If you’re heard it once, you’ve heard a hundred times: Israel is losing the PR war.
You’ve probably turned on the TV recently and heard that Israel used “excessive force” in what was really self-defense. You’ve probably opened a newspaper and seen a headline accusing Israel of “violence.” After every stabbing in Jerusalem, every operation in Gaza, every life lost — you’re probably really sick of explaining to your non-Jewish friends that they’re not seeing the full story in the media, over and over and over again.
And if you’re a Harry Potter fan like I am, this story might remind you of something.
If you didn’t make it through the whole series, I’ll give you the Sparknotes version of the fifth book; After Harry makes his most narrow escape from Voldemort yet, and warns the wizarding world of the increasing dangers facing them, the most absurd thing happens — almost nobody believes him. The Minister firmly believes Harry is lying and puts him on trial for doing magic in what was clearly self-defense. The mainstream newspaper constantly writes slanderous articles to make him look crazy. And perhaps the most frustrating part of it all is that Harry is alienated by many of his classmates who don't believe he had fought a murderous Voldemort.
Any logical reader would be beside themselves with indignation — in the wizarding world, Harry is clearly the good guy, and Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters are clearly the bad guys.
Is almost no one on Harry’s side?
And in the real world, when the known terrorist organization, Hamas, fires rockets over the border, incites Palestinians to stab Jews on the streets, and uses their own citizens as human shields for PR purposes… why does it always feel like no one is on Israel’s side?
I sort of understand: Between living in a time of extreme political correctness (and in a country where the threat of getting stabbed while you’re waiting at a bus station is unthinkable) the average American is bound to be ambivalent about Israel–if they even hear about the issues at all. The only people who can relate to the articles and blogs and Facebook posts about the terrorist attacks are those who already call themselves Zionists.
When I got assigned a project in my digital studies class at USC to make a “remix video” with a different message than the original content intended, I thought that everyone could relate to Harry Potter.
At the time of posting this blog (72 hours after the video went online),