The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel's Public Relations War in the United States

This documentary falls short in providing a balanced portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead presenting a misleading and overly simplistic narrative. While it critiques Israel's policies and accuses the U. S. of standing out as an outlier in supporting the country, it neglects crucial historical and political factors. The film ignores the fact that the U. S. has long supported Israel due to shared democratic values, deep economic ties, and strategic alliances in a volatile region. This is far from an exception-Israel remains a critical ally in terms of regional stability, counterterrorism, and mutual security interests.

Furthermore, the film bypasses the context of repeated attacks against Israel by its neighbors since its founding in 1948. The ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is framed solely as aggression, without acknowledging the security concerns and self-defense measures that have shaped many of Israel's policies. The documentary also omits Israel's numerous peace efforts and concessions, which have been repeatedly rejected by Palestinian leadership, who have often turned to violence and terrorism rather than diplomacy. In addition, the narrative glosses over the Palestinian Authority's role in inciting violence and perpetuating anti-Israel sentiments. Overall, the film misses the mark by failing to provide a nuanced view of the complex and deeply rooted conflict, opting instead for a biased and selective perspective.

The purpose of this movie was to call out the American media for its manipulation of the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, but I came away feeling that the greater indictment was the American media's manipulation of news in general. The stark contrast between European and American news reporting was quite upsetting and embarrassing to me as an American. Overall, I felt the documentary was an eye-opening and mostly fair representation of the issues at play, but there were some disappointing biases that manifested. For instance, I don't recall any real representation of the Jewish narrative, and in fact, the Jewish narrative was referred to as "mythology" by one interviewee. Also, I felt that there was far too much leniency granted to Hamas and its promulgation of terror attacks. Maybe I'm only saying this because I'm a brainwashed American, but just because Hamas has since denounced their original charter that called for the extermination of Jews, doesn't mean that they should be getting a pass for it. That wasn't something that happened hundreds of years ago. It was 30. Those same people are running the show.

The violence of war and terrorism, if seen, turn most people against war and terrorism in a visceral way. The injustice of depriving an ethnic group of human rights and democratic rights and economic rights, if seen, turn most people against such actions. The operating qualifier is "if seen." This movie provides a seldom seen insight into conscious efforts to control messaging so that war, terror, and deprivation of human rights are framed so the US public "does not see" them. Modern cameras, cell phones, and internet have made inroads on breaking through the conscious framing. A younger generation is developing changing views.

The occupation here is not about the occupation of a country, it is more about the occupation of a mind set. It poses important questions of journalism, money in politics, lobbying power, and facts of history.

As an explanation of propaganda, there is the twist that this is propaganda about propaganda.

My takeaway is that one side controlling information about conflict and human rights reduces healthy information and debate. Mainstream US media has fallen short in the duty of the press to fully inform the citizens of our democracy. When this involves many lives, and the potential for more world war, seeing all sides of the issues is important to all peoples. The movie is informative and thought provoking, whether you agree with all of it or not.

Good guys V bad guys? Plainly yes, if you consume mainstream American media.

Travel outside the States and you'll get a more nuanced version (though still heavily biased towards the state they call Israel).

This is a great little doc, narrated by Roger Waters as well.