My work for Israel

An excerpt from my ILoveIsrael.me project. See the mini-documentary here.  Imagine if evidence-based infographics like this, along with world-class videos, 3D animations, even VR applications, were to flood social media, with particular focus on adolescents throughout the world. That is my vision.


Contents

(1) Examples of my work for Israel

(2) Background: Why I have committed so much time and effort to defending Israel in the information war


(1) Examples of my work for Israel


The following is a sampling of the work I’ve done for Israel since 2008. I’ve also done quite a bit of work behind-the-scenes, advising on strategic approaches, visual approaches, speech editing, branding and satire.  Details upon request for qualified parties.


Entrepreneurial ventures

(1) ILoveIsrael.me (2021)


Analytical graphics and infographic reports

(2) Infographic: “Graphic analysis of assassination scene & sequence of events” (2010)

(3) Slide show: “Surveys Concerning Israel & Jews”

(4) Slide show: “How big is Israel, compared to the rest of world?”

(5) Infographic: “Is Israel an apartheid nation?” (2015)

(6) Slide show: “Hate Crimes In America” (2015)

(7) Infographic: “The Money Trail” (2013)

(8) Infographic: “What’s The Difference?” (2017)

(9) Infographic: Why Palestinians are so grateful to US taxpayers


Documentary videos

(10) Documentary: “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada” (2016)

(11) Mini-documentary: “HuffPost’s Dehumanization of Capt. Taylor Force” (2016)

(12) Mini-documentary: “Which Abbas?” (2014)

Videos focusing on the Palestinian rock-throwing phenomenon, and the Western MSM’s pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic bias in covering such incidents, and their victims (more here):

The Wadi’a Maswadah Hoax (7:30)

2010 E. Jerusalem Ambush-Hoax (6:30)


Investigative journalism

It’s time to stop the lie that “Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people” – An Infographic Report by Jon Sutz 29Feb2024

Exposing the NY Times’s latest blood libel against the IDF & its research unit

The LGBT filmmaker boycott of Israel is anti-Semitic and hypocritical

Did Facebook’s continued enabling of anti-Semitic terror-incitement groups result in recent attacks?

Why does Facebook enable Palestinians to incite & glorify anti-Semitic terrorism, but bans users who don’t?

Why does Twitter enable Hamas to spread its propaganda?

The ADL Exposed 1: Ignoring the anti-Semitic murder of an American college professor

Media tools I created in re Netanyahu speech before Congress, March 2015: A slide show of assets that I created, to help expose Democrats’ and mainstream media bias and double-standards against him, and Israel. I shared this slide show with Israel’s Washington DC embassy, plus several former Israeli diplomats.


Satire

Satire 1: “Hamas Loves the University of California-Berkeley Student Senate: Placard art to help fight anti-Israel propaganda”

Satire 2: I was suspended from Facebook for a post in which I mocked Palestinian terrorists who use children as human shields — three years earlier

ICC INSANITY script by Jon Sutz.pdf | PDF

“Terrorist Small Penis Syndrome” Script


Executive speech writing

21July2014 the Speech Bibi Should Give Re OPE


(1) ILoveIsrael.me

My ILoveIsrael.me project came about after I’d spent more than ten years collecting thousands of links about what makes Israel such an amazing, inspiring, humane nation – but for which I had no practical application. The reason I began collecting these links, aside from my general admiration for Israel, was that I could find no online resource that:

  • Contains carefully-curated, meticulously-organized materials about Israel, that enables the general public, especially adolescents, to easily navigate, and dig as deep as they want into key subject matter
  • Can be summoned at a moment’s notice, from a cocktail party to a corporate boardroom, to establish the reality of Israel, and refute the lies, with rock-solid evidence

From 2019-2021, I completed the basic architecture of the site, and self-produced this 12-minute video to explain my vision for its potential (which took an entire year to develop):


(2) Infographic: “Graphic analysis of assassination scene & sequence of events”

On August 3, 2010, Reuters reported that an IDF officer was killed by the Lebanese military after he ordered his unit to cross the Israeli border into the Hezbollah-dominated nation, in an offensive maneuver.

The reality was the entire incident (a tree-trimming exercise) occurred on Israel’s side of the border, and that the officer, Lt. Col. Dov Hariri, was assassinated by a Lebanese military or Hezbollah sniper.

