September 29, 2010 Israel Seems Tone Deaf

The continued unwillingness of Israeli leaders or the public at large to look at the question of public relations when they take actions, continues to surprise me, even after watching it for 40 years. Those who think Israel needs to do more in PR (Hazbara) are of course right, but its not the failure of the Israel consulates, nor the weakness of some Jewish organizations. It is the total tone deafness of the Israeli leadership that continues to confound me. Yesterday's performance by Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman was the just the latest in a long series of questionable actions, recently, that started with the ill fated capture of the Turkish flotilla and the failure to respond in a timely fashion to the Goldstone Report.

To allow Lieberman to stand up at the UN and proclaim that he does not believe that peace can be achieved in this generation, and to further state his beliefs in excluding Israeli Arabs from a future Israel, at the very spot were Zionism was once defined as "racism", is to throw fuel on the fire of international antagonism towards Israel...and to make such statements the day after the settlement freeze was ended, (the freeze which the whole world begged Israel to maintain) is simply unconscionable. I wish we lived in a world where Israel was independent, self-sufficient and did not need the help or support of anyone in the world. But that is not the world we live in. I have aweekly radio appearance on a Florida show. On the show I often speak about Israel. Today, I made sure Israel was a topic we did not discuss, because frankly, there was nothing I could say in defense of Israel's actions these last two days.