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John Brown aggregates all the most recent public diplomacy related news, including current issues in U.S. foreign policy, international broadcasting and media, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, educational exchanges, anti-Americanism, and the reception of American popular culture abroad.

PDPBR FOR FEBRUARY 23 SUPPLEMENT (MIDDLE EAST, SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA)
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON, 2006:
AN INTERNET-BASED SURVEY OF THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WORLD MEDIA

MIDDLE EAST, SUB-SAHARAN ADRICA

MIDDLE EAST

MUTUAL MISCONCEPTIONS: ARABS NEED A LOT MORE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE U.S. - JAMES ZOGBY (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, JULY 5): While there is no doubt that most Arabs do not understand America and its complex political and social culture, the more pressing need is for the United States to understand the Arab world.
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THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ISRAELI PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE WAR AGAINST THE IRAN-HIZBALLAH AXIS OF TERROR - RAANAN GISSIN (JERUSALEM ISSUE BRIEF, VOL. 6, NO. 9, AUGUST 23): “Why should it be that once we start attacking, we immediately start to lose in the diplomatic arena? Because Nasrallah and his patrons in Iran successfully integrated the ‘ABCs’ of public diplomacy into their long-term strategic war doctrine.”
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AMEN!?!? STRATEGIES IN ISRAEL’S PR BATTLE – SWU RESEARCH FELLOW (ISRAEL RELATED BLOG; FIRST APPEARED IN STANDWITHUS, DECEMBER 25): “I’m so frustrated with most Israeli hasbara: - It’s reactive, trying to explain what’s been done rather than influencing the formation of policy. - It’s largely based on saying things that reassure us and our supporters, rather than communicating effectively with those who are not already on our side. … - It’s far to obsessed with ‘beating’ our ‘enemies’, instead of with succeeding as a modern, thriving, Western-oriented democracy.”
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A HEDGEHOG’S HASBARA - (DON RADLAUER BLOG, DECEMBER 26): There is one thing that all of us (or at least all of us involved in this debate) agree on: Israel’s image in the eyes of the rest of the world is abysmal. Our response has been to attempt more effective hasbara - literally, “explanation” but more accurately translated as “public diplomacy”, “public relations”, or (less delicately) “propaganda”. The problem is that Israeli public diplomacy has been monumentally unsuccessful of late: the plucky little underdog of yore is now seen as the big bad wolf, oppressing and occupying the Palestinians, offending Hezbollah (by existing, basically), insulting Iran by accusing President Ahmadinejad of all kinds of horrible things, and feeling offensively sorry for itself every time a walking bomb blows up a bus or café. We seem to have tremendous difficulty understanding why we are perceived so negatively. Are we not a thriving democracy? Do we not mean well? Okay, we’ve had to do some rather unpalatable stuff at times, but hey, we live in a rough neighborhood, and it’s not like we enjoyed knocking all those houses down! And our adversaries include some genuinely evil people: guys who think blowing innocent women and children to bits is a good thing, as long as it happens to us and not them. The hasbara establishment - consisting of certain individuals and agencies of the Israeli government, along with a bunch of concerned individuals and private organizations - has responded to the failures of Israeli image-making by circling the wagons, closing ranks, girding their loins, going for the jugular, and keeping their powder dry: or, in other words and without the tortured metaphors, they’ve opted to do pretty much what they’ve been doing all along, but louder and more forcefully.
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INDONESIANS UNMOVED BY ISRAELI WEBSITE – (ASSAHA TEA BLOG, DECEMBER 20): The Indonesian government and the country’s largest Muslim organizations gave the cold shoulder Tuesday, December 19, to a Indonesian-language website launched by Israel. “It is one of Israel’s ways to boost its public diplomacy,” Dr.Desra Pecaya, Foreign Affairs spokesman, told IslamOnline.
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WHY DENY THE HOLOCAUST? - CAROLINE GLICK (REALCLEARPOLITICS, IL, DECEMBER 15): On the public diplomacy level, were Israel to take concerted action against Iran’s Holocaust denial program, it could destroy the program and so enact a positive change in the public discourse on Iran.
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CONFERENCE CIRCUIT – (JERUSALEM POST, DECEMBER 17): The two-day Herzliya Media Conference, opening December 17, will address the broader implications for how other democracies meet the challenges of public diplomacy.  It will discuss ways in which large parts of the Arab and Muslim world use the media as a “theater of war,” and examine the lessons to be learned from the role of both the Arab and the western media in the second Lebanon War for the Arab-Israeli, as well as larger conflicts. Also under discussion will be the role of cyberspace, and particularly the blogosphere, as a venue both for engaging the MSM, and for shaping a civic response to the challenge represented by Jihadi ambitions.  LINK

