Eisenbud's Odyssey: Imagine

The battlefield has changed, but the game remains the same: Destroy or discredit Israel.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Person with computer on head 311 (photo credit: MCT)
Person with computer on head 311
(photo credit: MCT)
The year is 2015. Israel has the most polished, efficient and far-reaching diplomatic and media relations departments in the Western world.
After years of myopic focus on military affairs – and denial regarding the gravity of Israel’s lackluster handling of the intellectual war waged against its existence – in 2012 Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak wisely embraced a complete paradigm shift in the struggle by allocating all necessary resources to the now-heralded Israel Intellectual Defense Force (IIDF).
INDEED, IN an unprecedented organizational turnaround, the IIDF has become the premier model of study for international diplomacy and media relations among governments and elite universities the world over.
Israel’s transformation from a diplomatic and media-relations nightmare into a 21st-century powerhouse has resulted in a tectonic narrative shift that has finally ceased to put the Jewish state on the defensive – and for the first time since its founding in 1948, has brought the fight to its many insatiable enemies.
Mirroring the IDF’s proven success of deterring attack by utilizing precise and powerful retaliation – frequently preemptively – the IIDF has adopted a similar tactic in the intellectual war.
And while attacks on Israel’s narrative are still routinely launched, they are now quickly and thoroughly neutralized or contained – far away from our homeland.
EVERY CORNER of the globe now has an IIDF satellite office charged with monitoring all media coverage relating to Israel.
Democratic countries most steeped in anti-Semitic rhetoric – including Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Poland and Austria – have been assigned the most extensive staffing and resources.
Every mainstream medium in these countries, and others like them, is meticulously scrutinized for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic content.
A team of analysts highlights every inflammatory, libelous and false statement made against Israel and then immediately directs the objectionable content to a provincial editorial team charged with cleanly refuting the fallacy within 24 hours of its publication.
RETALIATION IS swift.
For print media, a written retort is composed within hours by the most talented and compelling writers in the region in question.
For televised retorts or debates, a polished indigenous speaker of the region’s language clearly articulates Israel’s defense in no uncertain terms. He or she is hyper-articulate, highly knowledgeable about the issue at hand, a master debater, attractive, likable and compelling.
By the next news cycle, the fallacy in question has been unequivocally corrected on the record, and the source of the lie thoroughly discredited for its flagrant and irresponsible distortion of the truth.
This process is repeated in perpetuity until our enemies in the intellectual war are conditioned to realize that any attack on Israel will immediately result in an unassailable unilateral retaliation that will cause far more intellectual damage against them than Israel.
The reason this process is so effective is that it consistently and expertly packages self-evident truths that were once manipulated to create a damning false reality, yet went largely unaddressed by the Israeli government.
As the IIDF illustrates, Israel finally recognizes that right and wrong in today’s media climate are no longer self-evident truths, and require clear and expert presentation in an environment marred by journalistic irresponsibility and cunning.
THE SUCCESS of the IIDF has resulted in Israel’s now-celebrated standing as the sole democracy in an otherwise profoundly hostile region rife with Shari’a law and autocratic dictatorships.
Israel’s true narrative is repeatedly reflected until it becomes the new reality – finally changing its once tarnished international image while, for the third year in a row, also mitigating all false and libelous press.
For the first time in Israel’s history, the world sees unequivocally the patent and culturally entrenched lies systematically propagated against it and the Jewish people, as the IIDF has focused like a laser on each one and corrected it in professionally packaged, media-friendly language based on irrefutable truth, in real time.
Indeed, every mainstream media attempt to demonize Israel has been so vigorously and effectively refuted that the news organizations and governments that once chronically espoused irresponsible diatribes against it have been rendered comically unreliable.
In effect, the IIDF has beaten its enemies at their own game.
Now it is their narratives that have been compromised.
FURTHERMORE, THE UN and EU formally condemn Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for allowing textbooks in Palestinian schools – or anywhere else in the world – that teach children destructive, hateful and hackneyed lies about Jews.
Financial aid is cut off to the PA and its ilk until the inflammatory books are permanently discarded and replaced with books that reflect historical truths.
A watchdog agency oversees the process and inspects every school book for falsifications and hate speech to ensure compliance.
In the meantime, young soldiers now vie for a coveted spot in the IIDF, the way they once did for the most elite IDF units.
They hope to be trained as intellectual warriors, and to use their minds instead of their guns.
Only the most talented recruits are accepted into this prestigious unit.
LADIES AND gentlemen, the aforementioned does not have to be imaginary.
Indeed, it could become a reality if the leaders of this great country finally concede that more needs to be done to contain the ongoing intellectual war against its very right to exist.
The battlefield has shifted, but the game remains the same: destroy and discredit Israel. However, Israel’s Jews need not fight this war alone any longer.
We are now more connected internationally than ever, allowing us to fight together, near or far.
Success in this war doesn’t require a miracle – just proactive, intensive and unified restructuring to allow us to do what Jews do best: Adapt and thrive.
We have the blueprint to do this.
Now it is time to get it done.
Imagine.
dan@jpost.com