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Hirsh Goodman: A Look in the Mirror

I know a number of our very wealthy brethren who have spent a lot of money on trying to improve Israel�s image as this war with the Palestinians grinds on. The fastest growth rate in Jewish organizations, indeed, has been "truth lobbies," demanding that the media be fair with Israel and plaguing editors who are deemed not to be. Huge amounts have been invested in technologies to scan the press, keep track of the multitude of 24-hour news channels and what they are saying, and then pouncing on anything that sounds even slightly tilted.

This is all very commendable. But with all due respect, the only institution that can do anything about Israel�s image is the Israeli government itself. All the well-meaning Jewish truth squads on earth could not have done anything to improve Israel�s image after every news channel in the world reported on the 200 olive trees settlers from an illegal hilltop settlement near Yitzhar chopped down in the region of the Palestinian village of Einabous. For days the settlers, armed with rifles and thick sticks, had prevented the Palestinians from picking their crops. And finally, after prodding from several Knesset members, the army decided to go out and protect the Palestinian olive-pickers. On the night before the army was due to arrive, the settlers cut down the trees. The impact on Israel�s image was disastrous.

What could have been done to make it different? Every society has its madmen, its fanatics blinded by hate and self-righteousness. What should have been done is that the Israeli army and police, together with 200 cameramen and journalists, should have gone to Yitzhar, arrested every single one of the wild men and women up there for questioning, confiscated their weapons and impounded their property to be used as compensation for those Palestinian families who were affected. The minister of defense, the chief of staff, the minister of public security and the minister of justice should all have been on hand giving interviews about how Israel would not tolerate hooliganism, saying they intend to bring a quick and speedy end to illegal settlement wherever it may be, that the army would no longer protect these settlements, and stressing that Israel was a society that believes in law and order, as was attested to by their swift action.

The government could have also thought about the wisdom of bringing down three seven-story buildings opposite the Israeli enclave of Netzarim in the heart of the most populous area of the Gaza Strip. Three soldiers had been killed there by Palestinian infiltrators. In retribution, on the claim that the buildings served as observation posts for the Palestinians to plan the raid, to the delight of Israel�s enemies in a dramatic television spectacle broadcast the world over, army engineers blew the apartment blocks to smithereens. The army then also issued instructions to reservists serving in the Strip that they can shoot to kill anyone looking at them through binoculars.

This does not do the country�s image much good. It probably does not do the country�s security much good either, but that is something, like Israel�s image problems, that outside organizations cannot resolve. Israel�s image is a result of Israel�s policies, which are beginning to look more and more draconian as the country flounders leaderless and visionless in a war without an end.

Dealing with the criminals who destroyed the livelihoods of dozens of poor agricultural families by cutting down those olive trees in the first week of November is not an image problem. It is a moral, almost existential, problem for Israel as a Jewish democratic state. How can the country not deal with its criminals, even without the television cameras present? How can these young people be allowed to get away with this, with firing live ammunition at innocent people coming to farm the land that has been in their family for hundreds of years, with destroying their livelihoods? Where is the rule of law?

But why bother? It�s much easier to moan and groan about media bias, get well-meaning Jewish philanthropists to give their money to spin doctors rather than real causes, and get our influential friends in the Christian community to phone the bosses at CNN to complain that Ahmed so-and-so was a terrorist and not a Fatah operative. Wow!

Israel has much to be enraged about in this war -- and much to be enraged with the press about. The media has not always been fair and has even sometimes been grossly unfair, which is needless really, given that Israel is so expert at giving those who want to say bad things about the country so much to talk about.

The way the government is prepared to have the country portrayed says something about what the government thinks of the country. Perhaps the answer to why the illegal settlements are there, the behavior of their occupants is tolerated, and the abuses against the Palestinians go unpunished, is because that�s the way the government wants it. The problem is that they want to look good at the same time, and that they think gimmicks and spin can allow us to behave atrociously and be loved simultaneously. At the end of the day, you are what you are. A good look in the mirror would perhaps do us all a world of good.