STOP BEING VERBAL VEGETARIANS! – LIZA (GOOD NEIGHBOURS BLOG, DECEMBER 18): “The one shining light in the conference, ‘The Media as a Theater of War, the Blogosphere, and the Global Battle for Civil Society’ was the session entitled “Cyberspace as a Media Revolution: Implications for Israeli Public Diplomacy”, which featured presentations given by a number of prominent local and foreign bloggers.”
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ISRAEL EMBARKS ON PR FACE-LIFT - ANJU S. BAWA (WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 5): Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with public relations executives, branding specialists and diplomats in September in Tel Aviv to brainstorm about improving the country’s image by using the marketing insights first developed to sell peanut butter and Pontiacs.
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ON HASBARA – STANDWITHUS (ISRAEL RELATED, DECEMBER 3): The term “hasbara” has often been used by many free-lance advocates of Israel. Meaning “explanation” in Hebrew, the term is not as commonly understood in Israel. Gideon Meir, an official at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, argues that the term “hasbara” is not useful. He suggests that the term (and the deed) should be replaced with “public diplomacy.”
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ISRAEL’S NEWEST PR WEAPON: THE INTERNET MEGAPHONE - STEVE LINDE (JERUSALEM POST, NOVEMBER 28): Israel has begun effectively using a new weapon in its public diplomacy arsenal to fight the media war on the Web - a locally-developed computer software tool called the “Internet Megaphone.” The Megaphonealerts activists about polls and articles about Israel on the Internet and enables them to express their support or opposition by e-mail.
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WE’RE AWARE OF ISRAEL’S PAIN, FRENCH OFFICIALS SAY, BUT MAY DOWN ITS PLANES – YNETNEWS (ISRAEL INSIDER, ISRAEL, NOVEMBER 24): French Ambassador to Israel Jean-Michel Casa: “Israel must keep using public diplomacy and show the world the situation on the ground.”
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FM LIVNI ADDRESSES GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED JEWISH COMMUNITIES - (PRESS RELEASE, ISRAEL MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, NOVEMBER 13): FM Livni:.” I have launched an initiative at the Foreign Ministry on branding Israel. …Let me be clear. This is not about advertising or spin. It is not a substitute for our public diplomacy. It is not an effort to ‘sell’ Israel but to reveal its true and diverse nature. We want every Israeli to identify with the resilience, spirituality, creativity, and vitality that is Israel. We are proud of the values and qualities that make us who we are and we want to be associated with them. We are proud of the values and qualities that make us who we are and we want to be associated with them.  We want the world to see what Warren Buffet saw when he purchased Iscar last spring: “Some Americans have come to the Middle East looking for oil,” he said. “We came to the Middle East looking for brains, and we stopped at Israel.”
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ISRAEL’S ‘BRAND’ IN THE WORLD - WHAT IT MEANS - LARRY WEINBERG (JERUSALEM POST, NOVEMBER 11): Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s admirable desire to close the gap between world perceptions of Israel and the reality of Israel is as legitimate a purpose as defense of the nation’s security measures or the pursuit of political justice. The branding process asks the world to know Israelis by the full scope of their society.
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A GAY OLD TIME - HOW ISRAEL PROPOSES TO IMPROVE ITS IMAGE - CAROLINE GLICK (JEWISH PRESS, NOVEMBER 8): PR firms together with the Foreign Ministry have decided the best way to change people’s perceptions of Israel is by showing the world how multicultural it is. To this end, they plan to move the emphasis of Israel’s public diplomacy from defending Israel in its bid to defend itself against its neighbors who seek its destruction to promoting Israel as a “fun” country. They will market Israel as a libertine country replete with beautiful beaches, beautiful women, wild nightlife and a large, dynamic and booming hi-tech economy. … Unfortunately the project is a massive waste of public funds. Worse than that, it exposes a deep conceptual confusion among those responsible for advancing Israel’s interests in the world regarding what their job is and why it is that they face the challenges they face.
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REPORTERS ON THE JOB: SUNDAY EVENING IN CHICAGO - AMIR MIZROCH, JERUSALEM POST (NOVEMBER 7): Consul General Barukh Binah and his deputy, Andy David, are responsible for Israel’s political and public diplomacy efforts in eleven states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, Binah says the next major focus of Israel’s PR battle will be in the US universities. LINK

DON’T MENTION THE WAR: ISRAEL SEEKS IMAGE MAKEOVER - DAN WILLIAMS (REUTERS, OCTOBER 26): Israel wants to create an alternative image abroad, focused exclusively on assets like tourist attractions and business innovations. In the words of one campaigner and ad executive, the aim would be to create “a narrative of normalcy.” Amir Gissin, public relations director at the Foreign Ministry, said that the image makeover was also about keeping Israel on the right side of the U.S.-led “war on terror.”
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BIKINIS ARE NOT ENOUGH: ISRAEL NEEDS SOPHISTICATED, EFFECTIVE PR EFFORT TO FIGHT HOSTILE WORLD OPINION - ZVI MAZEL (YNETNEWS, ISRAEL, OCTOBER 29): What Israel needs is direct dialogue with the Arab world. It also requires public relations that would contend with the Arab public relations effort that is consistently portraying Israel in a distorted light. Israel is in need of public relations vis-à-vis the media and Europe’s left wing that casts the blame for the continuation of the conflict on Israel.
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ISRAEL KICKS OFF BRANDING CAMPAIGN - (ISRAEL TODAY, OCTOBER 25): In past statements on the subject, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that “for a long time Israel has ignored this part of public diplomacy because of lack of resources and its about time to invest more in the battle for public image. The return we will get will be greater than anyone could imagine.”
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EHUD OLMERT STEPS UP ANTI-TEHERAN RHETORIC - HERB KEINON (JERUSALEM POST, OCTOBER 24): Over the last week, Israeli PM Olmert has moved sharply away from Israel’s public diplomacy policy of not making overheated comments about Teheran and stressing that a nuclear Iran is the world’s problem, not just Israel’s.
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LAS VEGAS JEWS ENLIST FOR PR DUTY: VEGAS JEWS TAKE INTEREST IN ISRAELI PUBLIC DIPLOMACY EFFORT - ITAMAR EICHNER (YETNEWS, OCTOBER 10): Gilad Millo, the Los Angeles Israeli Consul for Media and Public Affairs, spoke at the invitation of the city’s Jewish federation about, inter alia, Israeli public diplomacy efforts on campuses and various cultural issues.
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FROM VICTIM TO CRIMINAL: THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ISRAELI PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE WAR AGAINST THE IRAN-HEZBOLLAH AXIS OF TERROR - RAANAN GISSEN (PHILADELPHIA JEWISH VOICE, OCTOBER): Public diplomacy for any country, not just Israel , has gone global. While the conflict may be determined in local terms, such as Israel ‘s fight against Hezbollah, the ramifications of the action itself are global in nature. Therefore, public diplomacy must be geared toward the global scene. LINK

19. MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA ISRAEL, POLITICS: GLOBAL ROUNDUPS - HAITHAM SABBAH (GLOBAL VOICES ONLINE, SEPTEMBER 20): The number one most important priority for those who want to improve Israel’s defense and Israel’s public diplomacy/Israel’s image abroad has to be internal reforms.
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ITALIAN YOUTH HEAD NORTH - WENDY BLUMFIELD ( JERUSALEM POST, SEPTEMBER 7): Stuart Palmer of ICAN (Israeli Citizens Action Network) told a group of students from Italy about the importance of public diplomacy and the need to prepare themselves for their time at university. LINK

ISRAEL TO RE-BRAND ITSELF IN THE WORLD – (ISRAEL TODAY, ISRAEL, SEPTEMBER 12): Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi: “[F]or a long time Israel has ignored the part of public diplomacy because of lack of resources and it’s about time to invest more in the battle for public image. The return we will get will be greater than anyone could imagine.”
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ISRAEL REPORTEDLY PREPARED TO SWAP PRISONERS WITH LEBANON – (DIPLOMATIC TIMES REVIEW, AUGUST 31): Unlike previous wars against its Arab neighbors, the 34-day war with Hezbollah left Israel humiliated and defeated in the public diplomacy arena.
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LEBANESE AMBIVALENCE—A WEEK WITH FUAD SINIORA - JEFF WEINTRAUB (COMMENTARIES AND CONTROVERSIES BLOG, AUGUST 31): The Israelis usually are hopeless at public diplomacy and public relations in general.
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THE HEZBOLLAH-ISRAEL CONFLICT IN THE WORLD’S EYES - JADE MILLER (PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BLOG, USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, AUGUST 26): The 33-day military confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel and the subsequent cease-fire and aid operation has important public diplomacy implications not only for the two warring parties but for many other state and non-state actors.
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DIPLOMACY: THE FRENCH CONNECTION – HERB KEINON (JERUSALEM POST, AUGUST 24): The policy-makers who wrote Israel’s public diplomacy narrative during the first weeks of the second war in Lebanon avoided—in most of their public statements—pointing a clear accusatory finger at Teheran for the unbearable situation that was created in southern Lebanon.
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HEZBOLLAH’S AL-MANAR TV SURVIVED ATTACKS - ZEINA KARAM, ASSOCIATED PRESS (SFGATE.COM AUGUST 25): Throughout 34 days of ferocious fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the group’s Al-Manar TV stayed on the air—mocking Israeli military power from studios in secret bunkers. How is a mystery.
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VIEW FROM AMERICA: THE UNITED STATES PREFERS A WINNER – JONATHAN S. TOBIN (JERUSALEM POST, AUGUST 26): Will the idea of a “defeated” Israel diminish support in America? The reaction from the core supporters of the Jewish state—both Jewish and conservative Christian - is an emphatic “no.” That said, Israelis would do well never to put themselves in a position where they would have to find out what the foreign reaction to a real defeat at the hands of its enemies would be.
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TZIPI, YOU FAILED: WHILE THE WORLD WAS ARDUOUSLY BUYING NASRALLA’S LIES, YOU REMAINED IN YOUR OFFICE. ISRAEL WAS DEFEATED IN THE MEDIA WAR PRIMARILY BECAUSE OF YOU - ZVI MAZEL (YNETNEWS, ISRAEL, AUGUST 24): How unfortunate it is to discover that the Israel foreign ministry still doesn’t recognize the extent of the media’s importance; that it has yet to become acquainted with the arena of public diplomacy.
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PROBLEM OF MARKETING, NOT PR: ISRAEL IS 20 YEARS AHEAD OF HIZBULLAH IN MILITARY MIGHT, AND 10 YEARS BEHIND IN MARKETING - RA’ANAN GISSIN (ISRAEL AND PUBLIC RELATIONS, PRIMER, JULY 30): At the end of the day we must remember that Israel’s PR (note: there is no good English translation for the Hebrew word “hasbara") is uniquely Israeli, both due to its special position and due to the fact that many groups around the world don’t recognize the country’s right to exist.
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THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE’S SOLIDARITY MISSION TO ISRAEL ; JULY 17-20, 2006 - REPORT BY LARRY LOWENTHAL, AREA DIRECTOR OF THE NEW ENGLAND REGION (AJCSOLIDARITY2006.ORG, AUGUST 21): Gideon Meir, Deputy Director General for Public Information Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New Ambassador to Italy: “We have three major public relations campaigns going on at this time [including] a campaign to convince the Israeli government that public diplomacy is a crucial factor in our fight against Hezbollah
and Hamas.”
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ISRAELI DANCE CHOOSES LIFE - AHRON SHAPIRO (ISRAEL 21C, CA, AUGUST 6): John Rockwell, chief dance critic of the New York Times, lauded the strong support that the Israeli government has historically given to the arts and how it has served as a kind of cultural ‘diplomacy’. “[They have a] policy of presenting [the country] to the world as… not some sort of… outpost of people being bombed and rocketed upon all the time but an actual functioning civilization with real culture,” he said.
