Countering the Israeli propagandistas

…It’s actually quite simple. If it isn’t the “acknowledged” Sovereign Territory of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt or Israel,
then it’s a territory of Palestine…

ShortLink http://wp.me/PDB7k-1d

Propagandists do not care that their twaddle might be refuted. With the internet, once a story is out, it’s out for ever, even if it is retracted, there’ll still be a copy floating around in cyberspace for someone to propagate, either willingly or naively. They depend on folk not checking. Truthfullness and facts are not their business. Propaganda is.

They will concoct purposefully misleading headlines. They’re not propagating their fallacies because they’re honest. They’re trying to justify. Honesty does not come into the equation. They will cheat, they will lie. They will perpetuate fallacies.

They will deny everything, purposefully derail. Skirt around reasonable questions. And no matter what evidence you put before them, they will come back with the same olde bullsh*te time and time again. They will try to infuriate you and make concerted efforts to have you banned from talk boards. They will slur, insult, abuse, bear false witness. They are, without a doubt, some of the most vile, dishonest people on the planet. You cannot take ANYTHING they say at face value.

The best tactic is to simply disprove their nonsense with primary source information. Don’t engage in personal attacks. Don’t abuse. Deal only with the assertions and claims made by the person you are countering. Quote them verbatim and insist they also quote you verbatim. It will infuriate them to the point where they will reveal themselves for what they are. And it ain’t very nice.

Watch out for

Conflation: The Israeli Government and it’s policies, is not ‘Jews’. Israel is not ‘Jews’.
Bigots: Those who purposefully and repeatedly lower case ‘a’rabs, ‘p’alestinians, ‘m’uslims, ‘i’slam, but otherwise upper case all other names. Like wise those who do the same to ‘j’ews, ‘j’udaism, ‘i’srael. Call them on it. It’s not a typo, not a mistake, not a spelling or grammar error, it is bigotry. Purposefully demeaning.

If you are debating something about an IAEA report, use actual IAEA report. Same for HRW, Amnesty

If the Israeli Government said something, it will very likely be here Israeli Government or Knesset or jcpa or Jewish Virtual Library – They are all excellent repositories and cannot be called Antisemitic.

Avalon Law – Yale University a good non-partisan repository for Declarations, UN / UNSC Resolutions and other documents on the Palestine / Israel issue
Also for the Laws of War and Geneva Conventions
International Committee of the Red Cross The Geneva Conventions Explained

Anyone can edit Wiki. If you must use it, follow the Wiki links to primary sources wherever possible. Check when the Wiki entry was last edited. I have watched it change mid-debate and then found those changes reflected in the very debate I had been engaged in.

News Services are all partisan and rife with propaganda, un-named sources and/or the dubious ‘officials said’ and cherry picked details. Although news services are the last place for non-partisan reports, they quite often turn up articles like this

PRIOR to the Israeli dis-engagement of Gaza and the subsequent reports of the people of Gaza destroying the hundreds of greenhouses so ‘generously donated’ by the departing settlers Israeli Settlers Demolish Greenhouses and Gaza Jobs

When someone says there are 200,000 Google hits saying things like “President Mahmoud Armejinedad threatened to wipe Israel off the Map”, ask them how many are repeats of repeats of repeats. He actually only said it ONCE and was quoting a prediction made by the long dead Ayatollah Khomeini. Words to the effect of “Our dear Imam said that ‘the occupying regime in Jerusalem will be wiped off the map (or disappear from the sands of time)’…”

If for example we accept these versions, it doesn’t say A) Iran will do anything towards the regime’s predicted demise B) A ‘regime’ is not Israel, it’s a Government C) Jerusalem is not Israel, it’s where the Government sits. You will find some folk will misconstrue everything and anything to suit their cause.

Request the primary source and corroboration. For example: Who has corroborated the Memri & PMW translations Memri & PMW provide. If the reader cannot read the lingo, how are they or you to know Memri & PMW are accurate?

If someone offers a news report, look for: the author / the actual “quotes” / cherry picking / parenthesis [added by the author] / the actual source (another newspaper?) / the date. Follow links through to the source. Check the about section of sources. Who funds them. Look up WHOIS to find out who and where the site is operated by and from. Scrape every bit of information clean.

Good luck. :-)