I won’t tell you how I found this presentation, but here are the poll driven Hasbara talking-points developed by Frank Luntz: luntz-presentation-9-201. While I don’t have the energy to go through each single slide, the general impression is that the more typical knee-jerk, aggressive and defensive rightwing talking-points don’t poll well. Luntz, a rightwing operator, is suggesting what one might call liberal Zionist talking points. I think what this means is that rightwing Zionism is a dead dog on the American mainstream, that it has no pulse, and that liberal Zionism is its last redoubt. What goes unsaid here in these points developed by Luntz, of course, is not that Israel is holding “disputed territories,” but actively shutting down a political-diplomatic solution to the conflict by expanding settlements.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/09/18/the-future-of-liberal-zionism
“I think what this means is that rightwing Zionism is a dead dog on the American mainstream”
I think this is an epic misreading of the American mainstream.
A misreading of the Jewish establishment. Somehow it makes sense of my undergraduates and the masses of liberal, non-affiliated and semi-affiliated Jews, especially young ones. At any rate, I don’t think you can argue with Luntz’s polling. He’s a professional and I’m betting his numbers actually mean something. But who knows?
I’ll quote from the handy presentation:
Peace requires genuine partners
Fact: When Israel offered to dismantlemost West Bank settlements for peace in 2000 & 2008, Palestinians said no.
Fact: When Israel evacuated all settlements in Gaza in 2005, terrorism and hostility actually sharply increased.
Fact: There were absolutely no settlements when Palestinian violence against Jews began in 1920 or when that violence escalated between 1948 and 1967.
These aren’t talking points. These are facts
If West Bank settlements were the real obstacle to peace we would have had peace long ago. The real obstacle is Palestinian refusal to accept a Jewish state within any borders, as reflected in Palestinian leaders’ statements and in Palestinian media. The controversy about settlements is a symptom, not a cause, of the conflict, which is rooted in Palestinian rejectionism.