Here’s a fascinating piece at Ynet by Ron Ben-Yeshai about how the "magical cure no longer works" for Israel– hasbara/the Israel lobby. No, Israel is getting isolated on the world stage, and it’s going to start to hurt the country. Notice in this excerpt that Ben-Yeshai says part of the answer is: We should alter our conduct.
Hence, instead of engaging in “Hasbara,” Israel needs to engage in a comprehensive “war of perception” that is coordinated on all fronts – the media, the legal arena, and the diplomatic stage. We should also enlist the help of the best Jewish minds in the world for this cause.
It would also be good to adopt several immediate steps. For example, willingness to show diplomatic flexibility and agree to freeze settlement construction for a year – something Obama is almost begging for – would boost his status in the region and indirectly boost our own status as well. We also need to quickly put an end the Gilad Shalit affair, so that we can open the crossings to Gaza in a controlled manner. The siege we imposed on Gaza has already caused us damage on the global front that is greater than any security damage to be caused by the release of several hundred murders to the West Bank.
