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Israel to Launch Global Public Relations Blitz to Polish Tarnished Image
JERUSALEM, August 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel intends to launch an unprecedented global propaganda blitz within days in a bid to reverse what it sees as its rapidly diminishing image following 10-months of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, news agencies reported Tuesday.
High-ranking officials have been dispatched to France to hire a major public relations firm to restore Israel's reputation across Europe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' deputy spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, told French News Agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
High-profile intellectuals and artists will also be called on to influence colleagues and the masses, Nahshon said.
"We believe there's been a devaluation of the image of Israel and we want to restore a more positive image," he added.
"Israel was in final negotiations with an unnamed French firm, and a deal could be signed within days with the campaign to start shortly after" Nahshon said..
Israel already employs a PR firm in the United States, the New York-based Howard J. Rubenstein Associates, to win the hearts and minds of Americans, the Jerusalem Post reported.
This has already resulted in more women and less people wearing army uniforms in Israeli PR campaigns and the Israeli Defense Force hiring a spokeswoman who speaks English fluently, without an Israeli accent.
Nahshon said the beefed-up propaganda push in North America would include major rallies throughout September and October, possibly until the end of the year.
He said Israel hoped hundreds of thousands of people would turn up at these rallies to support Israel.
Israeli Foreign minister Shimon Peres is also expected to call on nearly 2,000 rabbis in the United States to emphasize during their Yom Kippur sermons the Jewish state's historic links to the land of Israel.
The propaganda blitz follows unusually heavy criticism from the western world over Israel's policy of murdering Palestinian resistance activists.
Even the United States, Israel's closest and most important ally, said it was opposed to last week's slaying of six Hamas activists and two young brothers in the West Bank town of Nablus, describing the rocket attack as "too aggressive".
The public relations offensive comes on top of what is already regarded by the western media as an extremely efficient and slick Israeli propaganda machine.
The Palestinians are outraged over some of Israel's PR attempts, nevertheless, the British Broadcasting Corporation's succumbing to Israeli pressure and diluting its reports of the killings of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, in Amman, Jordan, an Israeli diamond merchant was shot to death overnight outside his home in an attack claimed by a previously unknown organization.
The death of Yitzhak Sneir, described as being in his 50's, was first reported by Jordanian Information Minister Saleh Kallab, who said it was "very probably a settling of accounts."
But later Tuesday, the Lebanese Hezbollah television channel al-Manar said it had received an e-mail overnight claiming responsibility for the killing from a group calling itself the "Nobles of Jordan."
"The Nobles of Jordan group has this evening liquidated a Mossad agent working in a suburb of Amman under the cover of being a businessman," the e-mail said, according to the television.
"The land of Jordan is a pure land which refuses to be profaned by Zionist Jews and Americans, and we warn them to leave immediately as we consider they represent legitimate targets at any time or any moment for us on Jordanian soil," the statement added.
In Ramallah a top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Tuesday warned that the region was in a "very dangerous situation," and blamed the United States for not acting on international recommendations to send in monitors.
"All this is because of U.S. hesitancy about implementing the G8 summit recommendations," he said, referring to a decision by the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations last month that international observers should be deployed if both sides agree.
Israel came into existence in 1948 after Jewish groups launched a war against their Muslim neighbors in 1948 and declared today's state of Israel. Arabs and Muslims believe Israel is an extension of the colonial period that saw the occupation of Muslim and Arab countries by Western powers.
Israel, backed by some Western powers, claims Jerusalem as its capital, but this is not recognized by Muslims or the United Nations.
The creation of Israel was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered all over the world following the Diaspora.
Israel is also founded on a set of religious myths and rabbinical sayings that are staunchly disputed by Arabs and Muslims.
Much of the history of the region since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Palestinians, mostly represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Israel's Arab Muslim neighbors, on the other.
Millions of Palestinians were displaced, and several wars were fought involving Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
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