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An Old-Fashioned Remedy by Ari Bussel My sister was not very happy with our mother. “When I get sick nothing happens,” she said. “Yet, when Ari is sick, you throw a whole chicken farm into the pot to prepare chicken soup.” I must admit, there is nothing better than my mother’s chicken soup to fight all sorts of ailments, or enjoy for no reason at all. There is something in a dose of old-fashioned chicken soup, as in honey, that helps bolster our immune systems. The phrase “Jewish penicillin” has been verified and was even studied by Harvard University that...

A New Code Word for Anti-Semitism by Ari Bussel For anyone following Israel-related events, the year 2010 would be remembered by one word: Delegitimization. Just half a year ago, no one knew the meaning of this word or how to pronounce it. As the year comes to an end, people use it freely, understanding very little about what it means in action and how to combat this process. It sounds good, as much as “Israel is Apartheid” became a commonplace statement with Israel’s haters. In Israel “Delegitimization” became a magic word, as it seems all the ills of the world...

Paradigm Shift by Ari Bussel Israel cannot win the PR War if she acts on a different sphere than her enemies. Thus, her meager efforts to react and respond, consistently too late, are ineffective. For Israel to be successful in her efforts, she must play on the same field as her enemies. Short of that happening, the outcome is fixed: Israel’s PR attempts will continue to fail. Changing a frame of reference is useful in discovering trends and cause-outcome connections to which we were otherwise unaware. This can be achieved either with the distance of time or space. Let us...

Israel’s Pressing Matters by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager There are several major anti-Israel campaigns underway. Let us look at some ongoing and upcoming events: 1) Israel’s alleged Apartheid’s regime, ongoing 2) Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, ongoing 3) Lawsuits against Israeli officials for war crimes, ongoing 4) Active, economic resistance: Boycott of Israeli products, removing them from shelves, burn Israeli products, Divestment, ongoing 5) Active, academic, medical and scientific BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions), ongoing 6) Water, Thirsting the Palestinians, soft prelaunch, major international exposure planned 7) Unilateral self-declaration of Palestine with Jerusalem its capital, advanced planning and preliminary rehearsals 8) Al...

Two Approaches to Israel’s Public Diplomacy by Ari Bussel Dear Readers, As the news of the Flotilla started its advance through the world, very little information was coming from Israel. It was in the late evening hours of Sunday, May 30th, and Monday was Memorial Day Holiday in the United States. The Flotilla left on its break-the-blockade-or-die mission a week earlier, on or about the 24th of May. It was a surreal feeling, would there be any response as America was in a long holiday weekend. The Tsunami waves started hitting, their height several stories high, threatening to swallow everything...

Capitulation by Ari Bussel At one point, someone will be reading this Collection of Postcards. That person would not have known us. In fact, we will be long dead. Many things would have happened in the world between then and now. It may be months, years, decades or even a century from present time. This Postcard is for that person. Things with which we are very familiar today, thus consider obvious, will be complete unknowns as the dust of history covers over them. Some phrases may not be understood, and references may seem disconnected. This Postcard, although it may not...

I am a Foot Soldier by Ari Bussel During a recent visit to Israel, I was invited to a discharge ceremony from the IDF. Having last served as an officer during the First Persian Gulf War, I am deemed nonessential, although I still see myself as a soldier fighting on the very front line today. Like me there are numerous other foot soldiers on Israel’s Public Diplomacy front, able and willing to serve, and doing what we can against all odds. We stand against a very capable, sophisticated and motivated enemy. We constantly ask ourselves why are we fighting when...

Formulating a Response by Ari Bussel At times, it is the outside observer who sees the obvious, yet those engrossed in the details fail to see the larger picture. Observations rather than being characterized as “lucid” are viewed as “rancid;” systems are adverse to change. Thus, even the most astute observations are neither incorporated in the decision making process nor translated into necessary action. In the 18th Knesset, ministerial positions were determined by bazaar-like negotiations on which the formation of a coalition government was dependent. These perks, paid by Israel and her citizens, are the price for a faulty electoral...

Inspired by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager “And Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said: Who to (on the side of) God come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered to him…” Exodus 32:26 Apparently, it is raining very hard in Israel, and after years of drought, the first signs of awakening can be felt: Individuals are doing what the Israeli Government should do but does not. This should by no means be construed as a political statement. No Israeli Government to-date has fathomed the risks of continuing the status quo in the realm of...

