Israeli PR lessons are lost on Arab regimes
Rime Allaf, July 20, 2002
A meeting of Arab information ministers.
Most people would forgo principles for profitability, and Ted Turner is no exception. For all his philanthropy, the founder of CNN knows when he’s gone too far and has to retract. When he ventured to The Guardian recently that Israelis and Palestinians were both terrorizing each other, CNN’s Israeli cable broadcaster threatened to terminate its transmission and brought in arch-rival Fox to teach Turner a lesson, even after he apologized profusely.
This was the excuse Israel had been waiting for, frustrated and surprisingly surprised by the considerable media hype around the situation in the Occupied Territories and the phenomenon of suicide bombers. More baffling still for Israel is the growing number of people who, while condemning suicide bombings, are nonetheless coyly beginning to find they have some connection with Israel’s behavior, or at the very least to find that like with everything else, there is cause and effect: terror, yes, but why?
CNN has been accused by both Arabs and Israelis of favoring the adversary and until now seemed to please no one - not that it cares much about what Arabs say, nor would its profitability be affected by veiled threats. For such networks, only Israeli reactions matter (not only because of the balance sheet) and Turner should have known his comments would have huge repercussions and that he would end up apologizing.
CNN was already facing Israel’s wrath after having given more air time (mere minutes) to the family of a suicide bomber than to that of his victims. One day after Turner’s gaffe, CNN’s Chief News Executive Eason Jordan demonstrated political and business acumen by issuing a memo stating that “CNN henceforth will not televise or report on the statements of suicide bombers and their families unless there seemingly is an extraordinary compelling reason to do so,” thus proving that application of America’s first amendment often comes to a screeching halt when lucrative deals are endangered. As an added precaution, Jordan then traveled to Israel for a formal reconciliation, promising (and promptly delivering) a massive campaign on victims of suicide bombings.
The Israeli government was naturally outraged by the Turner affair, and Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin (for whom CNN is “evil, biased and unbalanced”) said that if Turner had been in Israel, “I would have made a move to have him declared a persona non grata here.”
The self-styled “only democracy in the region” thus revealed once again the many limitations it imposes on freedom, not least of which on freedom of speech. If it weren’t for Israel’s infringements on the foundations of democracy in other areas, one might think it had suddenly been inspired by similar limitations in Arab countries, most of which do not even make a pretense of allowing this basic human right.
Most Arab regimes certainly know how to control their own citizens, and how to encourage obedience in word and in deed. As many Arab objectors of conscience, writers, academics and even lawmakers have learned to their own detriment, they are only free to condemn other countries’ constitutional violations of human rights, never their own. Most regimes do not even bother to conceal these restraints, coming up every year with ever stricter laws about what constitutes a punishable offense. On home turf, the notion of “the cause” applies chiefly to the Palestinian one, and it is only in the context of Israel and America that Arab citizens can complain about injustice.
Arab regimes seem to understand the importance of media and the power of public relations, knowing how the Israelis have used both expertly to market their version of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the international scene. After decades of vain protest, they suddenly decided during an “emergency meeting“ in August 2001 to launch an international media campaign. Nearly a year later, and ten months after Sept. 11, they are still squabbling about it, and the relative peanuts needed for this campaign have yet to make their way into the project’s kitty.
At long last, Arab Information Ministers in June pledged $22 million (or roughly $1 million per Arab country) to put forward their side of the story, attempt to repair pro-Israeli bias, and tackle charges of terrorism. While it is hopefully not yet too little, too late, this amount is but a drop in the ocean for such a loaded (but hazy) agenda when compared to the massive amounts Israel spends on communication, or, closer to home, the massive amounts some Arab states spend on reining in internal criticism.
Until now, the so-called Arab information strategy has been the media equivalent of stones facing bulldozers, or sling-shots tackling F16s. Moreover, it has so far mostly preached to the choir and used a language and style alien to those who most need to be reached, completely missing the vast target audience of the electorate of Israel’s supporters, and thus incapable of achieving any impact. If the new campaign is designed and formulated around the usual rhetoric, the Lilliputian sums Arab governments are reluctantly parting with had better remain in respective state funds, for nothing kills a bad product like good advertising.
While this long-awaited unity in the face of Israeli propaganda is still welcome, there is another persevering, lamentable unity that never fails to surface, and that is Arab regimes’ united aversion for criticism, even when the latter comes from Israel and is ignored and scorned by Arab people. Instead of allowing pro-Israeli propaganda to be aired and exposed for what it is, Arab ministers spent two days in Cairo’s Arab League headquarters not only to outline the objectives of their media campaign, but also to advocate the boycott of Israeli officials on Arab media.
Rightly or wrongly, few Arabs would be willing to openly endorse the right of Israel’s backers to voice their opinion, but that is not the point. With this new proscription, Arab governments are either implying that their populations are so stupid that they can be mesmerized and effortlessly swayed by the pro-Israeli point of view, or they are implying that it may eventually be valid in some cases; both of these propositions are absurd, and both are insulting. Even if this directive hopes to curtail criticism of the Arab regimes, it is just as ridiculous because Arabs are not waiting for Israelis to tell them the truth about their own governments.
Activists have for years promoted the concept of at least allowing equal airtime and column space in Western media for proponents of both sides, knowing that the Arab perspective was completely failing to be heard where it counted. By simultaneously launching an international campaign (if and when it finally takes off) and censoring the adversary (a much easier endeavor), Arab regimes are inviting criticism with open arms.
This obsession with control, and ultimately mass censorship of any opposing argument, cannot be sustained in this modern age. Arab regimes probably wish they could try to constrain CNN, just as Israel contemplated it only to have CNN all too willingly impose pre-emptive self-restraint. This travesty did not even induce a tremor anywhere, a fact that must have Arab regimes seething with envy. Since CNN reaches most Arab homes through satellite, like the new Arab-language channel which Israel launched on June 25, governments will have a hard time limiting exposure to both these and other channels, short of physically removing every satellite dish from the rooftops of their cities. Therefore, why they are even bothering to censor Israelis from Arab media is baffling.
Those who understand English are anyway not dependent on Arab media to be informed, but even they need broader exposure. If anything, Arab regimes should encourage their people to watch Israelis and read their statements, so they are better prepared in their refutations of Israel’s propaganda on the Arab-Israeli conflict. If anything, Arab regimes should allow their internet surfers access to pro-Israeli websites, so that they can learn how they communicate and master the same tools. With the type of censorship exercised so far, governments are depriving their people of an important weapon: knowledge of the adversary’s language.
It is high time Arab regimes outgrew this ineffective and completely pointless firewall policy that serves no purpose other than trying (and inevitably failing) to keep their own people in the dark, when it is far more dangerous to be oblivious to Israel’s propaganda.
