Opinion  Ron Ben-Yishai
Israel’s PR failure on Gaza border fence
Ron Ben-Yishai
Published: 17.05.18, 15:16
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31 Talkbacks for this article
1. ISRAELI HASBARA IS A JOKE !
FO ,   Belgium   (05.17.18)
Listen to an interview of British-Jewish journalist Melanie Phillips about the Israeli Hasbara. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2XyXDsszUE). This interview made by the Israeli TV is not a recent one, but it remains 100% actual. Mrs. Phillips speaks about Britain, but unfortunately what she describes is happening world- wide!!!
2. Begging the question which is did anyone die....nobody died.
Zippy's Used Cars ,   NYNY   (05.17.18)
3. war zone.
victor   (05.17.18)
ISRAELIS CAN BE STUPID.

HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN TO ME THAT THER WERE HUNDREDS OF REPORTERS FROM ALL OVER EUROPE IN A WAR ZONE.

ALL THOSE REPORTERS HAD ONE OBJECTIF: TO ACT AGAINST ISRAEL .

NEXT TIME, WHEN THEY ARRIVE IN BEN GOURION AIRPORT, YOU PUT THEM IN NICE BUSES AND BRING THEM TO SYRIA.

THE SAME DAY, more than 100 civilians, not terrorists, were killed in syria!!!

Who knows those facts ??????
4. ron is 100% spot on. a PR debacle.
tomer ,   jerusalem   (05.17.18)
5. Uwinnable anyway.
Elizabeth ,   UK   (05.17.18)
The world is more anti-semetic now than ever before. Israel never has a chance of winning a PR war. It's what happens on the ground that matters. And Israel is doing the right thing protecting it's borders from violent terrorists. The world's opinion is irrevelant.
6. NOTABLE EXCEPTION
JOSEPH GOLDBERG ,   gush etzion   (05.17.18)
One of the notable pictures that appeared from the Israeli side was the IDF snipers, perched on a berm, with their behinds facing the camera.
7. Thanks for keeping the murderous bunch out
jore ,   la   (05.17.18)
8. ISRAEL NEEDS A SUPERB ANTI-PALLYWOOD BS MINISTRY ASAP
Roberto ,   Santiago de Chile.   (05.17.18)
It needed it 20 years ago. Now it's very, very late. Perhaps not too late. Strange how both the IDF and the Mossad can do the impossible, never shrugging their shoulders saying "there's nothing we can do about it", but people repeat and repeat the stupid, determinism that "there's nothing to be done in the face of demonization and delegitimization".
9. Did WW II Allies worry about winning PR war?
Chaim ,   Israel   (05.17.18)
Winston Churchill is one of the most revered figures in history. What was one of Churchill's main goals during WW II? To make as many Germans homeless as possible. Churchill knew Germans would lose their enthusiasm for Hitler when were picking through garbage looking for food. He also knew it would be hard for Nazi soldiers, fighting overseas, to keep high morale when their families back home were homeless.

Did the WW II Allies worry about winning the PR war? Of course not. They did everything necessary to win. Period. So should Israel. Victory is the best PR. Sooner or later, everyone loves a winner. Israel needs to make it clear that "Palestine" is evil fiction that will never happen.
10. Nevermind that - Israel cannot succeed with PR among
leo ,   usa   (05.17.18)
European anti-semites, shouldn't even bother trying.

