Israeli propaganda is both intelligent and necessary

David, The things you are assuming to be true, are exactly the result of toxic anti-Israeli propaganda. The point can be made quite contrary to what you imagine that Israel is the most humane country in the world. No other country acted with as much restrain as Israel under such extreme circumstances. Yet, no other country has been as much condemned as Israel. Israel's neighbors, the Arabs and Muslims are committing crimes against humanity on 1000 times larger scale, yet you don't know about it. The so-called "Palestinians" are suffering because of their Arab brothers. And you don't know about that either. All this is exactly the result of LOST propaganda war by Israel. If Israel is to survive, it's side of the story has to be told. Otherwise the well-meaning leftists joining hands with Muslims and other antisemites will destroy it.

The very worst thing one can do in the field of propaganda (and Israel does it repeatedly) is to officially deny something happened, and then say there was some truth to it, and finally admit it happened. To have people believe you, you have to maintain a reputation of honesty or you're lost.

If Israel did not have the heavy arms the overwhelmingly more populous Arabs would have already driven all the Jews into the Mediterranean sea. The proof is in what happened to the Iraqi Jews in 1941, the pressures to the Turkish Jews the same years etc.

Propaganda = mostly lies designed to give a false impression.

I don't understand why Jews don't just accept their glorious conquest and leave their victims with the only thing they have left and that is their victim hood. There is something unseemly and quite bizarre when the conquerors continue to maintain they are the victims - and use incessant merciless propaganda to portray themselves as such. It's like someone winning the lotto and still whining about unpaid bills. There comes a point where Jews in the script play bad guys! It's not the end of the world. Get over it. Give people enough credit to name the bad guys and not for it to reflect on every Jewish person or all Israeli's. People get it. Zionist government is bad, democracy is good. Occupation is bad, freedom is good. Stealing land is bad, making funny sitcoms is good.

I don't understand why Jews don't just accept their glorious conquest and leave their victims with the only thing they have left and that is their victim hood. There is something unseemly and quite bizarre when the conquerors continue to maintain they are the victims - and use incessant merciless propaganda to portray themselves as such. It's like someone winning the lotto and still whining about unpaid bills. There comes a point where Jews in the script play bad guys! It's not the end of the world. Get over it. Give people enough credit to people to name the bad guys and not for it to reflect on every Jewish person or all Israeli's. People get it. Zionist government is bad, democracy is good. Occupation is bad, freedom is good. Stealing land is bad, making funny sitcoms is good.

If deeds and hasbara don't match, you've got a lie. History you can explain in history books. Current events you can now see live on the internet. Question: If hasbara is propaganda, why not call it propaganda? Answer: you've just understood the meaning of hasbara.

.... he himself has set: "It is absolutely understandable,that in view of their history,the Israeli/Jewish people have contracted a habit for spin and propaganda." "...so it`s fair to assume that the Jewish psychy isn`t any different from the Israeli one in that regard." (Dino) Isn't this the best proof of anti-Jewish prejudice: the Jews (Israeli and not, that means all the Jews) "have a habit for spin and propaganda", in view of their history ... of course!

This level of zionist propaganda is not only a distortion of reality, it is dangerous. Israel's existence is not in dispute by the international community. It's existence is recognised by the Palestinians and its two neighbours with whom it lives in peace. You are not able to say what hamas holds regarding Israel since Israel has not recognised them or challenged their position except to denounce its offering of a long term hudna introducing a long term state of non-belligerency during which discussions coulld have been conducted. The Saudi Plan offers full acceptqance of Israel and commercial and diplomatic recognition based on what the internatonal community also believes is Israel's obligation. East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. The city should be open and the hly sites under international jurisdiction. Currently Jerusaelm is a divided city with land theft occuring left and right to establish unjustified demographic facts which are illegal by any standard.

