Spellbinders: The Art of Zionist and US Propaganda By Paul J. Balles

Spellbinders: The Art of Zionist and US Propaganda

By Paul J. Balles

Al-Jazeerah, January 2, 2007

Paul J. Balles considers the three main strengths of Zionist and American propaganda: simplicity, repetitiveness and the ignorance of its target audience.

I've looked at life from both sides now

From win and lose and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall

I really don't know life at all. - Joni Mitchell

Hypnotists, magicians, politicians, sloganeers and propagandists succeed or fail depending on how well they enchant people with illusions.

"The Israelis made their desert bloom." - Zionist illusion

"There is no need to argue with the masses, slogans are much more effective. Slogans are like strong drinks to people. - Joseph Goebbels

"The Israelis built the only industrialized economy in the entire Middle East." - Israeli slogan

"Propaganda must limit itself to a few themes and repeat them incessantly." - Adolph Hitler

"The Israelis built the only liberal democracy in the Middle East." - Illusionist chant

"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." - Noam Chomsky

"The Middle East conflict is not about Israel's occupation of the territories; it is about the refusal of the Arabs to make peace with Israel, which is an inevitable by-product of their desire to destroy it." Zionist propaganda

"... Effective propaganda must limit its points to a few and these points must be repeated until even the last member of the audience understands what is meant by them." - Adolph Hitler

"The Israelis treated the Arabs who remained in Israel well. To this day the very large Arab minority, which lives inside the state of Israel, has more rights and privileges than any other Arab population in the entire Middle East." - Disinformation magic by David Horowitz

"... the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious." - Joseph Goebbels

Consider the next two quotations, with a shift in venue from Israel to America, together:

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly... it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over." - Joseph Goebbels

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George W. Bush

Here's why hype has worked for the Zionists, for Carl Rove, for the neo-conservatives and, until his lies started to catch up with him, for George W. Bush:

"The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it." - Joseph Goebbels

The scientist Carl Sagan referred to essentially the same effect on the public:

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: if we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." - Carl Sagan

Finally, a word from the master craftsman's first protégé:

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise." - Adolf Hitler

Who are the later protégés? Consider the observation of a master visionary:

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" - Leonardo da Vinci

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*Paul Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for 38 years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.

http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/pjballes41.htm

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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