... in the form of the whole (PDF) text of the "Not for distribution or publication" real Hasbara Handbook from "The Israel Project".
For anyone who's followed the various interventions of Israel's ever-eager army of international hasbaristas (propagandists) here or elsewhere, the actual handbook for their efforts that's produced by TIP makes hilarious reading.
My main take on the portions I've read of the 116-page tome-- full name "The Israel Project’s 2009 GLOBAL LANGUAGE DICTIONARY"-- is that the authors seem fully aware they have new challenges to face in trying to justify Israel's actions to (predominantly) a US audience. Hence, such advice as (p.7) "Don’t pretend that Israel is without mistakes or fault."
Their reasoning for the advice they give on p.12 not to talk about religion is also interesting:
Americans who see the bible as their sourcebook on foreign affairs are already supporters of Israel. Religious fundamentalists are Israel’s “Amen Choir” and they make up approximately one-fourth of the American public and Israel’s strongest friends in the world. However, some of those who are most likely to believe that Israel is a religious state are most hostile towards Israel (“they’re just as extreme as those religious Arab countries they criticize”). Unfortunately, virtually any discussion of
religion will only reinforce this perception.
Therefore, even the mention of the word “Jew” is many Israel contexts is going to elicit a
negative reaction—and the defense of Israel as a “Jewish State” or “Zionist State” will be received quite poorly. This may be hard for the Jewish community to accept but this is how most Americans and Europeans feel.
These people are fairly smart in the way they advise their supporters to work to bend the public discourse in a pro-Israel direction.
Anyway, big thanks to the friends at Newsweek who brought us this gem.
