Photo courtesy: Mondoweiss
At a secret conference organised by Israel Minister Gilad Erdan with 150 top supporters of Israel, American right wing pollster Frank Luntz rolled out statistics which show that most US Jewish students don’t see Israel as ‘civilized’ or a ‘democracy”.
According to the independent website, Mondoweiss, which attracts a million views a month, Luntz made the disclosure at the secret conference organised to consider ways of combating the growing global campaign, ‘Boycott, Disinvest and Sanctions’ (BDS) movement against Israeli oppression of Palestinians.
Highlights of Luntz’s disclosure:
- The ministry of tourism’s attempt to market Israel as a cool destination (girls and bikinis) has failed.
- Jewish American students have an increasingly negative image of Israel
- Just 42% believe Israel wants peace.
- Just 38% believe “Israel is civilized and Western”.
- Just 31% believe Israel is a democracy.
- No less than 21% believe the US should side with the Palestinians.
In November 2014, the Republican pollster and best known propagandist for selling Israel to the American public had conceded that Zionism had become a dirty word for American opinion-making elite. Clearly, his prescription then was to keep reminding Israel’s critics in the US, “we’re allies.” But the magic mantra does not seem to be working.
Mondoweiss now reports that “the new, or not so new, agenda” put forward by Luntz, the “guru of political opinion” at the conference was this: Israel’s supporters should say that they are in favour of a dialogue and peace-building through diplomacy, and accuse BDS supporters of obstructing dialogue, and spreading hate.