Why Jews Are So Bad at PR

By: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Published: January 8th, 2013

Ron Dermer, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s senior adviser, may be Israel’s next Ambassador to the U.S.
Photo Credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90

The biggest question surrounding the State of Israel is why it is so hated. The conventional wisdom is that the world remains hopelessly anti-Semitic and is therefore deeply biased against the Jewish State. No doubt there is some truth to this assertion.

But to absolve Israel and the Jewish people of any involvement in this monumental failure to communicate strikes me as convenient and allows us to blame others for our shortcomings.

In truth, while the State of Israel was asleep the Arabs pulled off one of the great propaganda coups in global history. They somehow convinced the nations of the world that six million embattled Jews, with a deep commitment to democracy, human rights, and religious pluralism were the aggressors in a war with hundreds of millions of oil-rich Arabs, whose governmental commitment to women’s and religious rights is tenuous at best and appalling at worst. The Palestinians in particular demonstrated a black belt in PR by convincing the world that amid their rejection of every peace deal ever offered to them, including the 1947 UN Partition plan, that it is Israel that has no interest in peace.

Read More:

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/america-rabbi-shmuley-boteach/why-jews-are-so-bad-at-pr/2013/01/08/0/?print