Now that Toronto Film Festival is over, we’ve asked Cecilie Surasky, Jewish Voice for Peace’s Deputy Director, to reflect on the events of the past few weeks and help put them in perspective. JVP was involved in supporting the protests in Toronto, and Surasky is the founder of their important Muzzlewatch blog which tracks "efforts to stifle open debate about US-Israeli foreign policy."
Traditionally, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has been responsible for shaping the country’s political image — not for lifestyle marketing. The country’s Ministry of Tourism was in charge of attracting tourists. In a switch, they’re now working together to help rebrand Israel as a lifestyles-oriented destination, a strategy being ramped up thanks to the anniversary. . . The ministries, of course, have a tough road ahead of them. According to a late-2006 National Brand Index survey of nearly 30,000 respondents in 35 nations conducted by branding expert Simon Anholt, Israel had the lowest public perception of any country in the world — except for Iran.
Best Face Forward, March 2008 adweek
This has been a watershed moment in the movement.
The people who drafted the Toronto Declaration were all volunteers and they had no budget, yet they managed to put a huge monkeywrench into the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs utterly ridiculous and pathetic Brand Israel campaign, a campaign which the Ministry hoped could "improve Israel’s political stand" by diverting attention from Gaza and the West Bank to, say, the Israeli film industry. But in the end, as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported, "… the buzz this week in Toronto has centered on the one thing Israeli officials had sought to avoid: the conflict with the Palestinians."
What’s more remarkable, the Declaration organizers fought off and withstood one of the most nasty counter-attack campaigns I’ve ever seen. It included an endless stream of lies repeated by dozens of Israel advocacy groups, bloggers and journalists (see JVP’s fact sheets); vicious over-the-line character assassinations; the promotion of fabricated history about Tel Aviv; threats to destroy charities associated with signers and more.
They said it was a boycott, it wasn’t; they said it called Tel Aviv into question, it didn’t; they even said it was an effort to delegitimize Israel, it absolutely wasn’t. And because few critics bothered to actually read the Declaration, many repeated these lies.
Why such an over the top counter-attack? Because they succeeded in moving their message into the mainstream.
When do you remember well-known, even iconic film stars speaking out on this issue in such a critical way? Never. What’s key here is that groups like the American Jewish Committee and the ADL are most worried about message creep, the possibility that ideas embraced by those of us who value Palestinian lives equally will find their way into the mainstream. They’ve used a range of tactics, including good advocacy but also name-calling (anti-Semite!) and pulling philanthropic/advertising strings, to make sure Israel’s ongoing brutal treatment of Palestinians remains the unspoken elephant in the middle of the living room. But many folks-including plenty of Jews- are starting to refuse to back down.
I think the trauma of Gaza is largely responsible-good people everywhere have just had it. During the Gaza fighting it was Jon Stewart and Bill Moyers and now it’s Jane Fonda and Harry Belafonte – all signs that Israel’s human rights violations are bleeding into popular culture.
Even Roger Ebert, the number one popular movie critic, came out and said, "I thought of it as an innocent goodwill gesture, but now realize it was part of a deliberate plan to "re-brand" Israel in Toronto, as a pilot for a larger such program. The Festival should never have agreed to be used like this."
But the effort to deal with Israel’s increasing global isolation through branding was always doomed to fail. Simon Anholt, the world’s top nation-branding expert who said Israel scored the worst of any country he had ever polled, also said he had never seen a country re-brand itself. The issue is the product, not the marketing.
When will Israel learn the lesson? If they want the world to love them- and there is plenty about Israeli culture worth loving, starting with its remarkable human rights community- then they need to start by giving Palestinians the full legal and human rights to which they are entitled. Then, it would be a win-win for everyone.
That was way back in 2006. Despite its election debacle, Iran’s brand seems to be rising while Israel’s is falling further:
On the 2009 Global Peace Index, link to visionofhumanity.org
Iran ranked 99, Israel was four notches from the bottom at 141.
US was ranked more peaceful than Iran, at #83.
We patted our own selves on the back for knocking some sense into Roger Ebert. The real kudos belongs to JVP and the original drafters. I admire how well prepared they were in anticipating the sleazy counter attack. Next time lets help them prepare even better.
The fact that Brand Israel is close to last is a massive failure for Brand Israel. The fact that Iran is dead last is a massive win for them. Nobody else really cares that much about Iran.
Roger Ebert says “It was naive for the plan’s supporters to believe it would have the effect they hoped for.” It was not such a bad calculation. People like Ebert have dutifully and reliably rolled over in the past. In many ways Ebert’s retreat was a first.
PG, the Brand Index and the Peace Index obviously use different criteria. Of course Israel is near the bottom of both for many interconnected reasons.
Maybe next time we can be ready for the “boycott/blacklist counter attack. The list of artists boycotted and black listed by friends of Israel is long. I was just looking at Vanessa Redgrave’s wikipedia page and noticing all the weasel words. PLO are terrorists, but JDL is only accused of “terrorism” (in quotes) by the FBI. There are editorial comments about the sources of ME conflicts, and FrontPage magazine articles as the sole sources. Time for me to learn more about Wiki rules and antiquates.
“Why such an over the top counter-attack?” because this response generally works and has shut down the debate in the past.
Really appreciate Muzzlewatch.
Will you be focusing any post on how Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann etc completely ignored the Goldstone UN Report?
They had to tell us for the thousandth time that Joe Wilson said “you lie” during Obama;s health care speech.
Not a whisper out of Rachel or Keith about the UN Report not a whisper
You know, I like Keith and Rachel but I have to agree with you there. It’s pretty disappointing how much the two of them evade that particular issue.
They are as snarky as their right wing compeititors–try watching MSNBC and Fox
alternately for a few weeks; never was there the left and the right take so clearly displayed respectively–except on the issue of the elephant in the room, Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians (and any negative impact on the enabler USA globally),
in which sole case, all TV news channels are silent.
Last night on Larry King show, here’s how Bill Clinton handled the brutal Israeli elephant
in the room: “The Palestinians do very well when they leave their country.”
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“Brand Israel”
“Brand Toxicity”
“Brand Genocide”
“Brand Ethnic Cleansing”
“Brand Willy Pete”
“Brand Organ Brokerage”
“Brand Hatred”
Some mareketers can sell you anything.
FPM
Folks as minor as it may seem we should accept this as one small step forward. Given the past it is perhaps premature to expect Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman to be part of this story. They are too mainstream to think they could lead on such a controversial issue. Maybe next time.
Whatever, thanks to Jawad for his role in moving one MS voice towards sanity on this issue.
I saw at least two regulars here who helped Jawad–I just forgot which ones. One of them was particuarly good at helping Mister Ebert see the light and posted multiple
follow ups. Ebert had a difficult time wrestling with the standard of giving every benefit of the doubt to Israel. He reminded me of an old geezer sitting for the first
time at a computer keyboard. Or like Hitler trying to wrap his arms around the suggestion that the new ME-262 jet fighter should be used not as a bomber but
for the function for which it was designed–Hitler finally came to his senses when
the Allies were knocking at his door, too late. But for Hitler’s stubborn denial
of reality the Allies may easily have lost control of the skies.
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