The "real issue" is exactly NOT what you mean (in your words "occupation, land theft and the financial and governamental support of the colonist movement"), but actually the non-recognition of Israel as a Jewish state with Jerusalem as undivisible capital in ME by the majority of the Arab/Muslim states, however in primis by the Palestinians themselves. This fact is more than evident and verifiable regarding Hamas and all the other Islamic groups, latent but clear enough within the PA - in the political statements, propaganda and terror actions. (I don't need to elaborate, there are enough examples looking back only at the last ten years of the conflict). That is, and firstly that, what is up till now preventing a political solution between Israelis and Palestinians/Arabs, also in connection with the central issues of the Jewish settlements and the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Besides, in support of this anti-Israeli/Jewish Arab attitude, there are people in the West like you, dino and all the others, who believe to work for justice and peace by joining the Palestinian narrative against Israel. Moreover, they mix conciously or unconsciouly the anti-Israeli criticism with suggestive anti-Jewish prejudices, brandiscing in doing so the specter of growing anti-Semitism in world. Here too there are simply too many examples, but it needs to look in this single talkback to realize it isn't a fable. The first victim of all this is the reality, the truth itself - but that exactly appears to be the goal of the anti-Israeli/Jewish criticism&propaganda.

.....that in todays world, it's the guy with the (heavy) arms, who is the "Goliath". And that is definitely Israel, no matter whether you regard it as a match between Israel and Palestine or Israel and Arab world....

I've read both and both are equally strident. But I'll take Finkelstein any time. He is far more honest, perhaps just as obnoxious as Dershowitz, but more honest and exact.

It is not merely a question of percentages. Jerusalem for centuries was a dusty, poverty striken town where the Jews lived on charitable gifts from Jews in the diaspora. It has always had very signifcant Muslim and Christian populations at all times with both those religious groups developing an entire literature on the holiness of the city in their respective traditions. It ha never been, like Mecca, Medina or Rome, a city identified with one religious group. That is its uniqueness as well as its hope.

Begin called it right and responded correctly to your suggestion of a Hasbara office. I will be using the word Goebbelsism more often.

Being the Israeli spokesperson must be an easy job. Always telling the same story no matter what the facts are.

Maybe Jewish majority as far as it means greatest religious group, not in the sense of more than 50% of the population. Jerusalem in 1844 was clearly not a very important city (between 15000 and 20000 inhabitants). see: http://www.shalomjerusalem.com/jerusalem/jerusalem3.htm In 1945 in the district of Jerusalem were 40% jewish, 40% muslim and 20% christian. 250000 in total.

You proved Admon's point that the Jews were the majority in Jerusalem in the 19th century (numbers don't matter), a historically known fact.

Did you read Dershowitz's book or you were content to read only Finkelstein's criticism?

It always comes back to this one line 'they are anti-semitic'. No, today, the world is anti-human rights abuses, anti-occupation, anti-discrimination, anti-war crimes, it is not anti-semitic. Israel is guilty of all of the above, hence its bad guy status.

1.There are 13-15 m.Jews in the world and 7 billion non Jews, potentially antisemitic for not being so. 2.Israel is bigger than Lebanon, than Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Singapore, Bahrein, Malta. Many of those countries are rich, and small. They do not boast one of the most powerful military machines in the world, with a history of using any pretext to smash its neighbouring states and their economies. They survive by intelligence, not belligerence. 3.Israel has a huge revenue stream, from the US taxpayer. 4.The survival of Israel has nothing to do with some intrinsic characteristic of the people. Palestinians under occupation are as well-educated, pragmatic and resourceful as their neighbours: they survive despite the theft, tyranny and harassment of several decades of Israeli occupation.

Lets us look at the realities: 1. There are about 13- q15 million Jews in the world and about 5 million in Israel. - There are over 100 Million Arabs and over 1 BILLION Muslims in the world who hate Israel and many also Jews. 2. Israel is about the size of New Jersey, Less then 30 minutes from the sea to Tul Karem and less then 5 hours by car from Eilat to Lebanon by car. Arab countries dwarf Israel on the map. 3. Arabs have the world's largest oil reserves and a huge revenue stream dependent of that, Israel has none. Tell me Dino who is the David and who is the Goliath in that region based on the facts? If Israel is able to survive in this unfairly hostile geography is because most Israelis are well educated, intelligent, pragmatic and resourceful.

