Israel's Minister of Public Diplomacy, Yuli Edelstein, recorded a special message for Yisrael Sheli’s Online Ambassadors. In the video, the Minister gave a few tips about how to best represent Israel.
“I think it’s very important for us to remember when we talk to people that in many cases we run too fast, We presume that people know everything and are trying to explain to them today’s situation. Let’s talk about history, about our rights to this land. Let’s not be afraid of repeating ourselves on these subjects, because many people are absolutely ignorant and don’t know. Let’s start with the basics.”
"The second rule is “not to presume that everyone hates us and everyone is against us. People who are ready to listen and ready to talk to us are not the ones who hate us. What we have to remember is that the image of Israel that they have is the image of the soldier, of a tank, of violence, of terror attacks. Let’s just talk about ourselves a little bit. Let’s try to bring back the human face. I’m a great believer in the theory that says that if there is a personal story – something that you witness, something that you’ve seen or experienced here in this country – it may be much more effective than the most brilliant analysis of any UN resolution.”
“We have the best product to market, the state of Israel: a democracy, a pluralistic state, a very diverse society, a society that is always open to newcomers. And if we always keep that in mind it will make our tough job a little bit easier.”
Israel Online Ambassadors is a network of Israel advocates who use online means in order to defend Israel against attacks on it. Its goals are to unite one million Israel advocates who will use the internet to respond to anti-Israel attacks, as well as to create educational content which will teach the advocates how to respond to these attacks using social media.