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THE LESSONS OF LEBANON - AMNON RUBINSTEIN, (JERUSALEM POST, AUGUST 19): The second Lebanon War in fact demonstrated Israel’s enormous dependence on the much-disparaged United Nations, as well as on world opinion—an arena we had virtually abandoned to Arab propagandists. This turnabout mandates a different kind of attitude toward public diplomacy by future Israeli governments. LINK
SEE ALSO
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OUR WORLD: THE OLMERT GOVERNMENT MUST GO - CAROLINE GLICK (JERUSALEM POST, AUGUST 14): Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Livni defended her decision not to engage in public diplomacy by claiming that this is not an important enough task for the foreign minister. It makes sense that this would be her view because as one who understands neither diplomacy nor English, she is incapable of conducting public diplomacy.
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HIZBALLAH USES MOSQUES AND CHURCHES AS SHIELDS – (ISRAEL TODAY, AUGUST 13): A document written by Christian Solidarity International (CSI) based in Washington … brings examples of Christian residents in the Ein Ibal village … who said how the Hizballah fired rockets from between houses of Christians and how after the firing they took shelter in nearby churches. … [Israel’s] Foreign Ministry has already begun using the document for public diplomacy efforts in front of Christian audiences.
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STUDENTS OF MASHAV PRAY FOR ISRAEL - (ISRAAID, ISRAEL, AUGUST 12): Many current and former students of the Foreign Ministry’s MASHAV (Israel’s Center for International Cooperation program) have been sending messages of solidarity and prayer since the beginning of the war, many of them expressing their desire to help Israel in its public diplomacy efforts around the world.
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HEZBOLLAH’S AL-MANAR: BROADCASTING FROM THE BUNKER: NEITHER BOMBS NOR COMPUTER HACKERS WORKING FOR THE ISRAELI ARMY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SILENCE AL-MANAR. THE TV CHANNEL BROADCASTS HEZBOLLAH PROPAGANDA FROM A SECRET LOCATION, AND EVERY MINUTE IT REMAINS ON THE AIR IS A TRIUMPH IN THE WAR OF IMAGES FOR HEZBOLLAH—AND A SETBACK FOR ISRAEL - MATTHIAS GEBAUER (SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL, AUGUST 10)
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DEATH BY DISPROPORTION - MARK STEYN (WASHINGTON TIMES, AUGUST 7): Right now, Israel’s best chance of any decent press would seem to be if Mel Gibson flies in and bawls out his waiter as a “[expletive] Jew.”
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ISRAEL FIGHTS PROPAGANDA WAR OVER PHONES - DONNA ABU-NASR (ASSOCIATED PRESS, AUGUST 8): Cell phones and land lines across Lebanon have been ringing with automated, recorded messages—part of a propaganda war being waged along with Israel’s assault on Lebanon.
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ISRAEL PR: THE IDF SPOX NEEDS MORE PROFESSIONALISM - JONATHAN ARIEL (ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY, AUGUST 7): Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will gather, for the first time, a forum of all government spokespersons to brief them on how to improve Israel’s public diplomacy efforts during the war.
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ANALYSIS: THE FINGERS OF BLAME - DAVID HOROVITZ (JERUSALEM POST, AUGUST 7): For Israel to prevail requires more astute use of the IDF, of diplomatic channels to ensure that the soldiers’ gains are not frittered away and of “public diplomacy” to maximize support and puncture misperception. Israel needs to improve, urgently, in all three areas.
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SHIMON PERES: THE SYRIAN THREAT DOES NOT BOTHER ME – (ISRAEL TODAY, AUGUST 2): Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres arrived to the United States on a public diplomacy mission on behalf of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
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WOOING LEBANESE HEARTS, ONE LEAFLET AT A TIME
ISRAEL IS USING LEAFLETS AND EVEN E-MAILS TO TRY TO TURN LEBANESE AGAINST HIZBULLAH, BUT EXPERTS DOUBT THAT IT WILL WORK - ILENE R. PRUSHER (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, AUGUST 2)
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IMAGE WAR RAGES IN MIDEAST: ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH VIE TO FRAME NARRATIVE, SHAPE PERCEPTIONS - KARBY LEGGETT (WALL STREET JOURNAL, AUGUST 3): For Arab and Israeli viewers alike, it is the first major war in which both sides’ every move has received nonstop coverage. Both sides at times have adapted their military tactics to maximize their propaganda effect.
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END THE OCCUPATION!: PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST? - SAUL LANDAU (COUNTERPUNCH, AUGUST 2): While US TV tends to elicit empathy with Israelis who have lost loved ones or homes, Arab TV portrays a heroic Hezbollah and its images bring forth sympathy for Palestinian and Lebanese victims of Israeli bombings.
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ISRAEL’S LOSE-LOSE PROPOSITION - JONAH GOLDBERG (Town Hall, AUGUST 3): The nigh-on global campaign is to depict Israelis as the heirs to Hitler. Of course, ad hitlerum argumentation is just the tip of the propaganda spear.
