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    • Why is Israel failing at PR and how can it improve its position?
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    Why is Israel failing at PR and how can it improve its position?

    Online Niel Posted on

    As Israel wages a difficult war against enemies who seek to destroy us, military successes are overshadowed by our lack of public relations achievements. There is no doubt that the Republican victory a Donald Trump on Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the US presidential election marks a turning point in the relationship between the US and Israeli governments. In his victory speech this week, Trump declared: “I will not start wars; I will put an end to them.”

    Since the Six Day War, when the small and threatened state of Israel defeated three Arab countries, there has been a dramatic shift in global public opinion, with some journalists, including Jews, embracing radical leftist views. Certain journalists have revived anti-Semitic statements that blend with anti-Israel sentiment, creating a false narrative about Israel’s struggle for existence.

    A recent standout in this regard is Thomas Friedman, one of America’s most influential journalists, an American Jew, and a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. Now he claims that since we removed Sinwar, Gaza can be returned Palestinian Authority (PA). This journalist, whose memory is apparently not his forte, argued as recently as June that Sinwar should be appointed to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. It’s hard to believe.

    Friedman has developed positions that have drawn sharp criticism from many Israelis and a significant portion of the American Jewish community, who accuse him of inaccuracies in his coverage of Israel, presenting views hostile to the Jewish state, and media bias favoring the Palestinians and Arab states. . One of the main arguments of his critics is that he takes a one-sided approach when discussing Israeli policy, particularly regarding military operations, settlement construction, and Israel’s behavior on the diplomatic stage. He believes that Israel is occupying and exploiting its military power against the Palestinians.

    Friedman has been accused several times of presenting a distorted picture of reality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Examples of journalistic inaccuracies in his columns include presenting incorrect data, misrepresenting statements or quoting them out of context, and sometimes ignoring the entire history of the conflict. There are instances where Friedman describes Israeli policy in a way that reinforces the Palestinian narrative instead of conveying the complexity of the security threats Israel faces.

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. (credit: REUTERS)

    Three weeks ago, Friedman wrote: “The Palestinian Authority will be responsible for rebuilding Gaza using aid money provided by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states, European countries and possibly the US.” He added: “Sinwar’s removal also creates the possibility for Oslo’s ‘biggest’ step towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.” Friedman doesn’t let the facts faze him.

    To refresh Mr. Friedman’s memory, the PA controlled Gaza until Hamas expelled it, slaughtering many of its members while others fled with their tails between their legs. However, this did not stop PA President Mahmoud Abbas from calling the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for an emergency meeting to “pray for Sinwar’s memory and plan the entry into Gaza”. Abbas described the mass murderer as “the great national leader who fell as a martyr in the way of Allah” and offered his condolences to his brothers in Hamas, his activists and the family of the “martyr” Yahya Sinwar.

    Can Mr. Friedman explain to his readers how a Holocaust denier like Abbas, who praises the evil criminal Sinwar, can return to rule Gaza?

    Criticism of Christiane Amanpour for bias against Israel

    Another influential journalist is Christiane Amanpour, CNN correspondentborn in England and educated in Iran. Over the years, Amanpour has covered wars and faced severe criticism for what has been described as a blatant bias against Israel and inaccuracies in covering the reality on the ground.

    A prominent example is her coverage of the Gaza fighting rounds, where she describes Israel as using excessive force and targeting the Palestinian civilian population. Amanpour often focuses on the number of Palestinian casualties (provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health authority) without presenting the full context of the fighting, including the use of Palestinians as human shields by terrorist organizations or the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians.

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    During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Amanpour’s reporting included many accounts of Palestinian casualties, while ignoring the reasons that led Israel to act militarily in Gaza, such as rocket fire and terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. Amanpour routinely portrays Israel as a brutal occupying force without addressing the Palestinian refusal to recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state.

    I have yet to see either Thomas Friedman or Christiane Amanpour immediately condemn Lebanon for its attempts to assassinate a prime minister in Israel, or the terrorist state of Iran, whose organizations sent a drone that hit a house in Caesarea.

