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Writer's pictureSusan Fisher

Messaging under fire no.1 - THE FACTS



Israel is under fire. What should we say when there is so much to say? I will start here by saying that this blog post is offered humbly. This war has seen many thousands of rank and file civilians fighting the good fight for public opinion on social media.  I take my hat off to all of them whatever their impact.


But it's the professionals that we expect to be, well, professional. That's the government, army and politicians whose job it is to represent us internationally.


I am not one of those who says Israel's public diplomacy (Hasbara/PR/Advocacy) is awful across the board. Fair disclosure; I worked for many years with spokespeople and diplomats in the Israeli Foreign Office on messaging for media appearances.


But here's an interesting take. Melanie Phillips, a veteran UK journalist interviewed by Eylon Levy recently, says that the basic facts about the conflict are not known by people outside Israel. "People" includes the the chattering classes - the highly educated and socially concerned metropolitan middle class some whom are politically active.


And so we come back to the basics of good messaging:


  • Meet people where they are - at their knowledge level.

  • Let them know the simple facts.

  • Tailor your message to their level of understanding and awareness.

  • Repeat these facts simply and consistently.


Why do spokespeople not talk about the basic facts ?

In her opinion it is "because it is so obvious to them" that they assume their audience knows them too.


But they don't. They know as much about the Israel Gaza war as most people do, say, about the civil war in Sudan.


In Hebrew you often hear the expression

דברים שרואים משם - לא רואים מכאן

meaning people don't always see the same thing depending where they are.


Rule number 1 of good messaging is to connect with people where they are including giving them the basic facts of how this war that was forced upon us. If only they knew.






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