The IDF has already engaged in its own hasbarah, namely the popular T-shirts showing a soldier aiming his gun at a pregnant Gaza woman, inscribed with " Two for One ". How funnnnyyyy !! David

Israel carried out remqrkable, life saving work in Haiti and that is to be highly commended. But to deny that Arab or Muslim states did not also carry out commendable life saving work is propaganda. All one has to do is go to the website of the Arab American Instutute from Jan. 27th and see itemised the contributions from the Arab and Muslim world. For Israel to deny that, or their apologists is nothing less than lies, deception and propaganda.

E.g, pal and arab propaganda, as nazi, only talks about antisemitsm and distortion of history. Israeli "propaganda" just show the plain truth that peace talks with such pariah is not possible until they changed their poor behavior, too hard to believe.

After the Egytian and Jordanian peace treaties, the diplomatic and international perspectives on Israel changed. It changed during the eighties just as the Hasbara started to act in full effectiveness. Is there a correlation? I don't know. ADL spin in America has become too much: The old phrase about "jumping the shark" (from Fonzy & Happy Days) occurred to Foxman as he accussed ten middle school kids in Naples, florida of anti-semitism and 2 of the 10 had jewish backgrounds. What gives?

Wikipedia gives the following figures for Jerusalem. 1876 12,000 Jews 7,560 Muslims, 5,470 Christians. Total 25,030 (half non-Jewish) 1896 28,110 Jews, 8,560 Muslims, 8,750 Christians, total 45,420 (40% non-Jewish) No trace of the ambassador's imaginary figures here. As for Jerusalem's Arabs being 'Africans' (yeah, the Mughrabi quarter dating from the 14th century), well most of those Jewish figures refer to recent Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Yemen, Iraq etc. There is a dictum that a diplomat is someone who lies abroad for his country. It's old, but apparently still true. No one is questioning Jewish rights in Jerusalem. We are defending the rights of non-Jewish people to live there unharassed by ethnic purging.

They rather get one into a bag, don't they, these zionist propagandists? It workd like this: attack your opponents as something they are not. Create a ruse and then thrust it upon the critics making them out to be what they are not. Israel has developed this technique into a science. The code worlds are: anti-semitic, anti-Jewish, deniers of Israel as a Jewish State. These propagandists attack their own constructs, like windmills in order to change the focus, to avoid the real issues at hand. Forceful opposition to Occupation, land theft, and the financial and governmental support of the colonist movement that has become increasingly violent has nothing to do with anti-semitism any more than it has to do with Israel's security and viabilty. It is, simply put, Israel that is doing all in its power to see that any kind of viable Palestinian state comes into being. That is verifiable fact, not anti-semitism, not hatred for Israel.

....also using propaganda as a tool. What I'm saying is, that it hurts Israel much more, because the "David" will always enjoy more sympathy and goodwill (even when it comes to spin) than the "Goliath". And in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Israel is definitely not seen as the "David" by the overwhelming majority of people around the world....

....to differentiate between Israel and the Jewish people in general. It was the Jewish people, who got persecuted by the Nazis during WW2 (and periodically also before), and not the Israelis, so it's fair to assume that the Jewish psychy isn't any different from the Israeli one in that regard. Apart from that, as I said before here, whether you like it or not, but Israel is and remains THE representative of the Jewish people around the world, so you can't blame the outside world too much, if they associate both with each other..... P.S. You can check the Haaretz archive, there were plenty of articles over the past months, where commentators either criticized or praised the Israeli addiction to spin and propaganda....

