First Israeli Hasbara Summit

Over 140 Jew journalists from 32 countries were Israeli government’s guests to attend a 4-day Hasbara (Hebrew for propaganda) Summit in Jerusalem. It was sponsored by Israeli press office, the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of diaspora affairs. The theme of the summit was, “the challenges of reporting on Israel and the Jewish world“. The summit was held at Ramada Hotel Jerusalem on June 22-25.

The keynote speakers at the conference included Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the war criminal Shimon Peres and the president-electReuven Rivlin.

In 2012, French Jew president Francois Hollande had accused Netanyahu being obsessed with Iran. In his speech at the opening session, Netanyahu once again proved Hollande right. He exhorted the Jew journalists to report aggressively on the dangers of planned agreement between the US and Iran on its nuclear program and the rise in Jew-hatred in Europe. Interestingly, ADL’s latest report on the so-called “anti-Semitism”, says it’s on decrease.

Gary Rosenblatt who attended the conference wrote at the New York Jewish Week on July 2, 2014 that though all of us have been “reporting on editorializing on these issues and there was a sense in the audience that we were treated more like public relation operatives than journalists”.

Naturally, Rosenblatt, being a self-denial Zionist Jew, couldn’t accept the reality that what most of  his fellow Jew journalists write is not called journalism, butjingoism.

Jennifer Frazer, editor of UK’s Jewish Chronicle was applauded by the audience when she asserted that “Netanyahu was brought here to deliver platitudes”.

“We need Israelis to take us seriously,” said Frazer.

“Her frustration was echoed by fellow panelists Henrique Cymerman, who covers the Mideast and international affairs from Israel; Marshall Weiss, the president of the American Jewish Press Association and me. We argued that it is a mistake for Israeli officials to take Jewish media and diaspora support for granted, and to ignore in their presentations controversial issues like the settlements, the occupation and the failed peace talks,” wrote Rosenblatt.

“One theme that ran through the conference was the striking imbalance between diaspora Jewry’s intense coverage of Israel and the Israeli media’s lack of interest in world Jewry beyond anti-Semitism and political support for Jerusalem. Israeli journalists said their editors could care less about stories dealing with diaspora Jewish life. As one Israeli reporter put it bluntly, “You love us more than we love you”, reports Rosenblatt.

Yoni Goldstein, editor on Canadian Jewish News was one of the participants. He noted: “A lot of Jewish newspapers are going through the same issues. How we cover stories about each other, financial difficulties (?). I think this conference was a good start.”

How sad, after spending tens of millions of dollars each year on Hasbara, the Zionist regime has failed to stop the process of delegitimize of Zionist entity.