On the 10th November 1975 the UN passed an infamous resolution - 3379 -
equating Zionism with racism. The resolution was repealed in 1991. The
idea that Zionism was a racist philosophy must be counted one of the most
successful PR jobs in the history of that profession. How was it achieved
I wondered? I created a fantastic scenario to explain it to myself:

One day, in a land of desert, oil, and excitable men - the women nowhere to be seen - a group of clever, sweet-natured but excitable men called Palestinians gathered in an expensive hotel in a state of confusion and despair. Many years ago – April 1947 - under the foolish leadership of foolish leaders they had lost an opportunity to live for the first time in a land of their own because they had wanted all of the land and had not been prepared to share it with another group of people known as Jews - whose women were everywhere to be seen - and who were also living in that land. The Palestinians had terrorized to no avail, wars had been fought on their behalf to no avail. Something was not going right. They called in a man from an important public relations firm, and their chairman, a cloth-shrouded Semite sporting a permanent three-day old stubble, named Yasser Arafat, presented their problem.
“We have a problem,” he said. “The Jews accepted partition of the land, the Arabs did not. We, the PLO were not in existence at the time and the Arab countries who went to war with the new Jewish state were undemocratic states ruled by despots. The Jews were mostly socialists living in Communist-type settlements feeding the nation with their produce, providing an intellectual elite for running the country, and nurturing its artists and academics; living a lifestyle in which men and women played an equal role and shared equal status. This left us looking like medieval retrogrades; it also threatened to elevate the position of women in our society and for this we were neither happy nor prepared. In addition we Arabs had been a conquering nation subjugating large parts of the Middle East while the Jews have spent 2000 years being victims! They even survived the Nazi holocaust! It doesn’t look too good for us. Twenty years after the UN Resolution 111 was passed partitioning Palestine, our organisation was created to do something about it. Cairo - 1968! If the Arab nations couldn’t get rid of the Jews perhaps an organisation calling itself The Palestine Liberation Organisation would be more effective. After all, everyone loves a liberation movement. But we’re failing. It hasn’t worked. Jews have all the sympathy. We’re short on it. That’s our problem. What can we do?”

The PR man rose and solemnly addressed the central committee members.
“Your problem is an image problem.”
“An image problem?” They were at once animated. “An image problem? How can that be? We are a proud and lovely people with a proud and lovely history.”
“Proud and lovely is not enough,” said the PR man, “and the history is ancient.” He paused for dramatic effect and dramatic effect is what he achieved. “You must become Jews.” They were amazed. He explained. “Not really become Jews, but become as Jews. First thing you’ve got to change is the world’s perception of the Arab mentality. Away with medieval thinking, you must become left-wing, that way you’ll have at least two super powers behind you and many havens in Europe to work from. But most important of all - you must stop calling Jews, Jews; and you must persuade the rest of the world to stop calling Jews, Jews. You must become Jews, the new Jews of the Middle East. Too many people have love and pity for the Jews, and even those who don’t have much pity or love for them can’t voice it for fear of outrage and accusations of being racist. That’s your main hurdle, my friends; you must find another name for the Jews.”

There was a long, long silence before the PR man presented them with his idea, but when it came the room echoed with gasps of amazed admiration for the sheer audacity of it.
“You must call them Zionists,” their new genius said - and we must hope they paid him or her handsomely - though we’d like to think it wasn’t a ‘her’. “You must call them Zionists and what’s more you must mount a campaign that will make them perceived as racist.”
“How the hell will we achieve that?” a leading committee member cried in helpless tones. “The Jews have been living with all races since the Diaspora, they have contributed massively to the business, intellectual, and artistic life of everyone everywhere. Who’s going to accept the notion of the Jew as racist for God’s sake? You’re crazy! Let’s fire this man before he even starts.”
“I would be crazy,” said the PLO’s PR genius elect, “if I was talking about Jews. But remember - I am not! I am talking about Zionists. And haven’t the Zionists created an Arab refugee problem? And if you persist with your policy of keeping your brethren in squalid refugee camps for long enough their numbers will grow from thousands to millions and you will be able to point an accusing finger and say look what the Zionists have done to our race - ipso facto they are racists!”
“No one in the outside world will listen to you for one moment,” said the foolish, doubting, leading member of the PLO central committee. The eyes of the PR man narrowed with confident, calm arrogance.
“Not only will the outside world believe you,” he promised, “but I guarantee that one day you will be able to achieve the passing of a United Nations resolution condemning Israel as a racist nation.” At which the PLO sceptic burst into a roar of contemptuous laughter and one by one the other members of the central committee joined in, except their chairman, Yasser Arafat, who took out his pen and gave it to the PR man. Both signed his contract of engagement. This chairman was not chairman without good reason.