Stuart Littlewood argues that Israel’s medical showcase in Haiti will do nothing to change the fact that it is “among the worst brand names on the planet", unless Tel Aviv ends its "bullying rhetoric and atrocious deeds" against the Palestinians and convinces the world that it has abandoned the practise of organ stealing.
The sacking of Baroness Jenny Tonge from her House of Lords front-bench job for what the Liberal Democrat leader called "unacceptable comments suggesting an inquiry into highly offensive allegations against the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] humanitarian operation in Haiti" looked like part of a desperate bid to rescue an initiative to build Israel a new image.
The fly in the re-branding ointment was this video by a Mr T. West of AfriSynergy Productions. Briefly, it warns but doesn't actually make allegations about organ harvesting in Haiti.
Its message is that, given Israel's past involvement in this obnoxious trade, there is a risk that the IDF medical expedition and indeed non-Israeli outfits, or individuals attached to them, could be taking advantage of the chaos in shattered Haiti where there is little monitoring. "Be aware, be cautious of international groups," advises West.
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The Israeli field hospital, as far as one could see on the footage, was exceedingly well equipped and staffed, and a credit to Israel and its military. According to CNN news clips, it was by far the best facility in the disaster zone and the Americans were portrayed as having not even shown up. Perhaps all America's MASH units were deployed on active service in its numerous foreign wars. The Israeli military, funded by the US taxpayer, fights mainly at home from behind massive armour and firepower against a lightly armed or unarmed enemy and sustains few casualties. One can imagine their medics just itching to get out and about.
Mr West also prefaces a series of CNN reports on Israeli families doing business with kidney brokers to obtain transplants from live donors and tricking hospitals in the US and elsewhere into believing their operations are within the law.
Add to this an Almanar report and a similar piece by PressTV, and readers are bound to draw certain conclusions especially after also reading
- "Prof Yehuda Hiss: the missing link in Palestinian organ theft?" by Jonathan Cook
- "Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent" by Ian Black in the and
- Stephen Lendman’s “Focus on Israel: harvesting Haitian organs?”
Thanks to Mr West and his videos, and revelations about Israel's past “form”', the suspicion has been firmly planted in the public mind that this nasty organ harvesting business might still be going on. In, Haiti however, what we have is speculation rather than substantial allegations. But this being such a scary subject for ordinary people, many are going to fear the worst despite Israeli assurances that they ceased organ harvesting in the 1990s.
”Magic” marketing won’t work unless the beast changes its spots
This is a tough one for Tel Aviv. As everyone knows, Israel is among the worst brand-names on the planet. Founded on terror, thriving on lands seized from its neighbours at gun-point, and bent on making its illegal occupation permanent, the Zionist regime’s chances of creating a decent image are minimal no matter how clever the spin. "Israel’s brand image does not serve its interests right now,” warned Ido Aharoni, head of brand management at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
"The conclusion is that it is more important for Israel to be attractive than to be right," he famously added.
So, 15 month ago they hired British PR firm Acanchi to do the impossible. Acanchi’s boss said they aimed to “unlock the magic that can be used to create a compelling brand positioning”. To achieve this they would tap into a mysterious life force called “chi”. “We believe that success for a country brand can be achieved by discovering, defining and channeling this chi into a brand positioning that reflects the core truths of a place."
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A new brand is always rooted in the reality and essence of the place. "We immerse ourselves in the place and its culture… The essence of a country has to be based on a core set of truths…"
Whatever Acanchi made of Israel’s “core truths”, the first fruits of the “chi” magic were, presumably, the impressive tents, shiny new medical equipment and skilled personnel dispatched post-haste to Haiti at a time of great humanitarian need. Such an undeniably brilliant move would have paid dividends for any other client.
But back in the Palestinian occupied territories Israel’s real ”core truths and essence” were unchanged. It was business as usual: endless air raids, armed incursions, assassinations, abducting civilians in the middle of the night, torturing them, keeping 10,000 locked up and rotting in Israeli jails, thieving more land and water resources, demolishing homes, shooting up fishing boats, persecuting Christians as well as Muslims, threatening another murderous blitzkrieg against starving Gazans and preventing humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials reaching them, wrecking their infrastructure and wiping out their economy -- never mind the cost in blood, flying body-parts, vaporized torsos and rising numbers of deformed births.
Somebody should have told Acanchi that their “chi” magic is never going to work unless the beast changes its spots. A brand is only as good as the actual product, the way it behaves and how it scores on all the measures people use to evaluate it. Upgrading the Israel brand can only be done if the Israel product itself changes for the better.
Israeli chiefs are now left wondering how to correct the bad impression made by their grisly past catching up with them in Haiti. The medical team’s impressive showing at the earthquake scene suggests they are very image-conscious right now, but any PR gains will always be cancelled out if the regime’s bullying rhetoric and atrocious deeds are allowed to continue.
A start could be made in dispelling doubts on the organ harvesting issue by convincing the world’s public they are as squeaky-clean these days as they claim. Jenny Tonge’s invitation to them to do just that clearly needled the Israel lobby but wasn’t a flogging offence or one that deserved the sack.
If I were an Israeli chief I'd turn the problem into an opportunity and set up a rigorous, independent inquiry in the interests of good PR.
That is, assuming I had nothing to hide.
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