But isn't it really all about the beer? My TV says that, to the typical American viewer, nothing is more important, nothing is more sacred, than beer.
You've seen that commercial a thousand times. In one spot the guy leaps over the most desirable girl in the world to get to the even sexier beer! He even jumps through a window for his brew. Then comes the slogan: "It's all about the beer." Inside advertising that's called a hard sell. On occasion, it's a soft sell. In any case, the assumption is that if you repeat a pitch often enough people take it for the truth.
Outside of advertising, in the big world of politics and public opinion, a repetitive pitch is sometimes known as the Big Lie.
On the same TV that sells beer we are also being sold another product: the Arab case against Israel. On CNN right now, here's the dictator of Jordan dismissing irrefutable evidence that Yasser Arafat is a terrorist. This dictator speaks smoothly and pleasantly and persuasively - just like those people who sell beer. Throughout the cable channels, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and even throughout the regular big-time networks, Arab pitchmen and women take turns trying to promote their product: namely, that Israel, the size of Connecticut, has too much land. The 22 nations that make up the Arab world don't have enough land, even though they own territory that is even larger than all of the United States of America.
Just as beer is our main product on TV, hatred of Israel is theirs.
That's what they're selling. That's the pitch from Jordan and other such nations. The Saudis, the smoothest salesmen of all, tell us not to believe what our own eyes can see. No, they say, those millions raised on Saudi telethons are to support "humanitarian" causes, not to perpetuate suicide bombings and more terrorism.
As opposed to beer, sales gimmicks such as these are tough to swallow.
Not so out there in the Middle East, where they buy that product because they have no choice. There is no competing product. There is no competing point of view. Out there, on the Arab street, hatred of Israel, along with hatred for America, is the one and only commercial fit for public consumption.
The hard sell, the Big Lie, that's difficult to export. This Bud's for us; the hatred you can keep.
We in the US will buy that commercial, we'll buy the beer, but we are disinclined to buy King Abdullah and the rest of them, who are trying to sell us their hatred against Israel. We are not that pliable. We are not that gullible. We are not as single-minded as they are in the Arab world, and we are not as anti-Semitic as they are in the European Union. In the United States we are trained to make up our own minds. We are allowed, even encouraged, to differ and express contrary points of view.
Around here, we are not so easy to fool and it is easy to see why these Arab salesmen and women keep getting so flustered on TV when they face challenges from American defenders of Israel. After all, back home on the Arab street there are no challenges to the Big Lie. You don't dare. If you do, you get yourself killed. You are called a collaborator; and just the other month or so nearly a dozen Arabs who spoke up against Arafat were lynched.
But they keep coming here to the US, these spokespersons for the case against Israel; they keep coming and coming and they keep telling us that night is day, day is night, bitter is sweet, sweet is bitter, a terrorist is not a terrorist, Jewish land is Arab land, and that the murder of five-year-old Israeli girls is justified.
That's a tough sell all right, and we're not buying.
The beer, yes, but the rest of it stinks like any import that doesn't travel well.
--------------------------------------------------------
Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller Indecent Proposal, a former radio and newspaper editor covering the Mideast and a former American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces. His columns can be read online at http://www.comteqcom.com/jackcolumn.php. He can be reached at JackEngelhard@ComteQcom.com.
[This article was originally written the week of May 6, 2002]
You've seen that commercial a thousand times. In one spot the guy leaps over the most desirable girl in the world to get to the even sexier beer! He even jumps through a window for his brew. Then comes the slogan: "It's all about the beer." Inside advertising that's called a hard sell. On occasion, it's a soft sell. In any case, the assumption is that if you repeat a pitch often enough people take it for the truth.
Outside of advertising, in the big world of politics and public opinion, a repetitive pitch is sometimes known as the Big Lie.
On the same TV that sells beer we are also being sold another product: the Arab case against Israel. On CNN right now, here's the dictator of Jordan dismissing irrefutable evidence that Yasser Arafat is a terrorist. This dictator speaks smoothly and pleasantly and persuasively - just like those people who sell beer. Throughout the cable channels, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and even throughout the regular big-time networks, Arab pitchmen and women take turns trying to promote their product: namely, that Israel, the size of Connecticut, has too much land. The 22 nations that make up the Arab world don't have enough land, even though they own territory that is even larger than all of the United States of America.
Just as beer is our main product on TV, hatred of Israel is theirs.
That's what they're selling. That's the pitch from Jordan and other such nations. The Saudis, the smoothest salesmen of all, tell us not to believe what our own eyes can see. No, they say, those millions raised on Saudi telethons are to support "humanitarian" causes, not to perpetuate suicide bombings and more terrorism.
As opposed to beer, sales gimmicks such as these are tough to swallow.
Not so out there in the Middle East, where they buy that product because they have no choice. There is no competing product. There is no competing point of view. Out there, on the Arab street, hatred of Israel, along with hatred for America, is the one and only commercial fit for public consumption.
The hard sell, the Big Lie, that's difficult to export. This Bud's for us; the hatred you can keep.
We in the US will buy that commercial, we'll buy the beer, but we are disinclined to buy King Abdullah and the rest of them, who are trying to sell us their hatred against Israel. We are not that pliable. We are not that gullible. We are not as single-minded as they are in the Arab world, and we are not as anti-Semitic as they are in the European Union. In the United States we are trained to make up our own minds. We are allowed, even encouraged, to differ and express contrary points of view.
Around here, we are not so easy to fool and it is easy to see why these Arab salesmen and women keep getting so flustered on TV when they face challenges from American defenders of Israel. After all, back home on the Arab street there are no challenges to the Big Lie. You don't dare. If you do, you get yourself killed. You are called a collaborator; and just the other month or so nearly a dozen Arabs who spoke up against Arafat were lynched.
But they keep coming here to the US, these spokespersons for the case against Israel; they keep coming and coming and they keep telling us that night is day, day is night, bitter is sweet, sweet is bitter, a terrorist is not a terrorist, Jewish land is Arab land, and that the murder of five-year-old Israeli girls is justified.
That's a tough sell all right, and we're not buying.
The beer, yes, but the rest of it stinks like any import that doesn't travel well.
--------------------------------------------------------
Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller Indecent Proposal, a former radio and newspaper editor covering the Mideast and a former American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces. His columns can be read online at http://www.comteqcom.com/jackcolumn.php. He can be reached at JackEngelhard@ComteQcom.com.
[This article was originally written the week of May 6, 2002]