In the following days, the IDF responded with a crude map showing where the incident occurred.  I felt this was inadequate to fully hold Reuters to account, so through some intermediaries, I reached out to the IDF’s spokesperson’s office, and offered my skill in designing analytical graphics & visualizations to create a single-frame infographic that presents a definitive depiction of what actually happened, when, and how, in sequence.  In the following days, I donated my time to create this graphic, which was shared fairly extensively within pro-Israel circles.

Learn more at:

Graphic analysis of assassination scene & sequence of events – Jon Sutz


(3) Slide show: “Surveys Concerning Israel & Jews”

I produced this slide show to showcase some of the mind-boggling public survey data regarding Israel and Jews, to support my creation of the ILoveIsrael.me project:


(4) Slide show: “How big is Israel, compared to the rest of world?”

I produced this slide show as an example of the kinds of informational resources that my ILoveIsrael.me project will create, to help advance accurate perceptions of (a) the size of the Jewish nation, and (b) the Jewish people, as compared to the populations of the Middle East, and the world:


(5) Infographic: “Is Israel an apartheid nation?”

I designed and produced this infographic in 2015, per a trial consulting contract with a pro-Israel nonprofit in Washington, DC, that is no longer in existence.


(6) Slide show: “Hate Crimes In America”

My purpose in creating this report in 2015 was to:

  • Expose the lie that had become popularized in recent years, that America is an “Islamophobic” nation, in which Muslims face uniquely high risk of being victims of hate crimes
  • Demonstrate the fact that then, as now, Muslims are among the least-likely victims of hate crimes, while in New York City alone, Jews are targeted more than all minority groups combined. (This report needs to be, and will be updated, for ILoveIsrael).

Here is the summary slide show.  Learn more at:

Special report: Hate Crimes In America – by Jon Sutz


(7) Infographic: “The Money Trail” (2013)

I crated this infographic for an activist website to showcase the fact that US taxpayer cash is being used to enable the Palestinian “government” to incite and reward anti-Semitic terrorism, with particular focus on the rock-throwing phenomenon that has killed and maimed dozens of Israeli Jews.

(8) Infographic: “What’s The Difference?” (2017)

I created this after a series of discussions with Washington, DC insiders, who expressed great frustration at how so many young Americans are being seduced into viewing Palestinian terrorists as victims, and their victims as aggressors.  I agreed, and explained that this was but one more area in which hasbara activists need to go on the offensive – to declare total war on how the “news” media, celebrities, etc, depict this dynamic.  And, to do so using visuals that even an adolescent can grasp.

As these were scholars, journalists and former diplomats, they had difficulty envisioning my approach.  So, I created this, after working out the basic framework in my mind.

While some saw the merit in this tool, the reaction from others was one I’d heard, and still hear, often: “That’s not how we fight.” To which I respond, “Welcome to how we got to a place where 40% of Americans now believe the statement, “Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated Jews,” is true.


(9) Infographic: Why Palestinians are so grateful to US taxpayers


(10) Documentary: “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada”

This 44-minute documentary, which I wrote, designed, produced and narrated, was hailed by the watchdog group CAMERA, author Melanie Phillips, terrorism analyst & professor Ryan Mauro, and other notable figures, in this 2-minute video. Excerpts:

  • “This forensic debut video… details the systematic way in which the Huffington Post whitewashes Palestinian terrorism, dehumanises its Jewish victims and incites hatred against Israel. A sobering analysis which sheds valuable light on the deranged prejudice against Israel and the Jews now endemic in the West.”
    – Melanie Phillips
  • “This documentary… is both chilling, and a work of art.  It provides evidence of what appears to be Huffington Post’s intentional misrepresentation and distortion of events in Israel.  […] By the end of the documentary, Arianna Huffington’s proclamations about the Post’s commitment to objectivity and providing quality news coverage lie in tatters.”
    – Steve Stotsky, Senior Research Analyst, CAMERA

Also see trailers 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The documentary was released on March 1, 2016. Here is the full version:

Learn more about the film at:

SaveTheWest’s debut documentary: “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada”

Script & resources: “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada” : Save The West

I also produced several slide shows that contain key source evidence (more documentation here):

