Gotta get a message to you

Regarding Yaakov Katz’s “Israel needs to stop neglecting wartime media front” (July 2), for too long, Israel has failed to recognize the impact that public diplomacy has on the country’s international standing. Rather than an afterthought, public diplomacy must play a central role in advance planning and follow-up of all major initiatives, whether civil or military.

Few diplomats or soldiers possess the expertise needed to convey our message to the public in a timely and convincing manner. Even those who have an aptitude for such work often are transferred to other jobs just as they develop the skills and contacts to make a real impact.

A major weakness is that the government’s public diplomacy apparatus is dispersed among numerous actors. There are spokespeople from the PM’s Office, the IDF, the Foreign Ministry, and the Ministry of Hasbara (to name just a few), often working at cross-purposes. How can we possibly expect the world to understand who we are and what we stand for when we don’t make a consistent, unified presentation?

We need a dedicated agency – independent of any of the ministries or the government of the moment – whose sole responsibility is the dissemination of the truth of what Israel stands for and what it is doing. This agency must be independent and well-funded, staffed by communication experts, with the ability to hire outside firms when necessary. It must have access to information from the government and must receive the government’s full cooperation, but should not be controlled by whatever party happens to be in power.

That there will always be those who hate Israel irrationally only heightens the importance of communication to Israel’s survival. We can and must demonstrate convincingly that we are not only innovative but moral. We deserve to be supported not because we invented the flash drive but because we are a just, caring and ethical nation.

Unfortunately, we seem to have ceded the public diplomacy field to our opponents. Contrast the Israeli failures outlined by Katz with the PA’s investment in public diplomacy unconstrained by truth. Their success in moving the world’s sympathies toward the Palestinian side is all too apparent.

Israel must fight fire with fire, speaking with a single expert voice. We have the truth on our side, but we must use every modern communication technique to disseminate that truth rapidly, accurately and convincingly. Otherwise, our enemies stand to win an uncontested victory.