09 June 2009: Haaretz
By Nurit Gertz
Judging by Tuesday's Knesset Foreign Relations Committee meeting, we have reason to be concerned.
The foreign minister opened the meeting with a description of the global threats facing us: "The international community today is characterized by ... a number of [conflict] points from North Korea to Somalia, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and of course the Palestinian issue in between."
After this introduction, the head of the ministry's political planning section, Eran Etzion, presented an entirely different world: "The very concept of power is undergoing significant changes. If once it was enough to look at the annual reports of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London about 'hard' or military power ... now we live in a much more complex world. There is a spectrum of issues known in professional jargon as 'soft power,' from a country's economic power to its diplomatic power to extremely 'soft' issues such as culture, history and religion."
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman cut this survey short, asking Haim Waxman, a senior Foreign Ministry counterterrorism official, to "say a few words about Iran," thereby moving the discussion to the foreign minister's own turf.
But the topic soon switched to Israel's "branding" in the world. The speaker asked the panel, "If Brazil is fun and Paris is romance, what is Israel? We discovered to our dismay that Israel is perceived in the eyes of the world only in terms of conflict."
"Good branding means more tourism, investment, Israeli cultural and artistic representation abroad, export and commerce, academic links and so on," he said.
But rather than refer to culture, investment or art, Lieberman choose to focus on the "conflict" alone. "The Palestinians go with a single, basic message, one that unites all the Palestinians regardless of organizational or political identities within their society. They seek a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, a capital in East Jerusalem and the right of return ... We must also present a very sharp, clear message in response," he said.
Could it be that the speaker's words on economy, history, academia and culture was not understood by the minister? Or is it simply more convenient for Lieberman to take out a handgun and switch to a language he does understand?
Nurit Gertz was born in 1940 and is a professor of literature and film. She has written several books, most recently a biographical novel about her life with her husband, the author Amos Kenan.
