“backlotops: 1 side has to stop. Why continue what hasn't worked (mass arial/grnd retaliation)? Arab Peace Initiative?
israelconsulate: we R pro nego. crntly tlks r held w the PA + tlks on the 2 state soln. we talk only w/ ppl who accept R rt 2 live.”
--New York Times reporter Noam Cohen (see below), "The Toughest Q’s Answered in the Briefest Tweets," citing an exchange via Twitter with Israel's Consulate General in NYC
--New York Times columnist Frank Rich, characterizing President George W. Bush
Reading the News from Iran to Gaza – Scott Lucas, Enduring America: “Radio Free Europe/Farda has a story that an Iranian newspaper has been closed for criticising the Iranian Government’s support of Hamas. US public diplomacy has subsequently stirred the pot by claiming the reform paper was close to [Ayatollah Hashemi] Rafsanjani [, chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council].”
The Toughest Q’s Answered in the Briefest Tweets
By Noam Cohen, New York Times: “The Israel Defense Forces, recognizing that success in neutralizing the Hamas movement in Gaza is as much a public relations challenge as a military one, has enlisted an arsenal of Internet tools to take their message directly to a global audience.
There is a military channel on the video-sharing site YouTube where you can watch suspected Hamas sites being obliterated by ordnance; blogs that spread the message of the foreign affairs ministry; and in the newest wrinkle, a news conference conducted through the microblogging service Twitter. ‘Since the definition of war has changed, the definition of public diplomacy has to change as well,’ said David Saranga, the head of media relations for the Israeli consulate in New York, which conducted the Twitter news conference on Tuesday.” PHOTO: David Saranga.
Israel's self-proclaimed 'propaganda war' backfires in Youtube controversy - Saed Bannoura, IMEMC News: “The Israeli government laid out a plan, at the beginning of its all-out assault on Gaza, for a 'propaganda war' that would publish propaganda in a variety of ways, employing different strategies, in order to win over world public opinion. Major Avital Leibovich, the head of the Israeli military's Foreign Press branch, told reporters, ‘the blogosphere and new media are another war zone [and] we have to be relevant there.’"The Palestinians might be winning the propaganda war, but at what cost?: Israel could not have done other than it is doing, but that does not make it right - Howard Jacobson, Observer: “Israel could not have done other than it is doing, but that makes its action neither right nor wise. Rightness and wisdom are sometimes nowhere to be found.
Again Israel looks to its military past - Peter Beaumont, Bad News Day: “Last week, while Gazans under Israel's assault were living in a horrible present, some of Israel's most prominent commentators were again worrying about the past.
For historian Benny Morris, writing in the International Herald Tribune, the issue was to make common cause with the days of 1967 - before the Six-Day War - a time of huge national anxiety, and to mourn the fading from history in the west of the Holocaust. It is becoming, he argued, ‘an ineffectual memory’. That is to say, less effective as a tool for public diplomacy in explaining Israel's claimed exception: why the Jewish people's history of facing extermination in a hostile world should exempt them from some of the standards for human rights and international law.”
Learn to speak English - Esti Appelbaum-Polani explains why Israel losing battle for international public opinion, Ynetnews: “Our official spokespeople among members of the cabinet or the various government ministers are usually quite coherent, yet they are not fluent in English. As such, they come across as unpleasant, Levantine, and uncultured. The many spokespeople who are army officers are perhaps suitable for Israel’s public opinion, but not for global public opinion. Most of them have a rather mediocre ability to express themselves and are not fully familiar with the nuances of media appearances.” VIA
The Truth About Israel and her Enemies - No Apologies Round 2: “The Israel Project cordially invites you to a Briefing on Current Israeli-Anti Terror Operations in Gaza with Danny Gillerman Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN and Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Interim Public Diplomacy Director - Operation Cast Lead Monday, January 5, 2009 Los Angeles- 8 a.m.Washington/ New York- 11 a.m.London- 4 p.m.Paris/Berlin- 5 p.m.Jerusalem- 6 p.m.Moscow/Doha- 7 p.m. RSVP Required:* To listen by phone, please RSVP online here to receive call-in information. For more information, contact Shiri Shapira at shiris@theisraelproject.org or 972-054-8079042.”
September – 2008 My year in review - Blog, stefangeens.com: “September began with a trip back to Washington DC, where I had been invited by the US Library of Congress to speak to federal librarians about ‘Public Diplomacy and the 3D Web — The view from Sweden’". 
Includes slides used in lecture. IMAGE: studio un/real sets up the Virtu-Real installation at the House of Sweden. Photo: Stefan Geens
Human Rights and China’s Public Diplomacy : A Controversy over a Beijing Olympic Float for the 2008 Pasadena Rose Parade - Hongmei Li, The China Beat: “At the beginning, the Olympic float was meant to be part of an overseas marketing plan for the Beijing Olympics. However, after the entry was announced officially, various human rights groups protested against it.”