(1) This slide show exposes how HuffPost showers personalized, graphic, name-specific global sympathy on Palestinians who allege — without proof — they were victims of unprovoked Israel aggression:

(2) This slide show illustrates some of the (proven) Jewish victims of the Third Intifada, not one of which HuffPost gave any coverage to:


(11) Mini-documentary: “HuffPost’s Dehumanization of Capt. Taylor Force”

This 17-minute documentary, which I wrote, designed and directed, exposes how HuffPost:

  • Dehumanized a beloved U.S. combat veteran, Capt. Taylor Force, who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist — while at the same time, super-humanizing ISIS terrorists, sad celebrities, and animals
  • Ignored the broader wave of Palestinian terrorism against Jews occurring at the time, while whitewashing and championing the Palestinian terror narrative.

This documentary was released on April 13, 2016 — six weeks after the release of my earlier documentary, “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada” (above).

It was the first documentary that focused on Capt. Force after his murder, and helped spur momentum towards passage of The Taylor Force Act in Congress, which cut off US taxpayer funding of the Palestinian Authority until and unless it demonstrably stops using it to incite and reward terrorists, and their families.

Learn more about the film at:

STW’s new documentary: “HuffPost’s Dehumanization of Capt. Taylor Force” : Save The West


(12) Mini-documentary: “Which Abbas?”

I made this video anonymously in 2014, after I watched the Western “news” media:

  • Gush over PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas finally acknowledging, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, that it was “a heinous crime,” yet…
  • Avert its eyes from Abbas’s pattern of lying, and incitement of anti-Semitic hatred and terror, with the stated objective of destroying Israel
  • Depict Israeli PM Netanyahu as the obstacle to peace, because he rejected Abbas’s benevolent gesture

I created a brief proposal to see if I could get institutional support to write and produce a blockbuster injection into the public consciousness of the reality of Abbas, as opposed to the gauzy-lensed way the MSM was depicting his statement, particularly in short video snippets on the nightly news and social media.

The response I got, from several veteran pro-Israel scholars and diplomats who held medium-to-high positions in Israel-supporting nonprofits was to ask me to not create such a video.  The reason?  Because if I do too good of a job of exposing Abbas — in terms that, as I said, any sensible but uninformed person, or adolescent, can grasp — he might be pushed out of office through internal and external pressure, and his replacement could be far worse for Israel.

I was in disbelief, and asked, in summary: “So you mean it’s better to allow the world to operate according to a fantasy, and stand mute while the MSM presents this whitewashed version of the man at the help of an anti-Semitic terrorist regime?” The answer I received was, paraphrasing, “Yes, we need to be pragmatic.”

Being that I have little in the way of formal education, and my contacts had vast academic credentials, and pictures with various world leaders, I was intimidated.

Ultimately, I decided to go ahead and, on a self-funded, rushed basis, do the best job I could, to create an evidence-driven rebuttal to the MSM’s depiction of Abbas.  Here was the result (9 minutes).  More follows beneath the video.

As a follow-up, I also produced this item for The Gatestone Institute, under the same pseudonym, “John Ryan”:

Eight Crucial Questions for Abbas (and One for President Obama) – Gatestone Institute


(13) Report: “Exposing the NY Times’s latest blood libel against the IDF & its research unit”

In this investigative report, I document a NY Times Tweet that opened with a factual assertion that could well have been by Hamas, or ISIS:

“The Israeli Defense Ministry’s research-and-development arm is best known for pioneering cutting-edge ways to kill people and blow things up.”

At the time this incident occurred, I was already deep into developing an information-packed resource page for ILoveIsrael.me: Israel’s humanitarian benevolence – even for enemies. Section 3 on that page documents some of the super-human, little-known lengths to which the IDF goes to figure out how to protect innocent civilians, even when terrorists are using them as human shields (or they are acting in that capacity voluntarily). One of the items on this page is this interview that I conducted with a former IDF special forces soldier, Doron Keidar, focusing particularly on this aspect of IDF ethics:

“[W]e have what are called ‘purity of arms’ (טוהר הנשק) instructions, which we receive when we are first issued our weapons. They are basic principles about when and how we can use our weapons. It is the ethical code that clarifies that our weapon is the last option and mainly for defense.”

