January 13

MAP by David Benzion, "If HAMAS was in Mexico, bombing the USA ...this would be its rocket range"

"the first social media war."

--Michael Dickson, the director of Stand With Us International, a pro-Israel public affairs group, regarding the virtual media battle in Gaza

“his courage."

--an aspect of Bush’s decision-making that merits special recognition, according to Fred Barnes,The Weekly Standard. Photo from Wonkette.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Key Questions for Senator Hillary Clinton, Nominee for Secretary of State - Steven Groves, WebMemo #2201, Heritage Foundation: Question #9:

Public Diplomacy: How do you intend to improve the effectiveness of the United States's public diplomacy and strategic communication, and would you support the creation of a new government agency to take the lead on these issues? Answer:

The current state of American public diplomacy and strategic communication is unacceptable. Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, government and nongovernmental organizations have issued more than 30 reports about the many shortcomings of the State Department's public diplomacy efforts, including a lack of leadership, personnel, the engagement of public diplomacy officers, and insufficient training. Additionally, there is no integrated national strategy or doctrine for foreign outreach or interagency coordination on strategic communication. The inability for the State Department to modernize its communications tactics is a serious flaw. In order for these shortcomings to be remedied, the U.S. should establish the U.S. Agency for Strategic Communications.”

Strategic communications is too important to bother with mere audience needs - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy: Elliott comments about the above entry: “The model for international broadcasting as part of 'strategic communications' is, of course, Radio Moscow. During the Cold War, Radio Moscow's content was certainly coordinated, by a central office, with the strategic needs of the USSR. It reported news that conformed with that strategy, ignored news that did not support the strategy, and took care to 'craft and implement' scripts to support Soviet policy goals. Despite being the granddaddy of international broadcasting -- more languages, more transmitters, more broadcast hours, more kilowatts, more budget than any other station -- Radio Moscow never gathered more than 10 percent of the audience size of BBC or VOA. It was not providing the credible news that international radio audiences wanted.”

Put up or shut up – Marc Lynch, Foreign Policy: “[P]ublic diplomacy needs to be integrated into the formation of policy, not tacked on at the end to help sell a policy formulated in isolation from its likely reception among foreign audiences. Public diplomacy isn't just talking. It involves listening, anticipating, honestly evaluating trends in foreign public opinion as they are and not as we would like them to be, and assessing the likely impact of those trends. The Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy (or some similar official) should be at the policy table, helping the administration understand the likely reception of different policy choices among relevant audiences, not waiting for instructions.”

To speak or not to speak? - Rob, Arabic Media Shack: “It seems to me that any PD effort that doesn’t explicitly criticize and distance the US from Israel’s campaign in Gaza (which we don’t want to do) would only make the US look as if it is part of the effort. In this current battle, at least in my view, the US is destined to lose the ‘war of ideas.’

Therefore, the best thing to do is shut up and as much as possible let Israel pay the PR price alone.”

A Twitter Press Conference That Worked (and the Famous One That Didn’t) – Darren Krape Blog: “[S]ocial media serves best as a multiplier in public. Ideally, the foundation of any engagement should [be] face-to-face discussions (or other more ‘high fidelity’ engagement, preferably in person). Twitter and other social media tools are useful as a support to this on-the-ground engagement, creating what some have called ‘ambient intimacy’ between site visits.”

Social media tools beginning to attract mainstream attention, especially from embassies practicing public diplomacy - Gerson Lehrman Group, New York

Israel gains in media blitz, but for how long? - Luke Baker, AlertNet, Reuters: “Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel during the fighting and the Jewish state emerged with its pride dented and its enemy claiming victory. A commission that looked into that conflict concluded that one major shortcoming was Israel's ‘hasbara’ -- a Hebrew word that translates as ‘public diplomacy’ or ‘explanation’. As a result, Israel set up the National Information Directorate to coordinate its domestic and global message. Formed eight months before the Gaza war, it kicked into high gear as soon as the conflict began and scored early success, although there are growing signs the campaign may be stalling.”

In America - RF, بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Sufi News And Sufism World Report: Primarily An Archive Of News Reports From Around The World Concerning Sufis And Sufism: "Hazami Barmada ... is an independent consultant and contractor in Public and Cultural Diplomacy and Interreligious Relations. … Barmada speaks frequently about the importance of international collaboration and public diplomacy initiatives to bridge cultural, political and economic divides. Additionally she has shared her perspectives on topics relating to women, civic engagement and leadership development at numerous conferences and workshops nationally.”

Understanding Genuine Secularism - LK Advani's Blog: “A very valuable addition to my personal library this week has been a beautiful Coffee Table Book from Amit Mehra titled India : A Timeless Celebration. I congratulate the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs for publishing this important book.”

RELATED ITEMS

Pretty Talk and Ugly Realities: Moral preening from a safe distance and at somebody else’s expense - Thomas Sowell, National Review: Today, so-called “world opinion” not only limits the price to be paid for aggression or terrorism, it has even led to the self-indulgence of third parties talking pretty talk about limiting the response of those who are attacked to what is “proportionate.”

Gaza media update for 12 January 2009 - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

Gaza bloggers relay crisis to outside world - Kristen Chick, Christian Science Monitor: The Israeli offensive in Gaza reached its 18th day with Israel continuing to block access to the region for foreign journalists. But bloggers in Gaza are chronicling the conflict with firsthand accounts of their experiences, giving outsiders a look at the unfolding humanitarian crisis.

