Imagine a CEO eliminating his company's advertising budget because good products don't need advertising and bad products won't be helped. I recently asked David Olesker, who teaches Jewish student groups techniques of effective advocacy, why the Palestinians do so much better presenting their case. Nothing comparable exists on the Israeli side. Indeed, less than two months into the current intifada, Israel closed its Jerusalem press center and stopped its daily English press briefings. The Government Press Office found itself without a director, and when a staffer took leave there was no one to e-mail information to journalists.
Official apathy is just one of the obstacles to effective advocacy.
With the onset of the Oslo process, Israel became the leading international lobbyist for Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Shimon Peres's vision of a New Middle East posits that the stronger the Palestinian economy, the more likely an enduring peace. To that end, Israel pushed the Americans and Europeans to be extremely forthcoming to the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, Israel downplayed all evidence of PA non-compliance with the Oslo Accords and withheld information that might have undercut the picture of an Arafat deeply committed to peaceful coexistence. Indeed, whitewashing Arafat had long been part of Peres's strategy.