Above is a recent ad for the Birthright program which offers free trips for young Jewish adults to Israel in order to "diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world." The ad would seem to be the first product from Birthright’s new PR firm 5W Public Relations, a controversial firm that also works with the video series Girls Gone Wild, as well as Christians United for Israel and a number of right-wing Jewish organizations. Coming on the heels of the Israeli government-supported ads showing intermarried Jews as "lost," it is another example of the increasingly desperate, and offensive, attempt of Israel’s supporters to reach out to young Jews.
It’s unclear what this ad has to do with attracting young Jews to Israel, but it does seem to reflect the politics of Birthright’s new pr firm. The Forward reported that 5WPR’s CEO, Ronn Torossian, was a founder of the organization Our Jerusalem which "worked to push Israeli Arabs out of Jerusalem. In 2004, he told the Forward, ‘The PLO or P.A., or whatever the gangsters call themselves today, have no place in Jerusalem.’" Jeffrey Goldberg also remembers meeting Torossian a few years ago:
It’s said of Ronn Torossian that he represents "right-wing" Israeli politicians, but this description does not do his clients justice. "Right-wing" is Bibi Netanyahu. Torossian represents the lunatic fringe. Several years ago, in one of my only encounters with him, he introduced me to Benny Elon, a rabbi and settler leader who was then Israel’s tourism minister, and who, at various points in his career, has more or less advocated the ethnic cleansing of Israel of its Arab citizens. At one point, when Elon had gone to take a telephone call, Torossian and I started talking about Israel’s right to reprisal for terrorist attacks. I was arguing in favor of some sort of proportionality (this was after Jenin, in which the Israeli army chose to root out terrorism block by block rather than bomb the city from the air) but Torossian interrupted: "I think we should kill a hundred Arabs or a thousand Arabs for every one Jew they kill."
The ad is right in line with the ongoing effort by Israel’s supporters to demonize Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in particular. Although it’s not really clear how this ad would make someone want to travel to Israel, one of Birthright’s other goals is to "strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry." Nothing builds solidarity more than a belittling caricature of an insane Middle Eastern leader. Guess it’s getting harder to sell Israel on its own merits.
Update from the comments – Daniel Sieradski writes:
Sorry but you’re totally off. The video was commissioned before 5W came on board (and please sign my petition against Birthright’s hiring of 5W at http://act.ly/dn). My friend Will Levin, of http://jewishrobot.com, created the video. A cartoonist and animator known for his groaning punchlines, Will is a regular contributor to http://jewschool.com, the progressive Jewish blog I founded in 2001.
Will told me in an email yesterday that he conceptualized the video himself and pitched it to Birthright, who were disinterested in the content specifically, focusing instead on its potential reach:
Will said, “It came to be when I said, ‘Iran is a hot topic, so picture this: Ahmadinejad applies to go on Birthright Israel.’ Birthright said, ‘Will it be a viral video?’ and I was like, ‘Maybe.’”
As a friend and colleague of many years, I take Will’s word for it, though I obviously agree it’s in poor taste and that the timing couldn’t be worse. A coordinated attempt to promote hostility against Iran, however, it isn’t.