Israeli propaganda has succeeded in presenting this war as an attack on Hamas. It is actually an attack on civilians - Matt Kennard, The Comment Factory: The best propaganda victory for the Israeli machine is a simple one that resonates all over the media without exception. Every media says that Israel is engaged in “a war against Hamas”. All news media takes this as their starting point. But this isn’t and never has been a war against just Hamas. It is a war against all Gazans.

Getting Away With Murder - Julia Irwin, Sydney Morning Herald: You’ve got to hand it to the Israeli public relations flacks: only they could convince you that killing children was an act of self-defence. As the recent bombing of Gaza began, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave instructions for the Foreign Ministry to take "emergency measures to adapt Israel's public relations to the ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip". Livni went on to call for foreign language speakers to put Israel's case to the world.

Pure Propaganda From the Papers of Record – Philip Giraldi, Antiwar.com: - To read America's self-described newspapers of record is to receive the Israeli propaganda line in its purest form. There are signs that many Americans are not buying into the nonsense, that an increasing percentage sympathize with the Palestinians and even more do not want the U.S. involved in the conflict.

The New York Times and the Gaza crisis: Israeli war propaganda in the guise of news - Tom Eley, World Socialist Web Site

Anti-Israeli polemics are propaganda, not scholarship - Omri Preiss, The Comment Factory: The Israeli version always presents a dynamic and complex chain of events: victories, defeats, mistakes, desperation, reversals. Also, one account can be used to verify another. The Arab account only asserts the existence of an “all-evil” “Zionist military machine” that is accused of “crimes” -- there is hardly any dynamics, and allegations are founded on very rickety and limited evidence, if any.


Facing Reality: The answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - David Gelernter, Weekly Standard: The Bush administration, which has done so many small and medium things wrong and the biggest of all things right, could leave the world a parting gift by introducing some appropriate resolution in the Security Counsel or General Assembly. A proclamation that "anti-Zionism is a form of racism" might be just the thing.

How Israel Gets Away With Murder: Indifference to criticism of the bombing and invasion of Gaza is the result of indulgence by the West - Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Independent: Although Israel is sometimes described as an American client state, which receives huge financial subsidy from Washington, she is unique as a client state: she can do exactly as she likes in the knowledge that she will never be seriously restrained by her sponsor.

Seeing Through the Lies: The Facts About Hamas and the War on Gaza - Norman Finkelstein, Counterpunch: Mr. Obama has to level with the American people. He has to be honest about what is the main obstacle to resolving the conflict. It’s not Palestinian rejectionism. It’s the refusal of Israel, backed by the United States government, to abide by international law, to abide by the opinion of the international community.

No delusion of bombing Iran - Editorial, Boston Globe: Speaking to George Stephanopoulos Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Obama said his approach to Iran will include "a new emphasis on respect and a new emphasis on being willing to talk, but also a clarity about what our bottom lines are." This approach may or may not work. But it is the road not yet taken, and a road that should have been taken years ago.

The Afghan Scam: The Untold Story of Why the U.S. Is Bound to Fail in Afghanistan - Ann Jones, Huffington Post: Those multi-millions that will continue to be poured down the Afghan drain really represent promises made to a people whose country and culture we have devastated more than once. They are promises made by our government, paid for by our taxpayers, and repeatedly broken.

The Chinese Internet Propaganda Machine - Justin Gardner, Donklephant

Obama: Declare an End To 'The War on Terror' - Robert Dreyfuss, Nation/Common Dreams

Questions for Mrs. Clinton – New York Times: The Op-Ed page asked 10 experts to pose the questions they would like to hear Senator Clinton answer. Among them: LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005: There is clearly an imbalance of influence and power between the State Department and the Defense Department. An enormous shift of foreign policy influence has also occurred, since the era of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, from the State Department to the National Security Council staff and its head, the national security adviser. How do you propose to bring some of that influence back to the State Department? FOUAD AJAMI, a professor of Middle East studies at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and an adjunct research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford: 4. Do you think that you have sufficient knowledge of foreign cultures and languages to prepare you to lead America’s relations with the rest of the world. CATHY YOUNG, a contributing editor at Reason magazine and the author of “Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood”: 1. What concrete steps will you take to rebuild America’s diplomatic strength? What can be done immediately and what can be done over the next three to four years? LEE HAMILTON, vice chairman of the 9/11 commission and president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: 2. Foreign policy is not the exclusive purview of the State Department. What role should the State Department play in foreign policy and how will you integrate and coordinate the department’s objectives and activities with those of the Defense, Homeland Security and Treasury Departments, the Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies operating overseas?

Cornering Condi on Gaza -- at a Hair Salon - Laila Al-Arian, Huffington Post

SEE ALSO

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“Here is Bush's legacy, in part: He took the nation to a war of choice under false pretenses -- and left troops in harm's way on two fields of battle. He embraced torture as an interrogation tactic and turned the world's champion of human dignity into an outlaw nation and international pariah. He watched with detachment as a major American city went under water. He was ostensibly at the helm as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression took hold. He went from being the most popular to the most disappointing president, having squandered a unique opportunity to unite the country and even the world behind a shared agenda after Sept. 11. He set a new precedent for avoiding the general public in favor of screened audiences and seemed to occupy an alternate reality. He took his own political party from seeming permanent majority status to where it is today. And he deliberately politicized the federal government, circumvented the traditional policymaking process, ignored expert advice and suppressed dissent, leaving behind a broken government.”

--Dan Froomkin, "The Bush Verdict Is In," washingtonpost.com