Right-wing D.C. think tank spawns Israeli PR blunder

[deminks]

“We think this is an important Israeli contribution to the discussion of recent events,” the Center for Security Policy's Caroline Glick wrote on her Web site Friday, touting a video mocking Monday night's deadly flotilla incident, “and we hope you distribute it far and wide.”

Evidently Israeli media-relations officials took Glick's advice -- and set off a public relations backlash.

“We Con the World,” a parody of the 1985 Michael Jackson-Lionel Ritchie video, “We Are the World,” was produced by Latma TV, an Israel-based “project” of the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think tank with close ties to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, managed by Glick.

(snip)

A veteran CIA operations officer called the video “pretty clever agitprop,” a term for psychological warfare, implying it was done by, or on behalf of, the Netanyahu administration, which has been widely condemned for its attack on the Turkey-backed aid flottilla to Gaza.

Glick, who lives in Jerusalem, was a captain in the Israel Defense Forces in the mid-1990s and later served as assistant foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu during his 1997-1998 administration.

The Center for Security Policy was founded in 1988 by Frank Gaffney, Jr., a Reagan-administration Defense Department official, who has close ties to prominent pro-Israel activists.

(end snip)

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/right-wing_dc_think_tank_spawn.html

[EFerrari]

1. Yes, satirizing dead humanitarian volunteers, always a winner with the crowd.

:puke:

[Malikshah]

2. The damage was done--- it was one of the top youtube videos yesterday or the day before.

100s of thousands of views. Quite a vile disgusting piece of work. Of course, with all the pitchforks and torches out for an octogenarian reporter these days who's gonna notice....

Definitely not around here it would seem.

[blondeatlast]

3. Very glad I read the replies before I clicked that link. I know I should judge for myself,

but I'll exercise my freedom to ignore it.

[TiredOldMan]

4. If it's catchy the herd looks past the message.

Making fun of civilian deaths is very poor taste.