This is as tragic as comical. When will the Zionist lobby realise that more “effective” PR isn’t the answer to their problems? Until Israel changes its behaviour, the label “apartheid state” will be an understatement:
An Australian plan to spread good news about Israel via social media will be presented at an upcoming international Jewish conference.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Robert Goot will set out the strategy blueprint to heads of Jewish communities from around the globe when the World Jewish Congress (WJC) governing board holds a two-day summit in Jerusalem from August 31.
The strategy will target younger people who get their news from blogs and popular websites, including Twitter and Facebook.
“It’s no use trying to communicate with people in forms that aren’t foremost in their minds,” Goot said.
Goot, the action plan’s principal author, told The AJN it was critical to break through to a generation that has been duped by repeated assertions that Israel is “an apartheid state”.
“It is not, but most young people, even those well disposed, would not know why it is not. They would not be familiar with what apartheid was in South Africa and how that is totally alien to Israel and even the territories.
“Young people know little of Israel’s birth and of its triumphs, such as 1967 [the Six-Day War] and Entebbe [hostage crisis], but have been fed a fairly constant diet of Israel as a pariah nation, an apartheid state, a serial human rights abuser, and the like.
“Unfortunately, young Jews are all too familiar with the accusations, but insufficiently familiar with the rebuttals.”
Describing “delegitimisation” as “a strategic threat to Israel”, he said the action plan would target boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns and aim for closer ties with churches, cultural groups, academia and the media.
Goot was asked to prepare the plan on behalf of the ECAJ, after a WJC strategic review looked into the challenges facing Israel, including “the assault on Israel’s legitimacy”.
The roof body’s leader will present the plan before some 150 Jewish community leaders.“We’re focusing on building and strengthening alliances and coalitions we have internationally,” Goot said.
Further WJC meetings will discuss how to implement the strategy, which will also involve the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Affairs Office.
Senior Israeli leaders will attend the conference.
Goot added that Australia’s central role in devising the strategy was “a great tribute” to the local Jewish community.
And Israel recruiting legal experts to defend Israel internationally again simply misses the point. Anger towards Israel will continue and only increase while the Jewish state believes it can act brutally against the Palestinians.