Monday, March 8, 2004
Via Smooth Stone, I read with interest this JPost report on a visit of six African UN Ambassadors to Israel's Security Fence. Their reaction is telling, and they had some advice for Israel.
The security fence looks nothing like Atoki Ileka imagined, a sure sign, he said, that Israel is not getting its message across to the African countries.
Ileka, the UN ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was one of six UN ambassadors from Africa who toured the security fence Tuesday as part of a six-day visit. The others are from Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, Benin, and the Ivory Coast.
"You are poor in terms of public relations," Ileka said. "There is a lack of communication. You need to expend more time on the African countries."
"I always viewed it as a wall," Ileka said of the security barrier. "But now I realize it is more a fence than a wall, and that only a small part of it is a wall. We will consult our capital, and the next time we make a decision, we will make it having seen the situation."[...]
I'd hop on the popular bandwagon of blaming Israel's ability to get the message out, but that's not really how I view it. Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but to me it seems that Israel, while it could do better in getting its side of the story told, really just fights against enormous odds. The number of enemies arrayed against it, and the power they wield is formidable. Israel and its truly dedicated friends are relatively few, and concentrated (particularly in the US and Israel itself). They need a PR effort as effective and skilled as their vaunted military, and as everyone knows, hearts and minds are more difficult to capture than territory. My fear, though, is that they already have such a PR force...and this is the best they can do.
I agree with your assessment but thanks for posting the article. The image that Israel is the beefed up bully is too powerful and the Pals though a depraved culture are being taken advantage of and pushed around to combat. As untrue as it is.
But thanks for posting this article anyway! Its a great article to keep saved in favorites and I emailed it out.
Regards,
Mike