Jewish Chronicle, 31 October 2003

A few months ago, I wrote in this space about the lamentable failure by Israel to get its case across. Last week, in Israel at the invitation of its government to talk to officials about public opinion in Britain, I obtained an insight into the full extent of its inability to win hearts and minds.

A few examples illustrate the difficulty. Many foreign journalists arriving in Israel to cover a story check into the American Colony hotel in the eastern part of Jerusalem. This hotel is beautiful, luxurious and fashionable — with public areas full of fashionable journalists interviewing fashionable Palestinians over exquisitely prepared meals served in exquisite surroundings.

When journalists first check in, their arrival is clearly, if discreetly, noted. Within a few hours, the phone will ring in their room and a helpful Palestinian voice will offer them assistance with travel into the territories, with interpretation, with arranging interviews. Such offers are important because it is difficult to work in the territories without such assistance. It is not difficult to work within Israel, so journalists do not need equivalent help. They depend on helpful Palestinians. They do not depend on Israelis.

Israeli officials grind their teeth over the American Colony, but appear powerless to do anything about it. And the administration as a whole seems incapable of acknowledging that the same techniques spread far beyond that hotel. Despite the fact that the government press office and other ministry spokesmen deluge journalists with information and offers of help, they are still outclassed in the day by day propaganda war. In the bitterly contested incidents where Israel’s international reputation is shredded, Palestinian sources are quick with their own accounts. The Israelis, by contrast, appear not to grasp the pressures on foreign journalists - even on occasion releasing information in Hebrew, which hardly any of them understand.

Statements frequently arrive after journalists’ deadlines have passed. Last week, after an Israeli rocket attack on a car in Gaza, claims were made that the Israelis had deliberately fired on a group of civilian bystanders and killed several. It took a full day after the attack before the Israelis released a film taken by an unmanned drone, which appeared to show there had been no civilians anywhere near the car. The delay was reportedly caused by a row within the IDF over whether or not to release this film. By the time it was released, the Israelis had lost the initiative.

If an incident happens during the evening, journalists will quickly find on their laptops emails from a variety of helpful Palestinian outlets providing an account of what has happened, a selection of quotes for use, an offer of interviews with relevant people and a list of contact numbers which can be phoned all night for further assistance. From the Israelis, there is often silence.

Newspapers, broadcasters and news agencies depend on Palestinian stringers
and cameramen to provide words and pictures. These are often distorted, but the foreign media use them because they have no alternative. When such distortions are circulated by the news agencies, they appear in dozens of newspaper accounts throughout the world. And if foreign journalists happen to see things which the Palestinians don’t want them to report, they are threatened.

The Israelis could help counter this manipulation by setting up their own news outlets and circulating truthful information and assistance to journalists — in English, and in time. But they don’t, because the administration neither knows nor seems to care that it has so incompetently left the field wide open to propaganda and lies. The shambles of its public presentation simply defies belief. There is no central control, no coherent approach. Spokesmen who pop up on TV or radio are selected - or self-selected - not on the basis of any ability to communicate (often absent) but through political patronage and the power of individual egos, all competing against each other.

I asked Natan Sharansky, minister for the diaspora, why the Israelis were so indifferent to the task of public persuasion. His answer was shocking. The government’s view, he said bleakly, was that throughout their history the Jews had been forced to justify their existence; they were no longer prepared to do so. I heard something similar from many others, who added that attempts to persuade people were all hopeless, especially in Britain and Europe.

This lethal combination of arrogance and despair, the belief that righteousness makes its own case unaided and that the world will never listen, has meant that Israel has simply vacated the most important battleground of all. Sharansky - who is visiting Britain this weekend - knows how catastrophic this is. In a recent article, he wrote of how Israel had abandoned Jewish students on American campuses who were left unaided to run the gauntlet of lies and vilification. He raised the possibility that, with the field thus vacated, even American public opinion could turn against Israel. His is a powerful voice - but will any of his colleagues now listen?