Hasbarah Is Not Just An Israeli Problem

We all tend to criticize Israel for its lack of effective Hasbarah. Either there is not enough material or what does exist is badly written; the people who are supposed to best represent Israel often don't get the job done. Remember when the appointment of the Israeli ambassador to Great Britain in January 2004 was made, and the choice was criticized because he did not know English?

Well, apparently, poor hasbarah, is not an exclusively Israeli problem.

Mudville Gazette recently received an email from CENTCOM Public Affairs about something new that is available through their web site called "Nature of the Enemy", and it presented information gleaned from open-source material available on the Internet. It is accessible here.

His opinion of this one page PDF:

This, my friends, is another of the many reasons why we're losing the information war. One of the most ironic aspects of it is that this is the same DoD that was recently chastised for attempting to plant stories in the Iraqi media to influence public opinion.

Information war, hasbarah--either way, this is something that is not an Israel problem; it is a problem for the US as well.

Why are Israel and the US not up to the Information War?

1. They are not clear on the fact that the Information War is a war.
2. They don't have the passion or the respect for their own culture
3. It is not just an question of information, but the way it is presented--and repeated.
4. They are both too invested in the idea of being civilized democracies and don't want to offend, nor deprive others of their 'right' to express their own contrary progaganda.

Civilizations did not get to be that way by being that civilized.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hasbarah and US.