The tipping point of Israel's global image
Op-ed: There was an element of complacency in Israel's management of its international standing, until a year ago, when the Palestinians tried to oust Israel from FIFA. Now, we must invest heavily in promotion of Israel's economic, social, scientific and cultural strengths.
Exactly a year ago, Israel reached a "tipping point" in relation to the management of its image. Granted, Israel – as well as many in the Jewish Diaspora and pro-Israel organizations – has been dealing with Israel's international standing for years now.
But if we look at it over time, it seems that there was an element of complacency involved. Israel continued to apply the same methods, invest tiny amounts in such an important matter, and believe in its modus operendi rather than ask itself – is it working?
Until a year ago.
In June, 2015, about a month after Israel's 67th Independence Day, the Palestinian Authority decided to request FIFA to have Israel removed as a member. Of course there was never any expectation that the campaign would succeed and it was purely for PR purposes, but there is no doubt this incident marks a "tipping point" for Israel's handling of its global image. Because the attempt to threaten Israel's national sport touched the Israelis on a more personal level.
A month later, Orange terminated its agreement with its Israeli franchisee. This hurt the Israelis even more: now our right to choose any supplier we want for an every-day need was being challenged. The Israelis realized, quite suddenly, that Israel's weak image can affect them directly.
More importantly, the Israeli media recognized the hot potato they were handed on a platter and since then, almost every day there is a media item on the topic, even though the BDS movement against Israel has existed for over ten years. Sure, until this time last year, we noticed a couple of items here and there, but mostly we ignored them and continued living our lives.
The "tipping point" mentioned above forced our government to change its priorities and view Israel's image as a matter of national security. The positive repercussions are that we just celebrated Israel's 68th Independence Day with NIS 120 million allocated to the Ministry for Strategic Matters to deal directly with the BDS movement.
The Ministry of Tourism is also investing much greater amounts in reaching out to new audiences – not just to religious travelers, or history buffs. These allocations represent a more than welcome change, but they're not enough, not at all.
The (albeit limited) success of the BDS movement represents a deafening wake-up call for Israel, which may not be such a bad thing as long as it doesn't continue doing more of the same, just with more money being poured into the effort.
Israel's government and anyone involved in pro-Israel advocacy must understand that continued use only of "classic Hasbara" methodologies, without implementing new methods and considering other options to achieve the same result, will only lead to a dead end.
To this end, no country can thrive without investing heavily in promotion of its economic, social, scientific and cultural strengths. So long as the government will not allocate some of the NIS 120 million to a proactive broadening of the conversation about Israel, the world will not get to know – and appreciate – the Israel that brings it rich cultural and touristic offerings, technological solutions to global challenges, scientific and medical breakthroughs, and much more.
Now is the time to ensure that this "tipping point" works in Israel's favor, to regroup and re-evaluate how to move forward. Who knows, maybe by Israel's 70th Independence Day we may see a real change in how Israel is perceived around the world.
Joanna Landau is the CEO of Vibe Israel – a non profit organization leading initiatives to strengthen Israel's brand in the world
