Israel’s Public Relations Problem

What we have here is a failure to communicate.
by Joseph Puder, PAJAMAS MEDIA

This September 2011, when the United Nations General Assembly meetings open in New York, the Palestinians, led by Mahmoud Abbas, will receive overwhelming international support for recognition of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians have galvanized worldwide support by strategically organizing a targeted public relations campaign.

Recognition of a 23rd Arab state will mark the greatest public relations failure the Israeli government has ever experienced. Israel has categorically failed to convey a simple message: a contiguous Palestinian state will, in no uncertain terms, become a terrorist state, destabilizing both Israel (with over 1 million Israeli Arabs) and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, where approximately 70% of its people are easily radicalized Palestinians.

Citizens of a separate Palestinian state, without any semblance of an economic infrastructure, any sea access (unless Gaza is incorporated), or any natural resources, would become like the Bedouin, whose livelihood has traditionally come from raiding neighboring tribes. Only, instead of tribes, “independent” Palestine would attack the neighboring states of Israel and Jordan.

The state of Israel has failed miserably in winning over the English-speaking world, as well as the French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russians, by ignoring the need for an essential media tool — a satellite television channel with an ability to broadcast worldwide news reports and interviews, similar to Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, or the BBC. Even Hezbollah had the foresight to set up a satellite operation, Al-Manar, influencing viewers across Europe and the Middle East. Since Israel is not on the world communications map, it is neither on the geographic map. Israel has foolishly depended on outlets such as CNN and the BBC to bring its side of the story to English speaking households. Its image has been severely damaged as a result, leading to a worldwide willingness to participate in a concerted effort to delegitimize the state through a so-called “BDS” campaign of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions.

Israel controls much of the ground the Palestinians hope to have for their state, and while the IDF is more than capable of circumventing the operations of a Palestinian state, the international community would not permit that to happen. Unless Israel is prepared to be isolated politically and perhaps economically as well, a Palestinian state would possess full sovereign rights. That would mean that the two principal conditions Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set in his Bar Ilan address in 2009 for supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel — recognition of the latter as a Jewish state and demilitarization of the former — would amount to a pipe dream.

All Palestinian leaders, including the current chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and (disputed) president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, have refused to state their recognition of Israel as the Jewish state. They have argued that doing so would undermine the lives of their Arab-Muslim brethren who reside in Israel, and that recognition would also prevent the “right of return” of Palestinian-Arabs to Israel — a sure way to undermine the Jewish nature of Israel. Not publicly mentioned is the fact that deals made with the “Zionist entity” could be the last deals Arab Muslims make. And, of course, statehood for the Palestinians, if recognized at the UN and sanctioned worldwide, would put the lives of more than 300,000 Israelis at great risk.

Palestinian leaders have been silent on the issue of demilitarization of the Palestinian state. Obviously, there are no demilitarized states, especially in the Middle East. (Netanyahu is fully aware of this, as is the Obama administration.)
Last week’s Israeli naval action served as a reminder of the fallacy of demilitarization. An Iranian civilian vessel laden with advanced weaponry was intercepted as it made its way from Iran through Syria and Turkey to Egypt. Its ultimate aim: Hamas-led Gaza. For each ship intercepted by Israel (and Egypt, which has aided in interception but may, in the future, become a supplier of weapons to Gaza and the Palestinian Authority), there is an Iranian shipment that gets through. And, should a Palestinian state become a reality, there would be no way for Israel to legally intercept shipments of weapons from neighboring states and beyond, arriving either by sea or by air.

An armed Palestinian state would be an unequivocal strategic threat to the state of Israel. It would threaten major Israeli population centers, its international airport (Ben Gurion), and its power stations — all of which are within range of artillery fire, not to mention the sophisticated missiles the new state would rush to acquire.

And so, it is tragically uncanny that a technologically sophisticated Israel has neglected to mount a robust public relations campaign through a worldwide satellite TV channel station. Such neglect represents gross negligence on the part of the successive Israeli governments. Israel has the facilities: TV studios, qualified broadcasters, and technical personnel who know how to create and operate a satellite TV. And Israel enjoys the money to bankroll such an operation. What it lacks is the will to take action. Israel’s well-being depends on arming itself with a global communications weapon like Al-Jazeera.

An Israeli, pro-Zionist, Al-Jazeera-like channel would help Israel overcome the biased reporting of European and most American channels, and would reach households in Europe as well as the U.S. with a clear and undiluted message as to the dangers a Palestinian state would pose to Israel, Jordan, and the region.

Utilizing satellite technology would allow Israel’s 7 million people to match the Arab/Muslim world propaganda, even with its vast resources and 350 million people. As Israel is being savaged and delegitimized in the media, on campus, and in international institutions, Israel must fight back — not with government press releases, speeches, conferences, or meetings with world leaders, but by bringing its message to ordinary citizens worldwide.

Joseph Puder, a freelance journalist, is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Taskforce for America and Israel (ITAI).

March 31, 2011 | 28 Comments »

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28 Comments / 28 Comments

  1. Yamit writes:
    The Taliban are Terrorists? The Taliban were a threat to America?

    Yes. Welcome back – how was it on Mars? You obviously miised what has been happening here on Earth.

    The Taliban attacked America?

    Just like Israel, we don’t wait to be attacked. Germany and Italy did not attack us, neither did N. Korea or Vietnam, neither did Saddam or Ghaddafi.

    The Saudis have done more against America and American interests than any MYTH ascribed to the Taliban.

    Like I said, you need to catch up. The Taliban had allowed Al Qaeda training camps, and declined up an ultimatum to hand over Osama. The last time I checked, the Saudi government did not harbor Al Qaeda, did not attack us, helped us kick Saddam out of Kuwait, increases oil production to stabilize oil prices, and are also under attack by Al Qaeda. For the Soros fringe you belong to, all that means we must attack them to create the chaos in which you guys thrive. Nioce try, though.

    American soldiers are dying for control of oil, period!

    As I said, you are out of touch with who buys oil from whom. FYI, Iraqi oil is controlled by our allies in Iraq, Afghanistan has no oil, and we don’t buy any oil from Libya. The rest of the world needs a free flow of oil though, or the world economy would collapse. That would be good for you Soros guys, wouldn’t it.

    US government’s main objective in Afghanistan was to consolidate the position of the Taliban regime to obtain access to the oil and gas reserves in Central Asia.

    No, it isn’t and wasn’t. The objective was to destroy Al Qaeda and the Taliban just got in the way. Your ignorance is astounding even for someone has been away for so long.

    “At one moment during the negotiations, the US representatives told the Taliban, ‘either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs,’” Brisard said in an interview in Paris

    Cowcakes! Brisard had no way of knowing this – he just dreamed it up.

  2. But the American people are not fooled. They are used to calling a spade a spade and if it walks like a terrorist and quacks like a terrorist then it must be a terrorist as well as a Palestinian.
    men. This is precisely what I have been telling this forum for months now. Also, that the current Imam Obama administration is an aberration, an unfortunate social experiment that has gone horribly awry, and, Inshallah, is unlikely to last beyond 2012

    The Taliban are Terrorists? The Taliban were a threat to America? The Taliban attacked America? The Saudis have done more against America and American interests than any MYTH ascribed to the Taliban.

    American soldiers are dying for control of oil, period!

    In 1998, Dick Cheney, the US vice-president but then chief executive of a major oil services company, remarked: “I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian.” But the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved. The only route which makes both political and economic sense is through Afghanistan. [Guardian]

    US government’s main objective in Afghanistan was to consolidate the position of the Taliban regime to obtain access to the oil and gas reserves in Central Asia.

    They affirm that until August [2001], the US government saw the Taliban regime “as a source of stability in Central Asia that would enable the construction of an oil pipeline across Central Asia” from the rich oilfields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Indian Ocean. Until now, says the book, “the oil and gas reserves of Central Asia have been controlled by Russia. The Bush government wanted to change all that.” But, confronted with Taliban’s refusal to accept US conditions, “this rationale of energy security changed into a military one”.

    “At one moment during the negotiations, the US representatives told the Taliban, ‘either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs,'” Brisard said in an interview in Paris.

    48–119 CC
    1998
    U.S. INTERESTS IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS

    HEARING

    BEFORE THE

    SUBCOMMITTEE ON
    ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

    OF THE

    COMMITTEE ON
    INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
    HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS

    SECOND SESSION

    FEBRUARY 12, 1998

    Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations

  3. Prof. Gene writes:
    I have always said that the Palestinians are the greatest masters of propaganda in the world today outdoing George Goebbels.

    True. They have done this on the backs of their own people who they portrays as “Victims”. They have been aided and abetted in this by the failure of the Israelis and Jews in general to keep the founding charters of their dominant militant organizations like the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah to be front and center in the worldwide dialog on this conflict. This, inspite of the fact that these provide proof positive that the Palestinians have no intentions of accepting any solution that includes Israel, making “talks”, “negotiations” and other such poppycock moot. Unless Israel capitulates and agrees to even more concessions which are never matched by a single meaningful concession by the Palestinians the status quo is the best Israel can hope for.

    But the American people are not fooled. They are used to calling a spade a spade and if it walks like a terrorist and quacks like a terrorist then it must be a terrorist as well as a Palestinian.

    Amen. This is precisely what I have been telling this forum for months now. Also, that the current Imam Obama administration is an aberration, an unfortunate social experiment that has gone horribly awry, and, Inshallah, is unlikely to last beyond 2012.

  4. I have always said that the Palestinians are the greatest masters of propaganda in the world today outdoing George Goebbels. They get away with changing the meaning of words. People who blow up buses full of civilians, pizza parlors, and wedding parties, are called Freedom Fighters. The term Freedom Fighter first became popular during the 1956 Hungarian uprising but those fighters attacked Russian tanks and soldiers with their small arms not the families of the Russian Soldiers thus negating the Palestinian’s explanation for targeting civilians that it is all they can do with small arms against a country that has tanks and jets and heavy weapons.

    They also if they use the term Israel at all instead of Zionist Entity, quickly add, “terrorist state.” They also use the tag genocide state though the Palestinian are not an endangered species. Thus they have diminished the power of the word genocide. Their latest campaign is to claim that the vast majority of Israeli Jews are not Jews but European Ashkenazim who are really European Christians who converted to Judaism in Medieval times. All of these outlandish claims can be easily dis-proven but thousands perhaps millions of ignorant people believe this propaganda without question. Those who are Jew haters are ready to believe anything against Jews but those who think they are trying to be fair minded just could not imagine that there might be others whose sole intent is to destroy Israel, that there must be some provocation.

    And in America there are open discussions and programs in the media about every religion except Islam. The life of Christ has had many movies and specials as have the lives of Jewish prophets but there has never been one on the life of Mohamed. Delving into Islam is off limits though there are some cracks in this wall of silence such as the recent “Unwelcome the Muslim Next door” on CNN. It is the American Government who protect Islam and not just the Democrats but many Republicans as well buy into Political Correctness. But the American people are not fooled. They are used to calling a spade a spade and if it walks like a terrorist and quacks like a terrorist then it must be a terrorist as well as a Palestinian.

  5. Yamit writes:
    Out of your own mouth comes proof that you are the most anti-Israel commenter on Israpundit.

    To begin with, you have no idea what comes out of my mouth.

    Secondly, only someone who is blind, deaf and dumb would conclude that I am anti-Israeli leave alone “the most anti-Israeli”. That would probably be you because of your relentless efforts to weaken the Israel-American alliance, which would leave Israel without billions in subsidies, less sophisticated armaments, unprotected at the UNSC and with no support if they have to level Iran.

    BTW there are many millions of liberal Catholics and other Christians than Jews Tens of millions more in fact.

    Catholics are not Semites, so they cannot be expected to vote with Israel as a top priority. Liberal American Jews are Semites, many of them Israelis. That is why it is callous and careless when they vote for an anti-Semitic President in the White House.

    Get to work big mouth. Are you still receiving food stamps?

    I don’t qualify for food stamps – but I hear you do.

  6. AmericanEagle says:

    Yamit wants Israel to distance herself from the US. You say that Yamit is therefore driving a wedge between the US and Israel. When in fact you are driving a wedge by justifying US pressure.

    Nonsense. I am the biggest defender here of the Israeli-American alliance

    .

    Out of your own mouth comes proof that you are the most anti-Israel commenter on Israpundit.

    BTW there are many millions of liberal Catholics and other Christians than Jews Tens of millions more in fact. I guarantee to you one thing. If you convince the majority of Catholic and other Christian liberals to cease being liberal I promise there won’t be a single Jewish liberal who will support the Democratic ticket no matter who is on the menu.

    Get to work big mouth. Are you still receiving food stamps?

  7. Samuel Fistel wrote:
    It would be nice if there were an “end to history”;

    Every now and then we have to press the Re-set button in history. The last big one was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Look what it did for Japan, Germany and Italy which went from aggressive fascist regimes engaged in wholesale killings and genocide to models of freedom and democracy.

  8. Samuel Fistel writes:
    In Israel, we have Jews who believe in HaShem and Torah, opposed to post-Zionist Hebrew-speaking goyim, whose reason for remaining in Jewish Israel is to help destroy it from within.

    Don’t forget liberal American Jews, George “Chaos” Soros and his 400 pet Rabbis, intentionally or unintentionally destroying it from without.

  9. Vinnie writes:
    By the way, what do you think will happen over this course of this year?

    Vinnie, I deeply apologize for confusing you with Yamit! Oy, veh! I would never knowingly confuse anyone like that.

    I will leave what will happen to you science fiction writers:-)) But, thanks for not voting for Imam Obama. We need every vote again in 2012 to make sure we boot him back to Chicago. These liberals are experts at lying and fooling people. Liberalism, which is only a revised version of Marxism/socialism without the atheism, totalitarianism and total government control, is based largely on a foundation lies, smoke and mirrors. If more people realized the truth about how liberal policies actually harm the downtrodden and make them dependent on self-serving politicians and bureaucrats, they would never ever be elected.

    BTW, I don’t think much is going to happen this year unless Israel makes some silly decision to have “talks” with those who want to wipe it off the map.

    Ted writes:
    While it is true, Israel is free to tell the US to shove it. It is not true to say that Israel can or should always ignore US threats and pressure and do what it wants. Israel depends on the US for various things and that dependency makes them vulnerable to US pressure.

    I’m sorry, but Israel is responsible for its own decisions as a sovereign state. It has refused to do what the US asked numerous times. You cannot blame the US for Israel’s decisions as and when it suits you. The US population is far too supportive of Israel to make any threats real.

    Yamit wants Israel to distance herself from the US. You say that Yamit is therefore driving a wedge between the US and Israel. When in fact you are driving a wedge by justifying US pressure.

    Nonsense. I am the biggest defender here of the Israeli-American alliance.

    I’m not justifying anything. What you call “US pressure” is simply the US – naively and out of political correctness in my opinion – pushing for talks towards a two-state solution, which every Israeli government since 1947 has also accepted in principle. Only Israel’s hate-filled enemies have prevented a two-state solution from happening since 1947.

    I have repeatedly advocated here that everytime the US pushes Israel towards “talks” with the Palis, Israel should send them copies of the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah charters and ask them what any “talks” are going to achieve as long as those are in effect.

    Israel’s biggest PR failure is that these documents – that prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the Palis are not interested in any solution that includes Israel – are not a central part of the worldwide dialog on this conflict.

    Once again, I must warn you any repeat of either of these refrains will be banned.

    Ted, I’m far too old to worry about threats to ban the truth.

  10. Maintaining the center? I don’t think so.

    It would be nice if there were an “end to history”; that everybody moved to the center and agreed to get along, and resolve all conflicts with compromise, fairness, reason, and non-violence.

    But, like communism, that goes against human nature.

    I see the world relentlessly polarizing to extremes, and the center is disappearing. In america, this manifests as white christian conservative Republicans upholding a traditional America, while liberal whites, blacks and latinos are pushing for a post-American bankrupt welfare state with no income.

    In Israel, we have Jews who believe in HaShem and Torah, opposed to post-Zionist Hebrew-speaking goyim, whose reason for remaining in Jewish Israel is to help destroy it from within.

    In both countries, sooner or later, something will have to give.

  11. Vinnie writes:
    By the way, what do you think will happen over this course of this year?

    Vinnie, I deeply apologize for confusing you with Yamit! Oy, veh! I would never knowingly confuse anyone like that.

    I will leave what will happen to you science fiction writers:-)) But, thanks for not voting for Imam Obama. We need every vote again in 2012 to make sure we boot him back to Chicago. These liberals are experts at lying and fooling people. Liberalism, which is only a revised version of Marxism/socialism without the atheism, totalitarianism and total government control, is based largely on a foundation lies, smoke and mirrors. If more people realized the truth about how liberal policies actually harm the downtrodden and make them dependent on self-serving politicians and bureaucrats, they would never ever be elected.

    BTW, I don’t think much is going to happen this year unless Israel makes some silly decision to have “talks” with those who want to wipe it off the map.

    Ted writes:
    While it is true, Israel is free to tell the US to shove it. It is not true to say that Israel can or should always ignore US threats and pressure and do what it wants. Israel depends on the US for various things and that dependency makes them vulnerable to US pressure.

    I’m sorry, but Israel is responsible for its own decisions as a sovereign state. It has refused to do what the US asked numerous times. You cannot blame the US for Israel’s decisions as and when it suits you. The US population is far too supportive of Israel to make any threats real.

    Yamit wants Israel to distance herself from the US. You say that Yamit is therefore driving a wedge between the US and Israel. When in fact you are driving a wedge by justifying US pressure.

    Nonsense. I am the biggest defender here of the Israeli-American alliance.

    I’m not justifying anything. What you call “US pressure” is simply the US – naively and out of political correctness in my opinion – pushing for talks towards a two-state solution, which every Israeli government since 1947 has also accepted in principle. Only Israel’s hate-filled enemies have prevented a two-state solution from happening since 1947.

    I have repeatedly advocated here that everytime the US pushes Israel towards “talks” with the Palis, Israel should send them copies of the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah charters and ask them what any “talks” are going to achieve as long as those are in effect.

    Israel’s biggest PR failure is that these documents – that prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the Palis are not interested in any solution that includes Israel – are not a central part of the worldwide dialog on this conflict.

    Once again, I must warn you any repeat of either of these refrains will be banned.

    Ted, I’m far too old to respond to threats to ban the truth.

  12. AE. You keep repeating this refrain in one form another.

    This is the “Big Baby” approach, which selectively whines that certain Israeli decisions are the fault of “US pressure” because the Big Babies are incapable of making their own decisions.

    In my opinion this is one of the stupidest thing you assert.

    While it is true, Israel is free to tell the US to shove it. It is not true to say that Israel can or should always ignore US threats and pressure and do what it wants. Israel depends on the US for various things and that dependency makes them vulnerable to US pressure.

    You take the position that America must look after its own interests and thus it finds it necessary to pressure Israel. You obviously support the idea that the US can apply whatever pressure it wants on Israel because Israel can always give the finger. This is not good enough. As allies, the US is supposed to support us not threaten us. People who are pro-Israel in the US expect the US not to pressure us. But for you it’s OK. What does that make you.

    Yamit wants Israel to distance herself from the US. You say that Yamit is therefore driving a wedge between the US and Israel. When in fact you are driving a wedge by justifying US pressure.

    Once again, I must warn you any repeat of either of these refrains will be banned.

  13. AE,

    Read carefully above. You have mixed up my comments with Yamit’s.

    Much of your criticism is against my commments. You accuse me of being a “science fiction” writer.

    No, I’m not a “liberal Jew” who voted for Obama. Bite your tongue!

    And, as to my “science ficion”, we’ll see how all this plays out.

    By the way, what do you think will happen over this course of this year?

    I’d be interested to hear your “science ficion”, if you think events are going to turn out so much differently than I posit above.

  14. Linda Rivera writes:
    The biggest problem of course, was Israel, under intense U.S. pressure, agreeing to Oslo PHONY peace agreement and all of the other PHONY peace agreements.

    This is the “Big Baby” approach, which selectively whines that certain Israeli decisions are the fault of “US pressure” because the Big Babies are incapable of making their own decisions. In the meantime, Israel often makes decisions that are different from what the US wants, because it is a sovereign country and not a US state.

    The Muslims fully intend to commit a Second Holocaust of the Jewish people.

    We all know they would like to, but cannot. The US will not allow it.

    By submitting to global jihad and offering to surrender BIBLICAL Jewish Land to the Palestinian Authority Muslim terrorist organization (the militarily strategic high ground of Judea and Samaria-absolutely vital to Israel’s defense), Israeli leaders made it appear that Israel does not really belong to Jews!

    The “Biblical Jewish land” is ancient history. That was then, this is now. The new Jewish land is what Israel controls now. Wise up and please stop dreaming.

    Yamit writes:
    Israel has no PR problem we have a problem that we are led by idiots,cowards and fools devoid of faith and devoid in vision.

    Yamit writes:
    Whatever any of you think of Bibi, I just don’t see him taking this lying down.

    Make up your mind. Is Bibi an idiot, coward and fool, or a decisive leader who will not act like an idiot, coward and fool?

    This is when the UN, with the active participation of the U.S. under NCHO, initiates the “Rhodesia Treatment” for Israel.

    When did you become a science fiction writer?

    I think in order to shut up the shrill anti-Israel crowd, Western governments may make a pretense of sanctions, but it won’t really be enforced all that strictly.

    Oh, so they are not all going to attack Israel – they are only going to pretend to impose sanctions on themselves.

    Hopefully, if it comes to an all-out fight, in the course of the same, Bibi will ANNIHILATE the PA once and for all. I mean, not leave one of their leaders, cabinet ministers, etc., alive. When the dust settles, if nothing else, the PA should be NO MORE. No letting them escape to Tunisia, or any of that crap. Same goes for Hezbollah.

    An idiot, cowardly fool will do all this?

    How different things would have been, if McCain had won. I know some here might disagree with me, and that is your right, of course. I can tell you that I know this for a fact. Believe me or not, doesn’t matter to me.

    We know it doesn’t matter to you. If it did, you and the other liberal Jews would not have voted 78% against McCain.

    What a huge, incredibly avoidable mess all of this is, was, whatever……

    Keep your day job – science fiction requires a better imagination and the ability to keep track of complex plot lines than you are able to. Your plot is, Jews good, everyone else bad, God made Jews his chosen people, God forgot about all his other creatures, Jews kill all the Muslims and live happily ever after. The end.

  15. Israel’s biggest PR failure is that the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah charters are not front and center in the news reporting and discussions on the middle-east conflict. These are proof that the Palis have no intentions of a solution that includes Israel, and no one is talking about it. Amazing.

  16. As long as there is a Haaretz cabal and it’s reactionary hard left within Israel, it will be difficult for Israel to get a fair shake in the media. These self righteous so called elites put Israel at suicidal risk with their overexposed anti Israel perspective. As long as Israel civil rights include allowing these angry anti Israel agitators license; Israel public relations is doomed.
    It’s one thing to have a point of view; quite another to advocate the destruction of your own people.

  17. Here’s what I expect.

    The Palis will get their backing from the UN for their “state”.

    Then, they’ll interpret this as their “green light” to launch “Intifada Three” against the major Jewish communities east of the Green Line.

    The IDF will have to intervene against them. Israel is not going to stand for this. Whatever any of you think of Bibi, I just don’t see him taking this lying down.

    The PA will lose, of course, And CNN, Al Jazeer, etc., will be there to record it all.

    The Palis will have duly played their usual role as “cannon fodder”.

    This is when the UN, with the active participation of the U.S. under NCHO, initiates the “Rhodesia Treatment” for Israel.

    This may or may not encourage the rest of Israel’s neighbors – or at least some of them – to attack Israel as well.

    A cornered Israel, with no resupply or spare parts from the U.S. or anyone else – i.e., with NOTHING TO LOSE – hits back as hard as they can. That’s pretty hard. What difference will it make then in terms of PR? Who gives a shit what Christiana Amanpour has to say then?

    Israel will have to endure perhaps a year and a half as a pariah state, with all that implies for their economy. But it might not be THAT bad.

    Israel is heavily engaged with the rest of the world’s developed economies.

    As the old saying goes, “War is hell, but business is business”.

    I think in order to shut up the shrill anti-Israel crowd, Western governments may make a pretense of sanctions, but it won’t really be enforced all that strictly.

    The U.S. Congress – and large segments of the American public – will go nuts. Obama won’t just lose the Jewish vote. He’ll lose a lot of others, too. American public support of Israel generally is at a 20-year-high, at least.

    Hopefully, if it comes to an all-out fight, in the course of the same, Bibi will ANNIHILATE the PA once and for all. I mean, not leave one of their leaders, cabinet ministers, etc., alive. When the dust settles, if nothing else, the PA should be NO MORE. No letting them escape to Tunisia, or any of that crap. Same goes for Hezbollah.

    It’s going to be a very rough ride, but I have a guarded optimism that at the other end of this, it is going to be OK.

    What really enrages me, though, is this: This is all soooooo unnecessary.

    How different things would have been, if McCain had won. I know some here might disagree with me, and that is your right, of course. I can tell you that I know this for a fact. Believe me or not, doesn’t matter to me.

    What a huge, incredibly avoidable mess all of this is, was, whatever……

  18. Israel has no PR problem we have a problem that we are led by idiots,cowards and fools devoid of faith and devoid in vision. Most if not all are corrupt bought and paid for by wealthy benefactors at home and abroad. Israel’s policies re: The Palis are and have been confused, contradictory and inconsistent. Our unilateral withdrawals and concessions that allowed the continuation of terrorism, the emergence of a quasi- Palestinian state, and Israel’s increasing isolation and delegitimization.

    Efforts to combat delegitimization, therefore, are crippled by Israeli government policy which (1) has refused to assert the legal and historical rights of Jews in Judea and Samaria; (2) has refused to annex Area C of Judea and Samaria, in which all of the settlements reside, over 300,000 Jews and a relatively small minority of Arabs; (3) supports the establishment of a second Arab Palestinian state based more or less on the 1949 Armistice lines; (4) has implemented restrictions and freezes on Jewish building in Area C; (5) wantonly destroys Jewish homes in Yesha; (6) equates Zionism with Palestinianism.

    Our lack of consistency has created the very conditions and openings that have allowed our enemies to to fill. Why should anyone agree to any Jewish Israeli claims, as long as Israeli governments continue to support the two-state plan, rendering settlements as bargaining chips towards a future peace agreement, the question of who is entitled to Judea and Samaria has already been decided; what remains is only the timing and the price to be paid.

    PR? don’t think that’s our problem. Incoherent deleterious policies by Israels leadership both right and left have rendered active defense of Israel effectively impossible. Israeli governments, therefore, created this trap, a no-win situation directed by the architects of the Oslo Agreements and perpetuated by Israeli government since.

    Israels ambiguity only creates confusion; a sign of weakness, it invites derision.

  19. Rosangela de Azevedo and yamit82:

    America has great guilt.

    Over the years, the U.S. has intensely pressured Israel to release THOUSANDS of Muslim terrorists from Israeli jails.

    U.S. continual pressure for Israel to surrender her land to the Islamo Nazis.

    U.S. constant demands for Israel to remove anti terror roadblocks, etc.

    U.S. for many years and ongoing, arms, and gives Palestinian Authority security services advanced military training. One of the US trained Muslim terrorists told journalist, Aaron Klein, that all of the U.S. training is used against Israel. The Palestinian Authority are America’s proxy army against the Jewish people.

    G-D’s judgments on America will be terrifying. Read all of Jeremiah 50-51. I am absolutely convinced that Babylon is New York and Chaldea is America. G-D will surely bring upon America all of the horrible things that U.S. leaders seek to perpetrate on Israel. It will be terrifying.

  20. The biggest problem of course, was Israel, under intense U.S. pressure, agreeing to Oslo PHONY peace agreement and all of the other PHONY peace agreements.

    The Muslims fully intend to commit a Second Holocaust of the Jewish people.

    By submitting to global jihad and offering to surrender BIBLICAL Jewish Land to the Palestinian Authority Muslim terrorist organization (the militarily strategic high ground of Judea and Samaria-absolutely vital to Israel’s defense), Israeli leaders made it appear that Israel does not really belong to Jews! You can’t get worse public relations than that.

  21. Rosangela de Azevedo says:

    The United nations became a travesty of justice and truth. The US must end its financial support to this terrorist facilitator entity.

    The West is Edom and America it’s leadership. America is GOG!!!


    “The United Nations Organization must immediately be equipped with an international armed force… a force for action, a true Temple of Peace.”

    “We are engaged in the process of creating a European unit in the world organization of the United Nations… one of several continental units, the pillars of the world instrument for maintaining security.”

    The quotes are from Winston Churchill, the first from paragraph 10 of his speech, “The Sinews of Peace,” March 05, 1946 delivered at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, often termed the ‘iron curtain’ speech; the second quote from “the Council of Europe,” delivered at the Council in Strasbourg, August 17, 1949.

    When those now worrying about “Social Security,” State – managed health ‘insurance,’ and dogmas like global warming or “a new world money, a contrived currency” to advance “a collectivist world order” were young, they read about the bold leadership and heartening rhetoric of Winston Churchill, elder Statesman of the Allied powers and champion of “the fraternal association of English-speaking peoples”. An eminent example of his tutelary ‘prophetic’ status was his celebrated speech about Russia’s clamping an “iron curtain…upon Europe from Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic.” Amid his soaring rhetoric, including poignant mention of “mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamt,” and ample self-praise, the august Churchill cannily presented a goal little discussed in mass media or typical school texts.

  22. Mark in the calendar, Sept of 2011, United Nations will celebrate the Palestinian State. Mark in the calendar!!!! From this date on a lot of “natural phenomenon” “catastrophes” will happen to each country whose Representative was there supporting Palestine and therefore, positioning themselves against Israel . Ariel Sharon the one who actively forced settlers out of Gaza in 2005 is still in coma since after it. “for he that touches you, touches the apple of God’s eyes”. Zechariah 2:8 Zechariah 12:3 ” On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will strike every horse wit panick and its rider with madness,” declares The Lord. ” I will keep an watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, “The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God”.
    Genesis 12:3 “I swill bless those who bless you, and whoever curse you I will curse; and all peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.”

    The United nations became a travesty of justice and truth. The US must end its financial support to this terrorist facilitator entity.

  23. I don’t think its a public relations problem. There are those who will never be persuaded to see Israel’s side let alone take its side regardless of any hasbara efforts. You can take the most horrific attacks against Israeli Jews such as the slitting of an infant’s throat and these people will twist themselves into pretzels to somehow tell us how the savages were driven to it and therefore its all Israel’s fault. The mere presence of Jews is a provocation for terrorist attacks, so believe the muslims and leftists. Most Americans already support Israel but Europe is a lost cause.

  24. Bill Levinson has it right! I learned as a child in the school yard (about the same time as Israel became a “country”)
    and the local boys were chasing me home and calling me a “dirty Jew”,that the way to deal with bullies is to hit back as hard as you can.
    It works, the world hasn’t changed, and that is what Israel must do with both its PR and its weapons to win in the ‘real’ world.

  25. El reconocimiento de un estado palestino simplemente por el hecho que el Estado de Israel tiene un conflicto verbal para llegar a un acuerdo de paz, es imprescindible que primero, haya ese acuerdo de paz, segundo , unas vez resuelto, ahí si con fronteras determinadas y controladas por la ONU, se debe reconocer ese mencionado estado.

    POR LO TANTO ES INACEPTABLE RECONOCER UN ESTADO QUE NUNCA HA SIDO CREADO O INDEPENDIZADO.

  26. You are correct that there is a failure to communicate. However, it is not how we communicate that is the problem, it is what we communicate. When Netanyahu gets up at Bar Ilan University to address the world, every media outlet will cover it and the world will hear what he has to say. The problem is what he says. If he had said that “Israel is our land, there is no Palestine and no Palestinian people”, and not that we accept a two state solution, then the world would be a very different place today. As long as we keep talking about a Palestinian state then we have accepted that the land belongs to the Arabs and not to the Jewish people.

    As long as we keep denying our identity as the Jewish people, the people that God chose to be a light unto the nations, the people that God took out from Egyptian slavery, the people that He gave the Torah at mount Sinai, and the people that have survived every atrocity, then we will not succeed. How is it that we were able to rise from the ashes of Europe to reclaim our homeland that we had prayed for endlessly, yet we cannot fight off a few Arabs who want to take our home from us?

    We must stop placating the world and telling them what they want to hear. We must tell them the truth. Only then will we gain the respect of the world. If we tell the world the message that God has given us, they will listen. Just as Jonah was wrong to think the people of Ninveh would listen to the word of God, so are we when we do not tell the world the truth.

  27. Mr Fistel has it right. What is the point of trying to convince Jew haters to not hateJews. the problem is to convince people to wake up and get on over here (Israel) which is the only way that a statement can be made. The UN is bankrupt – we all know that and has no meaning outside the Arab world. The US is not too far behind with Oabama/shamama leading the way or whomever is behind him (I do not believe he has the intelligence for this and maybe some oil barons/car manufacturers etc love him and he is their stage puppet) so what is the point of trying to deal with them. We need to be honest and straight forward especially re Yehuda and Shomron and make them ours once and for all The same with the Temple Mount. The rage that will follow is there now just waiting to come out. So let it come out and let’s deal with it once and for all. If we do not stand up to it (with force as that is the only language they understand amongst themselves and in the world in general) then the world will be engulfed in radical Islam which knows only death – at least the death of everyone but their leaders (whether it is their own people = witness what is happening today in Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Behrain etc etc or others = anyone opposed to dictatorship and tyranny). So time to move on and face the truth or we will ALL face the death threat.

  28. Trying to reason with liberals about Jewish Israel is futile:

    If I tried to get you to reason with hitler that Jews are really not so bad, or with the pope that jesus may have been just a man, or with lenin that capitalism has some good points, you would tell me I’m crazy and to get lost.

    But arguing with liberals about Jewish Israel is just as futile. Because liberals are Orwellian, they have managed to convince most conservatives that liberals are truly rational. But since their use of the term “rational” is Orwellian newspeak, they are in fact just as fanatic and dogmatic as hitler, the pope, and lenin.

    The following are core, dogmatic, unshakeable beliefs of the “rational” liberals: Jewish Israel was born in sin, Jewish Israelis are the true nazis, Jewish Israelis are foreign colonialist imperialists who have stolen their land from the native palestinians; the muslims are always the victims and are always justified in their atrocities against all Jews (in Israel and elsewhere); the Jewish Israelis are racist fascists and anything they do in self-defence is actually an “international war crime”.

    The liberals say they support a “small but secure” Jewish Israel. The translation of this Orwellaina newspeak is that they want to see Jewish Israel destroyed. So of course, liberals deny that the religion of islam demands the defeat of Jewish Israel and the return of the land to muslim control, and instead insist that islam is misunderstood, and is fundamentally a “religion of peace”, and that the surrounding muslim arab countries are guided by secularism, and not islam.

    Conclusion: You cannot reason with liberals. I believe that Netanyahu understands this, and that it is his policy to humor the Jew-hating liberals, and to appease them by making minor concessions. He wants to keep things stable, and will not provoke the liberals as long as they do not back him into a corner. I am not so sure how he will respond when that time comes. And note that the whole world is currently meta-stable and precarious: arabs are in revolt, America is in terminal decline, and the world economy may collapse in an instant into a second Great Depression. Netanyahu started out as an economist (and a good one), and may hope to use this in Jewish Israel’s favor.