Case Studies: Obsession
Summary of the Problems with 'Obsession'
Obsession is a venomously anti-Muslim film made by a quasi-official Israeli propaganda organization called honestreporting.com. It was established by a group of British supporters of Israel as a website in the early stages of the second Intifada. These founders became immigrants to Israel and the organization is now based there. It is headed by Ephraim Shore, who also serves as the co-director of the Israel Office for Hasbara [propaganda] Fellowships, which is a creature of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Obsession is an elaboration of a theme that was developed by Israeli propaganda during the second Intifada, which has been described in pro-Israeli propaganda literature as the “it’s a culture not a conflict” argument. During the second Intifada, the principle task of pro-Israeli advocacy in the west was to present arguments that could distract from the occupation as the obvious and proximate cause of the conflict, so as to prevent people from drawing the logical conclusion that the only serious way to end the conflict is to end the occupation. To that end, any number of other factors were cited as major contributors to the conflict, but none proved more effective than the idea that there is simply something pathological and wrong with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim culture and thinking and that Israel has no choice but to use violence to defend itself and continue the occupation into the indefinite future.
Obsession serves two purposes: the first, direct purpose is to spread fear and hatred of Muslims in general; the second, more indirect but more fundamental purpose, is to stigmatize Palestinians, paint their national struggle as the primal and worst form of global terror, and to cast Israel as part of a besieged and wholly innocent western world under barbarian attack.
The film argues that Palestinians and other Muslims are, in effect, Nazis, and that radical Muslims have embarked on a campaign of world conquest inspired directly by Adolph Hitler. It opens with a disclaimer that it is not about Muslims in general, most of whom do not support terrorism, but about a radical worldview and ideology. This disclaimer is undermined from the outset and the film moves quite rapidly to blur any such distinctions. Certainly, the film argues that millions of Muslims are completely interpolated into the discourse of terrorists and that Arab media is nothing but a tirade of anti-American and anti-Israel incitement.
Obviously, the film-makers had no trouble finding suitably appalling clips – many of them already very familiar from other Israeli propaganda sources such as MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch. And they are real. However, painting these as typical of the Arab media, discourse and attitudes is absurd, and in so doing, the filmmakers deliberately move into the realm of hate-speech.
Obsession is stunningly dishonest in every respect, not least in its use of Arab commentators, almost all of whom are converts from Islam to right-wing evangelical Christianity and intense supporters of Israel. There is no indication to the audience of the religious and political background of these people, several of whom have represented their life-stories in a manner that makes it clear that they are at best wild fantasists and at worst shameless liars. They are simply presented to the audience as Arabs who know what they are talking about and are willing to speak on the record.
The most troubling aspect of Obsession is the extent to which this crude and preposterous exercise in hate-speech and defamation has been promoted and publicized by both FoxNews Channel and CNN. Fox ran most of it as a special, including as an extra only an interview with the director who assured the audience that this kind of speech is mainstream in the Arab media. CNN’s Glen Beck has also tirelessly promoted the film and shown many clips of it.
Any skeptical observer should find it instantly obvious that Obsession is a viciously hateful film designed to promote fear and hatred of Muslims in general, and Palestinians in particular. Many have already identified it as such. The film has no distributor for theatrical release and a number of universities have prevented it being screened on campus due to its inflammatory content. However, the film plainly has its champions, and it must be exposed for the outrageous nonsense that it is.
