Last summer, the Israeli government announced a new effort to “rebrand” the country in the eyes of the world, and it hired a prominent British public relations firm to help out. In addition to various forms of cultural outreach designed to highlight Israel’s achievements, this effort included having a men’s magazine publish a photo spread of several women from the IDF (including the former Miss Israel) in various fetching poses, a decision that didn’t go over all that well back in Israel itself. You can read all about it here, here, or here.
The Gaza operation, the sham peace process, and the recent election of the Netanyahu/Lieberman government aren’t making the “rebranding” effort any easier, of course. And if you want to know why this new hasbara campaign isn’t likely to work, start by reading English journalist and military historian Max Hastings’s sobering account, published last week in the Guardian. Drawn from an appearance in Balliol College’s Leonard Stein lecture series, Hastings recounts his own evolution from an enthusiastic cheerleader for Israel to a disillusioned critic who strongly supports Israel’s existence but openly opposes many of its present policies. Where once he “loved those people, and boundlessly admired their achievement,” he now describes himself as “one of those foreigners who progressively fell out of love with Israel.” I know the feeling.
The problem, as Hastings makes clear, is the reality of the occupation and the brutal treatment of the Palestinians that goes hand-in-hand with it. This situation can’t be disguised by more energetic public relations efforts. There are too many video cameras and human rights groups documenting Israel’s actions — including Israeli groups like B’tselem. There are too many bloggers willing to write about the conflict from varying perspectives, and too many scholars and journalists like Hastings — plus a growing number in the United States — who no longer accept the outdated image of Israel as a plucky and virtuous David facing a looming and bloodthirsty Arab Goliath. That image was easy to sell in 1948, perhaps, and it remained fairly convincing after the Arab states offered the infamous “Three Nos” at the 1967 Khartoum summit. But it’s a much tougher sell after Lebanon in 1982 and 2006, after Gaza in 2008-2009, and after the Saudi and Arab League peace proposals in 2002 and 2007 don’t even elicit an official response from Jerusalem.
Israel’s achievements over the past sixty-one years are undeniable, and the officials responsible for the rebranding campaign won’t have any trouble finding artists, athletes, scientists and entrepreneurs to write feel-good stories about. But the dark side of the story won’t go away — 40-plus years of an increasingly brutal occupation, the construction of the apartheid wall (or if you prefer,”separation fence”), much of outside the 1967 borders, thousands of dead Palestinian civilians, a series of failed wars since 1982, and the repeated squandering of genuine opportunities to make peace. And every year the number of settlers grows. I don’t hold Israel solely responsible for this tragedy, but they are neither powerless nor blameless.
Read More: FP - Why “Rebranding” Israel, Won’t Work
