At the beginning of the war, the neighborhood WhatsApp posted that "Israelis who can be interviewed in foreign languages for the international media are being sought." The first thought that crossed my mind was, how come we got to this point again? How can a crisis-torn country not yet prepare a plan and teams to deal with such an expected crisis?
The powers of public relations and dealing with Israel's image have been divided for years into several bodies, according to political and party interests – the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Struggle against Antisemitism, the Ministry of Information, the IDF, the police, the Home Front Command, and the Prime Minister's Office (which operates a kind of useless national information bureau that mainly talks about the Prime Minister's activities) – that operate without coordination between them, while conveying conflicting messages and outrageous lack of professionalism.
The media is changing rapidly, and archaic government institutions are unable to come up with professional and immediate solutions. Each minister in charge changes policy and his staff changes frequently, which makes it impossible to plan strategically or professionalize. It is therefore not surprising that year after year the State Comptroller's report raised the need for an in-depth examination of the failed public relations system, but at the end of each crisis, the old patterns of conduct return, until the next crisis.
This was evident this week in the poor management of the press conference with the abductees, where messages were conveyed that harmed Israel.
The time has come to establish a national information authority, detached from politics and based on professional management, which will focus on five areas: public diplomacy, Israeli branding, foreign media, social networks, and media management in times of crisis. The complexity and frequency of crises require those involved in public relations to have the expertise required for strategic management of public relations, state branding, public diplomacy, use of Internet influencers and social media, and use of advanced tools for managing image crises.
Today, more than ever, those involved in advocacy are required to use creativity, innovation, strategic thinking, academic research and knowledge tools, and the establishment of success indicators in order to meet the challenges of the media, political and technological environment. The structure of the various government ministries and their management patterns make it difficult to create, encourage and nurture such qualities. In all five areas of public relations listed in Israel, there are international experts in Israel and those who already work in the existing civilian media organizations, who can staff the PR Authority.
The best way to explain the problematic nature of hasbara is how we deal with the foreign media.
Despite the constant distortion in coverage of the previous Gaza crises, we have not yet formulated a clear policy towards the foreign media, even though some of them have long since gone from mere unfavorable coverage of Israel to activism against it. We have contained every distortion in our media image. The Palestinians are portrayed around the world as innocent victims seeking justice and the right to self-determination, and for most foreign correspondents the division is clear: Israel is the "bad" side, the Palestinians are the "good guys," and news that does not support this division of roles has not been published, as Matthew Friedman, an AP editor, testified.
Despite the constant distortion in coverage of the previous Gaza crises, we have not yet formulated a clear policy towards the foreign media, even though some of them have long since gone from mere unfavorable coverage of Israel to activism against it. We have contained every distortion in our media image
Israel barely responded to this distortion, continuing to cooperate rather than systematically monitor its coverage patterns, compare coverage patterns with other conflicts, adopt media monitoring tools, and most importantly cooperate with civil society organizations and Jewish communities around the world.
There is an urgent need to train foreign language speakers to appear for media interviews, and they will be given tools on effective response strategies, learning from success and failure stories, and more.
At the same time, we must cooperate with dozens of civil society organizations engaged in advocacy, which feel as if they are operating in a vacuum. Despite the importance of these organizations, there is currently no government agency that nurtures them, promotes cooperation between them, helps fund them, and shares messages. All these challenges can be addressed in the establishment of an information authority.
Prof. Eli Avraham is a faculty member in the Department of Communication, University of Haifa
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