Replies: 14 Comments

The problem is that Israelis don't use propaganda. They use "hasbara" which is Hebrew for "explanation." But explanations are complicated. They involve facts, history, knowledge, understanding, etc. Propaganda is war using words as bullets. Using half-truths as hand grenades. Israel needs a propaganda ministry, not an explanation ministry. Unfortunately, what people like is a good show, like a boxing match, and not school history lectures. Israel should talk about things like the beheadings and ethnic cleansing of Jews from Medina by Muhammad. But the enemy on the defensive for a change.

Jgarbuz, Saturday, March 27th

Brilliant, Ami. Evelyn Gordon in the Jan 2010 Commentary makes the point that Israel's image started drastically to decline since Oslo. The more Israel has talked peace, the more it has been delegitimised by the media.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-deadly-price-of-pursuing-peace-15321

testking 70-680, Wednesday, February 10th

A British blogger has been intimidated by the police. The Reverend Stephen Sizer didn’t like comments and criticism made on the Seismic Shock blog, so got the police to physically intimidate the blogger, to take down that mild criticism.

This is a clear freedom of speech issue, the police should not be used to intimidate bloggers.

I urge you to publicise this issue and support Seismic Shock, as “I too am Seismic Shock”

For more information see http://modernityblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/reverend-stephen-sizer-uses-british-police-against-a-blogger/

And http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/anglican-vicar-uses-police-to-intimidate-blogger/

modernity, Saturday, January 23rd

Good article but I don't agree.

Ayman Al Zawiri, Bin Laden's deputy said, and I think he's correct that the war will be fought through the media.

Without decent pr and an organisation that knows how to handle the media, Israel will always be perceived wrongly as the villain.

The Palestinians are brilliant at getting attention and sympathy, even with their transparent lies.

Israeli politicians and even the government press office with Mark Regev simply do not understand how to speak or deal with the international media.

I tell my friends the same thing whenever I'm in Israel but they simply shrug and do not understand.

We all have an enormous hill to climb if we are to begin to retake the 'hearts and minds' of the new generation - it can be done I believe but not if we keep doing what we've been doing in the past.

cityca, Wednesday, January 20th

Please consider joining the very large blog called Newsvine.com, which is owned by MSNBC. There are probably 500K members of Newsvine.com, and you will meet some very capable Pro-Jewish posters there. Unfortunately, there is a very well-entrenched, seemingly officially tolerated larger group of anti-semitic members who seem to have the run of the place. Please help fellow Jews there! Oh, tell them OSA sent you, and please tell Calvin (Newsvine's Co-Founder) that OSA is happy to recommend Newsvine.com to Pro-Jewish organizations everywhere! :-)

OSA, Monday, January 18th

I am going to have to disagree with the position taken here that the “media” is to blame for Israel’s bad image. The moment one bemoans a belligerent media, poor journalistic ethics and makes accusations of “blaming the victim” you have in fact lost the battle and proliferate a state of pathetic ineptitude which so clearly lies at the core of this problem.
Lets get this straight from the start – a hostile media is a given constraint. Why that may be, is possibly a subject of another discussion but it has no relevance to the point. So when all the wining and complaining about unfairness stops, maybe something can be done.

Israel’s bad image and its weak PR are resultant of two primary causes:
The first is an a-priory unethical political direction the State of Israel has taken in the last several decades. While some refer to it as “the Occupation” with a capital O a more reasonable term is “Settlement” with a capital S, referring to an aggressive expansionist vision of a greater Israel led by zealots who see no problem taking possession and occupying lands of local inhabitants in direct contravention of international law, with impunity, and in fact with the support of the government of Israel and under the cloak of military protection. With a demographic end-game of a disenfranchised Palestinian majority around the corner , the dreaded A word cannot but resonate loudly and the connotations thereof hold a power of there own, untamed by any PR effort no matter how proficient.

The other factor is the unbridled stupidity and lack of basic common sense in the way the state of Israel handles media challenges of any consequence. Never is a disadvantage turned into an advantage and more often than not an asset is turned into a liability: the government of Israel’s latest attempt at “capitalizing” on such an asset was the Turkish media’s portrayal of Israel in second-level soap operas. Rather than unleash a justified thrashing on the anti-semitic and hateful script writers and producers of such, the government chose to humiliate the government of Turkey and its ambassador in Israel. The rest, as they say, is history: Turkey 7, Israel, 0. Another chink in the armor of Israel’s attempt at public relations – courtesy of the new diplomacy known as “Lieburlesque”.

