Israel Matzav: Israel could learn from Dubai's hasbara

Israel could learn from Dubai's hasbara

Noah Pollak makes an important point about Dubai's handling of the aftermath of the liquidation of Hamas terrorist and arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Now imagine if the Israeli government had shown the same speed, efficiency, and common sense in getting information out to the world about, say, a headline-making Arab claim that the IDF had committed an atrocity (pick one among dozens: the Al-Dura affair, the Gaza beach explosion, the “Jenin massacre,” or any number of incidents from the Lebanon and Gaza wars).

The relevant officials would start by not reflexively apologizing; then they would quickly determine what happened; put together a short video presentation, with English narration; complete said presentation while the story was still in the headlines — in days, not weeks, months, or years later; and get it online and sent to journalists and bloggers around the world.

The Dubai authorities did this on the fly in a one-off crisis. The Israeli authorities have been dealing with crises on a constant basis for decades, and they still can’t put something like this together, even when they have months to prepare. Has anyone seen the slightest effort by the Israelis to discredit, say, the Goldstone Report in a way that is accessible and relevant to ordinary people? (Ordinary people don’t read 1,000-page documents.) I sure haven’t, and they’ve had a year to work on it.

To sum up, good hasbara (yes, that's what he's describing) is timely, positive, readable and catchy. Maybe someone can pass this on to the 'mavens' in the Israeli government who still can't figure it out on their own.

Read it all.

Israel Matzav: Israel could learn from Dubai's hasbara