I 100% agree with every point made in Yair Lapid's article. 8yrs ago when Shimon Peres was in Geva, I asked him why does Israel not create, a "Chayl Hasbara" It is as important as the army airforce and Navy. No government has taken PR seriously. I work as a volunteer as part of the English Immigrants Association, in my free time writing to BBC Sky news, trying to counteract the damage done by biased reporting. It does help. No support is given whatsoever to volunteers doing this work. Every time I have tried to contact the PR people in the Foreign Office , I am told," there is noone here today". Day after day this last week, I have tried in vain to reach pr, organizers of the News, after a very bad item on Sky News. I myself wrote to Sky News on the internet, but where are the professionals??? I have spoken on behalf of Israel in many universities in the UK. WHen working for Zionist youth moments i London the English born Shlichim did all the work for the foreign office, or the Israeli Embassy in London WHenever we asked for a response to an anti Israel item of news on the BBC, we were told" it's not worth bothering", or that the people responsible are on holiday, (WEEKENDS SHOPPING IN PARIS) ETC.) If Israel does not start to organize itself , and to bring in people who can coordinate, the press the volunteers,etc. we shall lose all credibility. There needs to be a large group of people monitorong the world press and TV and replying to at least to the worst lies spread in Europe and the UK especially. Brenda Landes. M.A. CCMD

why doesn't someone start organizing funding of an effective non governmental organization targeting hasbara. In the beginning, it may be tough to get help from the government, but once the model is in place and effect they will begin using it and cooperating. If they don't, it may not matter all that much. This is an EXCELLENT ARTICLE!

among the 750 activists ,there was 100 newsmen ..so your deceiving PR(as you wanted by implanting false images ) is dead on arrival . you also forgot the VIPs on Board like a former US envoy and MPs from several countries describing your Piracy in full details .. implanting weapons and Lynch deception ,are very familiar made in israel stuff . let us see what you are going to do this PM with the camera loaded Irish boat bounding to liberated Gaza .

If that were the only problem! So the answer would be to display weapons that were not on board the ships in the hope that lie would become the story?! I have friends in Turkey who share news frequently and I often see it in Yediot afterwards. PR alone will not repair the damage done to the relationship with Greece and Turkey, as well as American Jews. We have suffered from the neo-c0n dictum of "Go it alone!" in our country. We voted them out and are repairing the damage they did. Israel must do the same.

One of the problems is how do you get people to watch and Israeli satellite TV channel? We have one - IBA Channel 33 - but the programing is the usual boring Israeli TV. This channel should be a multilingual 24/7 new channel. The international media, which as we all know has major Arab shareholders, crucifies Israel at every turn. So, in addition to the establishment of our answer to Al Jezeera, SkyNews, the BBC, CNN, France 24, FoxNews and others, we should warn the editors of these channels and the other media that should they not report BOTH sides of the story they will not be informed of press conferences and they can get their info second hand. I certainly would not threaten withdrawing their accreditation but merely demand they tell the truth. Another way forward is that the Jewish shareholders in the big news conglomerates should think of dumping their holdings in NewsCorp, Time Warner and so on and invest in more Israel friendly companies. We are loosing the propaganda war due to a lack of PR knowledge by our politicians. Even PM Netanyahu failed the other night. He spoke in Hebrew and instead of attacking Turkey he went on about Iran! He was preaching to the choir. When will we wake up? Maybe this PR disaster will shake up some brain cells in Jerusalem but I really have my doubts. Apathy reigns supreme in Israel and the only people who get up and demonstrate are the Arabs and we all know whose side they are on!

your article stated the facts. no one has a clue to relate to the media . all are concerned about their image and not the image of the country. i have lived in israel 38 years and this is thegovernment that has made the world hate us. i certainly could do better at PR than this clueless group

Well said. Israel must understand the looney left in the west are seeking a feel good cause. These people think Hamas want world peace, free trees and are misunderstood. Israel needs better PR and a better IDF intelligence performance. God bless Israel - IDF

In a highly specialised field as public relations. The Minister of Information does not have any information to give out and the National PR Center is dysfunctional and exists only in name. Nobody in authority cares about Israel's image and the enemy has a clear road to travel without any competition whatsoever. Idiots are in charge of Israel and these are navigating the world stage blind as bats. God help Israel.

Yair, you are 1000% right It's way,way past time that this problem is fixed. You should be drafted to coordinate these efforts!!

this is something you can learn from your enemies. How on earth do they pull off a farce such as this?? Anyone who thinks Hamas are innocent victims deserves a frontal lobotomy. Turkey - you should be apologising to Israel - BIG TIME!! Shame on you!! The palestinian PR is winning this battle. Israel - wake up!!! The only god in this reality is the media

Childish nonsense!

It's time to get Saatchi and Saatchi to rebrand Israel (not by showing bikini clad models) and start exploiting all the available resources of the internet and social networking. This is a propaganda war and Hamas is winning.

Goldstone report hurt Israel's credibility and they hear action happened in Int. Waters with dead Aid workers then truth or being legal is hard to get across.

