A complete understanding of the extent of the campaign to denunciate and pillory Israel as an aggressive nation waging war against an occupied and repressed people is beyond our grasp. The countless countries, press reports, broadcasting networks and languages in which Arab/Islamic propaganda appears, carrying claims that are false, distorted or just misleading, are simply too large to tally.
The types of tales; the boundlessness of the exaggerations, the wild-eyed lying and the devious twisting of the actual facts combined with the background of a specific event conveniently being left out, are overwhelming in number and as such too difficult to track down and correct. Add to that the smoothness and media-geniality of most Palestinian spokespersons and the built-in sympathy of radically oriented media people ignorant of the history of the Arab-Zionist conflict of this past century, and you have all the necessary ingredients for the failure of Israel's information and public relations efforts.
The recent Sacks Affair only highlights this problem. The British and Commonwealth Chief Rabbi agreed to an interview in one of the most viciously anti-Israel papers with a Jewish reporter extremely hostile to Israel. His remarks, whatever his intent, lent themselves perfectly to the attacks on the morality of Israel and Zionism, political policies aside.
Of course, the reality of Israel's ?unity? government (a first-class oxymoron); wherein the Prime Minister detests the Oslo process, while the Foreign Minister depends on it to assure his place in history and the Defense Minister picks his way to the next elections not caring whom he maligns as he proceeds; is not the most conducive to developing a cogent and logical approach and strategy to the problem. Neither is the fact that the cabinet minister who is responsible for improving information services, albeit within the PM's office, has not exhibited any formidable successes - nor has the work of the PM's spokesmen with the foreign media been an encouraging, positive contribution to the combined effort.
Professional seminars that would produce better spokespersons are not being run. Coordination between government bureaucracy and volunteers in the field is non-existent. Replacing wooden diplomats, who possess no empathy, enthusiasm or sometimes even a modicum of identification with government policies, is not under discussion. Targeting nontraditional audiences that could be convinced of the justice of Israel?s cause is not being planned. Utilizing the freshness of new and younger faces, especially some of the current generation of Yesha residents who are more than capable of holding their own in any forum, is anathema to Foreign Ministry staff. The IDF will take any citizen to train and fight its battles but the Foreign Ministry's information division will go on strike if an outsider is brought in or a revamping of its structure is suggested. (Ironically, some bodies which ostensibly represent Yesha behave no differently at times.)
Voltaire was fond of quoting a now unknown wit: "Common sense is not so common". A recent survey carried out by a German-based pro-Israel group indicated that Israel's world standing in the media actually fell after the terror acts of September 11, 2001. Washington-based PR professionals reiterated to a group of Hasbara activists what they had informed high ranking Israeli officials; that Israel's information services are poor relative to the task at hand. Israeli spokespeople are simply not learning what phrases and semantics to use and which to avoid in their efforts to improve Israel?s image abroad.
As Pirkei Avot instructed us, "try to be a person where there are none". Each one of us can make a contribution to the ?PR battle? of the real war that we are fighting. We can be trained, we can practice and we can internalize what we learn. Appearances on major television networks, discussing matters with elected officials, conducting debates and aiding students on campuses are just some of the possibilities within-reach. We need to try harder.
To improve something tarnished, it has to be polished. That is what we can do and that is what we can strive to be, at the very least.
The types of tales; the boundlessness of the exaggerations, the wild-eyed lying and the devious twisting of the actual facts combined with the background of a specific event conveniently being left out, are overwhelming in number and as such too difficult to track down and correct. Add to that the smoothness and media-geniality of most Palestinian spokespersons and the built-in sympathy of radically oriented media people ignorant of the history of the Arab-Zionist conflict of this past century, and you have all the necessary ingredients for the failure of Israel's information and public relations efforts.
The recent Sacks Affair only highlights this problem. The British and Commonwealth Chief Rabbi agreed to an interview in one of the most viciously anti-Israel papers with a Jewish reporter extremely hostile to Israel. His remarks, whatever his intent, lent themselves perfectly to the attacks on the morality of Israel and Zionism, political policies aside.
Of course, the reality of Israel's ?unity? government (a first-class oxymoron); wherein the Prime Minister detests the Oslo process, while the Foreign Minister depends on it to assure his place in history and the Defense Minister picks his way to the next elections not caring whom he maligns as he proceeds; is not the most conducive to developing a cogent and logical approach and strategy to the problem. Neither is the fact that the cabinet minister who is responsible for improving information services, albeit within the PM's office, has not exhibited any formidable successes - nor has the work of the PM's spokesmen with the foreign media been an encouraging, positive contribution to the combined effort.
Professional seminars that would produce better spokespersons are not being run. Coordination between government bureaucracy and volunteers in the field is non-existent. Replacing wooden diplomats, who possess no empathy, enthusiasm or sometimes even a modicum of identification with government policies, is not under discussion. Targeting nontraditional audiences that could be convinced of the justice of Israel?s cause is not being planned. Utilizing the freshness of new and younger faces, especially some of the current generation of Yesha residents who are more than capable of holding their own in any forum, is anathema to Foreign Ministry staff. The IDF will take any citizen to train and fight its battles but the Foreign Ministry's information division will go on strike if an outsider is brought in or a revamping of its structure is suggested. (Ironically, some bodies which ostensibly represent Yesha behave no differently at times.)
Voltaire was fond of quoting a now unknown wit: "Common sense is not so common". A recent survey carried out by a German-based pro-Israel group indicated that Israel's world standing in the media actually fell after the terror acts of September 11, 2001. Washington-based PR professionals reiterated to a group of Hasbara activists what they had informed high ranking Israeli officials; that Israel's information services are poor relative to the task at hand. Israeli spokespeople are simply not learning what phrases and semantics to use and which to avoid in their efforts to improve Israel?s image abroad.
As Pirkei Avot instructed us, "try to be a person where there are none". Each one of us can make a contribution to the ?PR battle? of the real war that we are fighting. We can be trained, we can practice and we can internalize what we learn. Appearances on major television networks, discussing matters with elected officials, conducting debates and aiding students on campuses are just some of the possibilities within-reach. We need to try harder.
To improve something tarnished, it has to be polished. That is what we can do and that is what we can strive to be, at the very least.