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GAME POINT: HIZBULLAH WINS SYMPATHY: ISRAEL’S RISKY BOMBING OF SUSPECTED HIZBULLAH LAUNCHING SITES KILLED CIVILIANS AND SWAYED PUBLIC OPINION - DANIEL SCHORR (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, AUGUST 4)
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‘APOLOGIZE, BUT KEEP UP PRESSURE’ - NACHMAN SHAI (IRIS BLOG, JULY 31): Israel needs to start a campaign of wide public diplomacy.
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INTERVIEW: STEINBERG: ISRAEL HOPING ATTACKS ON HEZBOLLAH SERVE AS WARNING TO IRAN – INTERVIEWER: BERNARD GWERTZMAN (INTERVIEW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, AUGUST 1): Q: Was the two-day pause in the bombing forced on Israel by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for political reasons? Gerald M. Steinberg, a U.S.-born, Israeli expert on military and diplomatic affairs: “…The first time that announcement came out, there was across-the-board criticism of it by many of the Israeli pundits and ex-generals. The initial announcement came from American sources. ‘Why are the Americans telling us this? Why doesn’t it come from Israel?’ … that was a screwup in terms of the way it was handled. As soon as it was clear this was not a cease-fire and Hezbollah has not won the war, then it was something Israelis understood as part of the public diplomacy where we have been losing.”
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NOT IN MY NAME - NOUR ODEH (MEDIA MONITORS NETWORK, JULY 31): To top off [a] shameless Israeli public diplomacy campaign, Ms. Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, states repeatedly, without the slightest embarrassment, that her country’s assault on Lebanon is meant to “help” the Lebanese government exercise its sovereignty and implement Security Council resolution 1559.
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ISRAEL BACKED BY ARMY OF CYBER-SOLDIERS – YONIT FARAGO (TIMES, U.K., JULY 28): Amir Gissir, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s public relations director that “[t]he internet’s become a leading tool for news, shaping the world view of millions.  Our problem is the foreign media shows Lebanese suffering, but not Israeli. We’re bypassing that filter by distributing pictures showing how northern Israelis suffer from Katyusha rocket attacks.”
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DALIA ITZIK ANNOUNCES INT’L PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BLITZ - ISRAEL TODAY (JULY 30): Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, decided, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on a “Public Diplomacy Blitz” of Knesset members to different international capitals.
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THE MIDEAST PR WAR: NEWS ON A PLATTER—PROPAGANDA IS PART OF EVERY WAR, JUST LIKE BOMBS AND SOLDIERS. STILL, IT’S REMARKABLE HOW PROFESSIONALLY ISRAEL DEALS WITH FOREIGN JOURNALISTS, CATERING CONSCIENTIOUSLY TO ALL THEIR NEEDS. LUNCH INCLUDED - MATTHIAS GEBAUER (SPIEGEL, JULY 28): Israel’s support and supervision of foreign journalists seems downright excessive.
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THE VOCABULARY OF UNTRUTH: WORDS TAKE ON NEW MEANINGS AS ISRAEL STRUGGLES TO SURVIVE - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON (NATIONAL REVIEW, JULY 28): The world deplores the Jewish state because it is strong, and can strike back rather than suffer.
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DAYS OF DARKNESS - GIDEON LEVY (HAARETZ, JULY 30): The devastation Israel is sowing in Lebanon doesn’t touch anyone here and most of it is not even shown to Israelis. Those who want to know what Tyre looks like now have to turn to foreign channels.
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THE LIES ISRAEL TELLS ITSELF (AND WE TELL ON ITS BEHALF) - JONATHAN COOK (ANTIWAR.COM, JULY 29): You can sit watching the main Israeli channels all day, flicking between channels 1, 2, and 10, and not see a Lebanese face, apart from that of Hassan Nasrallah, the new Hitler.
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DANCING THE HASBARA - NATHAN GUTTMAN (MOMENT MAGAZINE,JULY 27): It might just be one of the most popular euphemisms in today’s Jewish-American English. Hasbara (haz-ba-rah), Hebrew for “to explain,” has become the Jewish-English term of choice to describe any good that a Jewish-American does for Israel in the public arena—from penning a letter in defense of Israel to hosting a synagogue event with an Israeli speaker. It is all hasbara—helping people understand Israel better. In other words, it’s pro-Israeli propaganda.  Hasbara (haz-ba-rah), “I don’t like the term hasbara, there is something apologetic to it,” says Gideon Meir, the deputy director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry for Media and Public Affairs. “I believe the case for Israel is so strong that we don’t need hasbara, we don’t need to do any explaining.” He would like to see the term replaced with “public diplomacy”-- the term used by the United States Department of State.
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HOW JEWS CAN LIE ABROAD FOR ISRAEL – (JEWS SANS FRONTIERES BLOG, JULY 26): This is terrible, ok, terribly funny in parts. It’s that zionist hasbara* thingy again. The reference is to the article, “every Jew is an Ambassador for Israel” by Rabbi Aron Moss (Arutz Sheva, July 25) LINK

