fbpx

Fighting the PR War

Is there a PR idea that can reverse Israel’s deteriorating image? I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I can’t say it’s been too much fun. For one thing, being in PR mode doesn’t bring out the best in me. I get linear and think only of “winning the war” — not engaging in complex and nuanced conversation.
[additional-authors]
December 16, 2009

Is there a PR idea that can reverse Israel’s deteriorating image? I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I can’t say it’s been too much fun. For one thing, being in PR mode doesn’t bring out the best in me. I get linear and think only of “winning the war” — not engaging in complex and nuanced conversation.

Also, I have my doubts that anything can help. I’ve seen how despite a significant outburst of Israel advocacy over the past decade — from groups like CAMERA, StandWithUs and The Israel Project — the situation has only gotten worse.

It’s now so bad that the very legitimacy of Israel is being questioned, which, in a strange way, makes sense: If you’re routinely accused of being an apartheid state, it follows that your legitimacy can be put into play.

So why has Israel’s image gotten so bad?

One reason is that Israel gets little credit for its good deeds, but plenty of rebuke for its mistakes. It can wait seven years before taking defensive action against terrorist rockets raining on its civilians; it can expel 8,000 of its own citizens from Gaza and offer to expel 60,000 more from the West Bank (as Ehud Olmert did) to create a Palestinian state; it can dismantle roadblocks in the West Bank and help to revive the local Palestinian economy, but as far as most of the world is concerned, all those things are nothing compared to Israel’s mistakes.

After all, no matter what Israel has done, it still hasn’t led to a Palestinian state, and as long as that albatross remains around its neck, the world will have all the ammunition it needs to undermine the Jewish state.

And it’s working. We can crow all we want about Israel being a “start-up nation,” but the real news today is how so much of the world is trying to turn Israel into a “shut-down” nation. From the Goldstone report accusing Israel of war crimes to Kadima leader Tzipi Livni canceling her trip to London for fear of being arrested to European polls depicting Israel as the most dangerous country on earth, it’s no wonder so many Jews have given up on trying to win the “PR war.”

But for those of us who haven’t given up, what is there to do?

I wanted to brainstorm that question the other day when I met with a marketing wiz, my friend Gary Wexler. Gary talks a mile a minute, so if I don’t rudely interrupt him, I’ll just sit there for a couple of hours while he goes on about all kinds of fascinating stuff before abruptly getting up and saying, “OK, Suissa, I have to go.”

I was determined to pin him down on the subject of Israel PR, and I am glad I did. It turns out that Wexler, a former Peace Now activist who couldn’t hurt a fly, thinks it’s high time for Israel to “take the gloves off” and “take back the truth,” as he put it.

We both agreed that current efforts at pro-Israel advocacy are like infantry without air support. Lots of different grass-roots programs that reach 10 or 100 people at a time, but very few concerted programs that reach millions at a time.

Just like in real war, air support — in this case, mass and viral media — is what makes everything else work better. But for PR to really work, it needs one short, simple, compelling message that is repeated over and over again in every medium and makes the average person say, “OK, I see your point.”

What should that message be? One thing Wexler impressed on me is that we shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that if we go “beyond the conflict,” as many people are advocating, that somehow the world will be distracted from the Palestinian issue. They won’t.

But still, what can you possibly say in 10 or 30 seconds that can cut through the complexities of the conflict and generate more sympathy for Israel’s position?

In a word, hate.

Specifically, we ought to focus on the hatred and glorifying of violence taught in Palestinian schools, summer camps, media and mosques that many of us believe is the real obstacle to peace.

Even Dennis Ross, a top advisor to the White House on Middle East affairs, once told me that his biggest regret in the Oslo process was the failure to enforce the clauses against incitement in Palestinian society.

In truth, how can we expect Palestinians to want to make peace with those they have been taught to hate and reject? And how can we expect Israelis to take enormous risks for peace with those who have been taught to hate and reject them?

Settlement freezes are nice, but they don’t deal with the core problem: a Palestinian society that worships total victory against the hated Zionist enemy rather than reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.

Israel advocates around the world should begin immediately a concerted campaign around this one single-minded message: “You can’t reach peace while you teach hate.” Factual and visual examples of this teaching of hatred can easily be accessed on Web sites for MEMRI or Palestinian Media Watch.

That’s some of what Wexler and I came up with after a couple of hours of brainstorming. Like I said, not very subtle or pretty, but then again, neither is war.

David Suissa is the founder of OLAM magazine. You can read his daily blog at suissablog.com and e-mail him at dsuissa@olam.org.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Difficult Choices

Jews have always believed in the importance of higher education. Today, with the rise in antisemitism across many college campuses, Jewish high school seniors are facing difficult choices.

All Aboard the Lifeboat

These are excruciating times for Israel, and for the Jewish people.  It is so tempting to succumb to despair. That is why we must keep our eyes open and revel in any blessing we can find.  

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.