JERUSALEM POST
by Daniel Gordis
November 6, 2014

Let’s stop asking why the Israeli government is so incompetent at telling its story, and focus on the question that matters. Let’s start asking instead: Why has the international community’s moral compass become so utterly dysfunctional?

It’s almost invariably the first question during the Q&A session.

Whether I’m speaking in the US or Australia, Israel or Europe, at a JCC, a book fair, a synagogue or a federation – someone always asks it. At Limmud or a university, too. It makes no difference. Someone invariably asks, “Why does Israel consistently do such a terrible job of telling its own story? You people do so many things so well. Why can’t you do hasbara [public diplomacy]?” In fairness to Israel, I think the Foreign Ministry has, in fact, gotten a bit better at it. We’ve been represented in recent years by several ambassadors to the US, for example, who have done excellent work…..

But the next time someone asks me that question, I’m going to change my answer. No longer am I going to recount the history of when Israel apparently stopped investing as heavily in hasbara, and no longer am I going to try to explain that our story is a complex one, not readily reduced to sound bites.

Instead, I’m going to remind the questioner of whats happening in Israel, and why, no matter what we do, hasbara is essentially useless and hopeless. It is so utterly useless, in fact, that I think we just ought to drop the concept and the term…….

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