"Our position within the international community does not reflect reality and we cannot continue with our foreign policy without radically improving this perception, which is not good," Please,do not forget to consider the old,insidious role of the church in the subconcient minds. Papa role in his speeches and wanderings is to awaken the seeds of hate the church have been planting in the last 2000 years.When governs feel the need,papa comes along. Do not forget that important protagonists in this drama even convert to catolicism to work in harmony with the church and vice versa;blair is a recent example. Now,even islam is using the power of the church in their destructive wills.

A few years ago when New Zealand were dealing with the Mossad passport scandal "Yes New zealand outfoxed the Mossad" there was a survey done out on the street on how New Zealander's perceived Israel. The surprising outcome was that New Zealanders perceived Israel as the place where the illegal drug runners came from. Certainly Israels antics with Gaza i.e. killing at will, suffocating the economy, bulldozing homes etc is hardly condusive to a "good image" Get back to legal basics. New Zealand can live with passport cheats but not seeing the inhumane and illegal treatment Palestinians.

Do not minimize the role of key posts the arab world is pushing into international organisms.That Farouk for UNESCO is a blatant example that Netanyahu should have never have minimized.It is a key post to spread the "arab culture"associated to a nazi /islam "culture"to the whole world. Where is the Minister of Estrategic Affairs ,please?

Its Israel's Foreign Minister who is Israel's number 1 international image problem. Then comes the photo of 2 crooks together - Lieberman who faces charges of fraud, Hanegbi who we all know is a crook. These are the faces of our country and they bring us shame.

Israels international image is the WRONG image previously created: weak , always conceding, bowing to US, UN, EU pressure seeking "permission" before we do anything. May this government change that and Israels image to a "Don't mess with us".

Firstly, it is ironic that Lieberman should bring this up. His image is possibly the most despicable of all. Backed by virulent racism, this makes for a nasty combination that leaves a sour taste in the mouth of the world.

liebermann problems are great problems... first problem for israel is image, international image... not apartheid, not settlers sistem, problem is image. yesterday, like today, like tomorrow israel killed dozens of arabs/goim/palestinians.... but problem for liebermann and his government is ..."image"..... is a marketing problem , thanks liebermann. this foreign minister is able to be... a greater israeli hero....a greater settlers hero. problem of image........ fantastic

While I agree whole heartedly with what FM Lieberman has said, and many have said it before him, how do you "sell" our side of the story? It’s fine to have "understanding of Israel’s situation" by so called friendly governments but the problem is the huge anti-Israel propaganda campaign by the Muslim/Arab world and the threat of Muslim violence that frightens government and people alike. We have to remember that ant-Semitism, no longer that politically incorrect, plays an enormous part in the spread of anti-Israel propaganda and anti-Semites like Ken Livingston, George Galloway and Annie Lennox add fuel to the fire. The last time Israel prepared a video, distributed by Nachman Shai to the International Press at the Sharem Conference some years ago, not one on the networks aired it. Why? The Networks have major Arab Shareholders and news channels like SKYNews totally kowtow to the Muslim minority in the UK. They just don't want Paris type riots in the UK! The BBC is historically pro-Arab and like CNN never misses a beat in the dissemination of hated against Israel and, for that matter, Jews. Would the conversion of Israel Channel 33 into an International Multilanguage News channel be a possible answer? The channel is already broadcast by satellite so it would not require a huge budget. This idea has been suggested many time but critics of the idea ask "Who will watch it?" Further, Israel has no 24 hour News Channel and we have to wait until regular TV News broadcasts for up to date news of see it on the foreign channels. In Israel airing Mickey Mouse and soap operas is more important than the news. What the Government has to decide is how tell our side to people who are prepared to listen and whether we can improve our International Image which is besmirched virtually every day by hate and anti-Semitic propaganda funded by huge resources from the Muslim and Arab world.

New Zealand stole the country from the Maoris and for years denied them rights and even today they are still certain restriction regarding land ownership by Maoris. Yes, you attitude is: "Jews, be good children!. Don't make a fuss. Don't remind us of your 6 million murdered by the Nazis, the Spanish Inquisition, the Pogroms in Russia and Europe, the expulsion from York, the thousands of Israelis butchered by Arab terror and the rampant ant-Semitism which is again plaguing the is planet"! My impression of New Zealand is a country with lots of sheep, both two legged and four legged, which has signs "Jews not Welcome"! The Gaza thing is merely an excuse for hatred!

if image is our problem then the first step should be to get rid of this criman rascist thug !

