Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
One major challenge is that Zionists benefit from abusing Palestinians and exerting influence in western governments, and they also benefit from people opposing these things — because it can be used to feed their victim-LARPing “antisemitism” narrative.
This dynamic allows Israel to go all-out in committing mass atrocities and apartheid abuses while Zionist oligarchs like Miriam Adelson openly purchase western governments without having to worry about the damage it does to their public image, because any response to the damage it does to their public image can be reframed as “antisemitism” and used to advance their interests even further by stomping out civil rights.
People demonstrate against Israel’s genocidal atrocities? That’s antisemitism — those protesters need to be silenced, arrested, and deported. People object to blatant Zionist influence in their governments? Antisemitic conspiracy theories; we need more hate speech laws and internet censorship. Palestinians take up armed resistance against their oppressors? Israel is the victim of unprovoked attacks from Jew-hating Arabs.
Even real anti-Jewish prejudice benefits the Zionists, because it strengthens the narrative about an urgent crisis of antisemitism which must be crushed by any amount of force necessary, as well as the narrative that Jews need a nation of their own where they can feel safe. So Israel can openly mass murder children while Israeli officials make overt statements of genocidal intent, and if someone blames all Jews for this because they see a state committing atrocities under the banner of the Star of David while claiming to represent all Jews, it only benefits Israel and its supporters.
(As an aside, this is why it’s so important not to blame this on “the Jews”. It’s not just that it’s inaccurate — not all Jews are Zionists, the majority of Zionists are non-Jews, and some of the most effective anti-Zionists in the world happen to be Jewish — it’s that you’re doing exactly what the Zionists and the empire propagandists want you to do. You’re doing their job for them. Don’t be a pro bono Israel propagandist. Make them work for that shit.)
Zionism therefore benefits from abuse and influence, and also benefits from any backlash against its abuse and influence. It is able to do this because Israel is backed by the propaganda machine of the western empire — the most powerful weapon of mass psychological influence ever devised. If the western political-media class were not constantly running cover for Israel’s crimes and helping Zionism spin all opposition to Israel as antisemitism, Israel would not be able to pull off this freakish cognitive straddle where it is simultaneously both the aggressor and the victim at all times.
And this is why it’s so important to fight against the western empire’s propaganda about Israel. Israel’s reliance on the imperial propaganda machine is the only weak point in this otherwise unassailable dynamic where any backlash against Israel’s abuses is harnessed and turned into a weapon to defend Israel. Propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you, so the only way to keep people from buying into the victim-LARPing of the Zionists is to open people’s eyes to the truth.
Once enough people see with sufficient clarity the lies and manipulations which go into protecting the interests of this genocidal apartheid state, Israel loses one of its most powerful weapons, because nobody’s going to buy into the narrative framework wherein Israel and its supporters try to frame themselves as the victims of the opposition to their abuses.
You fight against the propaganda by spreading truth and understanding about this dynamic in whatever way you can. Talk to people. Share useful information. Attend demonstrations. Distribute literature. Tweet, blog, make videos, make zines, make street art; whatever tools you have at your disposal to help people understand what’s really going on with Israel and the western empire.
All positive changes in human behavior are always preceded by an expansion of consciousness. Consciousness and dysfunction cannot coexist. All we need to do to bring health to this world is to spread awareness of the truth, so that the dysfunction which can only survive in darkness is unable to sustain itself.
_____________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. If you’d prefer to listen to audio of these articles, you can subscribe to them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or YouTube. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Featured image via Adobe Stock.