Arabs have been using PR often in a deceptive way. For example they used an unsubstantiated case - The Al Dura Case - for PR when later it was proven that the poor child was shot with Arab bullets. Talk about trickiness....! Unfortunately Israel is under attack by lethal arms as well as Arab/Muslim propaganda. You like it or not, Israel also has to use both weapons in this unfortunate fight to defend herself.

very hard to see, very cutting, and the crowd you travel with can push you over the edge, even if you haven't moved. Let's take Haiti for example. Stories cheering yourself for the Israeli response to a crisis half a world away, PR. Labelling that response the best and fastest, now you're teetering on the brink, and looking like the old Soviet regime (who's habit of doing such things resulted in caricatures like Chekov in the Star Trek TV shows) And claims by large numbers of supporters that Arabs (or Muslims) did not do as much, or more, are over the line, and that pushes the line backwards for the those other pieces. And each time you cross that line, the closer it moves, the harder it is to judge the edge (and the easier it is for people to claim you've crossed it again), and the deeper it cuts when you do cross it.

If no one can agree on what Hasbara actually means and what it should cover, then forget about trying to activate it. The State of Israel has to speak to the world with one voice, not thousands of contradictary ones. Surely that is a statement of the obvious. First you need to define your terms before you use them. Then you need consensus. Then you need good organization to execute them.

Swiss , now for once be honest , how many side your mouth has . Most bluffers have two , but you supersede all of them . Old stereotypes we all know , start with the new ones .

By the way: Alan Dershowitz?? The guy who plagiarized the Joan Peters hoax?? You have to be kidding me.

Better save all that money and just end occupation instead. It will prove far more effective than all your propaganda.

try being a little more reasonable and sensitive and a little less militaristic and xenophobic. I promise you it would do wonders for your hasbara!

will never change . For millenniums the world never have seen the Jewish side of the story . It was the same before or after Israel . While few will believe in Biblical prophecies , it states " And Eisov hated Jacob " this one is as perfect as it gets reflecting the reality of Jewish existence . It has nothing to do with righteousness , or who is right , or who is wrong , or how good intentions are , or how much you contribute to the humanity , or even if you save the whole world ....the adds are always will be stocked against the Jew . But the other prophecy said , "Whoever curse you , I will curse , whoever bless you I will bless"...And this is the core of , what we call miracle , Jewish survival and success . And no hasbara will change that reality .

Sorry compatriot, I think you are pasting the old anti-Jewish/Israeli stereotypes on a firstly and mainly political conflict (which can only be resolved through political-diplomatic means) - so as many people abroad do as well, whose understanding on what is going on in the ME, resp. in the Arab-Israeli conflict, apparently comes short. Yet seen in a broader perspective, bringing into play the anti-Jewish bias appears to be part of the same political fight against Israel as Jewish state.

It's been tried before and it simply is not working. You have nothing left to defend and so you are forced to create your own myths. No one is questioning the existence of Israel. More and more of the world simply will not tolerate your occupation and theft of land that does not beling to you. The International community is fed up with the intimidation of the colonists in the WB, of any crticism being attacked as anti-semitism. You have a choice and that choice is land or peace and no amount of propaganda is going to varnish that stark reality.

here in America, the authroties needn't bother justifying policies and actions - they just break into homes and otherwise ruin any outspoken citizens. You should try it too, then get a good night's sleep.

to all would make propaganda unnecessary.

David... Thank you for this article. I'm not sure "army" would be the best word for this organization (hasbara, remember?), but it is the biggest problem Israel has in the world. I've been doing my part reporting on the Israel/Iran conflict on my daily blog, "A Sclerotic Goes to War." http://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/ Please check it out and let me know how else I could help. I'm a writer and I'm the younger son of the novelist, Herman Wouk. Cheers! joe josephwouk(at)gmail dot com

... the Palestinian/Arab propaganda which, in parallel to western leftist anti-Israel criticism, makes unceasing efforts to deligitimaze Israel with biased arguments in media, blogs and last but not least in international political organizations, such as the UN council, run by a majority of undemocratic states.

