Lights, action, camera, bite: Scenes from a cognitive war

...What this is, friends, is a minimum-risk operation, with a huge return on modest investment, underwritten via the willing collaboration of a host of camera-operators, reporters, headline writers and cable news presenters. People are going to be studying the lessons of this shabby, child-abuse-rich affair for years to come.

Drama on a Judean hillside: A Nabi Saleh
scene from this past Friday

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
02 September '15..

A reader of this blog, Pam Bloom (@Telecombarbie on Twitter), has been on a personal odyssey for the past year. In a letter she sent us today, Pam, who lives in New York State where she is a regional manager in the software industry and who is Jewish, describes how she got to the point of feeling compelled to engage in some personal research on Israel and the challenges it faces.

The process was triggered during the tumultuous days of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge when she found herself in discussion with a Palestinian friend on Facebook. Her friend's claims were so damning of Israel that she felt the need to personally dig into sources and separate out what was truthful from what was not.

Some days ago, she was invited to a local event. It looked innocuous enough - in her words “perhaps even worthy”. She looked a little more carefully into the cause promoted by the hosts of the gathering, and then she sat down to reply to them earlier today. Pam has kindly allowed us to share her letter here.

Subject: Bassem's Speaking Engagement in Woodstock
Date: September 2, 2015

Hi Ellen and Ariel,

I am going to decline this invite. I thought this speaker would be at a public venue, and not breaking bread with us on Rosh Hashanah. I don't break bread with patriarchs of a terrorist clan, nor do I break bread with people who engage in child abuse. Yes, I believe indoctrinating your children with hate and encouraging them to commit crimes, including orchestrating suicide bombs to kill innocent people is indeed child abuse. Bassem's beloved daughter did just this. I understand that he is very proud of her. And well, I think we can surmise which direction his daughter "Shirley Temper" is headed. People are not born with hate in their heart; they are taught this.

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