How Israel Should Respond to the PR Campaign Against It

Israel too often fails to identify, and disseminate, the information most useful to its public relations campaign. In the same way, when faced with endless claims about the “occupied West Bank,” Israeli spokesmen seldom go on the offensive; now it should. First, it must explain the Mandate for Palestine’s express provisions to “encourage close settlement by Jews on the land.” What land? the spokesmen should ask rhetorically, and answer their own question — “the land that the League of Nations assigned to be part of the future Jewish state — all the land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea.” The West Bank (known since Biblical times as Judea and Samaria, but renamed as the “West Bank” by Jordan in 1950, in an obvious attempt to efface the Jewish connection to the land) is not “occupied” by Israel; it belongs by right, because of the Palestine Mandate, and 3500 years of history, to Israel. It had been “occupied” by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, but after the Six-Day War, Israel was able to finally exercise its pre-existing right to that land. Israel’s PR spokesmen should always be on the offensive, insisting on Israel’s right to all the land “from the river to the sea” and explaining that it will not give away any of its already minuscule territory — it includes one-six-hundred-and-thirtieth of the land area that the twenty-two Arab states possess — in order to create a twenty-third Arab state. But, those same spokesmen should say, Israel would be willing to allow the Palestinian Arabs a large degree of autonomy.  To quote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lapidary formulation, “I’m certainly willing to have them [the Palestinian Arabs] have all the powers that they need to govern themselves, but none of the powers that can threaten us.” That is both memorable, and for many people, eminently reasonable.

Mitchell Bard makes some useful recommendations here: “Preparing for the coming PR war,” by Mitchell Bard, JNS, August 8, 2024:

We know Israel will be accused of disproportionality, provoking a refugee and humanitarian crisis, denying health care, and committing “massacres” and “genocide.” Israelis will be charged with being aggressors and compared to Nazis. The usual epithets unrelated to the war will be tossed around, such as comparing Israel to South Africa and accusing it of “settler-colonialism.”

It’s always better to get in the first blow and try to set the media’s agenda. Israel’s enemies have mastered this tactic. It’s vital to offer context and facts in those instances immediately; errors should be identified, and corrections demanded. Unfortunately, it’s often too late to change perceptions once a narrative takes root, as in the report falsely blaming Israel for bombing a Gaza hospital early in the war….

The Israelis need to have spokesmen who possess complete fluency in English, are articulate, lucid, able to think fast on their feet, and well-versed in debate. These spokesmen have to speak to the world immediately after an event, before the Palestinian version takes hold in the public mind. For example, the recent attack on a building in Gaza was described by Hamas as a “school” before the IDF made a statement. The Israelis should not have waited for Hamas to describe that attack, but immediately, just after it took place, Israeli spokesmen should have told the world that “the IDF struck a school-and-mosque complex earlier today in Gaza City, in the part of the building was being used as a Hamas command-and-control center. We have identified by name nineteen of those killed who were Hamas members and within a day or two should be able to identify many more Hamas members who were killed. Meanwhile, we urge the media to withhold repeating Hamas-supplied figures on casualties. It should remember the journalistic fiascos of that nonexistent ‘massacre at Jenin’ where ‘500 civilian casualties’ ended up being reduced to ’52 casualties, at least 45 of them Hamas members.’ Or how those ‘500 civilians’ supposedly killed by an Israeli airstrike at Al-Ahli Hospital turned out to be 50  civilians killed by a missile launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad at Israel, that misfired and landed, not on the hospital, but in a parking lot next to the hospital. The media need to be repeatedly reminded to be on their guard about accepting Hamas’ version of events.”