Rebranding Israel

July 31, 2024

by: Kate Norman

Wednesday, 31 July 2024 | Israel—the Jewish state, the tiny nation that the world loves to hate.

From her miraculous rebirth in 1948 to the current war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel is fighting a never-ending battle against false narratives and misinformation, facing endless scrutiny of public opinion and condemnation.

And spending money and resources to push her own narrative won’t increase Israel’s standing in international opinion either, according to Simon Anholt, a British national who has become a world leader in advising nations and governments to help them boost their own international standing.

Anholt visited the Jewish state last month, Ynetnews reported, and met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and other Israeli leaders to spearhead the Brand IL project to rebrand Israel.

The project, an initiative by “a Zionist South African billionaire who prefers to remain anonymous,” Ynetnews reported, holds the goal of rebranding Israel “through a long-term, data-driven and research-based process.”

Anholt acknowledged that fighting public opinion is an uphill battle.

“It definitely looks as if the other side has the upper hand at the moment, no question about it,” he told Ynetnews. “They have the public sympathy vote in many parts of the world…Israel is somewhat on the back foot. It is perceived as being the villain, and that’s mainly because it’s switched from being David to Goliath, and sympathy for the underdog [is] very deeply rooted in human psychology and the Palestinians benefit from that.”

It’s important to understand that people want to have an opinion on international politics and current events while doing very little footwork to research, according to Anholt.

“We’ve reached a stage in history where everybody is expected to have an opinion on every […] topic,” Anholt added, “and irrespective of whether they know anything about it or not…Everybody’s expected to have an opinion, so you have to buy a ready-made opinion, because otherwise it means you have to work.”

Anholt has helped 64 countries with “nation branding,” Ynetnews reported. According to his Linkedin, Anholt helped Jamaica, Botswana, Bhutan, Romania, Tanzania and other countries “benefit economically and socially from their national IP [Intellectual Property] assets.” He also worked with the president and government of Sierra Leone “on a national ‘grand strategy’ to establish a more productive and visible role in the international community.”

“We have started to regard countries as if they were brands—stupid, childish stereotypes,” Anholt told Ynetnews. “This is one of the side effects of globalization. That’s actually why I coined this awful term, ‘nation branding.’ I was being ironic.”

In addition to advising countries on how to better their “brand,” Anholt also created two scales on how to measure countries and their international standing. The “Nation Brands Index” measures and ranks nations’ reputations according to exports, governance, culture, people, tourism and immigration and investment. In 2023, Japan took the top spot, followed by Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, Switzerland, France, Australia and Sweden.

Israel currently ranks 46th out of the 60 countries ranked, Anholt said, noting that the current war with Hamas did not plummet Israel’s standing, which was already low.

“Israel’s image is so strongly associated with conflict anyway,” Anholt said, “that more conflict, even though it’s dramatically worse than previously, it’s still the same subject.”

Anholt also helped develop the Good Country Index, which measures what each country contributes to the world overall and ranks each country. The criteria includes science and technology, culture, international peace and security, world order, planet and climate, prosperity and equality, and health and wellbeing. The current leaders are Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Canada, Belgium, Ireland, France and Austria. The United States ranks 46th on the list. The United Kingdom ranks 14th, Japan 34th and Israel 59th.

“We have to try and distinguish between the overall base image of Israel and how it’s perceived in the longer term by people, how much it’s admired or not admired,” Anholt said. “Between that and the current battle for public opinion that’s going on in American universities and in the media, and especially in social media.

“So if you’re looking at that, it looks like all hell has broken loose,” Anholt added. “Nuclear war. Israel is currently in the middle of the most violent infowar in history and the interesting thing is that both sides are convinced that they’re losing.”

The main thing that comes to mind, Anholt said, when people think of Israel, is conflict.

He added that “Your [Israel’s] problem is not that people don’t like you, it’s that they don’t want to like you. That’s where they are at the moment. They don’t want to like Israel, and if you don’t want to like Israel, you are not going to listen to any of those guys when they’re talking or if you do listen to them, you’re looking for an opportunity to say, ‘That’s a lie, that’s propaganda, he’s an idiot, he’s being paid,’ etc.”

One way back into the good graces of the international community, Anholt said, is the same route that Japan and Germany took following World War II: “the export of high-quality consumer products,” noting that Israel “has a huge opportunity there.”

In addition to discovering and promoting Israel’s international niche, the strategy includes finding and implementing “creative and bold” foreign policy.

Posted on July 31, 2024

Source: (Bridges for Peace, July 31, 2024)

Photo Credit: Robin Orack/bridgesforpeace.com