“The Hebrew meaning of the word Hasbara (הסברה) is “explanation” (the term “propaganda” has a different word in Hebrew – תעמולה). Hasbara is a form of propaganda aimed at an international audience, primarily, but not exclusively, in western countries. It is meant to influence the conversation in a way that positively portrays Israeli political moves and policies, including actions undertaken by Israel in the past. Often, Hasbara efforts includes a negative portrayal of the Arabs and especially of Palestinians.” (Source: +972mag)
![Israel’s linguistic acrobatics [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/alex-mcdonald.png)
by Sam Bahour | June 28, 2022 | Books, Writings
I am careful about recommending books. Everyone’s time is precious. My commending Alex McDonald’s How I Learned to Speak Israel: An American’s Guide to a Foreign Policy Language, and its sequel, When They Speak Israel: A Guide to Clarity In Conversations About Israel to your attention in a single review, then, means I found them to be beyond impressive. McDonald writes, “Language has consequences.” Then, as Mr. McDonald skillfully dissects the discourse on Israel and Palestine, that statement begins to seem wildly understated. McDonald’s analysis explains in detail how Israel and the West have used language, discourse, and narrative framing to camouflage a never-ending stream of the dispossession of Palestinians, including institutionalized discrimination, human rights abuses, military occupation, and so much more.
![Palestinian refugees are Israel’s Achilles heel [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/the-war-of-return-adi-schwartz-einat-wilf.png)
by Sam Bahour | May 1, 2020 | Books, Writings
The book is a long-winded frontal attack on Palestinian refugees and reads more as a commissioned assignment from the Hasbara-hub called the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs than a truly deep analysis of the issue of Palestinian refugees. What is missing from the book is as important as what is in it—all the other references that Palestinians’ Right of Return is based on, above and beyond the single one, UN General Assembly 194, that the authors pin their entire argument around.
![“God does not exist, and he promised us this land” [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/9780745335810252822529-710357-1.jpg)
by Sam Bahour | April 8, 2020 | Books, Writings
Few countries provoke as much passion and controversy as Israel. What is Modern Israel? convincingly demonstrates that its founding ideology – Zionism – is anything but a simple reaction to antisemitism. Dispelling the notion that every Jew is a Zionist and therefore a natural advocate for the state of Israel, Yakov Rabkin points to the Protestant roots of Zionism, in order to explain the particular support Israel musters in the United States. (Publisher’s Review)
by Sam Bahour | July 18, 2017 | Documentaries
A new documentary well worth the watch. Nothing new here for anyone aware of ground zero in Palestine or has been awake the past 50 years, but footage of some heart-wrenching scenes reminds us all that there are real people behind the daily headlines and statistics. 49:42 minutes.
!["The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt [Recommended]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-Israel-Lobby-and-US-Foreign-Policy-980x1470.jpg)