jennyhor2004 This is a highly informative documentary on the role that the US media plays in encouraging support for the Israeli government and its oppression of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories (West Bank and Gaza) and how this support influences US foreign policy in the Middle East. Through interviews with various academics, critics, journalists, religious leaders, peace activists and others, the program examines the methods that the Israeli government and its allies use to hide the truth about the harassment of Palestinians by the Israeli Defense Forces and to portray Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land as necessary and urgent self-defence. In particular, the role of American journalists and the American media organisations that employ them in disguising the truth is examined.The film's style is simple and straightforward, built as it is around a wealth of newsreel reports punctuated by excerpts of interviews with guest commentators who include academics Noam Chomsky and Robert Jensen, British journalist Robert Fisk, peace activist Hanan Ashrawi and Tikkun Magazine founder Rabbi Michael Lerner among others. There's a certain polish to the film's presentation, especially in its use of animation and tables, though it is not at all sickly slick and the narration is very sparing, limited to relaying important information to viewers, and serves to introduce interviewees who expound at further length on the topics covered. The film reveals, among other things, that the US- Israeli relationship is of mutual benefit at the Palestinians' expense: the US relies on Israel to use most of the aid it receives from the US into buying American weaponry and other military technology and to test these on unwilling Palestinian guinea pigs, and to play the local sheriff in the Middle East to protect US political and economic interests in that region.The film's structure centres around a list of strategies that the governments of Israel and the United States, their agencies and the US news media use to deceive the American public into supporting Israel. Particularly pernicious as a strategy is the US media's deliberate ignorance of individuals, groups and organisations, often Israeli and/or Jewish as well as Palestinian and/or Muslim, working to relieve the Palestinian people's suffering or calling attention to the abuses inflicted on them. This ignorance would suggest that the media in the United States (and also in many other countries including Australia) either willingly co-operates in constructing a pro-Israeli narrative about the intransigence and barbaric behaviour of Palestinian people especially if they are Muslim; or has been browbeaten, even threatened, into such co-operation by pro-Israeli lobby groups and institutions. In the US, the main lobby organisation is AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee) and in Australia its equivalent is AIJAC (Australia Israel Jewish Affaris Council) which is known to have intimidated the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service into reporting news about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in ways favourable to Israeli interests.The other strategies discussed include the reporting of Palestinian violence in a context-less vacuum (so it appears to happen spontaneously without cause and gives the impression that Palestinians by nature are savage and Israel must always be on the alert); defining what is newsworthy (so Israeli victims of violence get more attention; this drives home the notion of Jews as eternal victims of persecution); Israel's colonisation of Palestinian territory being made invisible; the idea of the United States as an impartial and neutral referee; and the idea that any offers of peace to the Palestinians are always rejected by them (because the context in which such offers are made and the fine print within are never revealed in reports). Other ways in which Western audiences are co-opted into supporting Israel go unmentioned but deserve attention: in particular, Israel's use of the Shoah (Nazi-Jewish Holocaust) to beat European governments into coughing up money, none of which actually goes towards Shoah survivors who might be living in penury in Israel."Peace, Propaganda …" is a well-presented documentary, quite detailed in parts, and easy to follow. I recommend the film as a primer for those not familiar with the methods and strategies the Israeli government and its supporters uses to intimidate and silence politicians and media organisations around the world who have misgivings about the way Israel treats Palestinians and about the fascist, racist path that country is following in order to pursue such a policy. Media students would do well to watch the film which calls into question the nature of the relationships between the news media and governments, and which also highlights the need for the news media to tell the truth over the pressure to appear "unbiased" or "balanced" in its reporting. Ah, "fair and balanced" reporting: that doubtless is another strategy the apologists for the Israel government like to use

theenemy-1 1. Why do Jews deserve a land of their own? They stole the land from the Palestinians. If the basis for ownership of land is based on last occupation, I can only assume that bills316 is a Native American. Otherwise, unless s/he is a major hypocrite, s/he would hand back the land to the Native Americans, who owned Canada far more recently than the Jews owned Palestine prior to 1948. 2. Why is a Jew who criticizes Israel "self-hating"? Is a Canadian who criticizes Canada self-hating? Of course not. It is a democratic tradition and right to criticize your own country and people when they misbehave, as Israel has massively done. 3. This is not about appeasement. It is about brutality and the vicious cruelty of Israel - rightful heirs to the Nazis - towards their native population. The fact that it is so rare to see the truth in the Western media does not make it a lie. Bills316 and others should welcome the fact that the truth is finally allowed to appear. 4. See the movie. 5. Bills 316, it's "following its left-wing agenda", not following "it's left-wing agenda" from the grammatical point of view and "telling the truth" from all other points of view. 6. And, yes, I know (yawn) you are going to say that this is anti-Semitic. However, being anti-Zionist is not anti-Semitic any more than it is Jew-hating.

