Please add your voice to this Petition to PM Netanyahu. “We demand that you vastly increase Israel’s Hasbara Budget.”
Just one ministry official is in charge of the fight, now aided by a diplomatic cadet. ‘We feel like soldiers in a battle, but without resources,’ say staffers.
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This incident, however, represents merely a small victory in the comprehensive battle in which Israeli embassies around the world are currently embroiled. And Israel’s ambassadors are at the forefront of this battle essentially alone, without the necessary budgets and resources to stem the rising international tide.
Soldiers without resources
Two years ago, the Israeli government decided to place responsibility for combatting the boycott and BDS movement in the hands of the Strategic Affairs Ministry, now the Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Ministry. The previous minister, Yuval Steinitz, tried to formulate a comprehensive plan to fight the boycott – but nothing much came of it due to lack of government funding.
Today, just a single Foreign Ministry official, Amir Ofek, is in charge of the fight, with the help recently of a diplomatic cadet. “We feel like soldiers in a battle, but without resources,” say Foreign Ministry officials. “We are dealing, insanely under-budgeted, with a worldwide phenomenon that is becoming increasingly widespread. It’s a joke.”
Despite its meager resources, the Foreign Ministry has been successful in thwarting numerous boycott initiatives, with most of the work being carried out behind the scenes. When, for example, a particular investment fund in the United States was called on to drop its stake in an Israeli company said to be providing explosives to the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli Consulate was quick to present the facts to the fund’s management and prevent the disinvestment.
Sophisticated tactics
“There’s no substitute for the embassies’ widespread network of connections,” Foreign Ministry sources say. “You need to have your finger on the pulse all the time. If you don’t get to know activists at least six months in advance, no one will listen to you at crunch time, when faced with boycott demands.”
Embassy officials also work with the municipalities in an effort to thwart boycott initiatives. It turns out that in many instances, boycott campaigns – frequently initiated by Muslim communities – are funded by municipal budgets set aside for the welfare of local residents. On several occasions, for example, embassy officials in France have warned the mayor of Paris about boycott initiatives involving the misuse of public funds.
The embassies are also very active behind the scenes when it comes to preventing foreign artists from canceling performances in Israel.
“An Israeli ambassador can’t call an artist and say: Don’t listen to Roger Waters,” Foreign Ministry officials admit. “But he can approach an influential agent and ask him to approach the particular artist and convince him to come to Israel and not give in to the boycott.”
I wish the the ADL were moribund. Unfortunately, it is extremely active in promoting the myth of Islamophobia and thereby enabling Muslim terrorism. It functions as an advocate for Obama’s anti-Israel agenda, and alienates Zionist Christians by falsely accusing them of being anti-Semitic. Under Foxman’s leftist reign of terror, ADL has become the Kosher version of BDS.
Yidvocate Said:
When I see comments like yours, I wonder if you’re living in Israel, almost totally cut off from the rest of the real world.
Israel alone was not able to defeat the Arab boycott in the 1970’s, when it was not hiding under the banner of BDS. It was largely the major Jewish organizations, like the ADL and American Jewish Committee. Now, those organizations are pretty much moribund. The U.S. needs to update its anti-boycott laws, the American supporters that are left need to mobilize, and a campaign and counterattack utiliziing all available weapons must get off the ground. With all of Israel’s great innovations and achievements scientifically and technologically, the rest of the world won’t care, and will be glad to do without these great contributions–believe me. Most people don’t know where these innovations come from. There are enough innovations coming from the U.S. that the world will be happy to live without Israel’s, and Israel itself.
For one thing, Israel needs to stop being defensive about the so-called “occupation.” Stop speaking of it in those terms. Talk about the ethnic cleansing of Jews in 1948, how many of the major settlements are just recovered communities from which Jews were expelled, counter talk fo alleged massacres, like Deir Yassin, with full-throated ripose about the Grand Mufti’s deep participation in and contribution to the greatest massacre of all time, the Holocaust.
Tactics aside, adequate resources are critical. Just look at the millions that go into BDS from myriad of sources. Unless Israel matches and at this late point in time vastly exceeds these funds in it’s fight, it will just be tilting at windmills.
The best way to defeat the boycott is for the Israeli government to unleash the full force of Jewish ingenuity by reducing taxes and regulations. Left to their own designs, Israelis will create spectacular technological innovations that will have the world begging for Israeli products and services.
Insofar as exposing BDS for the anti-Semitic filth it so obviously is, that involves creating a media alternative to the pathologically dishonest world press. CNN glorifies Hamas, so good luck getting it to expose BDS.