We know that Jews have always been few in numbers comparing to followers of other faiths however to claim that they were a majority in Jerusalem at the turn of the century is both outrageous and absurd. I have no problem with Jews claiming that they have some link with the city of Jerusalem but to distort facts and figures and build your case around a misconception seeking to falsify history is something quite appalling.

As a regular reader of Haaretz, you should actually be aware of the fact, that this Israeli addiction to spin and propaganda has been very openly admitted by countless Israeli/Diaspora journalists and commentators over the past 3 years that I'm posting here, and those were by far not exclusively left-wingers..... It seems to me, that they are much less shy of admitting and discussing their habits than you, Daniel, how come...???

It is encouraging to view from over here that more and more people are tired of govt. "hasbara" and of the war it seeks to present ina patriotic light. getting to a serious peace does not pass by propaganda no matter how well justifued.#4 is spot on!

Sowhow it remainds me of H.C.Christian's short tale...An emperor who cares for his warderobe more than anything.Two weavers promise him the finest suit clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or just hpelesly stupid. The emperor cannot see the cloth himslef, but pretend he can...This tale has become a standard metaphor for anything that smacks of collective denial.

... are the old anti-Jewish stereotypes like those you disclose so well in your post: "in view of their history,the Israeli/Jewish people have contracted a habit for spin and propaganda". Probably only a slip of the tongue.

Hasbara, means explaining, and as one fellow explained to me many yeares ago, there are those that are wright and those that explain.All the modern media have exposed at least some of the outrageous bullshitting of the Israeli hasbara ,lets hope that we learn to align some of our facts with the truth and reality, before more of our own citizens believe in this offocial hasbara crap.

The right question is "IS IT USEFEL" to the image of Israel? just compare 1948 to 2010.

Come on guys. Surely you can do better than pretend there isn't a well-oiled propaganda machine already in operation? We're talking about a state that has a propaganda office in every Western country in the world. We're talking about attention to detail such as paying bloggers to shout down left-leaning articles in the Western press. And we're supposed to pretend that this is just an ad-hock effort that is incidental, and that it's not all coordinated by the foreign ministry? Does anyone really believe that?

I'm your target market, Dave. Because I'm not terminally anti-Israel. I've visited Israel, and I know that as a westerner I have far more in common with Jews than Arabs. I'd love, really love, to see a modern, secular western democratic state in the Middle East. The place really needs it. Having said that I'm hugely offended that western states have made huge efforts to counter discrimination against minorities, including Jews, while Jews are busy building their own discriminatory state in Israel and the west Bank and have elected a government which makes little attempt to conceal that that is what it's doing. There's your problem. Find me an Israeli Nelson Mandela with a real vision of peace, fairness and morality and I'll even join your hasbara programme. Without it, though, Israel's image is on a one-way journey down. Deal with it.

Of course, this woman (Ada Yonath) adamantly condemned Israel's behavior in the occupied territories.

Well come on then David Admon (or should that be David Adman?). How do you spin your way out of http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146336.html You know it's that situation where a Jew from America or Russia, whose family haven;t visited in 2,000 years, can go to Israel and pick up an Israeli passport and keep his old passport and then move between the two countries as much as he wants. But a Palestinian, born in E. Jerusalem only has to leave teh city for 7 years and the door snaps shut. 'No, you can't come back in, we're trying to make E. Jerusalem a Jews-only city and your face doesn't fit.' What's the hasbara on that one Dave?

Why does Israel need to use propaganda, when it's quite evident to the rest of the world that the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are a violation of article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention?

It is absolutely understandable,that in view of their history,the Israeli/Jewish people have contracted a habit for spin and propaganda. Thereby they hope to convince the world of their good intentions,and prevent an increase of old anti-Jewish stereotypes. Unfortunately that kind of tactic only works, if the propaganda also matches the reality on the ground,which surely has not been the case when it comes to Israels policies, especially over the past decade. We have now come thus far,that many,many people abroad (even among those,who call themselves "friends of Israel) regard any Israeli step as pure propaganda/spin,and they will only change their mind,if they also see the realities on the ground changing. Therefore,Mr. Admons analysis clearly falls short of the fact,that without things actually changing on the ground,Israels propaganda machine isn't only absolutely worthless,but also massively strengthens old anti-Jewish stereotypes ("trickyness")...