Concentrate on the fact that your immediate neighbors have completely changed on the subject - this is where real value is.
11. "Real Reason" is Gaza is a concentration camp for ethnically
Bobby Zimmerman ,   Duluth, MN USA   (05.17.18)
... cleansed Palestinians who want to go home.
12. A SUGGESTION :
ALBERTO EINSTEIN ,   SAFED GENIUS   (05.17.18)
It does not take a genius to understand that Israel might enjoy improved PR and be better able to put forward its case if it actually employes spokesmen who could actually speak proper english ,rather than the " israeli english" there are many english olim who can do a good job as spokesmen....
13. I AM AN ISRAELI SPOKESMAN
YOSSI THE SABRA ,   SAFED HONESTY   (05.17.18)
Eeehhhh , I em an eesraeli spoksman eeeehhhh ,end I know 'ow to ixplain da situation eeehhh to foreign media ,we 'ave to tok piss with da palestinians ,eesrael was restrained ,we ef no choice but to defend ourselves eeehhhhh ,I spik inglish so good and everybody ken understand me eeeehhhh....
14. ISRAELI PR SUCKS .
MONICA JEWLICKSY ,   SAFED HONESTY   (05.17.18)
15. rule no.1 LEARN TO SPEAK PROPER ENGLISH.
CAPTAIN OBVIOUS ,   SAFED OBVIOUS   (05.17.18)
16. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE ?
MR CYNIC ,   SAFED CYNIC HOUSE   (05.17.18)
What's the difference between israeli PR and the sinking of the Titanic ? The Titanic was a minor disaster.....
17. YIHYE BESEDER MOTEK..
YOSSI CYNIC ,   SAFED CYNIC HOUSE   (05.17.18)
Except it will not all be beseder.....
18. Stop this idiotic fight with “world opinion”! Make shure our
(05.17.18)
aim is true and deflect any danger to our troops & citizens.
End of story
19. desperate effort to whitewash a huge massacre
Khalid Amayreh ,   Occupied Jerusalem   (05.17.18)
20. war zone
victor ,   brussels   (05.17.18)
In gaza, there were more journalists hostile to Israel , those few days, then in 7 years war in Syria !!!

That's the problem !!
21. Crazy...so it now boils down to a PR contest?
Sammy ,   Newcastle   (05.17.18)
Mmm anyone remember the 2 State Solution?

BUT WHICH 2 STATE SOLUTION?

1.The 2 State solution that excludes Gaza?
2.The 2 State Solution with a Palestine cut in two halves connected by a wretched ‘motorway’ through Israel?

Any of them workable?
NO
What we want is CLEAR
A UNIFIED CONTIGUOUS and SOVEREIGN Palestine alongside Israel within mutually secure borders

Is it POSSIBLE?
As far back as 1999 Palestinian academics worked out how this could be achieved. But Hamas and the PA have NEVER wanted an open debate or share these ideas..because what THEY WANT is the Greater Palestine of historical British Mandated Territory by ‘taking over’ the entirety of Israel’s and the Hashemite Kingdom’s territories and economies either by violence and terrorism, coercion, blackmail or by sheer demographic impact of any ‘Law of Return’. The result? PERPETUAL STATUS QUO..80 years on and Palestinians STILL stateless, Israel STILL under siege and the Arab World HELD BACK from achieving its TRUE and VAST POTENTIAL

Where now?
This generation of Hamas and PA leaders have had their chances AND BLOWN IT. It is time for a new generation of visionary Palestinians to TAKE OVER and TAKE THE INIATIVE to negotiate for Palestinian Statehood and away from the cult of blood and hatred and aimless drift and dithering THE HALLMARK OF THIS appalling PA and HAMAS circus that has got us ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE
22. Nobody seems to care, hearts and minds?
Avi L.   (05.18.18)
Nobody seems to care since this global fashlah goes on forever and it doesn't look like to be of concern to any of the governments.

"Falastinians" putting dogs rotting corps to fake a carnage in Jenin?

Firing a mortar from Qana schoolyard?

"Green helmet" taking children's bodies from the morgue and placing them for photo-ops in front of journalists in Lebanon?

No israeli government seemed to care to win hearts and minds of world citizens who pressure and vote their own politicians?

Politicians grew up believing that the PR war war had been won FOREVER with movies like Exodus, The Ten Commandments ... but it wasn't.
23. Let us be the aborigines from now on!
Roberto ,   Santiago de Chile   (05.19.18)
How about learning how the collective unconscious works here and we become the aborigines, the screen for the "noble savages" fad projection, taking that mantle away from the Palestinians?

