsequently printed in which she admitted again working with such groups, but claiming that because she considers herself nonviolent that it is ok to do so.

She can say anything she wants about being nonviolent, but she and her followers in the ISM have confirmed they function as human shields for Palestinians who engage in terrorism. The Patriot Act is clear about not lending logistical or any other type of aid to any terrorist group. That’s enough to get her indicted if only Homeland Security would do its job. She repeated in front of me again that she works with these terrorist groups “nonviolently,” then complained that as a “Palestinian” with Israeli citizenship through her father she could not “go back to the village she came from.”

“But, Huwaida,” I replied. “You were born in the United States. Besides, Arab-Israelis have equal civil rights by law in Israel and you know it.” Stunned at my reply showing I knew her real history, she said, “As an Arab I am discriminated against whenever I go to Israel.” I replied, “Huwaida you go in and out of Israel constantly for the ISM urging the end of Israel, so your claims of discrimination are just not true.” Suddenly, she had to dash away.