I'll start this third and concluding article in this series with a brief review in point form:
- Israel is the target of an Arab-Muslim-Western Left axis.
- The main front in this war is the anti-Israel demonisation project which also serves to divert attention from the Islamist threat and dysfunctional societies of the Middle East and North Africa.
- The propaganda theatre is integrated with all other strategies - military, economic, diplomatic to weaken, isolate and demoralise Israel (the BDS strategy) as a prelude to its destruction.
- Finally, this project depends on fellow travellers in the media and academia who propagate the "approved narrative".
The first principle of "Total Propaganda" is that it is flexible, all-pervasive and relentless. Thus Israel is accused of every crime under the sun as the opportunity arises. Since nothing must disturb the "approved narrative", discordant facts and evidence must be excluded from public view. In what follows we are going to touch on (since that is what space permits) some of what is systematically filtered out of the media narrative.
We all accept that there are many "moderate Muslims" who wish to practice their religion in accordance with modern democratic practices and in peace with other religions and peoples. But it is equally true that radicalised Jihadist forms of Islam hold enormous sway in many parts of the Muslim world, including especially the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia. Besides this totalitarian religious movement, most Arab countries are characterised by backward, corrupt and oppressive political systems serving narrow power elites.
These societies finally erupted in the firestorm of revolt and violence called the Arab Spring by a Western media desperate for good news from the region. But in the last three years, at least 90 000 deaths have resulted, mainly in Syria with substantial contributions from Libya, Egypt and the Yemen. This number, enormous as it is, is dwarfed by the 11 million - and rising - Muslim deaths since 1948, less than 0.5% due to Israeli-Arab conflicts and 90% due to intra- Muslim conflict.
There is no indication that, in the near future at least, the "Arab Spring" uprisings will result in democratic and tolerant regimes. Islamist or similar theo-fascist factions are dominant in Egypt and are significant threats in Syria, the Yemen, Tunisia and of course across broad swathes on North Africa at least.
Horrific mortality figures are only part of the story. In international survey after international survey Arab-Muslim states range from poor to disastrous on human development indices and political freedoms. Honour killings, stonings and murder of homosexuals are still rife in the Islamist regions of the Muslim world. Such information does occasionally penetrate into our media, but they carefully refrain from connecting the dots so as not to ruffle the "Approved Narrative". Nevertheless, it is entities such as these which dominate the UN and which are the primary drivers of the war against Israel.