“Israel’s public and media relations are a joke,” a reader of this column wrote to me in response to what I wrote about the BDS movement and the most recent Palestinian uprising. “The real offending party is the public relations department of the Israeli government. I bet you that so few people in this world know how much better life is for Palestinians under Israeli occupation than under their Arab “brothers”. Much more health care, supplies, etc.

I’m definitely not going to touch that statement with a 10ft post here (I’m trying to stay somewhat apolitical in this space that’s given to me). However, this reader most certainly had one point that resonated with me, a retired marketing / public relations executive for 30 years: Israel needs serious help on the public relations front.

A recent report from the Pew Research Center shows that less than half (48%) of American Jews under the age of 30 describe themselves as “very” or “somewhat” attached to Israel. Only 45% of American Jews say caring about Israel is “essential” to being a Jew, and 57% say they follow news about Israel closely.

Among Republican Jews, 44% describe themselves as “very” attached to Israel – a small number that is even more than double that of Jewish Democrats (19%). About one in five American Jews say the United States is too supportive of Israel (double the proportion who said so in 2013). And among the youngest, nearly two in five think their government should be tougher on Israel. These are scary numbers.

“Why is Israel’s public relations so bad? I put that in quotes because it’s not just my question, but the title of an article published almost 20 years ago by Dan Diker, then Knesset and Economics reporter for the English News from the Israel Broadcasting Authority. He is referring to the Comptroller of the State of Israel report, which leveled unprecedented criticism of Israel’s public relations efforts. The state comptroller revealed that “since its establishment in 1948, Israeli intelligence agencies have failed to respond to widespread propaganda and incitement from the Arab world.”

The report pointed out that “the absence of a central authority to direct and coordinate all government news organizations to execute public relations policy, is the main factor behind Israel’s long-standing failures in this area.” .

He highlighted the absence of a conception and an overall strategic objective in public relations; redundancies, wasted resources and lack of coordination between government public relations offices; no comprehensive budget analysis to meet government public relations requirements and ill-defined areas of responsibility and authority between the prime minister’s office, foreign ministry, defense ministry and government officials IDF.

These different groups, the report continues, are forced to rely on mutual goodwill to coordinate their activities. Unfortunately, “goodwill” did not work (surprise, surprise), as these offices “frequently ended up competing for the authority of public relations, thus conveying uncoordinated positions and messages, and even carrying out activities. redundant information ”.

Although this article and report were published decades ago, it seems very little has changed since then. This is evidenced by a more recent (2018) Los Angeles Times article titled, “Crisis after Crisis, Israel is Losing the PR War. Is it winnable? There, Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, wrote that the country’s media mismanagement is the “most glaring failure” of its policy towards the Gaza Strip: “There is no has… no single authority that coordinates and oversees these various activities, “he said. Even more depressing about this complaint is that Oren was Netanyahu’s deputy minister in charge of public diplomacy.

“The bench of official Israeli spokespersons is pretty much empty,” Shalom Lipner, a 26-year veteran in the prime minister’s office, said in the article. “It’s a virtual wasteland.”

ENTER Wikipedia, as I continued down the rabbit hole trying to understand Israel’s PR situation. The lesson I received there was actually quite informative. Israel originally used the term hasbara. It’s hard to translate into English, but it pretty much means ‘explain’. It is a communication strategy which “seeks to explain actions, whether or not they are justified”. As it focuses on providing explanations for its actions, hasbara has been described as a “reactive and event-driven approach”.

Today, Israeli practitioners tend to characterize their communication efforts as “public diplomacy”, not hasbara, indicating a shift in strategy. They consider the emphasis on “explaining” to be too defensive and prefer to actively set the agenda by being less reactive and more proactive, moving towards a more comprehensive and long-term strategic approach.

But this approach remains fragmented, with various branches of the Israeli government engaged in these efforts, including the IDF Spokesman Unit, the COGAT Spokesman Unit (The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office. (and in this context, the Government Press Service, the Directorate of Public Diplomacy and the National Directorate of Information are involved). Phew!

What I find interesting – and revealing – is that nowhere does the term “public relations” appear; rather, the official title of these efforts is “public diplomacy”. And that may also be part of the problem. Nachman Shai, the Minister of Diaspora Affairs, recently wrote in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “Israel desires to be your partner, not to let our politics or our diverse identities serve as barriers to our fundamental belief that we are a people with a common destiny and destiny. . Israel continues to be the proud manifestation of the 2,000-year-old dream of the Jewish people.

“Israel – the state, the land and its people – with all its complexities, deserves to remain a central part of building Jewish identity and experiences around the world. “

Yes, it most certainly is. But it can only do so by developing genuine “connections” with its audiences, whether they are the alienated Jews mentioned earlier in the Pew Report, or the mainstream media that are so quick to peruse Israel every time. times they make a misstep. It is certainly more difficult to forgive – or appreciate – an entity with which one does not have a relationship.

And we – Jews and non-Jews alike – have so much to appreciate! The number of “good news” stories generated in Israel is beyond me. Just take a look at the wonderful online news magazine ISRAEL21c, which “uncovers the country’s rich and diverse culture, its innovative spirit, its far-reaching contributions to humanity and civil society. democratic … traditional media. “

In the only issue that just arrived in my inbox, there are dozens of articles that made me swell with pride, including: “The 22 Most Interesting Israel-UAE Agreements of the Year “; “Israeli start-up for women’s health to deliver devices to the Gulf”; “An inhaled drug could treat rare mutations in cystic fibrosis. Why aren’t these stories at least there alongside the mainstream media reports on human rights violations and settlement expansion?

Hopefully 5782 is a year of good news and positive relations (public and personal!).

The writer is a Toronto-based writer and can be contacted at [email protected]