Foreign minister, diplomats visit Hualien to tout Taiwan's beauty - Central News Agency: Foreign Minister Francisco H.L. Ou and 30 members of the diplomatic corps in Taiwan paid a two-day visit to Hualien County in eastern Taiwan Jan. 3-4 to introduce the beauty of Taiwan to the international community, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
Describing the visit as ‘successful public diplomacy,’ Ou said the trip was aimed at letting diplomats based in Taiwan gain a better understanding of the government's efforts in public diplomacy and non-government organizations' work to promote diplomacy through humanitarian aid, according to the press release. ‘The so-called `public diplomacy' on the one hand is to have our people go out and present the beauty of Taiwan to the international community, and on the other, to have foreigners visit the island and experience the high quality Taiwanese people,’ Ou was quoted as saying.”
Diplomatic community takes the stage for charity - Park Sun-young, JoonAng Daily: “We aim to share our musical experiences with each other and contribute to cultural diplomacy while cooperating with charity organizations to affect positive change in our society,” said Oh Joon, chief of the Office of Multilateral Global and Legal Affairs, and the drummer of the Mofat Musicians.
Friends of Pakistan from British Parliament to visit Pakistan next week: Javed Malik - Mian Abrar, Associated Press of Pakistan: “Pakistan’s Ambassador at Large, Javed Malik is organizing a visit of British Members of Parliament (MPs) and the delegation comprising on MPs James Devine, Mark Fisher, James McGovern, and Mohammed Sarwar would arrive here next week. ‘This visit is part of a wide-ranging public diplomacy efforts being initiated by Javed Malik since his appointment as Pakistan’s Ambassador at Large,” said Javed Malik in an exclusive talk with APP here on Sunday.’”
As Bush term winds down, his Texas team gets graded -
Richard S. Dunham, Houston Chronicle: Re Karen Hughes:
“Her return to Washington as the State Department's director of ‘public diplomacy’ during Bush's second term yielded mixed results. ‘Karen is a brilliant communicator, and I think her communications strategy was renowned’ said Texas GOP consultant Reggie Bashur. ‘I, for one, think that it would have been good for the president if she had stayed there.’" On Hughes, see.
RELATED ITEMS
A President Forgotten but Not Gone - Frank Rich, New York Times: The one indisputable talent of his White House was its ability to create and sell propaganda both to the public and the press. The crowning personality tic revealed by Bush’s final propaganda push is his bottomless capacity for self-pity.
Europe is ready to work with Obama - Thom Shanker and Helene Cooper, International Herald Tribune: After rebuffing the Bush administration on a number of fronts, European governments are signaling that they may be more willing to engage with the incoming Obama administration on a variety of stalled issues, including taking in prisoners from the Guantánamo Bay detention center and strengthening sanctions against Iran. But it may not be all honeymoon.
Gaza media update - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy
Escalation in Gaza: With no diplomatic solution on the horizon, Israel launches a risky ground attack – Editorial, Washington Post: While justified by Hamas's continuing attempts to kill Israeli civilians, the invasion heightens the risks that Israel has faced all along. Even a defeat of Hamas on the ground might not end the missile threat, and it could be forced into a full-scale occupation of Gaza. That outcome would be a serious blow to Israel's larger interests -- and those of the United States.
Countering Iran in Gaza and Beyond - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post: A strange brew of wishful thinking and studied inaction passed for George W. Bush's Middle East peace policy for eight years. But in his final days, this president must act to contain the consequences of a regional conflict he has allowed to fester. U.S. policy must concentrate on limiting any political gains the spasm of violence in Gaza could bring for Iran and Syria, which are both happy to fight Israel to the last Palestinian.
For Obama, a Tough Page to Turn - David Ignatius, Washington Post: The self-defeating logic of war is destroying the Middle East; there has got to be a better path, and Obama's task is to search for it.
In Gaza, the real enemy is Iran: Israeli attacks must not stop until Iran's proxy, Hamas, is defeated - Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren, Los Angeles Times: President-elect Barack Obama has declared his intention to confront Iran through diplomacy. Ideally, that process should begin in the aftermath of an Iranian defeat. If Israel is allowed to achieve its goals in Gaza, the Obama administration will be better poised to achieve its goals in Iran.
History Lessons on Cuba for a New President - Anthony DePalma, New York Times: As Havana commemorates the 50 years since Mr. Castro’s victory, and Washington prepares to inaugurate Mr. Obama -- the first president born after the rebels took control -- Cuba still belongs to Fidel.
We Arm the World: The United States once again leads the world in exporting weapons - Frida Berrigan, In These Times/Common Dreams
Coming to the Battlefield: Stone-Cold Robot Killers - John Pike, Washington Post: Within a decade, the Army will field armed robots with intellects that possess, as H.G. Wells put it, "minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic."
IMAGE
"Clearly, the media-scape represents a vital, if not decisive front in contemporary warfare. To the extent this image of a Palestinian looking out the window in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp evokes a television screen, the intimation is that Israel has perceptually lost this war as a result of its intensive bombing campaign."
--BagnewsNotes
No comments:
Post a Comment