Is no news good news? - opinion

• Author: KEN GRUBER
• Published date: 02 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

I am certainly not going to touch that statement with a 10-foot pole here (I do try to remain somewhat apolitical within this space I am granted). However, this reader most certainly had a point that resonated with me, a retired marketing/public relations executive for 30 years: Israel needs some serious help on the PR front.

A recent Pew Research Center report shows that less than half (48%) of Jewish Americans under age 30 describe themselves as "very" or "somewhat" attached to Israel. Only 45% of Jewish Americans say that caring about Israel is "essential" to being Jewish, and 57% say they follow news about Israel closely.

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Among Jewish Republicans, 44% describe themselves as "very" attached to Israel – a low number that is still more than double the figure for Jewish Democrats (19%). About one out of five US Jews say the US is too supportive of Israel (double the share that said this in 2013). And among the younger age group, nearly two out of five feel their government should be tougher on Israel. These are some scary numbers.

"Why are Israel's public relations so poor?" I put this in quotation marks because it is not only my question, but the title of a paper published close to 20 years ago by Dan Diker, then a Knesset and economic affairs reporter for the Israel Broadcasting Authority's English News. He refers to The Israel State Comptroller's report, which leveled unprecedented criticism on Israel's PR efforts. The State Comptroller revealed that "since its establishment in 1948, Israel's intelligence organs have not succeeded to respond to the broad-based propaganda and incitement by the Arab world."

The report emphasized that "the lack of a central authority to direct and coordinate all government information bodies to execute a public relations policy, is the main factor accounting for Israel's long standing failures in this field."

It highlighted a lack of an overall strategic public relations conception and objective; redundancies, wasted resources, and lack of coordination between government PR offices; no comprehensive budgetary analysis to serve government public relations requirements and ill-defined areas of responsibility and authority between the Prime Minister's Office, Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry and IDF public representatives.

These different groups, the report continues, are forced to rely...