David Dabscheck, New York regional director of The David Project, outlines strategies for defending Israel to a gathering at the Wilf Jewish Community Campus.
Photos by Elaine Durbach
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March 26, 2009
The David Project aims to arm an army of eloquent speakers to defend Israel on college campuses and in the community at large. Appropriately, “ARM” is the acronym for the approach it teaches: “Address” the criticism, “Reframe” — to control the agenda, and “Message” — reinforcing one’s point.
David Dabscheck, New York regional manager of the advocacy training organization, gave a brief description of such tactics to a gathering of around 50 people at the Wilf Jewish Community Campus in Scotch Plains on March 22.
His talk — “Making the Case for Israel: The Fundamentals of Israel Activism” — was cosponsored by the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, the JCC of Central NJ, and the Israel Support Committee of four local synagogues. It was funded with help from Laura Cohen of Cranford.
The event was designed as an introductory training, and Dabscheck fielded eager questions and comments from the audience. He remarked at one point on just how well-informed they were, and moved ahead more quickly, buoyed — it seemed — by their readiness to take up the cause.
As one person noted, Dabscheck deals often with young people, just beginning to encounter views critical of Israel. In this audience, he had seasoned Zionists, many of whom have visited Israel over and over again.
Conrad Nadell, chair of the Israel Support Committee of Congregation Beth Israel, Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim, Temple Beth O’r/Beth Torah, and Temple Emanu-El, the group that organized Dabscheck’s talk, had just returned from a visit to Israel with his wife, Meryl. In the front row was Ron Rockman, who — with his wife Sharon, president of the federation’s Women’s Campaign — led a mission to Israel last November.
Some people voiced dire warnings about rising anti-Semitism and the need to fight back against Israel’s enemies. Others argued for an acknowledgement of what is wrong in Israel, and a willingness to engage in dialogue.
Dabscheck was emphatic that The David Project is neither left-wing nor right-wing and its training applies to the broad Jewish community. He downplayed audience members’ raising the possible clash of conflicting points of view, quoting prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz as saying: “90 percent of our arguments are about the 10 percent that we differ on.”
If you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it, Dabscheck said, this time quoting Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels. The counterpoint, he said, is that the truth has to be reiterated over and over.
After his presentation on Israel advocacy, David Dabscheck talks with attendee Tamara Rueben.
Often, he went on, it is effective to acknowledge the problems Israel is dealing with and even areas where it needs to improve —and then to reframe the discussion, or move on other issues.
In addition to stressing the facts, he said, there needs to be an emphasis on the positive aspects of Israeli society, such as its passion and achievements, as opposed to just the conflict — in effect, a re-branding, to put it in current marketing terms.
By way of showing what Israel supporters are up against, Dabscheck showed slides from college campuses where Israel Apartheid Week events were staged earlier this month.
He then divided the audience into four groups, each assigned a familiar accusation to counteract: “Zionism is racism,” “Israel is an apartheid state,” “Israel uses disproportionate force,” and “Israel deliberately targeted civilians in Gaza.”
After conferring for a few minutes, the groups presented their answers. For example, if the checkpoints on the West Bank mirror apartheid separation in South Africa, it should be noted that such checkpoints went up in response to violence. And as for Israel’s being racist, what about its rescue of tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews?
In the heat of the moment, tactics can be hard to remember, but intent on learning, the participants went back to that ARM framework, and reshaped their arguments accordingly.
“This is just a beginning,” Dabscheck told them. He urged them to keep honing their approach, and to speak up. For those dubious about their own powers of persuasion, he had two more pithy sayings: “It takes only a small candle to light up a room,” and “An imperfect voice is better than a perfect silence.”
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