Welcome

Welcome to the first edition of Israel Forum Watch.

IsraelForum.com is a particularly strident pro-Israel internet forum committed to fostering and maintaining uncritical support for Israel, particularly in the US.

The site started in 2001, probably inspired by the negative consequences, in terms of PR, that Israel suffered in the 1st Palestinian Intifada, when TV images of Israeli soldiers shooting and beating unarmed Palestinian protestors graced our TV screens for the first time. Knowing that Israeli abuses in the 2nd Intifada where again likely to test the publics tolerance of its’ appalling conduct, some fanatical pro-Israel groupies set up Israel Forum to push an unwavering pro-Israel narrative to ‘explain’ the inexplicable ie, house demolitions, land theft and the killing of the innocent. That is just some of the long list of Israeli human rights abuses for which the IFies spend considerable time and energy producing their grubby apologetics.

What is most interesting about IF is that it opens a window onto the mind of the rabidly pro-Israel crowd, and believe me, it isn’t a pretty sight. While IF bills itself as “24 hr News, Discussion and Debate” it’s more like “24 hr Vilification, Apologetics and Hate”. While Stalinesque obsequiousness towards Israel is obviously de rigueur, the other important task is the dehumanisation and vilification of Palestinians as people. In IF parlance, they simply are not – only suicide bombers, terrorists and anti-semites out to push the Jews into the sea.

Their goals are arrived at by denouncing views with which they disagree, via a heady mixture of innuendo, smear, pejorative labelling, misconstruing, misquoting, misrepresenting, and when none of that works, good old fashioned lying. Add to that, regular doses of intemperate language, anti-Arab bigotry and a bucket full of bile, and you have Israel Forum.

It’s all highly unedifying and testament to the extremism and fanaticism that lies behind much of this predominately American, unthinkingly pro-Israel crowd. Their extreme points of view, and the role this plays in perpetuating the conflict, gets far too little attention. Their preference is to direct attention to the fiction that extremism is only found amongst Palestinians and that they are all sweetness and light, desperately striving for peace, but alas, perpetually disappointed.

So, in the interests of truth, justice and compassion, let’s shine a little light onto this dark corner and see just how extreme and how mendacious they’re prepared to be to promote their mad views………