From: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Myths and Facts (was: 1967 war again)
Date: 12 Nov 1992 03:47:38 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: world
Reply-To: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.23.70

In article 1657@nysernet.org, astein@nysernet.org (Alan Stein) writes:

>There's a significant difference between Myths & Facts and PLO
>propaganda.  While both are biased, the factual material in Myths &
>Facts is reliable, while anti-Israel propaganda in general pays little
>attention to the truth.  (Remember how the anti-Israel propaganda in
>1982 had every resident of Beirut killed several times over?)

I remember absurdly understated casualty figures claimed by Israel.
I suggest taking the geometric mean (these things fit best on a 
logarithmic scale :-).

Back to Myths and Facts.  The quality of propaganda largely depends 
on the amount of fact it contains.  Very good propaganda is almost 
100% factual but still gives a completely false overall impression.  
M&F is poor propaganda because it is peppered with claims that any 
student of history knows to be false or misleading.

Junk like M&F is really easy to write.  In fact, I claim I can 
do it _better than M&F.  Here is an extract from the nonexistent
anti-Israel propaganda text Tintacks and Tarradiddles.  Every 
quotation is genuine, and every sentence is literally true.


TARRADIDDLE.  When Israeli declared independence in 1948, the Arabs 
  threatened to massacre all the Jews.   

TINTACKS.  Arab proposals to the Anglo-American Enquiry in 1946 did 
  not even require recent Jewish immigrants to leave.  Instead they 
  proposed a "democratic government representative of all sections 
  of the population on a level of absolute equality....Those Jews who 
  have already entered Palestine, and who have obtained or shall obtain 
  Palestinian citizenship by due legal process will be full citizens of 
  the Palestinian state, enjoying full civil and political rights and a 
  fair share in government and administration." [official minutes]  
  Similar statements were made to the United Nations Special Commission 
  on Palestine in 1947.  

  Even after the independence of Israel was declared against the wishes 
  of the majority of Palestine's population, the Arabs continued to make 
  conciliatory gestures towards Palestinian Jews.  On that very day, the 
  Egyptian foreign minister said "The Royal Egyptian Government wish to 
  assert that their armed intervention in Palestine is not directed against 
  Palestine Jews...this intervention has no object in view except the 
  restoration of security and order...until a just and equitable solution
  is reached." [NYT, May 16 1948]  This was reaffirmed by the Secretary
  General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, who said "Whatever the outcome 
  the Arabs will stick to their offer of equal citizenship for Jews in Arab 
  Palestine and let them be as Jewish as they like.  In areas where they 
  predominate they will have complete autonomy." [Pal. Post, 21 May 1948]

Given a few free months, I could write a whole book like that to suit
any combination of pro-Zionist, pro-Arab or pro-British cheer squads.
Any offers of large sums of money??

>Alan H. Stein 

Brendan.

Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast