Israel could learn from Dubai's hasbara
Noah Pollak makes an important point about Dubai's handling of the aftermath of the liquidation of Hamas terrorist and arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Now imagine if the Israeli government had shown the same speed, efficiency, and common sense in getting information out to the world about, say, a headline-making Arab claim that the IDF had committed an atrocity (pick one among dozens: the Al-Dura affair, the Gaza beach explosion, the “Jenin massacre,” or any number of incidents from the Lebanon and Gaza wars).To sum up, good hasbara (yes, that's what he's describing) is timely, positive, readable and catchy. Maybe someone can pass this on to the 'mavens' in the Israeli government who still can't figure it out on their own.
The relevant officials would start by not reflexively apologizing; then they would quickly determine what happened; put together a short video presentation, with English narration; complete said presentation while the story was still in the headlines — in days, not weeks, months, or years later; and get it online and sent to journalists and bloggers around the world.
The Dubai authorities did this on the fly in a one-off crisis. The Israeli authorities have been dealing with crises on a constant basis for decades, and they still can’t put something like this together, even when they have months to prepare. Has anyone seen the slightest effort by the Israelis to discredit, say, the Goldstone Report in a way that is accessible and relevant to ordinary people? (Ordinary people don’t read 1,000-page documents.) I sure haven’t, and they’ve had a year to work on it.
Read it all.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:57 PM
3 Comments:
Hey, what do you know? The Israeli government PR department is now handing out flyers to Israeli travelers leaving via Ben Gurion for "do it yourself hasbara - help Israeil PR while you're abroad". How's that for a crowdsourcing initiative??? Huh, huh, what do you think of that masterpiece?
Remember, to have hasbara somebody has to be in charge and take responsibility for it - neither are functions of the Israeli government.
Dubai's hasbara
We can (should) learn from it?
No country has had more media during war time than Israel. During the last Leb war there were media swarms. During the second intifada there was literally play by play coverage. A baby would be scrapped from a pizza parlor wall in view of world wide tv coverage while at the same time the same coverage broke speaking to those who santioned the terror attack itself. Ditto Gaza, cast lead and Gaza expulsion. In the end Israel not the terrorists were turned into pariahs and everyone claims it is just a matter of hasbara to turn it around!!
What is the root of bias?
Hasbara sings to the choir.
One can not see unless they take the blinders off. This goes in the reverse as well...
Face it,when will we understand the very root of bias when it comes to Israel/Jews is something few want to see or admit.
At this moment the world council of churches are poised to produce a new fresh round of libels toward the evil Zionists. Do you think for one moment those libels are justified? Do you think their venomous accusations launched against
Israel can be washed away with hasbara? Or do you think the root of their venom lies in a deeper more dark core quite impervious to reality and truth?
In my lifetime I have talked to many people who feel a 'certain' negativity or emptiness about Jews and Israel just because. It is something they can not quite wrap themselves around. Those are the somewhat innocent, quiet purveyors of antisemitism. They are the same ones who feel moved when they see an exploded bus replete with body parts but sadly are more moved when they see the mother of the shahid being interviewed.
Can Hasbara wipe out any reasoning for at the height of the intifada a U.S president formulates a quartet for peace, three of whom are known to be hostile toward Israel.
Can Hasbara make sense of the fact Israel is the only country on the planet who lacks a U.S embassy in their capital?
In the mean time we are so blind we ourselves refuse to confront the idea no world power wishes Jerusalem to be the undivided capital in Israel and worse, why!
Of course Dubai is making good on this hit gone wrong.
Is this not what those in that part of the world do best anyway? We should pattern ourselves of all people on the salacious venom produced by Islamic,Arab Nazi's?
The stupid Jews still haven't figured how to make their case to the world. And they do have a good one.
Why is it an Arab country that hates Jews and Israel to the max gets away with presenting a cold-blooded murderer of Jews and a master terrorist as an innocent victim?
Hasbara, indeed!
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