Talk June 2004

Last night some of us went to a talk by Cyril Harris, while others went to Mark Regev. I did the latter. Mark gave a seemingly endless list of Hasbara tips. I summarise what I can remember.

The last paragraph is my take on how to Australianize the Reagan story.

1. Break the alliance between the left and the pro-palestinians by focusing on: feminism, the environment, gay rights -- all are significant wedges, but they don’t work miracles.
2. Pro Cuban, Pro Iranian, Pro Palestinian. Ask yourself why in the 2 former "Pro"s you mean sympathy with the people AGAINST their leadership, but with the latter you mean sympathy with Arafat against Israel. Where are the Palestinian people in your equation?
3. On a television debate a Palestinian said: ...Begin and Shamir were terrorists too! Regev: [ "If I answer him he wins."] I ignored him. First rule of hasbara: don’t speak about what they want you to speak about. Speak about what you need to speak about.
4. Injuries in a suicide bombing are 4:1 to deaths
5. Sound bite: "Palestinians and Arabs deserve better"
6. Chairman Arafat has been leading the Palestian human rights movement for 45 years. He started in 1959. Does that seem odd to you? In the last 45 years how many changes of prime minister have we had? Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard. Somehow we must be stupid. We just can’t get it right with our leaders here in Australia, but the Palestinians obviously have found the right leader.
7. When he asks an audience of Republicans: who was the greatest leader last century almost unanimous Reagan. He proceeds: If Reagan had been allowed to get a third term would he have? The audience says: Yeah! He says: A fourth? Audience: Not so vociferously: Yes! A fifth term? Audience is silent. Five consecutive terms is so large that even the most pro-Reagan Americans can’t picture it. Yet five terms is about half of Arafat’s term. You can do the same in Australia. Picture 45 years for Whitlam? For Hawke? For Fraser? For Howard?
8. We have won the argument in America about the fence. It didn’t lead to more violence, on the contrary. We have also won the argument about Rantisi et al.
9. Sound bite: [Out of date now] "The fence is reversible. Death is irreversible."
10. The fence has been good for Arabs. There is an article about this in the blog. The fence means that there aren’t so many soldiers and checkpoints. Good for business. Crime is down.
11. When debating, very important not to be combative. Typically the Palestinian spokespeople will get combative. Let them. They immediately lose their audience in America. Does this apply to Australia?
12. Regev said that he milked Bali for all it was worth. He said [this is not strictly true wrt East Timor]: When have the Australians ever harmed the Arabs? In America it went down really well.
13. Sound bite: "I admit that my organisation has its biases, its corporate culture if you will. Can you say that your organisation has no corporate culture?"
14. Sound bite: "If terrorists were coming from Canada to Vermont you wouldn’t build a fence?!?". Need to adapt to Australia, because we are an island.
15. Oil has been a kind of bondage which has actually held back progress, because the leaders don’t need to cultivate a population to exploit oil. Cf Japan Korea ... All these Asian countries needed their populations for prosperity. Oil rich countries did not.
16. What is the only country in the world named after its current ruler?
17. It is a form of racism to say that there is something in the arab psyche / mentality that renders democratic reform impossible. The same was said about Latin America - trying to democratise LA is not feasible. All the books written about it in the 70s are worth nothing.
18. Sound bite: "In all 20th century history have there been two democracies who have gone to war with each other?" Democracies tend to solve problems without violence.
19. Sound bite: "In all 20th century has there been a dictatorship which survived without the notion of "an enemy at its door"? Dictatorships need enemies.
20. "Who here thinks it was a terrible thing when Kerr sacked Whitlam?" A few people say "yes". You’ve got them. You acknowlege the ones who didn’t say "yes" by saying "It was a very divisive decision at the time", but you proceed "Do you think the senate would have eventually passed supply in ‘75?" Someone calls out: "They would have had to!" "And if Whitlam had served out his full term would he have been re-elected?" If people can see where you are going with this they will be hushed and silenced. If not, you keep going: "Would he have won yet another term?" Until you get to:
    
    IS IT REMOTELY CONCEIVABLE THAT HE WOULD STILL BE PRIME MINISTER TODAY?
    Well Arafat has been leading his people for 45 years.
21. Hasbara will always need to be done by locals.