AIR BATTLE: LEBANESE NEWS NETWORK DRAWS FIRE AS ARM OF MILITANT GROUP; AFTER BOMBING, AL-MANAR TV KEEPS ON BROADCASTING; SIGN OF HEZBOLLAH RESOLVE; TREASURY BANS U.S. ADVERTISING - JAY SOLOMON AND MARIAM FAM (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JULY 28): The channel has a unique mix of front-line war reporting and overt anti-Israel and anti-U.S. propaganda.
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PAID SUBSCRIPTION

RA’ANAN GISSIN: IT’S IRAN, STUPID - HERB KEINON (JERUSALEM POST, JULY 21): Ra’anan Gissin, former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s recently sidelined … spokesman … said Israel needed to go on a public-diplomacy counteroffensive to show that a weakened Hizbullah was not only good for Israel and Lebanon, but for the entire world.
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SEE ALSO
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ISRAEL MISREPRESENTED CLAIMS AMBASSADOR - (HARROW TIMES, UK, JULY 20): Gideon Meir, the newly appointed Israeli ambassador to Italy, in a speech on his country’s public diplomacy at Stanmore Synagogue in London Road just before the conflict between Israel and Lebanon broke out, was keen to impress upon his audience the fact that his homeland was presented unfairly in the press.
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HIZBOLLAH COLLAPSES HAIFA BUILDING - (AM ECHAD BLOG, JULY 17): “Katusha (or another missile) hits a Haifa building which collapses. ... Hizbollah terrorist scum. Why doesn’t Europe get this? (Though, of course, the criticism against Israel is muted but her Public Diplomacy still could use some improvement).”
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U.S. WARNS ISRAEL NOT TO HARM ABBAS OR PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS – ALUF BENN (HAARETZ, JULY 2): Israel’s “public diplomacy” efforts, aimed at getting the Western media to support the IDF (Israel Defense Force) operations, have borne fruit. The American newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post have published editorials that placed responsibility for the crisis on Hamas.
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OLMERT SEEN NOT SEEKING AID: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NOT EXPECTED TO PRESS BUSH FOR WEST BANK WITHDRAWAL FUNDS YET - JAMES D. BESSER (JEWISH WEEK, MAY 19): In a letter the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace argued that the United States should do everything possible to strengthen the standing of President Abbas and Palestinian moderates internationally and with the Palestinian people. That includes both public diplomacy and back-channel discussions, the group said.
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DIPLOMAT EXPLAINS ISRAEL’S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY - ECCENTRIC STAR (MAY 5)
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MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - BY ROB ESHMAN (JEWISH JOURNAL, MAY 5): Gideon Meir, deputy director general for media and public affairs in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “Israel, with a budget of $52 billion, is spending $8.5 million dollars on public diplomacy, on PR. In Yiddish, we call that bupkis.” Many Israeli leaders have clung too much to the opinion famously voiced by the late Prime Minister David Ben Gurion: “What matters is not what the gentiles will say, but what the Jews will do.”
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U.S. ADOPTS ISRAELI PR TACTICS: AMERICA TO MAKE USE OF ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCE IN DEALING WITH ARAB MEDIA IN BID TO BOOST IMAGE - ITAMAR EICHNER (YNETNEWS, APRIL 30): The American State Department has decided to learn from Israeli public relations experience and is setting up an Arab media department based on the model introduced by the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
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TURKEY SEEKS ISRAELI PR ADVICE: TURKISH OFFICIALS WANT TO LEARN FROM ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCE IN EFFORT TO PRESENT IMAGE AS A MODERN, WESTERN STATE - ITAMAR EICHNER (YNETNEWS, ISRAEL, FEBRUARY 22): Gideon Meir, Deputy Director General of the Israel Foreign Ministry for Information, participated in a conference on the subject under the banner “Public Diplomacy” in Ankara, following an invitation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. LINK

ISRAEL’S MEDIA PROBLEM - HILLEL HALKIN (COMMENTARY, FEBRUARY): [M]edia bias against Israel has been enormous. …[T]he despairing attitude that, since the world will always be against Israel anyway, there is no point in trying to argue with it—such things have combined to make Israel’s hasbara (a Hebrew word meaning literally “explaining,” but taking in all aspects of public relations) ineffective. … If the truth is, generally speaking, on Israel’s side, it may not be so in every case, and the temptation to tailor it when it is not, which hasbara has not been free of, is the temptation to resort to propaganda. And in a war of Jewish propaganda versus Arab propaganda—or, if one prefers, of Jewish versus Arab narratives—the Arabs will always win. They are simply much better at it.
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ISRAELI CONSULATE MAKES STATE ECONOMIC TIES - BILL O’BRIEN (EDMOND SUN, MARCH 21): Paul Rockower, who served as the Press Officer for the Consulate General of Israel in Houston to the Southwest from July 2003 until February of this year, spent a considerable amount of time engaging in what he describes as “media and public diplomacy outreach” that consisted of assisting in the preparation of speeches and columns that were written by the diplomats in the office to explain Israel’s position on issues involving the Middle East.
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ADDRESS BY RON PROSOR, DIRECTOR GENERAL, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE HERZLIYA CONFERENCE, “ISRAELI DIPLOMACY IN A CHANGING WORLD: FROM A DEFENSIVE TO A PROACTIVE STANCE” PRESS RELEASE (ISRAEL MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, JANUARY 22): Our public diplomacy has changed direction, and we are emphasizing these aspects of Israel at the expense of anachronistic propaganda campaigns that drove investments, trade, and tourism away. We are currently in the throes of a campaign, in partnership with leading advertising agencies in Israel and abroad, to rebrand the State of Israel.
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FROM VICTIM TO CRIMINAL: THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ISRAELI PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE WAR AGAINST THE IRAN-HEZBOLLAH AXIS OF TERROR - RAANAN GISSEN (PHILADELPHIA JEWISH VOICE, OCTOBER): Public diplomacy must be geared toward the global scene.
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NEXT YEAR, WE NEED TO STOP ‘WINGING IT’ - DAVID HOROVITZ, (JERUSALEM POST, SEPTEMBER 22): “even though I knew there wasn’t much of a public diplomacy operation at the Prime Minister’s Office, new spokeswoman Miri Eisin detailed the pitiful paucity of resources there.”
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MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA ISRAEL, POLITICS: GLOBAL ROUNDUPS - HAITHAM SABBAH (GLOBAL VOICES ONLINE, SEPTEMBER 20): The number one most important priority for those who want to improve Israel’s defense and Israel’s public diplomacy/Israel’s image abroad has to be internal reforms. LINK

