The End of Hasbara?

Some reflections on why the Hasbara Symphony Orchestra has lost its sheet music and appears committed to playing out of tune

A friend messaged me about my recent post regarding Israel offering safe haven to terrorists and paedophiles, and particularly the detailed information provided in the thread.

This got me thinking about the broader challenges confronting Israeli propaganda, and the hasbara train wreck that is unfolding before our eyes.

I’ve posted about this before. I’ve noted that, particularly in the West, Israeli propaganda has had it too good for too long, and its apologists and flunkies have consequently become not only overly complacent but also offensively hubristic. Additionally, they have collectively shifted so far to the very extreme right that they are today simply incapable of making the right noises to appeal to a general audience without violating their own moral code and political principles. Appearing reasonable would also alienate their most devoted allies and supporters in the global extreme right.

Israel flunkies have increasingly confined themselves to their echo chamber, which is now not just openly but also proudly genocidal, incapable of little more than denouncing anyone who doesn’t participate in their bloodlust as an enemy. This not only repels outsiders but is also beginning to produce defections from their death cult. In recent weeks, fellow travelers and accomplices have been deserting or expressing doubts, often publicly, in growing numbers.

But there’s also a more fundamental challenge. While I was generally aware of the issues addressed in my post, and the Alex Odeh murder in particular, it required considerable research to produce. This included access to various government documents, press reports dating from the twentieth century, analytical articles, and the like, in addition to the corroboration of various facts and dates by authoritative sources.

I’m not a particularly efficient researcher, and am easily distracted by interesting topics and texts I come across that are unrelated to the matter at hand. Nevertheless, I was able to collect all the information required for my post, some of it dating from the 1960s, in less than a day. Once I had this information at my disposal, and took the time to devote the effort necessary to understand how it all fit together, the post practically wrote itself.

That’s the reality in 2025. All I needed was an internet connection, a bit of time, common sense, an open mind, and a willingness to learn. If it had been a topic within my general area of interest but still one I had not previously encountered, I might have required an additional day or two, perhaps a week at the most.

Compare this to what would have been required to produce the same text several decades ago. No internet, no search engines, no hyperlinks, no easily searchable databases. I would probably have had to spend more time than I have available in a well-resourced library just to understand which documents and texts I need to consult to get started, a task for which I would probably also have had to communicate with people properly familiar with the topic over an expensive phone line or by snail mail. Some of the newspaper articles I cited would not have been available in a language I understand, or I would have had to spend hours going through rolls of microfilm to locate them and then transcribe citations by hand.

In other words, it would have been a task largely reserved for specialists. People who can pursue such research in the context of their professional responsibilities, or have the means to devote the significant time required for such research, or have access to research assistance, or are involved in a collective effort to produce such materials.

In addition to the above, such researchers were up against the machinery of a state which considered the support of public opinion a vital strategic asset, the public square a battlefield to be seized at all costs, and has therefore been more invested in propaganda than perhaps any other colonial regime. Rhodesia never claimed a right to exist because it didn’t give a damn what people thought about it, right up until the day it was no more. France considered it beneath her to debate its ownership of Algeria, rejecting the premise the subject was in any way a legitimate topic of discussion.

Israel is a very different kettle of fish, hypersensitive to even the mildest criticism of its most extreme policies. Assisted by apologists and flunkies – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Other – native to its target societies, it ran a highly professional, well-oiled propaganda campaign that spanned every corner of the globe. This makes it all the more remarkable that, despite these challenges, throughout the past century individuals and organizations have been able to effectively counter its efforts and make an impact of their own on public opinion.

Nevertheless, the situation today is fundamentally different. We no longer have to wait for the next book by Edward W. Said, Walid Khalidi, or Norman Finkelstein, the next lecture by Noam Chomsky, the next column by Alexander Cockburn, or a rare television or radio appearance by a Palestinian, to learn more about reality in the Middle East. We can learn about reality without it being filtered by the New York Times and the Bibi Si, their Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and their instinctive, compulsive habit to begin and end every report with “Israel says”.

If we want to learn more about a particular topic, we can do so without undue disruption to our lives, or an excessive commitment of time and resources. A little common sense, healthy skepticism, and a willingness to learn is all that is required to learn to distinguish between credible, questionable, and unreliable sources. Interaction with others is always preferrable, but even that can in theory be achieved without leaving one’s desk.

In the case of the Gaza Genocide access to reality, and the ability to sift fact from fiction, is made easier because it is not only being live-streamed to everyone of us, but also because the perpetrators have proven exceptionally eager to share their crimes with us in video, audio, and print. Israel’s lies and distortions are still accorded the status of gospel truth by the mainstream media, but are also getting exposed, often at a speed approaching real time, for the rest of us. As a result, Israel’s fabrications and misrepresentations are increasingly failing to gain traction. The elites and mainstream media for the most part remain loyal soldiers, but Israel has definitively lost the public square.

As a very perceptive observer put it to me, “The genie is out of the bottle, and it can’t be put back”. That realization, I believe, is the best explanation for the repulsive hysteria that has become the hallmark of Israel flunkies and apologists, and indeed of the genocidal apartheid regime itself.