Why does Israel need to use propaganda, when it's quite evident to the rest of the world that the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are a violation of article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention.

Abu, Jews have always been few in number wherever they lived, in no small part due to Christian and Muslim massacres and oppression of Jews over ages. We inspire yet contradict both your faiths so u have no choice but to deny us validity, for ages. Israel-haters are prisoners of mass inherited conflicting ideology, which outnumbers Jews in believers billions to one. Think on that a moment and it is no surprise that Arabs (with 22 states) and many more will still deny Jews their tiny speck of a national home, and will take every twist and turn to deny that Jews originate here, and belong here in Israel. Israel haters can't even admit that at least some Jewish families remained in Israel since long before Christianity, Islam or the Arabian conquest from Arabia. Can't even admit that our languages are related. Historic, typical and pitiful intolerance.

You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Wake up Israelis, its time to settle your debts

I didn't realize that Thomas Cook is recognized as a credible source for historians to justify the former ambassador reliance on his figures. What we know from British government records that in 1918 Jews had made less than 8% of the total population of Palestine and even then most of them were newly arrived emigrants from Eastern Europe. Contrary to what Mr. Admon thinks, I don't believe even with the establishment of a 'ministry for hasbara' one can hope to get away with falsifying history and deceiving all the people all the time.

A pregnant mother and her 3 lirttle daughters shot dead from very short range, and the celebration following this act of heroism in Gaza?

"Israeli propaganda is both intelligent and necessary" - Haaretz Propaganda is not necessary when truth prevails. Nor is propaganda so obvious that it beggars reality intelligent.

No territory has ever been legally annexed to Israel. Israel occupies 50% of the territory slated for the new Arab State in 1948, territory Israel agreed was not it's own May 14th 1948. http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y

and more at http://soccerdad.baltiblogs.com/archives/2010/01/29/legal_lightweight.html Not that this should be surprising, as the Goldstone Commission report is the logical outgrowth of a UN resolution passed in 1970. In "How the PLO was Legitimized," the late Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick wrote: Step by step the new doctrine was codified in the General Assembly. In 1970, with U.S. and Western support, the General Assembly adopted the "Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Nations" which further expanded the rights of "peoples" and restricted those of states by providing, inter alia, that "all peoples have the right freely to determine without external influences their political status and pursue their economic, social, and cultural development, and every state has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the Charter." Moreover: "Every state has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peopIe ... of their right to self-determination and freedom and independence. In their actions against resistance to such forcible action in pursuit of the exercise of self-determination, such peoples are entitled to seek and receive support, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter" (emphasis added). With this declaration, the General Assembly, more clearly and unambiguously than ever, took the position not only that "peoples" had rights superior to those of member states,but that states resisting the rights of "peoples" could themselves become a "threat to peace." The General Assembly thus subordinated the principle of the "sovereign inviolability" of states to the struggle of "peoples" against "colonialism" and put important new restrictions on the right of states to self-defense. To read these paragraphs is to understand the warped premises of the Goldstone report.

I agree completely, Israel has to have centralized hasabra or it will not survive. The Islamist / "Palestinian" side is so strong and has so much support in European (not to mention Arab) media... and the image of Israel is staring to crumble in the USA due to defamation and the intense passion of the haters and critics. We must win the hearts and minds of people - online - and do so in an organized way or we will not survive!

The INTERNET makes Hasbara obsolete. My attitudes toward Israel has changed dramatically in the last five years. All it took was 60 secs of footage: You know, the one with young settler thugs beating an old Palestinian shepherd. Since then I've seen lots of grotesque settler behavior on Youtube and expect to see a lot more. I always make sure to forward links to my representatives and the press. I feel my doing this is slowly making a difference. (No wonder Israel wants to keep out NGO workers and seal off the West Bank. Criminals don't like witnesses.)

