Dare To Inquire - Category: Stories    
 The War of the Minds: An Analysis of Arab Propaganda3 comments
category picture8 Dec 2003 @ 17:37
The following story "I am Abdul"... The War of the Minds: How to Win It and How to Lose It" by William R. Perl was first published in the Times of Israel and World Jewish Review v.1:no.11 Apr. 1975.

Perl, an American Jew born in Czechoslavakia, helped rescue thousands of Jews from Nazi hands before World War II, later managed to escape to the U.S., and then had a distinguished military career in U.S. Army Intelligence, where he specialized in the psychology of communications and propaganda. After retirement, he worked tirelessly for Soviet Jewry. He died in 1998 at the age of 92 having devoted his life to the Jewish people, to his country--the United States of America, and to the cause of human liberty.

As the Times of Israel described Perl's story, it gives "...a U.S. Army propaganda expert's astonishing analysis of Arab propaganda--and how Jews can still win the war for people's minds. His analysis is presented in a unique fashion--[as a fictional account, after the destruction of the State of Israel, as told] through Arab eyes."

Reading this 1975 story in late 2003, I find that its alternate universe reveals in many ways a soberingly prescient picture of Arab propaganda efforts over the last quarter-century. I have not found this story elsewhere on the World Wide Web and consider it of enough potential interest that I've decided to republish it electronically on this newslog.  More >