As an experienced investigative journalist and researcher, I believe my utilization of this ILI resource page reduced the time necessary to create my report by 70-90%.

This is the title graphic I produced for my report:


(14) Report: “The LGBT filmmaker boycott of Israel is anti-Semitic and hypocritical”

My purpose in creating this report, in March 2020, was to respond to an anti-Israel boycott mounted by LGBT actors, directors, producers & artisans that claimed the Jewish state oppresses Palestinians, and thus does not deserve to have an LGBT film festival. At the time news of this boycott emerged, I was nearing completion of this resource page for ILoveIsrael.me:

Israel’s LGBT inclusion & protection

As an experienced investigative journalist and researcher, I believe my utilization of this ILI resource page reduced the time necessary to create my report by 70-90%.

This report exposes the following:

  • The Palestinian LGBTQIA+ community is being oppressed — but not by Israel. To the contrary, Israel is the lone refuge in the entire Middle East for those in the Palestinian LGBTQIA+ community, to escape the systematic governmental and cultural terror inflicted on them in Muslim-majority environments.
  • The anti-Semitic nature of this myopic boycott is revealed by the fact that these film professionals have said nothing about, let alone organized a boycott against China, which holds more than 1 million Uighur Muslims in bondage, and is both using them as slave labor, and forcibly “re-educating” them.
  • This insidious, anti-Semitic, Islamist-protecting boycott can survive and gain support only so long as the general public remains unaware of these realities — especially who and what are actually the Palestinian peoples’ primary oppressors — and it is not Israelis.

Satire 1: “Terrorists love the University of California-Berkeley Student Senate”: Placard art to help fight anti-Israel propaganda

In April 2013, the BDS Movement giddily announced that the UC-Berkeley Student Senate voted to approve a resolution calling on the University of California administration to divest from companies that profit from interacting with Israel.

I received a request from an Israel supporter in Berkeley area for visual tools to distribute among Israel-supporting students, to help combat the Student Senate’s BDS-supporting activities. This person came to me because they agree with my view that anyone who is in a position to know better, yet who supports BDS, should not only be opposed, but humiliated and ridiculed.

I developed this series of placards in order to clearly establish who really benefits from the BDS movement:




Satire 2: Ridiculing Palestinian terrorists who use children as human shields (which got me suspended from Facebook)

After long denying claims that it uses Gaza civilians as human shields, in late 2014 Hamas began admitting that it does so. Early in 2015, numerous watchdogs also produced reports that document Hamas’s use of human shields, which is widely recognized as a war crime:

Based on this, in March 2015, I published on Facebook a satirical exchange between a Hamas terrorist and a Palestinian child, in the Gaza Strip, matched with an image of Hamas rockets being fired steps away from civilians and civilian buildings:

“C’mon kids, let’s go shoot off some rockets at the Jews!!!”

“But uncle, won’t they shoot back? Won’t we get hurt, or killed?”

“Well duh, that’s kind of the point, Ahmed. If they fire back, and you get killed, we know the ‘news’ media that we allow in here will show your mangled corpses to the world, and claim that the rotten Zionists are murdering innocent Muslim children again.”

Three years later, Facebook suspended me for this post.  My banishment was covered by the Daily Caller (which got Facebook to apologize for this “error,” and return my account to normal status):

Facebook Suspends Blogger For Mocking Palestinian Terrorists … Three Years Ago – The Daily Caller, March 10, 2018. Excerpts:

Facebook suspended a user in March for critiquing Palestinians who force their kids to fire rockets at Israel.

Blogger Jon Sutz of Save the West found himself the target of a one-week Facebook suspension for a post he made satirizing Palestinian martyrdom, according to information he sent to The Daily Caller News Foundation. Sutz’s post consisted of a parody dialogue between a Palestinian terrorist and his nephews, who are reluctant to shoot rockets at Jews. […]

“My satirical post was based on verifiable facts,” Sutz told Facebook using the feedback feature for his suspension. The blogger linked to three articles, which included descriptions of Hamas’ launching of rockets from civilian regions and reported use of children as human shield.

