Former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh (Labor) claimed that Israel has undergone a "Goebbelsian propaganda" against Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, referring to Nazi propaganda leader Joseph Goebbels.
The claim is considered by some as particularly distasteful for having been given in an interview with Al Monitor last week, right before Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day this Monday.
Sneh commented on an interview Abbas gave to Israeli journalists last Tuesday, in which he delivered an ultimatum that Israel must freeze construction in Judea and Samaria for three months to extend peace talks, threatening to disband the PA if Israel did not comply.
According to the former minister, Abbas was, and is, "misportrayed" by the "well-oiled propaganda system of the Israeli regime, and there is no one to counter it.”
“We’re at a point where no one listens to Abbas at all, because the right wing of (Deputy Defense Minister) Danny Danon and (MK Orit) Struk has managed to take over the public discourse," claimed the former Labor MK.
Sneh went on to defend Abbas, claiming "the Israeli public has undergone brainwashing in recent years, so that even if Abbas says something right, no one listens to him."
"The propaganda and brainwashing that the Israeli public has undergone on the Palestinian issue are Goebbelsian in style. This is Goebbelsian propaganda," charged Sneh, equivocating the Jewish state with the leader of the propaganda machine of the Nazis, who slaughtered six million Jews.
Who really is like Goebbels?
Ironically Abbas has himself been accused of being "Goebbelsian."
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman in 2012 charged Abbas of uttering "hateful slander that one could only read in Goebbels' Der Sturmer...I remember that he met terrorists who were responsible for attacks at the Park Hotel, at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, and he spoke of them as heroes."
"Then he mumbles something in English on Israeli television and it's as if everything has changed, and he never said anything before this," added Liberman, arguing against the duplicitous "propaganda" of Abbas as seen by comparing his statements in Arabic and English.
"There is no terrorism"
Sneh went on to complain about the "propaganda" against Abbas that presents him as a terrorist, saying the propaganda is "dormant, because there’s no terrorism. The security forces are doing a good job."
In fact, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) figures note that terrorist attacks skyrocketed in 2013, jumping to 1,271 from 578 the year prior. Of those attacks, 1,042 took place in Judea and 229 took place in Samaria, areas largely under the control of Abbas's PA.
Further, the PA last month pledged another $74 million from its PA budget to the families of "martyrs (deceased terrorists)."
Sneh also tried to defend senior PA official Jibril Rajoub, who was given an unusually critical interview on Channel 2 in early April, in which he was questioned over the PA breach of peace talk conditions by applying to 15 international conventions the week before.
"All those sitting in the studio attack him rudely and indiscriminately. It was shameful," claimed Sneh. "(Anchorman) Danny Kushmaro turned into an inquisitor. What’s the deal with them?"
Rajoub last May stated that if the PA had nuclear weapons, it would destroy Israel instead of negotiating with it. He also claimed on PA TV earlier this month that if Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had come to Israel "he would have learned from them how to oppress humans and learned from them about concentration camps, extermination camps."
Fear of "moderates"
Sneh concluded by claiming the PA unity deal reached with the terrorist group Hamas last Wednesday, which led to a suspension of the peace talks, is "unimportant" and "meaningless."
The former deputy minister claimed the reconciliation was in fact a case of Abbas picking Hamas "off the floor," noting the terror group has been outlawed by Egypt.
"I think the (Israeli) government is actually scared Hamas will collapse, because then, the moderates will come, Mahmoud Abbas and (former Fatah senior official Mohammed) Dahlan," stated Sneh.