The Grand Deception: Israel's Theft of America's Common Sense

For 74 years, Israel has engineered, managed and marketed false narratives, images and vocabulary to win the ideological war in the United States. Israel has shaped a message that has made the unacceptable--its brutal occupation of Palestine and its people--acceptable to Western audiences. The Zionist state was born and has survived by force and dupery. To manufacture legitimacy, the "only democracy in the Middle East," as it describes itself, has constructed an ambitious state-run public relations industry. Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has relied on propaganda to maintain its hold on Palestine. Zionist tropes about an empty land, agrarian miracles in the desert and reclaiming an historic promised land have become firmly entrenched. Like the criticism received over its bombing of Lebanon, Israel came under fire in the aftermath of "Operation Cast Lead" in December 2008 and January 2009. During the military's massive 22-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip, 1,398 Palestinians and 9 Israelis were killed.