Ah! Peter Morris ..my god you're idiot.... NZ Passport Scandal: It took 19 times before they were caught! And only caught because they got complacent... almost begging to be nabbed by the Dad's army you sheltered little half-wits call a police force. Listen turkey... I have lived 6 years in your country(NZ) and 3 in Israel and New Zealanders perceptions of Israel and what it is...Most like you ..have absolutely no idea. Get off talk back - the sheep are missing you.

Actually, Israelis are worse than the Arabs. Organizations such as "Shalom Achsav", "Machsom Watch" and ACRI spend all their efforts in delegitimizing Israel. Professors like Zimmerman, Leibowitz, Sternhell and Pappo portray Israel like the worst human rights offender in history. Even Shimon Peres has his contribution: he is famous for saying that Kassam rockets are insignificant and equating his Jewish poliitical opponents to the Hamas terror organization while praising the Holocaust denier Abbas.

you gave it to yourselves.

So the real turkey is Mossad who perpetrated the crimes and who betrayed the generosity and trust of the NZ host. Resulting in the Israel image even further sullied. Image is like you tell teenage girls once you've lost it.........

I like that. However, the main jest of this brief is actually towards the international community - and rightfully so.

that's the problem. i live in israel. there's no apartheid, palestinian does not get killed by dozens each day. take yesterday for example. terrorists lunched an atteck on the gaza border. it didn't get to the head lines in the bbc. they used horses with explosives on them. so don't say it's not a problem of image.

when people like Peres coins the phrase "occupation"! Yes, he was the first one to use it during Oslo to try and push his traitorous agenda,, and now the whole world believes this lie!

"Image is like you tell teenage girls once you've lost it"?.... What on earth does this dimwitted sentence supposed to mean? As for the Mossad agents, they may have used forged New Zealand passports, yet they haven't caused any actual damage to New Zealand at all. Had they not been caught, nothing bad would have happened.

and that Kazakhstan isn't under Russian control anymore - our beloved leader (sorry FM) is taking it far too personally.

Israel finally has a Foreign Minister that sees the forest and not just the tree!

Israel is a nation, an independent country- a democracy, this has nothing to do with church or Pope , conversions, etc. - this is NOW. not some distant past....... Start looking at yourself: Israel has had some politicians in recent years that have not been the cream of the crop- lots of waffling and back pedalling, promising, threatening,, but no real progress . Ever so often a war to shake things up. Basically there has been very little consistency in the direction. Do you think it is easy for the international community to watch this and stay out of it? Because whenever some politician even hints at a suggestion, he is attacked and told to shut up because he is an anti-semite. Recent events (riot over a stupid parking lot) have not added anything positive- . There is little credibility and hope if a country is not able to solve internal problems. You think it does not matter what the Europeans, the Americans etc think? - maybe not- it is however important if you want any support at all. You either are a member of the international community which means diplomatic ties, trade etc.... or you become an outcast- a loose cannon, a wild card.... Israelis insist they do it THEIR way because nobody else in the world has a clue? This is your right- but then you cannot blame everybody else for not standing by you either. So, Keren, your argument is really an excuse and pretty far fetched, don't you think? Blair converting to Catholicism, so he can destroy Israel? Of course you think Israel is perfect and all the other countries and people are NOT?

A facist FM!

I understand from your post you have no problems with Hamas shooting rockets on Israeli civilians for 8 years, but you don't like Israel to send its army to defend the Israeli civilians. You would prefer the Israelis to be shot at and do nothing about it.

This artical improoved your image. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090967.html

Don’t blame Lieberman – he’s trying to make some positive changes even if he is perceived as a nightclub bouncer. Several things could be done to improve Israel's international image. The whole idea of "hasbara" should be changed to a more positive marketing operation as opposed to always being on the defensive and making excuses for ourselves, even to the point of pleading that our enemies recognize our right to exist which is pathetic. We should make people aware of all the negative aspects of life in Arab countries for a start – and the list is long – dictatorships, racism, sexism, intolerance etc, etc. And another extremely important point - we should have people in our embassies in important places like London who can express themselves intelligently and in an articulate manner in the Queen's English! How can you hope to win a TV debate when your opponent is an Oxford-educated Palestinian and you sound like you are chewing gobstoppers and every second word you utter is "errrrrr"............

it is the criminaly insane self hating leftist traitors who did it to their own country

yours is a country of scoundrels and thieves. It is a country of criminals, built by colonialist murderers. Not a million hasbara flunkies can change that!