World
NEWS ANALYSIS
Missing In Action
As Israel's image sinks, where is Israeli public relations?
Leslie Susser
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
I
n the Middle East public relations war,
the past few weeks have been full of
setbacks for Israel.
Israel's deadly May 31 raid on a Gaza-
bound aid flotilla sparked countless
angry editorials, demonstrations and
condemnations. The assassination in
Dubai in January of a Hamas operative
by agents using fake passports — widely
believed to have been Israelis — resulted
in the expulsion of Israeli agents from
the numerous Western countries whose
names were on those fake passports. Even
leading musicians have canceled perfor-
mances in Israel in recent weeks, citing
political circumstances.
Israel is subject to a growing tide
of delegitimization that, if unchecked,
could pose an existential threat. The
nightmare scenario has the anti-Israel
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
movement gaining more traction and
anti-Israel opinion moving from Western
campuses to governments, followed by a
lifting of the protective American diplo-
matic umbrella.
More than ever, Israel needs an efficient
PR machine capable of undermining
the would-be delegitimizers and getting
across the Israeli narrative.
That begs the question: Who is running
Israel's PR — in Hebrew, called hasbara
— and why have they not been more suc-
cessful?
The public face of Israel, the Netanyahu-
Lieberman-Barak government, wins
few points on the international stage.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
is widely perceived as uninterested in
making peace, Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman is seen as a racist bully and
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is seen as
not doing enough to press for more peace-
oriented policies.
Another problem is the large number
of agencies within the government deal-
ing with public relations. To name just
a few, there is a directorate for PR in the
National Security Council, and PR divi-
sions in the Prime Minister's Office, the
Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry
and the Israel Defense Forces.
26
August 19 • 2010
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked of flexibility in July.
They are not always coordinated. For
example, the Foreign Ministry's quick
response team and the IDF spokesman's
office argued over who should present
the initial Israeli version of what hap-
pened aboard the Mavi Marmara, the
Turkish-flagged ship that greeted Israel's
commando raid with violence. As a
result, the Israeli account did not come
out for about 10 hours after the incident,
a vaccuum the Turks and other detrac-
tors were able to take full advantage of.
Israel's "rebranding" strategy also
seems to have had little success.
For years, a Foreign Ministry team
under Ido Aharoni has been trying to
improve Israel's image by branding it as
a fount of "creative energy," emphasizing
Israel's high-tech and scientific achieve-
ments, burgeoning economy, entre-
preneurial zeal, energetic lifestyle, and
vibrant diversity of opinion and culture.
The core idea behind the campaign is that
stressing Israel beyond the conflict would
deflect attention from its negative image
as an occupying power.
Not only has the campaign failed to
achieve its main goal, but politics has
penetrated nonpolitical realms. Musicians
such as Elvis Costello, the Pixies and
indie rocker Devendra Banhart have can-
celed concerts in Israel, citing politics.
The Madrid gay pride parade banned an
Israeli float sponsored by the city of Tel
Aviv, citing the raid on the Mavi Marmara.
Earlier this year, the Reut Institute, a
nonpartisan Tel Aviv-based think tank,
issued a comprehensive report analyz-
ing Israel's delegimization problem and
the tools needed to combat it. The report
argued that the time has come for the gov-
ernment to take the delegitimization chal-
lenge as seriously as it does the military
threats facing Israel.
Reut pointed to an increasingly effec-
tive alliance between Islamist rejection-
ists and radical left-wing groups in the
West whose common goal is to destroy
Israel by isolating it politically and eco-
nomically, ultimately forcing a one-state
solution with a Muslim majority. The
delegitimizers are particularly active
in places like London, Madrid and the
California Bay Area, which Reut called
hubs, where they form grassroots net-
works of activists, non-profits and fellow
travelers against Israel.
"Perhaps the existential threat to Israel
is not yet around the corner, but as we
know from history, state paradigms col-
lapse exponentially," said Eran Shayshon,
one of the authors of the Reut paper.
"Suddenly a few things happen to create
an irresistible momentum, as happened
with the Soviet Union or with apartheid
South Africa:'
Reut proposes a complete overhaul
of Israel's foreign service. It argues that
instead of an outmoded diplomacy
geared toward handling states and con-
tinents, the new focus should be on
the hubs where the delegitimizers are
particularly active and where dozens of
additional diplomats should be deployed
to engage as many people as possible
among the decision-making elites.
In addition, Reut recommends build-
ing anti-delegitimization networks
worldwide based on Jewish and Israeli
groups abroad, including non-profits.
According to the Reut paper, the aim is
to drive a wedge between bona fide critics
of specific Israeli policies and promoters
of delegitimacy, thereby winning over the
nonpartisan political center and creating a
"political firewall around Israel:'
So far, there is no sign the government
intends to adopt any of this. While pro-
Israel groups from Jerusalem to New York
are involved in trying to diffuse deligiti-
mization campaigns against Israel, some
PR experts argue that the problem is
more a question of government policy.
Israel will continue to suffer on the
PR front unless it launches a major
peace initiative, this school of thought
says. That is one of the reasons Barak
has been urging Netanyahu to come out
with a new peace initiative, carefully
coordinated with and backed by the
Americans.