Whomever read the 9-12 January 2009 , Ninth special session of the OIC-Arab League herded HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL marshalled resolution A/HRC/S-9/L.1 , would find that the Sovereign Jewish Lands of the Jewish State of Israel are mentioned as 'Occupied Palestinian territories' . And that the mention of Israel as occupying Power could easely be associated with the NATO forces in a section of Afganistan ; Rather than Israel conducting operations within the Rule of Law and with one hand to protect the Israel citizenry and defend their Sovereign Jewish Territory and the Jewish cultural heritage of the Democratic Jewish State of Israel against the war crimes aggressions of the Belligerant Arab Occupiers . Continuation...

sure we will just take the goyim for a ride like we always do...the americans will love it and send us more money

When Likud was first elected to power under the leadership of former P.M. Menachem Begin (za'l), To govern and lead the Israel citizenry of the Sovereign Jewish Lands of the Jewish State of Israel . Before and especially since that era , and in spite of the marshalled UNGA resolutions herded by the OIC-Arab League aimed against the interests of the Jewish State of Israel , It nonetheless took decades later for Israel Foreign Ministry under Lieberman to recall Israel ambassadors to explain to them that their duties in overseas foreign lands is to represents Israel interests thru hasbara, And not to represents the dogma and rhetoric which characterizes the disproportionately dominated biased Israeli lefty media with the EU funded Israeli based and biased lefty NGOs , Upon which the OIC-Arab League herded UNHRC' mission based the most part of its biased politicised predetermined report to exculpate the war crimes of the Belligerant Arab Occuppiers of the Sovereign Jewish Lands of the Jewish State of Israel. Continuation ...

you do need to do PR work. Many governments do PR, whether they're the US government. the Chinese government or the governments of Turkey or Spain. Stop being defensive about doing what everyone else is doing. Israel has more justification in this regard than any of the above, given the hack jobs that insist on attacking it. Given that Israel has a free press and a free society, there will always be negative stuff coming out in addition to the positive. There's nothing wrong with doing PR, as long as it is honest in its claims. When you use the term "propaganda," the reader immediately thinks of Soviet-style lies. That's not at all what you're talking about. You're talking about speaking the truth, presenting a true picture, to counter the lies that are being published by haters.

There is a reason why hasbara is so important to Israelis. Starting with partition and moving through time up to this very day, Jews knew that they were doing a grave injustice to the Palestinian people. Since they could not admit this, they compensated by justifying their actions to the world. Sometimes this justification was very creative or involved. In time it became mundane and routine. The world could predict Israels response before it was made. At this point, Israel need not bother anymore. Hasbara has merely become a device to attempt to avoid responsibility. The world is no longer fooled.

In this day of age, whereby every cell phone has video camera built in and the internet is so accessible world wide Hasbara has no use or effect. No Hasbara can explain white phosphorus in Gaza, nor settler children abusing Arabs in Hebron or burning and destroying their olive trees. Israel needs to change its actions in order to achieve world sympathy, no hasbara can or will achieve it.

I hear here stuff all over the place in favor of the kinds of things you describe (I also feel like it goes to the point where you're labeled an anti-Zionist if you think that Jews should live in Israel but you happen to agree with Avodah rather than Likud, but that's another story...). Maybe the problem is that there isn't enough in European countries?

I have been espousing the same argument for years, after witnessing the decentralized and often contradictory statements and opinions fielded by Israeli politicians and establishments. When an Israeli politician speaks on CNN, often they are relaying their position on political events rather than the government's. If you look at the US, the Secretary of State will never say "I believe..." he/she will always say "the President believes... or the US position is..." Israel needs to start doing the same immediately if there is to be any hope of sending clear and consistent messages to the rest of the world...