The failure of Israel's PR

The Luntz Research Companies, a conservative polling organization, has released a study titled How the Next Generation Views Israel. It is a survey of students under 30 who are attending top graduate schools (including business school, law school, school of journalism, and school of government) in the US, i.e. tomorrow's leaders and decision-makers in the US. The results are very depressing, and point to Israel's inability to effectively counter Arab propaganda regarding the conflict.

The fact is, we are losing the communication war in the elite media, and it will cost us the support of a generation of elites. The enemies of Israel will always exist; the names may change but the threat will not. Unless we stand up, fight back and reverse this trend, the next generation of American leaders – those who will assume power around the year 2020 – will not see Israel as an ally. They will see Israel as a burden – and one that may not be worth carrying.

Most of the perceptions of the students are caused by their lack of knowledge of the history of the region and of the conflict. And while in itself it is depressing that top students of US graduate schools don't know the history of a region which is constantly in the news and which is of vital national security interest for the US, it is even worse that Israel has not been able to properly and effectively disseminate the facts of the conflict to convince the future political and economic elite of the US.

Towards the end of this article there are a number of suggestions of what arguments work, and how they need to be presented by pro-Israel speakers and representatives to turn this tide. Hopefully Israel's Government sees these results and makes a concerted effort to change their PR tactics.