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Obama's PR experts to brand Israel
Itamar Eichner
Published: 27.09.10, 12:06
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21 Talkbacks for this article
1. US CONGRESS ELECTION IN NOVEMBER....
BENJAMIN ,   SINGAPORE   (09.27.10)
SEE THW ACTION WE JEWS WILL DO ! IN THE MEAN TIME GOOD LUCK MARKETING !
2. Here is my very simple, very effective and
Chris Rettenmoser ,   Bayerisch Gmain Germ   (09.27.10)
very cheap marketing solution: Wear an Israeli flag button...!!! I very often do so...and I am still alive...
3. Good idea but doesn't go far enough
Stephen ,   London UK   (09.27.10)
Israel's hasbara is generally very ineffective when compared to the very professional PR job that Israel's enemies do. It is time to employ a major international PR company to get Israel's message across. A very false and negative image of Israel exists across Western Europe and much of the rest of the world and it does immense damage to Israel. Israel's enemies openly say that they are delegitimising Israel in the eyes of the world, and it is about time that Israel used professional PR people to get the truth to the world - not just to the youth of America.
4. The best PR is the truth
Palestinian   (09.27.10)
The truth is that Israel is a nation created on lands seized from the Palestinians in 1948, and later on lands occupied during the 1967 war. The idea of Israel is based on the "return" of the Jewish people, when most rational people understand that modern day Palestinians are the indigineous inhabitants of Judea from which the Jewish religion spread out. The fact that the majority of Palestinians practice a religion other than Judaism (Islam and Christianity, with a Jewish minority) does not imply that they are no longer entitled to their rights in their homeland. The majority of the world understand that being Jewish, means your religion is Judaism, and not that you are descendent of the semitic Palestinian Jews. In fact, most Jews of Russia, Poland Germany, etc are Khazars and have nothing to do to the children of Israel.
5. Marketing "Israel" among American youths!
Salma ,   Palestine   (09.27.10)
American youths looking for jobs, entertainment, a good thing, Not war, hatred and bad thing. any way good luck !!
6. does lipstik on a pig make the pig pretty?
victor   (09.27.10)
7. #4 the truth for the sake of peace
Israel Israeli ,   Tel Aviv   (09.27.10)
You say that the definition of "Palestinian" is people who are indigenous to Israel. Would you agree with me and say that all Arab Muslims who immigrated to Israel between 1920 and 1948 during the British occupation are not "Palestinians" and must go back to their native lands?
8. HAHAHAHA!
Sara ,   London   (09.27.10)
I like it
9. Khazar lies
Eli ,   Haifa   (09.27.10)
The Khazar theory has been disproved so many times. Modern genetic research proves that Ashkenazi and Mizrachi Jews are more closely related to each other than to their host populations and that both groups are closely related to Palestinian (non-Bedouin) Arabs. I won't try to deny your claim to the land. Don't try to deny mine.
10. Reply to Israeli from TLV #7
Palestinian   (09.27.10)
Yes there could be a number of people who moved from surrounding areas of the Levant into Palestine during that period. But this is very limited, and usually an equal number of Palestinians moved to Syria and Lebanon and Jordan. You could clearly see that by family names of people in Syria and Lebanon where family names like Nabulsi, Makdisi, Safadi, etc are common. At the Palestinian side, you could see family names like Masri, Salti, Shobaki etc which indicates there have been families coming into Palestine too. In Egypt, many Hebronites have moved there and one of the most famous markets in Egypt is called Khan al-Khalili! Much of that movement by the way occurred much earlier than 1920s and most of this population exchange is mostly visible among urban population. rural Palestine and the peasants there are the most indigenous and constituted more than 80% of the population for the exact period you are mentioning here. In any case, there were no solid borders then but only introduced after the Sykes-Picot agreement. On the other hand, there was an unnatural immigration that took place, and in most cases by the use of force, by immigrants from East Europe, Russia, Germany and Poland etc... In general, the Palestinian people have no problem with people coming to live among them from any other place in the world. Historically they have been very receptive to that. However, when this becomes on their expense by them being enslaved, and deported and their lands ethnically cleansed, then something else must be said. For the sake of peace, this must be recognized. Only then we can live together knowing what the other has already gone through. It is not fair or the justice to allow a right of return to a group of people based on their religion "Judaism" and not to accept and allow the Palestinians who became refugees in Lebanon and Syria and Jordan to return to their lands and farms from which they fled fearing for their lives, and the honor of their wives, and the future of their children.
11. lipstick or not, victor...
Johan Sebastian ,   Amsterdam   (09.27.10)
Even if you take your pig head off you won't look prettier.
12. PR BRANDING ISRAEL
MORON ,   GALUT   (09.27.10)
nov 3 obama brand will be devalued because people were sold 'pr' hoax--lance armstrong did not needpr--his accomplishments are what counted! these firms get paid and move on--they are only useful,if at all, in countering arab propaganda but not if they do so with false libreral pap!..it's really simple-the btitish got palestine in trust for two people and kept thei promise only to one-the arabs giving them transjordan-see map-israel is too small to divide.
13. Brilliant!
Nick ,   Tel Aviv Israel   (09.27.10)
Hiring the PRopaganda firm that helped shape Obama's anti-Israel agenda to now "brand" Israel is another great idea from the Wise Men/Women of Chelm who've been coming up with so many wonderful ideas since September 13, 1993. Can't wait to hear how they're going to handle the hitnatkut from Ramat Aviv Gimel.
