US politicians are among those reportedly coached on the language to use and narrative to espouse when speaking and debating on Israel’s military attack on the Gaza Strip.
Politicians and well-known figures are being coached on how to influence public opinion in favor of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, according to information revealed by the independent investigative news website, The Grayzone.
In a report dated March 6, the website said it “has obtained slides from a confidential Israel lobby presentation based on data from Republican pollster Frank Luntz.”
These slides “contain talking points for politicians and public figures seeking to justify” Israel’s military action in the besieged enclave.
The Grayzone said it obtained the slides from “a source who was present” during several “private briefings in New York City.”
These meetings or “PR sessions”, as The Grayzone put it, were “convened by the UJA-Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council”, both described as “prominent pro-Israel lobby groups” by the news site. The groups “rely on data” collected by Luntz.
The source told the website that participants were advised that “the presentations and data contained in the slides were strictly confidential.”
Luntz markets himself as “one of the most honored communications professionals in America today,” according to his website, The Grayzone reported.
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Hamas Allegations
The presentations reportedly urged politicians to focus on deploying “the language of war with Hamas.”
This means “painting Hamas as a ‘brutal and savage…organization of hate’ which has ‘raped women’”, the report said, with Israel, on the other hand, engaged in “a war for humanity.”
Luntz’s presentation also reportedly advised that participants “Avoid talking about borders in terms of pre- or -post-1967.” This is “because it only serves to remind Americans of Israel’s military history. Particularly on the left, this does you harm.”
The Grayzone further reported that in one focus group, participants were asked to state which alleged act carried out by Hamas on October 7 “bothers you more.”
The list included statements such as Hamas “Raped Civilians; Massacred Civilians; Bound and burned civilians; Slaughtered civilians, and Brutalized civilians.”
A majority 31 percent said they were most upset by the claim that Hamas “raped civilians”, while 28 percent were upset about Hamas allegedly having “massacred civilians,” The Grayzone reported.
The slides also reportedly advised that “Israel’s best response is the brainwashed children of Hamas spewing hatred towards Jews (even more than condemning Israelis) with words they don’t know the meaning of and can’t even pronounce.”
Sanitized Terms vs. Maximalist Violence
Luntz also recommended the avoidance of “exterminationist language favored by Israeli officials who have called, for example, to ‘erase’ the population of Gaza,” the report continued, but rather to push for “an efficient, effective approach” to eliminating Hamas.
Republican voters, The Grayzone report said, “prefer phrases which imply maximalist violence, like ‘eradicate’ and ‘obliterate,’ while sanitized terms like ‘neutralize’ appeal more to Democrats.”
And this link to where Trump’s statement is mentioned
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Similar focus-grouped rhetoric has been heard from Republican presidential candidates like Nikki Haley and Donald Trump who have used terms such as “finish them” and “finish the problem” in Gaza, the report stated.
Pro-Israel politicians, according to Luntz’s research, should avoid references to “Israel” and instead discuss “Israelis” when “setting the context” for a debate over the war in Gaza, the news website added.
According to the pollster, “The most potent” tactic in mobilizing opposition to Israel’s assault on Gaza, “is the visual destruction of Gaza and the human toll.”
‘Looks Like a Genocide’
One of the slides used in the presentation “inadvertently acknowledges the cruelty of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, displaying a bombed out apartment building with clearly anguished women and children fleeing in the foreground,” said The Grayzone.
Luntz however, the report said, told his participants, “It ‘looks like a genocide’ even though the damage has nothing to do with the definition.”
According to The Grayzone, Luntz previously “moonlighted as a consultant for the Israel lobby.” He “produced a ‘Global Language Dictionary’ for the now-defunct Israel Project in the aftermath of the brutal 2008-09 attack on Gaza known as Operation Cast Lead.”
He counselled “leaders who are on the front lines of fighting the media war for Israel” to steer clear of debates related to the illegal occupation of Palestine, the report said.
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Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 30,960 Palestinians have been killed, and 72,524 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’
(The Palestine Chronicle)
I suggest one way of cfountering that would be to call attention to Israel’s shameful neglect of the “40 Beheaded Babies”, who may suffer from a pre-existing condition of not existing in the first place, but who can surely grow up to become Headless Horsemen a la the American identity of that character, if not neglected in the future …