Spread the news – in English

EDGAR ASHER ISRANET

In the 21st century, there are many theatres of war. Wars have changed in scale and concept. No longer do the opposing sides put aside their bows and arrows, halberds and slings because Sunday is a day of rest. Today, there are no rest days – and the weapons being used are far more subtle and deadly.

Israel is involved in such a 24/7 war, except the rules are being laid down by her adversaries. What has happened to this nation? Why is it that in such a nation of intellectual greatness, we cannot find leaders who inspire and put Israel back on the international map?

Israel's political system is ideally suited to preserving the most inept and corrupt politicians on both national and local levels. There are, of course, checks and balances provided by respected ombudsmen who are able, for a short time each year, to shock the public by publicizing the shortcomings of government and local authority departments. In general, not very much is accomplished by these revelations, and the politicians carry on as if nothing happened. Even politicians who have shown themselves clearly not to be up to the job manage to hold their Knesset seats.

Since the foundation of the state almost 60 years ago, Israel has been at war. It is not just a war of bullets, but also a war for hearts and minds. Despite the fact that, today, public pronouncements by leaders such as American President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown unequivocally point the finger of blame for international terrorism on Islamic fundamentalism, there always seems to be a double standard when dealing with Israel. The inhumanity of many Islamic states to their own people is overlooked, for fear of upsetting their dictatorial leaders. Only last week, it was reported that Egyptian soldiers caught a group of Sudanese refugees trying to get across the international border into Israel. Two of the refugees were shot dead by Egyptian soldiers and two others were beaten to death with stones and clubs. All this, it appears, was recorded by the Israel Defence Forces. An Israeli television channel said that they preferred not to show the tapes, as it might cause a diplomatic row with Egypt.

The war for hearts and minds is being fought electronically and the rest of the world has long recognized that if you want to get your message across, it has to be in English. Even the French, who regard their language as the world's most precious and sacrosanct, succumbed, and introduced a very slick and informative English news channel, France 24 News.

Yet Israel's answer to all this is an English news radio broadcast three times a day for a total of 45 minutes. The morning broadcast in Israel is at 6:30, when most people are barely awake. On TV, English news has a nine-minute slot at 4:50 p.m. As Hebrew, for all practical intents and purposes, is not spoken or understood outside Israel, any message that the government wants to give to a predominantly English-orientated world is completely lost. Such is the Walter Mitty-like world of Israeli government propaganda that there was serious talk of dropping almost all news and features in English. Only a stand by journalists working for the station and letters to the media based in Israel caused the proposal to be dropped, although the airtime was cut back and English-speaking staff further reduced.

The importance of getting the message across has not been lost on the Islamic states. In November 2006, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network launched a 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel. It is the first English-language news channel with its headquarters in the Middle East, with a potential audience of more than a billion people who have English as either a first language or sufficient understanding to benefit from its broadcasts on TV and the Internet. Al Jazeera is now the third largest global English language channel in the world, after the BBC and CNN. It's sobering to think that the three biggest news channels in the world have a built-in negative bias towards Israel.

Press TV is the latest 24-hour news channel to become available to the world. The Teheran-based network has just set up news bureaus in London and other strategic centres. It explains that its goals are broad news coverage "specially focusing on the Middle East.... Press TV's goal is to present a deeper analysis of current affairs, aiming to show the other side of the story." Their vision is "to break the global media stranglehold of western outlets ... to highlight the versatility of political and cultural differences making up the human condition." Press TV, which comes across loud and clear on the Internet, wants to hear from any of its viewers around the world – except one. On a standard pull-down list of every country in the world, Israel is missing, replaced with Palestine.

This, then, is the dilemma in which Israel finds itself. With a few notable exceptions, the airwaves are full of anti-Israel propaganda every minute of the day, every day of the week. The only way to combat this phenomenon is for Israel to set up a global, attractive English news and feature network that will try to refute the imbalance, misconceptions and lies being broadcast about the Jewish state.

This project must go ahead without delay. The war of the hearts and minds can only be won on the airwaves and the Internet. The Islamic states understand this only too well – as do the French. Where is the voice of Israel?

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