How about a formidably well trained Ethiopian-Israelli woman as our ambassador at the UN? How about a Yemenite-Israeli woman as Foreign Minister (Bibi still absurdly keeps that portfolio for himself)? How about a Arab Israeli woman as our ambassador to the European Union? (They would have to eat their anti-Semitic hearts out!)

How about having as formidable agencies / bodies PLUS A MINISTRY for anti-demonization, as we have Intel and Army, and an actual Hebrew NAME for the phenomenon? (without a name, we tend not to see it).

How about not countering their emotional Ashrawis, and Erekats with cerebral facts, but with a much more compelling emotional narrative, framing them as the imperialists, the expansionists, the racists, the apartheid, the rejectionists they are. BUT NOT with a phlegmatic, cerebral "white guy" spokesman, but a dark-skinned woman, who is a victim of the filthy-rich, world-dominating Arabs...?

GIVE THEM THEIR MEDICINE, and outsmart them at the bullsh*t wars. You won't persuade hardcore anti-Semites like Roger Waters. He's not the target. But with time and patience, the dissonance will begin to bear fruit and we can be in a much, much better place in 5 to 10 years.
24. HASBARA
YOSSI THE SABRA ,   SAFED HONESTY   (05.19.18)
Oll iz fer in love end war eeehhhh....
25. PR
Daniel ,   Coral Springs   (05.20.18)
We are fed up with PR. ALL THE PR IN THE WORLD ISNT GOING TO CONVINCE ANYONE ANYMORE THAT ISLAM IS A FRAUD, HATEFUL AND HELL BENT ON CORRUPTING THE WORLD IT FAILED IN WORLD CONQUEST 500 YEARS AGO. AND IS FAILING NOW. AMERICA SHALL SUPPORT WILL SUPPORT DOES SUPPORT ISRAELS RIGHT TO DEFEND ITS BORDER. UNLIKE THE SHIT HOLE COUNTRIES THAT WANT BIRDERLESS COUNTRIES OUR FOUNDING FATHERS KNEW AND WARNED US ABOUT THIS. KEEP YOUR PR AND WELL KEEP OUR WEAPONS TO SECURE OUR BORDER. AND I SAY TO ISRAEL, WELL DONE! YOUR PEOPLE ARE SAFER BECAUSE OF YOUR BACKBONE!
26. Actually, they did
Eric ,   USA   (05.21.18)
US had many journalists with cameras, some of whom were embedded in front-line combat units. IDF seems to be unable to learn how to do this effectively. Without video evidence of the IDF claims, the world's media will fill in the blanks with their own biases and Palestinians's propaganda, which has a well-developed infrastructure. This is a very serious failing on the part of Israel's leadership. The main reason there isn't an Interpol arrest warrant out for Netanyahu to stand for trial at the Hague is because of the Hamas spokesman's blunder of admitting on video of the high percentage of Hamas casualties in Gaza.
27. We are utterly and completely USELESS at PR!
Talula ,   Tel Aviv   (05.22.18)
And the thing is, because we don't show people lying around with strawberry jam smeared across their faces and bodies screaming 'in pain' - and acting like they are up for an Oscar - we will continue to lose the war on the international press. Doesn't matter WHO speaks to the press - it's not what they say, it's what the world sees - and therein lies the problem - a picture, whether true or false speaks volumes to Stupid.
28. Hasbara
Peter ,   Sydney   (05.24.18)
So you keep reporters back so they can't witness or report the massacres, then blame Hamas for having all the images and videos which shows the massacres - come on now - if you had nothing to hide you would have the reporters upfront and centre! You are not the victim Israel - your snipers didn't have to squeeze the trigger on their sniper rifles - how many Israelis were injured, killed? Not even a snapped finger nail? Now tell me how many were killed and injured in Gaza. Yeah, no contest - guilty as charged. WAR CRIMES
29. GAZA EXPOSURE.
cynthia stratent ,   sydney   (06.25.18)
IT DOES NOT MATTER - ISRAEL IS A HATED COUNTRY - This situation must be remedied first and the key word is respect. Israelis do not respect themselves and show disunity at the top government level.
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