Israel, A Bird’s Eye View by Ari Bussel Israel from above is a miracle and looks too innocent to be generating all the havoc around her. As we increase our distance into the clouds, she looks petite, fragile, almost under-developed, clearly out of proportion with the daily uproar that surrounds her. Flights to Europe that depart at the early morning hours are a disaster, forcing one to wake up at 2AM in order to leave at 3AM for the airport to catch a 5:30AM flight. Essentially, the night’s rest is ruined, nonetheless, seeing the horizon lit with a yellowish-reddish light...

Israel, Our Prayer by Ari Bussel ‘I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give them.” —Deuteronomy 30:19-20 As I sit in the plane departing Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, I think...

The Report by Ari Bussel “What many could not understand was how an army which even some German generals considered the strongest in Europe could be defeated so quickly and easily. So staggering were the losses – 90,000 dead, 200,000 wounded, more than one and a half million taken prisoner – …” This is the story of France in 1939 (as told by Don & Petie Kladstrup in 2002). “The most important arena where we need to act … is in the arena of public opinion, which is crucial in the democratic world. We must continue to debunk this lie...

The intensely partisan debate over foreign policy of recent years has overshadowed one area of broad bipartisan consensus: America’s efforts at public diplomacy in the post-9/11 era have largely failed. Public diplomacy is, in essence, the way that we, as a government and as a people, present ourselves to the rest of the world – how we explain our values of freedom and democracy and why we believe they provide the surest path to long-term peace and prosperity. Of all the opportunities that incoming president Barack Obama can seize, none is more important for long-term U.S. national security than the...

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, October 4, 2008, San Francisco -- James Glassman, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, gave incomplete and misleading answers when asked Friday whether the elimination of vernacular broadcasts to Georgia, Russia, and India is going to hurt his "war of ideas" effort. Speaking in Washington at a National Press Club luncheon on "The New Age of Public Diplomacy," Glassman seemed surprised and annoyed by the question. His answer that the U.S. is not...

Engagement in the battle of ideas and strategic communication has long been the missing ingredient in the government-wide effort to combat terrorism. Now, with a restructured public diplomacy bureaucracy at the State Department and elsewhere in the interagency process, engaging foreign publics has formally and strategically become part of the toolkit to combat radical extremist ideologies. Today, in his first major public address in his new position in Washington, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman addressed The Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Special Policy Forum on "Winning the War of Ideas." The prepared...

Wars of Ideas and THE War of Ideas Authored by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II. Added June 12, 2008 Type: Monograph 62 Pages   Cost: Free The author discusses several types of wars of ideas in an effort to achieve a better understanding of what wars of ideas are. That knowledge, in turn, can help inform strategy. It is important to note, for instance, that because ideas are interpreted subjectively, it is not likely that opposing parties will "win" each other over by means of an ideational campaign alone. Hence, physical events, whether intended or incidental, typically play determining...

America has an image problem. While the problem is serious, it is complicated by more variation than is usually ascribed to it. For example, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Survey of June 2005, the “U.S. image [is] up slightly, but still [is] negative.” This variation is further reflected by the fact that in two of the world’s potentially most important triangular relationships — namely, those between China, Japan, and the U.S. and between India, Pakistan, and the U.S. — it is the United States that is regarded as most friendly by the other two members of each triad. America’s...

CAIRO – As Karen Hughes, the newly appointed head of U.S. public diplomacy, began her first visit to the Middle East last week, an Arab newspaper published a cartoon of the “Ugly American”. It showed President George Bush sitting in front of a mirror, with a thick layer of make up on his face. He turns to Hughes and asks her for more make up and a strong perfume. The message was: America cannot hide its ugliness. Its arrogance and actions carried out without thought to consequence have made it so unattractive that nothing will turn an ugly face pretty....

September 11, 2001, may have been a wake-up call to reform America’s outdated intelligence bureaucracies and fight a global war on terrorism, but in some corners of the government, the war of ideas has been a lesser priority. While overseas opinion polls show mostly negative views of the United States, the communications machinery at the Department of State remains in disarray, inter­agency coordination remains minimal, and Amer­ica’s foreign communications effort lacks focus. The nomination and confirmation of Karen Hughes as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplo­macy and Public Affairs is a much-needed step, but it is not enough. The...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say. Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations. Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say...