Some thoughts on Israel advocacy

I would like to preface by stating that, I don't really have any experience with any official Israeli advocacy. I never participated in any programs, never had any formal advocacy training and my presence in Israel nearly renders anything I say, do, or write ineffective as in I would be preaching to the choir.

So perhaps it is somewhat insolent of me to presume to have anything worth saying on a topic I have no experience in, and we all know how easy it is to be critical, nevertheless, I have one or two thoughts I would like to share.

Firstly, I would like to clarify from the outset, that though I may be somewhat negative, there have been many positive developments and improvements when it comes to Israeli advocacy, especially in post-Lebanon II and we are seeing the results in the effectiveness (so far) of the Israeli government in handling the media and conveying its message.

All that having been said, I would like to comment on the relative ineffectiveness of local advocacy in Israel. In my humble opinion, advocacy is the message that we are communicating to the greater world, to those who are not intimately connected to either the Israeli side, nor the Palestinian one. When those of us in Israel donate our facebook statuses, how effective is it really? Its nice to see that so many people are supportive, but truthfully, what is the point?! Most of us have our insular circle of friends that mostly include educated and connected Jews. The likelihood of your status reaching a population where it actually might have an impact is slim. The same thing goes for joining groups and causes. Its nice to see the excitement but don't confuse support with action!
This is all in sharp contrast to those living outside of Israel who have day-to-day contact with their non-Jewish, non-Israeli neighbors, students, co-workers etc. These people can have a tremendous effect, whether through programs, rallies, articles, blogs and regular day-to-day conversation. However, as I will explain, they lack the essential narrative that must be conveyed. They might be able to make good points however, it has not been consolidated into one fundamental case.

The above issue, however, is only the symptom (thus perhaps excusable) to what I think is the underlying problem. The reason that the Palestinians are so effective when it comes to advocacy is that over the years they have developed one unified message that has been basically used as a mantra. Something that is repeated over and over again is known to seep into the consciousness and root itself there as truth. This is what the Palestinians have essentially accomplished. They have repeated occupation, occupation, occupation (i.e. the fact that they are the victims of occupation and aggression) and it has embedded itself in the collective worldwide conscious as absolute truth.

Israel, on the other hand was never able to develop that one unified narrative. There are too many stubborn and uncompromising factions in Israel that care more about their own images and principles (whether right or wrong) than the greater good. Thus, as advocacy trickles down from the government to its official branches and from there to diaspora organization and across to students, journalists, and bloggers, there is a glaring lack of the necessary singular, unified, narrative. The effectiveness of the Palestinians is that they have everyone, those who are intimately connected to the issue as well as those that are not, repeating the exact same story. Therefore, you have journalists and bloggers that don't know any better who take it to be absolute truth.

The fault of this post, and for this I apologize, is that I don't have any detailed mechanism as to what that specific narrative should be. I only know that it has to be strong enough and encompassing enough to effectively counter the unified Palestinian narrative. In addition, I think that this is something that should really start at the top of the government, or at least the foreign ministry, and trickle its way down, reaching as many people as possible.
Campus advocacy overseas, programs such as Stand-With-Us, and other similar projects are all great programs with great potential, however they present somewhat of a disjointed message. There is no underlying argument that is common to them all and this is reflected in their work.

Like I stressed before, there have been a lot of improvements and I think that Israel has effectively handled the situation in Gaza and hopefully will continue to do so as long as necessary.

May we only hear good news,

Ayal