ISRAELI FLAG FOUND IN WORLD TRADE CENTER RUINS – ISRAEL TODAY (JULY 30): New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered to repair and frame the flag in a glass casing. The historic flag will be presented to Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres who is on a public diplomacy mission on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
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IRAN WINNING PUBLIC RELATIONS WAR WITH WASHINGTON: THANKS TO THREE NOTABLE PR COUPS IN RECENT WEEKS, THE REGIME IN TEHRAN IS COMING OUT ON TOP IN THE BATTLE FOR IDEAS WITH THE US - SIMON TISDALL (OBSERVER, MAY 23): While the US frets over tactics and ponders its next move, Iran has been busily exploiting its advantage. During his Indonesian visit, Iranian leader Ahmadinejad was greeted as a sort of modern-day Muslim hero and cheered by admiring crowds. This bodes ill for the U.S. and Western public diplomacy efforts in the Islamic sphere.
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IRANIAN LEADER SHOWS WEST THE WAY IN INDONESIA - SHAWN DONNAN (FINANCIAL TIMES, MAY 16): Indonesia is increasingly seen by policymakers in London and Washington as an important conduit into the moderate Muslim world, where the US and allies might begin a post-Iraq campaign to win back hearts and minds. Funding for the Indonesian-language services of media groups such as Voice of America and the BBC World Service have increased substantially and other forms of public diplomacy are in vogue. The most significant announcement during a recent visit to Jakarta by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, was funding for an Indonesian edition of Sesame Street, the children’s television show.
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IRAN’S LEADERS CONTINUE TOURISM-AS-PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PUSH – JOHN Q TOURIST (PUBLIC DIPLOMACY WATCH, NOVEMBER 7)
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IRAN SEES PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BENEFIT IN BROADER TOURISM TIES WITH CHINA – JOHN Q TOURIST (PUBLIC DIPLOMACY WATCH, OCTOBER 18)
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IRAN SYMPHONY CONDUCTOR FACES CHALLENGES - DAVID MCHUGH, ASSOCIATED PRESS (SFGATE.COM, AUGUST 21): The Tehran Symphony Orchestra won a standing ovation from 1,400 listeners at the Orient Festival in Osnabrueck, Germany as they launched a weeklong visit that has been embraced by the German and Iranian governments as an exercise in cultural diplomacy. The orchestra is funded by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, although the musicians have been earning as little as the equivalent of $100 per month. Iranian officials say the orchestra demonstrates their country’s commitment to culture and tolerance. LINK

IRAN PUTS ITS FOREIGN POLICY UNDER SCRUTINY - KAVEH L AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES, OCTOBER 28): The College of International Relations, which has an active curriculum for Iran’s diplomats, is being considered for closure by the president. This is a negative development, in light of the significant contributions of the college in turning out a cadre of graduates well versed in international relations and global and public diplomacy.
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THE STORY ON IRAN: SUSPECTING THE AMERICAN MEDIA AREN’T PORTRAYING AN ACCURATE PICTURE OF LIFE INSIDE IRAN, A RETIRED HONOLULU JOURNALIST SET OUT TO GET A FIRST-HAND LOOK AT LIFE IN THE SO-CALLED “AXIS OF EVIL” NATION - WEBSTER NOLAN (HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN, HI, SEPTEMBER 17): The Iranian president, like the U.S. president, needs to acquire some skills in public diplomacy.
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ENVOY CALLS FOR EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCES WITH INDONESIA - (IRNA, OCTOBER 4): Iran’s Ambassador to Indonesia Behrouz Kamalvandi in Jakarta on Tuesday called for exchange of experiences and information with Indonesia particularly in the field of public diplomacy.
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TURKEY NEEDS TO ACT ON A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY NOW - SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU (TURKISH DAILY NEWS, NOVEMBER 16): There is a need to establish a Turkish Republic Information Service as well as the need to make use of good public diplomacy practices. LINK