Doing real bad work if at all, and all their skills was just KNOWING SOMEONE IN ISRAEL (PROTEKTZIA)! Basically bunch of mostly lazy small heads people who were interested only beside participating nice dinners, is just finish the day and go home...

thousands of citizens and Israel supporters have been making a great deal of effort to explain things from our side - *on the Internet* - and in this day and age - the internet has an enormous amount of effect.

Demission now Election now no place for amateurs

Lapid has a personal monopoly on wisdom - We are sick and tired from his arrogant attitude. With hypocrite like this we do not need enemies.

Thank you for elaborating on my comment. I especially like the idea of forcing pro-Arab news agencies to become more fairminded. All the journalists congregate in Israel because only in Israel of all mideast countries is the media free to report they way they see fit. I erred in my previous comment by not telling the full story. Of course Danny Ayalon, like all MKs, agreed with the premise that Israel should have a satellite television station bent on telling and retelling the story of Israel, warts and all but, like all previous politicians, he has not forwarded this idea, at least not publicly. According to Chaim Goldman, all Jewish philanthropists agree, in principle, with the idea but when it comes to putting up funds, they drop out. According to Chaim, it wouldn't even cost that much money. As to boring Israeli TV channels, what could be more fascinating than the story of Israel and its peoples, their current status and in history? There are so many interesting people in Israel and so many unusual cultures and sub-culttures. Ralph Benmergi of Canada did an excellent series on Israel for Canadian television. Is there any Israeli MK reading?

I am completely neutral on this subject--I'm just surfing the web--and cannot readers see the message here is: Isreal needs to lie better? This article is so reveal to me.

As a Jewish American, former journalist for The Associated Press, and retired PR executive, I've watched the Israeli public relations machine break down over and over and over. Israel doesn't need branding and marketing. It needs spokespersons who know what they're talking about, when to talk about it, and who their audience is. There's a narrative in Israel's past and present life that needs to be communicated by pros, and right now there aren't any. Mr. Lapid is absolutely correct. How Israel has allowed the most vicious people on the planet to create the current image situation is by sheer lack of communications skills, and letting the entire world know who the real victims are in this ferociously ugly war of wills, does not take a coterie of Einsteins. Just some talent and common sense.

Brilliantly written. Netenyahu is suppost to be a pro, why then does he surround himself with such incompetant idiots. Only when Israel has journalists or ex-journalists doing their PR work will we even start to catch up to our agressors.

Lapid's proud flag flying is blinding him - and us - to reality. As others have said it's not the PR that was amateur, its the whole handling of the affair and much more to the point it's the blockade itself. In terms of the management of the operation,all the recommendations of the Winograd Inquiry into the mass fashla of the summer war of 2006 were ignored. But if the aim of the blockade of Gaza is to ensure the security of our towns and villages in the south from home made missiles, it failed. Rockets are still being fired and the starvation of the Gazan population is breeding a whole generation of more shaheeds. Worst of all Hamas has replaced us as the local landlords and is doing very well thank you with its Tunnel franchise and it includes a tunnel you can drive a 4x4 through. That means you can also drive a Grad missile from Egypt to Gaza. Is the blockade stopping that??The best PR campaign will not hide the yawning gaps in our Gaza policy. It has to change.

you have my vote!

iam not jewish nor american nor a former jurnalist iam an ordinary woman live here in jerusalem sorry to tell you that you must know something about the culture of those people live here .... in our media when there is death from one side by the other side we say -- death make the right with the first group or at least make the killers to be silent only after analysis and judgment by a third group .. here they still use the -ashairi rules the 3twa and even the jalaa from the place .. so israil that kill the civilians on the ship must asked for indistigations only but support the killing is a dangerouse pr ... this is about pr not about truth

The article started out well enough, but when I got to this: "the hundreds of missiles". I just couldn't take anything you wrote seriously after that. You insult the public intelligence,and those you don't insult, you propagandize with lies. Shame. It's being divorced from reality that is rotting your society and adding to the needless punishment of palestinians. Hang your head in shame.

Did i get it right? Do you suggest that the IDF should falsely imply that there were rockets aboard Mavi Marmara and actually so some irrelevant rockets to the journalists? That is the way Israel deals with its operations? Lies and spins?

So Yair Lapid has all of the answers as outlined in his article "Our PR amateurs." But why didn't he volunteer his services, apriori, to the Ministry of Information office? Yair Lapid reminds me of a Monday morning quarterback--hindsight is always 20/20 for Lapid and his ilk, it's pretty boring to read after the fact.

There is enough criticism of Israel. And there are more and more anti-semites out there. Why can't we be positive and praise rather than criticize!! Life is too short to not look at the right side and have hope!

how blind can u be? as for the whole world, cant u see islam is making people lose humanity? today its israel, tomorrow it would be europe, its so obvious, im amazed you dont see it. and about the flotilla, you can see the videos, you can see todays ship stopped peacefully, cant you just make the 1+1 and realize this ship was a huge set-up for the israelis?