Israel

Critcal Analysis

A Critical Review and Analysis:
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

The Media Education Foundation, Producer

Propaganda is commonly used in support of a particular cause. This is the case in the Arab–Israeli conflict, where propaganda is commonplace. The film Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, however, purports to be above this propaganda fray and has assigned itself the singular role of “exposing” the Israeli “propaganda machine” and its “occupation” of the American media.

The film claims in its promotional materials to expose “how the foreign policy interests of American political elites—working in combination with Israeli public relations strategies—exercise a powerful influence over news reporting about the Middle East conflict.”

The film’s premise is that the American mainstream media is monolithically complicit with an Israeli “propaganda machine” that seeks to distort the images and stories reported by American journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Its agenda is to convince the consumers of American media that they are being deliberately duped by the producers of the news they receive on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This deception, according to the film, is in service to the interests of powerful international oil corporations whose strategy for control of the world’s oil markets, particularly in the Middle East, is to support Israel as a “launching pad” for the United States to control the region. The film’s producers overtly seek to weaken the US–Israel relationship.

This review and analysis will show that the film, despite its claims of being an “expose” of propaganda, is in itself an artful propaganda production utilizing a variety of well-known, tried-and-true propaganda techniques including:

• decontextualization
• disinformation including half-truths, selective emphasis and blatant lies
• lack of balancing perspectives
• lack of citations/documentation to back up assertions of facts
• omission of facts
• straw man argumentation

The scope of this review and analysis is not to refute every claim made by the film, as that would require a more extensive assessment. Nor is it the scope of this paper to provide a comprehensive analysis of the media’s coverage of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Rather, this paper will review the major points made by the film, expose the film’s own propaganda methodology to demonstrate that this production is a sophisticated, well-crafted piece of political propaganda serving one perspective on one side of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Finally, this paper advocates for a balanced and accurate presentation of the subject when aired on public television based on the concept of “truth in packaging.”

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