CACOPHONY OF INTOLERANTS - ALI H. ASLAN (ZAMAN, TURKEY, OCTOBER 9): One of the biggest obstacles facing reasonable groups that want to reconstruct Turkish-American relations is partisanship often fueled by the media. Is it possible to create a coherent public diplomacy in foreign policy and protect Turkey’s interests, with such an irresponsible understanding of journalism?
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WHERE DO WE STAND? - YUSUF KANLI (TURKISH DAILY NEWS, JULY 21): Turkey definitely needs to learn how to conduct public diplomacy.
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US AND TURKEY AGREE ON ‘COMMON VISION’ - A. HALIT ASLAN (JOURNAL OF TURKISH WEEKLY, TURKEY, JULY 3): A document that promotes a joint vision and structured dialogue to improve Turkish-American relations and strategic partnership lists public diplomacy as an issue that calls for “special emphasis” in the negotiations between the two countries.
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TURKEY’S IMAGE PROBLEM - TULIN DALOGLU (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 14): Under Secretary Hughes is working to counter anti-U.S. propaganda in the Muslim world. She included Turkey in her first foreign travel and heard plenty from critics of the war in Iraq. “Valley of the Wolves” screenwriter Bahadir Ozdener insists that he is also trying to make an antiwar statement, not an anti-American or anti-Semitic one, with his movie, which according to Rep. Dave Weldon “depicts American GIs murdering people at a wedding. And it’s very anti-Semitic also; it has some gruesome visuals of Jews mistreating Muslims.”
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TURKISH DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE TAKES OFF - SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU (TURKISH DAILY NEWS, FEBRUARY 28): “For years I have been arguing for Turkey’s foreign policy establishment to engage development assistance, think tanks, NGOs and public diplomacy to help its core work to be done better. “
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ANTI-AMERICAN TRASH - JIM GERAGHTY (NEW YORK SUN, FEBRUARY 8): Usual knee-jerk Bush opponents are claiming that “Valley of the Wolves Iraq”—a movie (currently being shown in Turkey) that is a bouillabaisse of conspiracy theories about the American military doing nefarious deeds to Turks and Iraqis—represents a failure of Karen Hughes’s nascent public diplomacy program.
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‘PUBLIC DIPLOMACY’ TO PRESENT TURKEY - SULEYMAN KURT (ZAMAN.COM, FEBRUARY 5): Turkey is to launch a number of projects to represent itself to the world because the government wants to improve the image of the country that was created after the European Union gave its consent to begin negotiations and after the conciliatory policies that Turkey followed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.  The Foreign Ministry officials have been working on a program, called public diplomacy, which will be giving a deeper analysis of Turkish projects to other countries. A symposium is set to take place tomorrow (Monday) in Ankara to share its experiences with the Netherlands, the United States, Canada and Israel.
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IT IS IN EVERYONE’S INTEREST FOR EU WORK TO GO SMOOTHLY - CENGIZ AKTAR (TURKISH DAILY NEWS, DECEMBER 30): Regarding the irrational stance of some EU governments and public opinion, these will be overcome by the self-confidence of a hard-working Turkey in addition to long-term communication and a public diplomacy strategy towards Europe.
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WE NEED A ‘TURKISH REPUBLIC INFORMATION SERVICE’ - SUAT KINIKLIOÄžLU (TURKISH DAILY NEWS, DECEMBER 6): Public diplomacy has become a significant aspect in terms of the execution of a country’s foreign policy. There is no doubt that the reason for the centrality of public diplomacy stems from the changing character of the foreign policy field as well as the growing significance of information technologies. Central to public diplomacy is the transnational flow of information and ideas. Turkey is in dire need of doing just that.
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THE OTHER IRAQ – (MOUNTAINRUNNER BLOG: PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, UNRESTRICTED WARFARE, PRIVATIZATION OF FORCE, AND CIVIL-MILITARY RELATION, NOVEMBER 22): Example of Kurdish public diplomacy or information operations, depending on what chair you’re sitting in. Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan. It’s the other Iraq. Check it out: LINK
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THANK YOU, AMERICA - TOM ENGELHARDT (NATION, SEPTEMBER 20): Kurdistan Development Corporation is the “official investment site” LINK for Kurdistan, The Other Iraq. So the semi-autonomous government of Kurdistan has put up money to thank the Bush administration in its time of need. But this “thank you” campaign is being run by an “A-list” Republican PR firm, Russo, Marsh, and Rogers. Now, the Pentagon is plugging “the Other Iraq” by sending out glowing press releases about its latest trade fair, as is the Voice of America. Is the Bush administration, in essence, using our money to thank itself?
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[KUWAIT’S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE UNITED STATES ] - TAHANI AL-TERKATE, MEDIA ATTACHÉ, INFORMATION OFFICE, EMBASSY OF THE STATE OF KUWAIT, WASHINGTON, D.C., (CONFERENCE, “PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON,” MERSHON CENTER, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, APRIL 28)
Washington, D. C. (Mershon Center, Ohio State University, April 28)
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SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

MISS GHANA: A BEAUTY MYTH? – (PUBLIC AGENDA, GHANA, JULY 28): Miss Ghana on the world stage must be sponsored by the government as part of Ghana’s public diplomacy efforts at branding the country and not by some brand-thirsty companies scavenging for life that is sponsor-worthy.
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BRAND GHANA: A GOLDEN EXPERIENCE? PART VI - JEAN YAW TWUM LUKAZ (PUBLIC AGENDA, GHANA, JULY 7). This article notes, inter alia, that “America had a rude awakening post-9/11 when they realized that they were hated by the Muslim world. This resulted from a lack of prioritizing public diplomacy.”
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BRAND GHANA: A GOLDEN EXPERIENCE? PART V - JEAN Y.T. LUKAZ (PUBLIC AGENDA, GHANA, JUNE 26): Public Diplomacy refers to government-sponsored programs intended to inform or influence public opinion in other countries. …Public diplomacy is at work most of the time when a national, product or service of Ghana, for example, manifests abroad sponsored by the Government of Ghana.” LINK

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