Obsession
A few backs the Clarion Fund targeted states it deemed closely contested in the 2008 Presidential Election and sent out a DVD called Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. According to the official website, they mailed out 28 million copies of this film. Lisa received this in the mail and I watched it.
It started off by surprising me, I had bad expectations due to the negative press the film received. In fact I would not have watched it at all had the envelope not proclaimed that the film appeared on both CNN and Fox News. Anyway, the production quality was better than I anticipated. The graphics and transitions flowed smoothly from scene to scene.
The film kicked off about how you would expect a one with a subtitle like that would, plenty of vivid imagery to call attention to the violence explosions and repercussions of terrorist activity throughout the world. Then it proceeds to intersplice snippets of interviews with startling footage from Middle Eastern television (especially satellite). The film uses this format to bolster the theories espoused by the people interviewed and uses their words to explain the snippets of violent language spoken by some Muslims. This basic formula starts off with setting the stage that terrorists are motivated by an ideology that is not unpopular; the film makes the point that most Muslims are peaceful but expresses this threat in terms of 10-15% of the billion Muslims exceeds the population of the United States (I'm paraphrasing but that was the gist).
OK, it is a minority of Muslims and they are driven by an ideology. From there the film goes on to claim the Middle Eastern media is to blame for perpetuating the violent ideology. It draws parallels between multiple media clips and Nazi depictions of Jews. Somehow the film drifts into clips of Adolf Hitler and Mufti of Jerusalem walked around, followed shortly thereafter by claims that Islamic jihad seeks to destroy other religions and conquer the world. The non-too subtle implication links Arabic influence in Eastern Bloc in World War II, so when people speak of the land for peace negotiations with Hitler it is implicitly correlated to the current state of Israel. In short, the work at this point reveals itself as a propaganda device to oppose any two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The film closes with a plea for Americans to become more active in the issue of Islamic extremism. The website offers links to watchdog groups that troll Middle Eastern media for incendiary language. It also encourages campus rallies at colleges and letter writing campaigns to Congress. As American media reporters have noted, I have to agree this seems an ambitious project with a wide distribution. Such a large effort in such key states for the election at this moment in time begs for explanation. It is hard to buy that these are all coincidence instead of an effort to effect the outcome of the election.
The website claims this project does not target the election and rightfully points out that the film does not mention any US politicians running for office. I am also not sure how John McCain is better than Barack Obama from the perspective of this film, both have spoken with absolute support for Israel. Both men spoke before the Jewish lobbying group AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) with McCain saying and Obama said in June "I have been proud to be a part of a strong, bi-partisan consensus that has stood by Israel in the face of all threats. That is a commitment that both John McCain and I share, because support for Israel in this country goes beyond party." and "Those who threaten Israel threaten us. Israel has always faced these threats on the front lines. And I will bring to the White House an unshakeable commitment to Israel's security." The only difference I could read into their rhetoric is McCain speaks more to military support and Obama speaks more to the two state solution, but both frame their words in the same nature of full support for Israel.
To recap, the Obsession film is a dud to watch and does not accomplish whatever the people that paid for it to be mailed intended. I am surprised that the effort received as much attention as it did in the press.
It started off by surprising me, I had bad expectations due to the negative press the film received. In fact I would not have watched it at all had the envelope not proclaimed that the film appeared on both CNN and Fox News. Anyway, the production quality was better than I anticipated. The graphics and transitions flowed smoothly from scene to scene.
The film kicked off about how you would expect a one with a subtitle like that would, plenty of vivid imagery to call attention to the violence explosions and repercussions of terrorist activity throughout the world. Then it proceeds to intersplice snippets of interviews with startling footage from Middle Eastern television (especially satellite). The film uses this format to bolster the theories espoused by the people interviewed and uses their words to explain the snippets of violent language spoken by some Muslims. This basic formula starts off with setting the stage that terrorists are motivated by an ideology that is not unpopular; the film makes the point that most Muslims are peaceful but expresses this threat in terms of 10-15% of the billion Muslims exceeds the population of the United States (I'm paraphrasing but that was the gist).
OK, it is a minority of Muslims and they are driven by an ideology. From there the film goes on to claim the Middle Eastern media is to blame for perpetuating the violent ideology. It draws parallels between multiple media clips and Nazi depictions of Jews. Somehow the film drifts into clips of Adolf Hitler and Mufti of Jerusalem walked around, followed shortly thereafter by claims that Islamic jihad seeks to destroy other religions and conquer the world. The non-too subtle implication links Arabic influence in Eastern Bloc in World War II, so when people speak of the land for peace negotiations with Hitler it is implicitly correlated to the current state of Israel. In short, the work at this point reveals itself as a propaganda device to oppose any two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The film closes with a plea for Americans to become more active in the issue of Islamic extremism. The website offers links to watchdog groups that troll Middle Eastern media for incendiary language. It also encourages campus rallies at colleges and letter writing campaigns to Congress. As American media reporters have noted, I have to agree this seems an ambitious project with a wide distribution. Such a large effort in such key states for the election at this moment in time begs for explanation. It is hard to buy that these are all coincidence instead of an effort to effect the outcome of the election.
The website claims this project does not target the election and rightfully points out that the film does not mention any US politicians running for office. I am also not sure how John McCain is better than Barack Obama from the perspective of this film, both have spoken with absolute support for Israel. Both men spoke before the Jewish lobbying group AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) with McCain saying and Obama said in June "I have been proud to be a part of a strong, bi-partisan consensus that has stood by Israel in the face of all threats. That is a commitment that both John McCain and I share, because support for Israel in this country goes beyond party." and "Those who threaten Israel threaten us. Israel has always faced these threats on the front lines. And I will bring to the White House an unshakeable commitment to Israel's security." The only difference I could read into their rhetoric is McCain speaks more to military support and Obama speaks more to the two state solution, but both frame their words in the same nature of full support for Israel.
To recap, the Obsession film is a dud to watch and does not accomplish whatever the people that paid for it to be mailed intended. I am surprised that the effort received as much attention as it did in the press.
respond or e-mail this post:
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home