14. To #4, bizarre view of reality
Howard ,   Dallas   (09.27.10)
The best PR is the truth? Nothing could hurt the Pal cause more than the truth. The truth is that a huge percent of the Pals living in what was to again become Israel migrated there starting in the 1880's when Jews started returning in large numbers and reclaiming the wasteland. This is extremely well documented. You're living in a fantasy land in which Pals are indigineous and Jews are unrelated to their historical ancestors. Try reading something other than Pal propaganda sheets and you'd know of the genetic research that shows quite conclusively that this is incorrect. And never do you mention that large pieces of what were to become Israel again were purchased by Jews for a future state by Arab landowners. But I guess that doesn't count, does it?
15. To Palestinian, #4, #10
Tahl ,   Ashdod   (09.27.10)
Your comments show how you perceive history. We see it much differently. There never was any distinct people called "Palestinians", having a "Palestinian" heritage. This term was adapted only in the 1960s to refer to all the Arab migrants who came to the area in recent centuries, from countries all around the Middle East (while the original Jewish inhabitants were still scattered in Europe following the destruction of the second temple). But this is as early as it gets. While the land of Israel contains plenty of Jewish towns from hundreds or even thousands of years ago (Jerusalem, Zefat, Tiberias, Jaffa, etc), the earliest Arab (notice I don't say "Palestinian") towns came much later on, some of them replacing the older Jewish settlements on the area. Even the names of the regions in Israel have Hebrew origins from ancient times - Shomron, Galil, Judea, etc. Of course there are no traditional Arab names for these regions, simply because they don't have an Arab history. As for your claim that "Palestinian people have no problem with people coming to live among them from any other place in the world. Historically they have been very receptive to that" - this is a bold lie. Ever since the earliest Jewish immigrants came to Eretz Israel, early in the last century - the Arabs living there showed great hostility to them, making constant attacks on the Jewish settlements, often with deadly results - highlighted by the 1929 riots. Later on when the UN proposed the Division Plan which would have provided a homeland for the Jews, while leaving most of Israel on Arab hands, they rejected it and started a war, aimed to "drive the Jews to the sea". After they lost the war, naturally they fled and lost their territory. And since they started this war, there was no injustice in them losing everything, as echoed in so many other examples of the world's history. And of course, after Israel was established, the Arabs tried time and time again to destroy it, only to fail miserably each time, and lose more territory in the process. When Israel offered them peace, they never accepted it, because deep in their heart they wanted to liberate ALL of their "Palestine". And they still do today. As clear and legitimate and correct this history sounds to me, I still have no illusions that I could convince you of my correctness, anymore than you could convince me of yours. And what this means, is that looking at the past will get us nowhere, since both sides are 100% sure they have history on their side. What must be done therefore to achieve peace, is for both sides to stop looking at the past, and start looking at the future. The Israelis must end their dream of colonizing all of Israel, take down most of the settlements, exchange some territories - Arab towns in Israel in exchange for major Israeli towns in the W. Bank (after all, the 1967 lines are simply the former border between Israel and Jordan, which has no real connection to the Palestinians). The Palestinians must end their dream of "liberating all of Palestine", and acknowledge that the Jews have a right to have their own homeland (and invite there anyone they wish to invite), and publically declare, in Arabic, that their demands for territory are over, and the dispute is over. It's really not that complicated.
16. Right of Return
Eliyahu ,   St Paul   (09.27.10)
It would be jolly if every aggressor who lost in a war got to recover their lost lands. Maybe we can offer Romans a chance to move back to their ancestral homes in Berlin or Alexandria. Why did Pals 'flee fearing for their lives'? Because they were afraid Jews were going to rape their wives and kill the entire family -- much like what massacres perpetrated by the Arabs did to Jewish families in Hebron just 12 years earlier. See, they were projecting their behavior on others;) Little did they know the Israeli gov't could be so STUPID as to give hundreds of thousands (now over 1m) of the Arabs Israeli citizenship! Pal "refugees" don't get to pick up the pieces where they left off 62 years ago, before they ganged up against Jewish settlers. They can give up the false self-victimization and become citizens elsewhere. And please, I'd like to se you give me examples of Enslavement and Ethnic Cleansing. If Israel wanted to eliminate Palestinians, they could have done it effectively in the '50s.
17. To Howard #14
Alexander ,   NJ, USA   (09.28.10)
What makes this all lamentable is the Arabs are beginning to believe their own lies.
18. Branding Israel
David ,   Vancouver Canada   (09.28.10)
LIPSTICK ON A PIG!!
19. pigs and lipstick
arieh zimmerman ,   Kibbutz Zikim, Israe   (10.01.10)
It depends, perhaps, on which end of the pig you are looking at.
20. Obama Experts to Brand Israel
Taylor Shapiro ,   Los Angeles, CA   (01.26.12)
How dumb! IT just shows that these presidents, are not nearly as smart as THE President of the United States. Israel's image has been so tarnished by lies and Al Jezeera, the rightful image rebuild requires much more sophisticated media expertise than Lance Armstrong wrist bands to create solidarity with Israel. Sadly this once again illustrates how profoundly out of touch American Professional Jews are with Jewish America--particularly it's youth. They can't even articulate a smart way to combat College anti-semitism, a true American travesty. Sadly, I say, having found this a mere two years later. It didn't work. :(
21. Forgot to include my complete email before, sorry
Taylor Shapiro ,   Los Angels, USA   (01.26.12)
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