    Changes in the modern media landscape

    The modern media landscape has undergone significant changes over the past two decades. The shift from traditional media such as newspapers and television to digital media, especially social media, has made the PR battle more complex. Israel must combat hostile narratives, especially from media organizations such as CNN, BBC and CBS, which perpetuate negative views against it.

    The decline of Israel’s PR position in recent decades is a worrying phenomenon. Effective public relations has always been an essential part of Israel’s struggle on the international stage, but over the years, Israel has lost ground in this area, resulting in significant reputational damage that could affect not only the country’s foreign relations, but also support global audience and diplomatic and economic ties.

    Israel is fighting hostile narratives and one-sided coverage from major international media organizations that often portray it in a negative light and frequently use terms such as “occupation,” “apartheid,” and “disproportionate response” that help reinforce anti-Israel narratives. Israeli. in the global public consciousness. These narratives, originating from political figures or pro-Palestinian organizations, are broadcast through the media and reinforced on social media, where Israel struggles to respond effectively and in real time.

    The Jewish state is not endowed with significant financial resources, unlike, for example, Qatar, which has English and Arabic television channels watched by millions. Qatar buys places at top US universities through massive donations, buys publicly traded companies and donates to soccer clubs.

    Israeli PR messages tend to suffer from inconsistency and the absence of a coherent and direct message that can be clearly understood and is aimed at gaining international support. Its messages tend to focus on domestic audiences (in Israel and Diaspora Jewish audiences), while the wider international audience is less engaged.

    One of the central problems in public relations is insufficient communication with foreign correspondents covering Israel, who are not always able to understand the full picture regarding our security and political situation here. As a result, their reporting is biased or based on incorrect or partial information from Palestinian sources or anti-Israel organizations. Improving relationships with these correspondents and ensuring expanded access to accurate and up-to-date information is likely to positively improve coverage.

    The national PR system has long ceased to function. The system put in place to coordinate between different bodies to deliver Israeli messages has not served its purpose. It is also unclear what happened to the NIS 300 million budget allocated to the system. In contrast, the Foreign Ministry’s PR budget is only 28 million NIS.

    In the last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started to allocate financial resources for public relations on social networks. Defense Minister and Acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz held regular meetings with acting ambassadors to present Israel’s position. At the same time, there was an order to accelerate public relations activities in digital spaces and face-to-face meetings with social media influencers abroad to support public relations efforts.

    Digital activities generated more than 9 billion views in the last year. At the initiative of the foreign ministry, an event involving 300 Jewish social media influencers was held in New York a few months ago to support Israel’s global public relations effort. A similar conference is scheduled to be held in New York in December, designed to strengthen ties with Jewish student leaders on campuses in response to public relations challenges that have emerged since Oct. 7 and anti-Israel protests. Additional conferences will soon be held in the US and key European capitals, and the ministry plans to hold a conference for pro-Israel influencers in one of the Arab capitals. No further details were available due to the sensitivity of the subject.

    In interviews with the media, Israel’s Consul General in New York, Ofir Akunis, explains that the “death threats” against Israel and America prove that our October 7th is their September 11th, and we face a common enemy that we must fight together.

    Collaboration between Israel and the Jewish community in the Diaspora is critical. Organizations like AIPAC in the US and Jewish associations in Europe can help in the fight against one-sided media coverage that often stems from ignorance due to lack of information.

    Incoming Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Wednesday that Israel’s Foreign Ministry is set to receive an unprecedented NIS 545 million budget increase for 2025 for a significant PR upgrade. The funds will be used, among other things, for campaigns abroad in foreign media and social networks. As part of enhanced public relations activities, the ministry will conduct focused activities on campuses across the United States to change attitudes toward Israel and its policies, in cooperation with the US Jewish community and without undermining the operations of the Diaspora ministry.

    One can only hope that this difficult war will end soon, that the people of the North will return home and that the hostages will return quickly. However, we are only at the beginning of the battle.

    The writer is CEO of Radios 100 FM, Honorary Consul General of Nauru, Deputy Dean of the Diplomatic Consular Corps and President of the Israel Radio Communications Association.



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