Much like most Zionist initiatives meant to establish and preserve Israel's prestige and status, it appears that the latest initiative to establish "covert units" within Israel's seven universities to engage in online public diplomacy (hasbara) is making Israeli newspaper Haaretz very angry. The paper recently ran a piercing editorial criticizing the initiative, even going as far as giving it a derogatory name (presumably meant to serve the opposite purpose than the program's stated objective): a "dirty trick."
The need for a covert hasbara unit arose as a response to the current, constantly intensifying phenomenon: Traditional anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jews that peaked during the Holocaust, has now been replaced by anti-Israel sentiments. These Israel-haters aim to erase Israel from the map and establish a state that is not Jewish in its place. The delegitimization process against Israel occurs on several levels, and revolves mainly around lies and baseless accusations.
It doesn't matter if Israel is the most moral country in the world, and it doesn't matter if it handles the most immoral threats against it in the most moral fashion, Israel's name will be sullied as a means of achieving that end. In the past, the battlefield that determined international events was in the killing fields of war, but now it is underway in full force on the Internet. From blogs run by extremist opinion makers to overt hate sites, the Web is teeming. The momentous need to confront this enormous virtual challenge has been pounding on Israel's door for a long time, and the war is well underway.
Therefore, the Prime Minister's Office initiative is welcome and even desirable. Haaretz's editorial, as always, links things that have nothing to do with one another, and entirely misses the point along the way. It says, for example: "At a time when clouds of disbelief frequently hover over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it [the Prime Minister's Office] has no choice but to recruit new spokesmen, people whose credibility is presently intact."
But this begs the question: What is the connection between the prime minister and intensive online hasbara? After all, even when Ehud Olmert, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres were prime ministers, and presented an extremely conciliatory attitude toward the Palestinians, Israel's name was still consistently tarnished.
The editorial goes on to say: "This is a cynical plan that reflects not only the depth of international suspicion of Israel’s government, but also the fact that Netanyahu and his staff favor public diplomacy tricks above all else." Is that so? History proves that it doesn't matter how far Israel goes in its quest for peace, it will always be seen as the "Little Satan" (to the U.S.'s "Great Satan"). It is time to fight exactly in accordance with the ethos by which a democracy must defend itself.
Haaretz is apparently bothered that students will be disseminating information about Israel, but that is precisely where the paper misses the mark. Israeli academia is filled with students who speak a plethora of languages, and most of them, if not all of them, speak another language, the language of social media. It is only they -- the ones who are directly hooked up to the massive information channels of the Internet -- who can oversee the battle in this day and age.
In light of all this, Haaretz should be praising this initiative rather than criticizing it. It will allow Israel to paint an accurate picture of itself online: a miracle founded by a group of immigrants who created a democratic, flourishing, free state, despite all its overpowering security challenges.
Eli Hazan is a lecturer at the Israeli Center for Political Training.
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