williams_30-31r.qxp_UNITED NATIONS REPORT 2/3/22 4:43 PM Page 30
United Nations Report
Hasbara and a Stone: Israel’s Ambassador Brings Both to the U.N. By Ian Williams
PHOTO BY LEV RADIN/PACIFIC
Even so, hasbara practitionFOR YEARS ISRAELI repreers know how much the sentatives at the U.N. have market can stand and official competed in an Orwellian spokespeople have the socompetition to see which of phistication to resist the tempthem could invert reality in a tation to go too far. That fear of way that most affronts comblowback restrained their critmon sense and common deicisms of, for example, South cency—and which would lend African leaders Desmond Tutu the most advantage to their or Nelson Mandela, leaving domestic political careers in the more hysterical and insupIsrael. Based as they are in portable accusations to the New York with large crowds likes of the Anti-Defamation of uber-Zionist donors within League’s Abe Foxman (who “earshot,” Israeli diplomats was just appointed to the U.S. have few incentives to stay Holocaust Memorial Council within the bounds of reason. by President Joe Biden). They tend to have the diploHowever, in January Israel’s matic skills and finesse of the Permanent Representative to heralds who started the Thirty the U.N., Gilad Erdan, went Years’ War. further than most, toting a rock However, one cannot deny into the Security Council and the effectiveness of the hydemanding a resolution conperbolic hasbara this exemdemning what he called plifies, which is aided and “Palestinian terrorism,” since abetted by their complaisant Security Council audience, Ambassador Gilad Erdan, Permanent Representative of Israel to the the locals sometimes throw United Nations, demands a U.N. resolution on Jan. 19, 2022, condemn‐ stones at occupiers’ vehicles. who tend to be too polite to ing Palestinian terrorism or rock throwing. Even by his own lax stanshout, “taurine excreta!” To be dards, it was an unconvincing charitable, they are perhaps performance. The accusation coincided with yet another expulsion cautious that the media would pillory any such ripostes—no matter of a family from Sheikh Jarrah, which even the U.S., let alone the how justified they are by reality—as anti-Semitic. rest of the world roundly condemned. If Security Council members At the beginning of February, we saw some of this when Whoopi could rein in their diplomatic politeness, they could reasonably have Goldberg had to grovel in a latter-day auto-da-fé for raising entirely asked if the stone he brandished was from the rubble of the Palesrational objections to the standard Zionist talking point. In no way tinian homes that Israel had demolished that week. did she challenge the existence or the barbarity of the Holocaust And then, overall, there is the typical solipsistic trait which but quibbled about the orthodox Israeli creed that seems to have weighs a stone hurled at occupiers as much heavier and more deosmosed into public dogma. structive than air strikes and bulldozers. Logistical constraints perLike the Red Queen in Through the Looking-Glass, who shouted in haps inhibit the Palestinian delegation from driving a bulldozer or pain five minutes before the open brooch pricked her, Israeli supporters a tank into the Security Council chamber, let alone sending in a shout “anti-Semitism” pre-emptively about anticipated injuries—and it drone, but one wishes... usually works. Would-be critics know that a world of pain on the pillory In particular, Erdan overlooked the contrast between his awaits anyone who dares to depart from the approved script. overblown charges and the national narrative of David and Goliath, in which a shepherd boy lays low a heavily armored Philistine giant. U.N. correspondent Ian Williams is the author of UNtold: the In the Book of Samuel, it did not mention that David had drones, Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War (available from Middle East Books and More). tanks and artillery, rather, “David prevailed over the Philistine with a 30
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
MARCH/APRIL 2022
