Israeli propaganda should be better

Israelis often feel the need  - when they are not called upon to serve their country in the army – to serve their country on the propaganda front. In this context, Israeli friends occasionally email me links to articles or information, which they think will shed a positive light on Israel. The latest such email that I received, linked to an article by Israel’s outgoing Minister of Finance, Ya’ir Lapid, published a couple of days ago in the Guardian.

It’s written in English and published in a British paper but I expect that the real purpose is to impress the home market. There is a general election in Israel in less than a month and standing up to the gentiles always gets an Israeli politician brownie points. In this article, Lapid tries to deride the recent open letter that was signed by 700 British artists who called for a boycott of Israel because of the continued occupation.

It is shallow and kitschy, stoops to pinkwashing – brandishing Israel’s gay rights to distract from Israel’s occupation wrongs, and leads nowhere.  Lapid besmirches Hamas (not so difficult), under whose rule gays are hanged and climaxes with a personal touch by naming “my friend Gila Tregerman”, whose four year old son was killed by a Palestinian mortar shell.   

Lapid tries to show that he cares about Diaspora Jews, who should “be able to stand safely outside synagogues and do their shopping in a kosher supermarket…” He could ask himself why it is that anti-Semitic attacks in Europe are on the rise whenever Israeli military activity seems to get out of control? And what he wants, Lapid says, is “...modest: for people not to try to kill me just because I’m a Jew.” He knows well enough that if anyone is trying to kill him, it is not because he is a Jew but because he is an Israeli and as surprising as it may seem to him, Palestinian terrorists have been killing Israelis and Israeli soldiers have been killing Palestinians for many years. The attempt to turn this into a “please don’t kill me just because I’m a Jew” is disgraceful and he should be ashamed of himself.  

Israel - The Problem and The Solution

The Problem

The BBC and a Japanese newspaper recently conducted a joint opinion poll to establish which countries are considered to be a positive influence in the world. 30,000 respondents in 33 countries were polled.

Germany, Japan, the European Union got the top marks.

The country that was most negatively viewed was Iran at 56 percent, followed by Pakistan at 51 percent and Israel at 50 percent.

The Solution

“Israel, Not What the World Thinks” is the motto of a Hebrew pamphlet that I was handed as I was leaving Tel Aviv airport several weeks ago. Israel’s Ministry of Propaganda is eager to change the general perception of the country. To this end, Israelis are instructed to “first listen, then talk” and to “keep eye contact - your counterparts will notice that you are attentive to them.” Not only humour which "always helps” but photos and maps and personal stories to illustrate one’s case should also be used.

Having mastered these techniques, we are given the ammunition: A list of key moments in Israel's history. Israel - as seen by this government pamphlet - is a cocktail of wars mixed with winning the Eurovision Song Contest and occasional Nobel prizes. These are topped up by the information that “Windows XP”, the Disk-on-Key as well as Cherry tomatoes were invented in Israel.

Can illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories be made good by Israeli professors winning Nobel prizes?

Will people change their minds about Israeli occupation and settlement of Arab territories occupied in 1967 because Dana International won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998 or because an Arab Israeli, Rana Raslan, was made Miss Israel in 1999?

Printing pamphlets is easy.