"I was the child of the survivors of the Holocaust." With that, Roz Rothstein of the activist group Stand With Us that hopes to transform the image of Israel on US campuses sets the moral authority before a small audience at an office on Howard Street, San Francisco. One can, she explains, disagree with Israel, but there are "limits" to such doubting behaviour. Exceeding those limits constitutes the gravest sort of anti-Semitism.

As people devour the food and drink put on by the associates of Blumberg Capital, serious politics is being discussed. "We are being demonised," she insists. Whether she means Israel, Jews or Jews in the US is hard to tell. Presumably, no true distinction is intended.

The gathering teams with Republicans, many of them competing with each other for various posts in upcoming elections. Candidates who are going to be competing for House positions are also there including John Dennis who hopes to undermine Nancy Pelosi. The room smells of political hustling and over-eager libidos.

All are, however, there for one reason: defending Israel. Israel is besieged, the David in a sea of overly keen Goliaths. A good deal of agitprop is necessary to convince the audience, and perhaps the speakers, of this bizarre scenario. Pro-Palestinian groups are swarming across American campuses attacking Jews and pro-Israeli students alike. The UN is "obsessed" with Israel and prefers, we are told, not to look at the stain of character on other states. One must be on the look out for the "Three Ds" suggested by Natan Sharansky. (The speakers intone this in irritating fashion - we are in a kindergarten of ideological instruction. Remember "demonisation", "double standards" and "delegitimisation", for one.)

The language merchants are busy attempting to find the right good to sell. "We must be out there to counter our enemies." Evidently, the Gaza dead, with their galvanic properties must be astonishingly good at public relations - they are, it would seem, the ignoble savages who dare speak from their status as the deceased.

The campaign being waged is yet another indication of how the Israeli lobby, so peevishly dismissed by Israeli supporters as non-existent, arises with effective force when fear is packaged and retailed in this faux salon manner. These are the first people who would insist that such a thing is anathema, only to then gather their forces and funds to effectively provide assistance to a foreign power. Young, well-groomed men listening intently will be doing service at some point with the Israeli Army, a problematic situation given mixed allegiances. The framers of the US constitution would have had something to say about that.

What is most striking in this display is the rehearsed language of doom. (We are "besieged", a "well planned tsunami" is being put into place, argues Rothstein.) The Palestinians do not exist except in the negative, a dark eminence with satanic overtones. Hamas, a body once supported by Israel for Machiavellian purposes, is not a force that can or should be dealt with other than through force. Beware their Charter.

It all comes down to "information". "They do not know the information," explains Dr Michael Harris, who was a founder of San Francisco Voice for Israel before it became the San Francisco chapter for Stand With Us. So, with this in mind, a packet is distributed, bulging with fascinating "facts" rendered on glossy paper. How far it will go is not something these agitprop peddlers make clear.

The canary in the coal mine: the Israeli Lobby in San Francisco