Positive Views of Israel, Brought to You by...Ethan Bronner

So Ethan Bronner begins a long article about Israeli propaganda services: "The Israeli government, deeply worried about the country’s declining international image, began a campaign on Wednesday to turn every Israeli — and ultimately every Jew — into a traveling public relations agent." The then adds: "“To counter the big money invested by Arab states in propaganda against Israel, we have to mobilize our human capital, meaning the residents of Israel,” Mr. Edelstein said." He should have added that in the years I have seen, Israel spends more money on propaganda in the US than even Saudi Arabia. Plus, when and where do Arab governments spend money in support of the Palestinians? They spend propaganda money in support of the ruling dynasty and in support of arms sales to their dictatorships. Of course, the whole purpose of the article is to cite propaganda items from Israeli propaganda brochures: "One main message of the campaign is that Israel is a technically advanced and diverse society and that its government policies are not the source of regional conflict. It notes that a number of important agricultural breakthroughs have occurred here, including drip irrigation and the development of the cherry tomato." Regarding the cherry tomato. I asked comrade Rami (who is a professor of agriculture at AUB, and an expert of agricultural products in the Middle East). He wrote to me (I cite with his permission): "Some varieties were developed in rehovot hebrew uni but the origin is in the volcanic island of santorini in greece. Check below. As usual the israelis take something that is not theirs and slap their name on it." At least Avineri noticed what is going on: "But I think it is puerile. Some of the information is ridiculous, and behind it I find a Bolshevik mentality — to make every citizen an unpaid civil servant for the policy of the government. There is never any intimation that some of our problems have to do with actual policies.”"