The thing is that that both these factors whether it be rampant settlement ventures or poor public relations are indeed factors that are within the control of Israel and its government. A hostile world media is extraneous to Israeli control. Internal policy and skilled PR are feasible. The day we see an end to self pitying blubbering about an unfair world press may be the day we see some creative solutions to real challenges.

jayzed, Saturday, January 16th

I agree with your points.

That said, Israel really does need to improve its PR. It could make a great start by creating an Israeli version of Al Jazeera for English speakers across the globe.

Israel has previously rejected this idea, though:

The War Of Words That Israel Must Start Winning:
http://ajewwithaview.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/the-war-of-words-that-israel-must-start-winning/

A Jew With A View, Friday, January 15th

Since the Arab/Muslim world was forced open to international media, Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN and all the rest have been falling over each other to gain market share within the vast ARab/Muslim audiences, and this means they must compete to see who can smear the Jewish state even more than the other. There simply has to be a defamatory anti-ISrael segment in every broadcast, or else that network will be skipped over. Any reporter or producer who tries to gets postive segment regarding Israel will be out of a job in a heartbeat. Israel will never again get positive press, so it must toot its own horn and must create an international pro-Israel network or it will continue to drown in the PR war.

Jgarbuz, Friday, January 15th

I guess SASS commented without reading a single word in your brilliant article, Ami. Keep up the good work. And Sass, reading is a very important skill in the electronic digital age. Spouting meaningless slogans just makes you look like a drooling ideological idiot.

vildechaye, Tuesday, January 12th

Too many SS in your name sass

Dvar Dea, Monday, January 11th

It's about what makes news, and what triggers a viewer's or a reader's interest more easily. A dog biting man is no news. A man biting a dog - is. There is a tacit low expectation from Arabs to know what is legitimate and acceptable in fighting for a cause. There is a high expectation from Jews to act more ethically and altruistically than all other human beings, even when such conduct might result in death and destruction of their communities. When Palestinians attack Israeli children on buses it is not news, it is business as usual. When Israelis, tragically, kill Palestinian children because those children were placed among militants who launch those illegal attacks on innocents, the reaction is that of shock and condemnation because it goes against the stereotypical expectation that Jews should learn to absorb these crimes and suffer nobly, while dying. There is something beautiful and comforting about this image of the perpetually helpless and self-effacing Jew, so morally elevated as to re-incarnate Christ at every stage. When Israelis refuse to conform to this image, it creates a dissonance, an anti-narrative which enrages people and causes them to come up with the most outrageous lies about Jews in order to brow beat them into compliance with that stereotype.

The antisemite who calls Israelis Nazis and the philosemite who is so pained by Israel's insistence on fierce self-defence are but two sides of the same coin: a stereotypical expectation which, when frustrated, morphs easily and smoothly into demonization.

This is of course a simplistic and partial theory but I believe it does explain why the media, who are very attuned to what their consumers want to see and hear, have internalized the anti-Israeli scorn that typifies the logic of its detractors.

I agree with Ami that the problem is not Israel's admittedly bad PR but faulty and muddled media ethics.

Noga, Sunday, January 10th

In the digital world it is hard for the zionist to explain their brutal racist action when there is so much evidence at hand. And its only going to get worse, but the zionist still will have their biggest weapon- the charge of anti semitism.

sass, Sunday, January 10th

Israel should talk less of peace and more of Jewish rights - without apology. An Israel that is weak and pusillanimous won't win much respect in the media. Ami Isseroff is correct its not a matter of Israeli PR. Showing how much the Jews want peace paradoxically enough have made them more hated by the world. Its time to change the message.

NormanF, Friday, January 8th

Brilliant, Ami. Evelyn Gordon in the Jan 2010 Commentary makes the point that Israel's image started drastically to decline since Oslo. The more Israel has talked peace, the more it has been delegitimised by the media.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-deadly-price-of-pursuing-peace-15321

Lyn, Friday, January 8th

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