Friday, July 28, 2017

Propganda promotion of Israel in US popular culture

To me it is rather inexplicable the extent to which there is a (propaganda) obsession with Israel in American popular (especially--but not exclusively--film) culture. Michele and I have been watching the thrilling series Blacklist on Netflix (I love James Spader) and suddenly they throw in a Mossad agent. And it doesn't even make sense: there is a counter-terrorism FBI operation, and they invite an agent of a foreign intelligence agency to sit in and participate in US operations on US territory? Even in pro-Israeli US, this does not happen. And the character does not even add to the story--she in fact detracts from it (and fittingly, they chose an Iranian-American to play the role of the Israeli). And the story has to mention the Iranian nuclear program (but certainly not the Israeli nuclear arsenal--well beyond a program). But what is key is that those insertions of Israel into American popular culture were never innocent: they are often by design. Arnon Milchan, the famous Hollywood producer (behind such hits as "Pretty Woman"--the disgustingly sexist movie), was revealed later in his life to be an Israeli secret agent who assisted in the Israeli nuclear program. Menahem Golan (the producer of most of the sleazy and trashy racist hits of the 1980s, like Delta Force series) was an Israeli too. And now I read that Netflix will be commissioning a movie about Ashraf Marwan, the Israeli spy.