Study: Israelis resisted intifada's psychological warfare

[eyl]

"If the intifada was supposed to undermine the foundations of Israeli society and to bring it to a state of imbalance and destabilization, it has failed," reports Meir Elran, the author of a new study released by the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

According to the study, titled "Israel's National Resilience: The Influence of the Second Intifada on Israeli Society," Israel's social networks were stable and Israelis remained basically optimistic throughout the years of Palestinian terrorism since 2000.

The premise underlying the study - that the Palestinian intifada was primarily a psychological offensive against Israeli society - is an accurate one, according to Col. (res.) Eran Lerman, a former senior officer in the IDF's intelligence directorate.

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[bemildred]

1. I have to disagree with the "underlying premise" statement.

The primary goals are two: propaganda and denial. The propaganda part has a global target audience and has been quite successful, although it's not a rout. Suicide bombings are seen as tacky. But, as Mr. van Creveld says, there is no way to avoid looking like a bully when ones opponent is so weak in conventional terms. That is the basic flaw in the various assertions that the present situation is the Palestinian's fault or that they are not doing enough, etc. etc., they simply don't have much power and the Israeli government clearly has lots of power, relatively, so you have to assign responsibility accordingly.

The denial part boils down to not allowing the conqueror to enjoy the fruits of his conquest, and that has also been largely successful.

The motives of the immediate perps, of course, are generally plain old rage and revenge and 76 virgins and the like.

And of course, this does not address the demographic issues at all.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. The Intifada, the excesses of International Answer, and the

excesses of some wannabe Progressives have strengthened my commitment to Israel and Zionism.

[bemildred]

3. There seems to be plenty of excess to go around.

I don't feel that that portends well for the future, but what do I know?