Aharon Abramovich was an Israeli government "ministerial director" (I don't know what this means, but he was important) until recent retirement; he ran the justice and foreign bureaus. He talked to Haaretz about the fact that every foreign official who comes to Israel now wants to speak first about the situation of the Palestinians. And he spoke of rebranding Israel:
Israel needs to be identified as a living being,
effervescent and breathing, and which, when aggravated, acts. We polled
around the world about how we appear to people with no knowledge of the
conflict."
"They asked random focus groups about their [conception of] various
countries, and what they associate with them. When asked about Italy,
people answered 'good wine, beautiful women, antiques.' When asked to
draw an Italian house, they drew a garden or a backyard. When they're
asked about Israel there's always silence, and no one says anything.
The house holds only men, there's a security fence and cameras, and no
vegetation. That's how the non-anti-Israel American sees an Israeli
house, and that has to change."
stand for its citizens coming under fire." This is deluded, and surely a reflection of collective delusion in Israel. The world does not understand that, any more than the world would have embraced Richard Nixon if his law-and-order campaign against ghetto violence in the late-60s had culminated in massacre. Steve Walt has explained this: rebranding won't work, you have to change the policies.
