Inasmuch as she is a political activist, former Labor and Independence MK Einat Wilf is not vying for a seat in the next Knesset. She is not even sure about which party - if any - will get her vote.

Speaking last Thursday night at the Sharon Hotel in Herzliya Pituah to members of the Israel Britain and the Commonwealth Association, Wilf said that at the present time, with the proliferation of political parties and the lack of clarity in their platforms, she feels politically homeless.

The absence of a political home was not the key topic of her talk. What she really wanted to get across was the inherent danger in the current non-violent conflict being waged by the Palestinians against Israel. 

When they saw that armed conflict and terrorism didn’t work, said Wilf, they resorted to the war of words - a war that, so far, Israel is losing.


When she had served in the Knesset, she said, she had raised this matter at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, where she received a symbolic, benign pat on the head. She was indulged to the extent that she was permitted to present her thesis, but no one really took her warning seriously.

The more she travels abroad on speaking engagements in different countries, the more she realizes how successful the Palestinians have been in their campaign.

She cited an example of a debate with a Palestinian spokesperson in London. He had come up with the expression that Israel was committing cultural genocide. There is no such thing and it doesn’t mean anything, said Wilf, but it was a way of linking Israel with genocide and putting that concept into people’s minds. The same thing happens when Palestinians and their supporters talk about settlements, occupation, colonialism and apartheid.

“This is all part of the Palestinian strategy of planting words, images, ideas and arguments into people’s minds,” said Wilf.

“The world’s greatest atrocities were preceded by preparing people’s minds that what they were about to commit was not an atrocity but something they were doing for a noble cause,” said Wilf, noting that most people don’t think of themselves as evil.

But what is happening with the use of specific words she said is “a strategic threat.  It’s a real danger.”

Outlining the methodology, Wilf said that it starts with placard strategy equating Zionism and Israel with racism, imperialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. 

“You know what it says even though you don’t believe it.”

Eventually she continued, many people, even Israel’s best friends, start to think that where there’s smoke there’s fire.


In her travels she has found that people who are genuinely interested in peace in the Middle East, including Jews who are not anti-Israel but are against Israel’s policies, fall victim to this strategy and utilize it.  But the Palestinians and other Arabs who are utilizing it have a different purpose. 

They want to get rid of the State of Israel and they don’t want any Jews living in the land which is currently Israeli territory, said Wilf, “but no-one believes it.”

Wilf underscored the misconception in the popular belief that if Israel would only get rid the settlements and allow Palestinian refugees to return there would be peace.

“It’s not what we do but who we are,” she said.  “They hate us.”


Nonetheless, there are large numbers of Israelis who are willing to make peace and share the land, but every time that the Palestinians have had an opportunity to create their own state, they have found a reason not to, she said.

Moving on to unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, Wilf pointed out that there is a lacuna in resolutions to this effect. If she was writing the resolution she would add the codicil that once a Palestinian state is recognized, it means the end of the Palestinian refugee situation, because people who have a state are not refugees.

Wilf regretted that in the war of words Israel has not yet been able to emulate the victories achieved in armed conflict.