stefan-414 Those Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints – total beasts, treating Palestinian women and children like Nazis treated "sub-human" Jews, Gypsies or Poles. There should be an international outcry and demand by the US (let's dream: a special Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with trustworthy Palestinian witnesses) to bring civility and courtesy right there and punish those young arrogant brutes, full of hubris and chutzpah. Shame on the IDF leadership and civilian government of Israel for allowing this to happen. This is unforgivable and this detail alone in the movie makes me start detesting "things Israel" and morally condemn them. As much as Israel has the right to exist, they have a long way to go to figure out how to solve the problem they themselves are partly to be blamed for, as the movie exposes, notwithstanding the Arab dictatorships that have pushed relentlessly against the state of Israel, which the movie does not mention at all. For that, this excellent documentary receives 8 instead of 10. What Israel does now (August 2006) in Lebanon is foolhardy at best (an elephant in the porcelain store tactics) and they will be punished in the future by the ever stronger Arab, fanatically religious Muslim or Palestinian irredentist movements.I do not believe in 2 separate states in that small piece of land. It is downright silly from the ecological standpoint if you think about it. I vote for one new state*: call it whatever you want: The Palestine Republic of Israel (or The Israel Republic of Palestine) - with equal rights for the Palestinians. With one condition from the outset – it must be a secular state and all religions should be a private matter of their worshipers with external displays of it confined only to the interior of their respective worship houses). War interests in the U.S. (and Israel and Syria and Iran) will never allow for permanent peace though. "War is good" for them (for different reasons, not only greed in case of the US and Israel) and unless we get rid of the criminals in the WH the worst is yet to come. The neo-cons are pushing Israel for a greater conflict, trying to suck in Syria and eventually Iran. This will all play out before November…Arabs should be told loud and clear that in the wake of WWII many nations were moved from one location to another (e.g. Poles, Germans), had to accept the new geo-political reality and live with that whether they liked it or not. Another point is that due to aggression by the Arabs in 1967 Israel gained territory. This is called spoils of war. Too bad Arabs started that war. So once and for all they should stop whining and accept things fairly. Only then the world community will treat them fairly. It is ironic now that Palestinians, Hezbollah and other Arab knuckle heads are rejecting the Israel's right to exist, whereas Palestinians themselves yarn for their own state (read right to exist). An untenable inconsistency and hypocrisy. They have to grow up and so do the Israelis. The only solution to this problem is 1) to remove the Bush criminal squad (the biggest military and economic terrorists on the face of Earth) from the WH, so the world at large starts to trust the American people again 2) form an International Council of Sages that will hold the world mandate to resolve that conflict. Send them down there to meet with the moderates (chosen from peoples representatives) on both sides, and offer them the best equitable solution. Try to stay away from current politicos and government of Israel - make an apeal to the population instead (who is at least 50% secular, i.e. reassonable). They should get rid of the corrupt American a** kissers who are currently in the pocket of neo-cons leading that country and the world to disaster 3) Both Palestinians and Israeli should refrain from use of force and violence during those talks. 4) Again, in this process try to avoid at all cost politicians, especially of criminally lying Condi Rice type. 5) Once the consensus on both sides is achieved US democratic-by-that-time Senate should enact law of banning any weapon exports from the US. 6) Worldwide campaign to shut down armament factories and convert them to wind mill and other sustainable energy plants should follow. 7) Don't forget to put Rupport Murdoch on trial for trying so hard to dismantle the US constitution… Let's wake up, the Earth is too precious thing to loose…* Why not creating there Middle East Union (Jordan, Israel, Lebanon) and avoid the state issue at all. The state concept is so much XIX-th century anyway.

zipzipsaib This is a must seen documentary about the Israeli Palestinian conflict.The movie tries to criticize the way the conflict is presented in the us media in a biased way in my opinion.Few points which are covered through the film are: 1. the claim of Israel generosity in the peace processes. 2. calling the Israeli actions as retaliation and other uses of words in the media. 3. covering the events without context 4. unbiased covering of the events.Sometimes I hear people who are saying that the us media is pro-Palestinian, I hope that this film can raise thoughts and doubts on such claims. You are all invited to plant olive trees in occupied Palestinian lands...