“How ironic that Palestinian terrorists can post whatever they want, Islamists can post the most vile incitement and justification of >>>VIOLENCE<<< against Jews, infidels, gays, lesbians, Christians, etc., and Facebook either looks the other way, or at best, removes the post, but leaves them free to continue,” said Sutz to Facebook.


(2) Background: Why I have committed so much time and effort to defending Israel in the information war

Since around 2008, I have worked extensively in “hasbara” – loosely defined, publicly championing Israel’s virtues, and combating the mass incitement of hatred against her, and Jews in general.

My work has primarily comprised:

  • Designing analytical graphics & visualizations (one of my specialties, which I’ve applied extensively in helping law firms to prevail in high-value and complex litigation; one example of my work to defend Israel is here)
  • Documentary writing, design and direction (my highest achievements in this regard are here and here)
  • Investigative journalism (example here)
  • Satirical items (example here)

Some of the work products featured on this page were created under my own name. I’ve also done quite a bit of work anonymously, for reasons I will share with qualified parties, upon request.

Some praise my work; others view me as a pariah

While my work has received high praise from some influential organizations and figures (CAMERA, Melanie Phillips), I have been criticized by others, primarily those within, and supportive of some leading hasbara institutions.  In general, the praise for my work, and the criticism of it, centers on the same things:

  • My belief that existing models of hasbara are dysfunctional, at best – and self-sabotaging, at worst
  • My direct, uncompromising approach to presenting essential facts that others are uncomfortable addressing (or refuse to address at all)
  • My belief that every aspect of hasbara must be formatted in ways that the average adolescent – regardless of their religion, race or other factors – can easily understand, verify as accurate, and relate to his/her own life
  • My belief that so long as it is evidence-driven, there is a huge role for satire to play in hasbara, to mock and humiliate the most influential inciters of hatred against Israel and Jews — and anyone in a position of authority who enable them in any way

I know there are lots of good people who work in hasbara, and that they sincerely believe they are doing the best they can. I was one of them.

When I began to research the most meaningful metrics, to see how “team hasbara” is doing, I realized that despite the best of my efforts, and that of the people and organizations I respect, we are losing — and it’s not even close.  Here is a sampling of the research data I’ve compiled (more here) over many years, that proves my point:

  • 2023: 40% of Americans believe the statement, “Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated Jews,” is true
  • 2023: 50% of American 18-34 year olds say Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack against Israel was “justified.”
  • 2023: Between 2018-2023, Americans’ sympathy with Israel dropped 18%, while sympathy for Palestinians jumped by 63%
  • 2022: Between 2018-2021, net sympathy* among Americans between 18-35 for Israel in its conflict with Palestinians dropped by two-thirds, from +39% to +13% (*the gap between those who support Israel, vs those who support the Palestinians)
  • 2022: Between 2021-2022, assaults on American Jewish students and their identity doubled
  • 2021:: Two-thirds of Jewish college students in America say they feel unsafe on campus, and nearly half hide their religious identity to avoid physical or verbal attacks
  • 2020: 20% of young New Yorkers believe the Jews caused the Holocaust
  • 2018: 67% of American Millennials, and 40% US adults overall, don’t know what Auschwitz was

I am also a rarity in mainstream hasbara because I contend that the reason for this situation is not a lack of money.  By my estimates, nearly $1 billion a year is donated to hasbara nonprofits.  And I believe donors could increasing their financial support for the best of “the good guys” by a factor of 10, tomorrow, and it would make no measurable difference, for the following reason:

Those who are committed to destroying public support for Israel, indoctrinating our children to hate the Jewish nation, and spread lies and incitement against her, online and in our “news” media, are not interested in evidence, reason, logic or civil discourse.  They are in a 100%, relentless, 24-7-365 information war against Israel, and the greatest asset they have, in my view, is the fact that there is no professional effort to debunk the lies that animate their narratives, least of all in formats that young people, en masse, can see, understand, validate as accurate, and relate to their own lies.

My life is committed, in part, to creating uncompromising, evidence-driven knowledge tools and activism strategies (both serious and satirical) that are conceived and designed from the ground up to make measurable progress in absolutely destroying anti-Israel activists’ lies, exposing their enablers, and presenting an accurate, contextual view of the Jewish nation. 

If you like what you see on this page, and would like to discuss how we might collaborate to advance this objective, I invite you to reach out.

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