Israeli Ambassador: 'in Britain the good is getting better and the bad is getting worse'

In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post’s weekend Hebrew-language newspaper, Israel’s Ambassador to the UK Daniel Taub discussed efforts being taken by the country’s London-based diplomats to resist Palestine solidarity efforts including BDS, and improve Israel’s image.

The paper notes that, with boycotts “on a daily basis”, the Ambassador to the UK is “one of the most important positions in Israeli hasbara”. For his part, Taub is keen to portray things as “better than what they seem to be”, citing PM David Cameron’s recent trip to Israel accompanied by a business delegation.

However, the senior diplomat also admits he is “well aware of the fact that in Britain the good is getting better and the bad is getting worse”.

There is no doubt that we are facing an attempt to delegitimize Israel. It is happening in academia, trade labour unions, NGOs and parts of the church.

According to Taub, Israel’s diplomats “spend a considerable time in media bureaus even without being on the news, just to deepen our contacts with senior journalists”. In most cases, Taub claims, “it’s easy for us to get Israel into supplements as a superpower of culture, leisure, fashion and technology” – further evidence of the ‘rebranding’ hasbara strategy.

Other battlefields are mentioned by Taub, who says that over the last two years, “representatives of the embassy have visited around one hundred universities”. The embassy has also “opened a course for young Christians who support Israel and would like to know how to defend us and explain that we are by no means an apartheid state”. Taub affirms that a key hasbara message is “how complicated the situation in the Middle East is”.

Interestingly, Taub also published an op-ed in The Jewish Chronicle last week in which he wrote that “it is no longer enough to win the hearts and minds of officials behind closed doors”, since “campaigns against Israel now begin and are empowered by individuals, on college campuses and social media”.

There is some truth in this – but as Taub told the Israeli paper, this is the very grassroots level where ‘delegitimization’ is taking place and Israeli hasbara is at its weakest. Securing a glossy photo-essay in a weekend supplement is one thing – persuading human rights campaigners that segregation and war crimes are ‘complicated’ is quite another.

With translation by Ofer Neiman

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.