Rebranding Israel : Babes in bikinis vs. the coronary stent

The Israeli consulate in Toronto is gearing up for "Brand Israel" , a $1M 10-month ad blitz campaign which will be displaying positive images of Israel in Toronto bus shelters, on billboards, on radio and TV starting in September. The ad here features the "Innovation Israel" coronary stent.

Consul general Amir Gissin promises the campaign will be "an attack on all the senses".
Given that it is sponsored by Sidney Greenberg of Astral Media, Canada's largest radio broadcaster; Joel Reitman of MIJO Corporation; and David Asper of Canwest Global, I'm sure it will be.

"The way to fix negative images of Israel is to present Israel in a positive light elsewhere," Gissin said. "Never has there been this [scale] of combination of business and philanthropy for Israel."

Well, that might be true if you don't count the last seven years of the Brand Israel campaign in the U.S.
ISRAEL21c boasts it "has placed more than 5,000 stories with positive images of Israel and Israelis in mainstream American media" and "tens of millions of eyes see ISRAEL21c reported stories, yet most of them don't know that ISRAEL21c is the source".

Their most famous stories include a former Miss Israel in a bikini on the covers of Maxim and the New York Post, and the Newsweek photospread "Babes in the Holy Land", financed in part by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The president of ISRAEL21c, formerly national president of AIPAC, explains the strategy :

"All the recent research on Israel's image or brand in America indicates that the one demographic group that has the least positive knowledge of Israel in America is men under 30. To them, Israel is a place of armed military conflict and little else."

David Saranga, the Israeli consular official based in New York who initiated the Babes in the Holy Land photoshoot, agreed :

"We have to find the right hook. And what's relevant to men under 35?
Good-looking women."

So this is what they got :

Figures, doesn't it?

The Americans are targeted with Babes in the Holy Land; Canadians will be getting the coronary stent.

P.S. Dear Jerusalem Post : All the wonderful goodwill generated by your report on the Branding Israel campaign is unfortunately somewhat diluted by your having a "Bomb Iran? Vote now!" NewsMax poll on the comments page accompanying the article.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Shell game

I have no doubt that Lt. General Michel Gauthier believes he is right. Given the change in the traces, what he is describing is probably accurate in some measure.

Insurgent ambushes have fallen in four of Kandahar's 17 districts as the latest rotation of troops has focused on protecting the vital zone around the provincial capital, said Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier, although he did not give specific numbers.

The assertion that Canadian forces have created a bright spot amid the darkening security picture in southern Afghanistan represents the military's first detailed response to several academic reports in recent months that have described NATO as losing the war.

But then someone on the ground, wearing the same uniform puts the whole thing in context.

Canadian Major-General Marc Lessard, the new commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in the south, said last week that violent incidents in the six southern provinces have increased 50 per cent in the past year.

Among those southern provinces, Kandahar does not enjoy a reputation for better security. In fact, it stood out in a private consultant's report as Afghanistan's most violent province in 2007.

Vigilant Strategic Services Afghanistan (VSSA) counted 1,120 violent incidents in Kandahar during the past year, compared with 363 in neighbouring Helmand province and 105 in Uruzgan province during the same period.

Kandahar continues to be exceptionally troublesome this year, as the VSSA numbers for the first four weeks of 2008 showed a greater number of insurgent-related attacks in Kandahar - 43 incidents - than in any other province.

Along with looking at the level of violence, Gen. Gauthier also suggested that his troops have carved out a foothold for reconstruction and development in Kandahar. But a journalist pointed out that many aid agencies have withdrawn their non-essential staff from Kandahar in recent weeks, fearing a rise in Taliban activity.

Which makes one wonder why Gauthier got out there in the first place. If all anyone has to do is hold up the metrics to shoot his statement full of holes it starts to look as though his effort is a dishonest attempt to spin the situation.

But Gauthier is not a dishonest man.

So, you start asking, "Who put him up to it?"

Note to Gauthier. Disneyland is a great place, but once you're outside the gates, it's California.

NATO does the five o:clock follies

Everyone hold up. Do not touch that keyboard. Despite the fact that for two years NATO forces have not been able to secure a small hydro-electric dam, we are now told things are going rather well in Afghanistan.

More than six years since the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan, the militant movement is being “contained,” with some 70 per cent of violence last year occurring in just 10 per cent of the country, NATO said.

The upbeat assessment Sunday contrasted reports that a resurgent Taliban are challenging the U.S. and its allies. It also comes as several of NATO's European members are refusing to send soldiers to Afghanistan's south, the scene of most of the fighting, opening a rift with the U.S. and others that have borne the brunt.

Three-quarters of Afghanistan suffered just one violent incident per week last year, Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, a spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force told a press conference in Kabul.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that the insurgent movement is being contained,” Lt. Col. Foss said.

Whoa! That's a pretty tight spin there, colonel. In short, absolutely fuck all has changed. A few more details would show that this contained insurgency is actually growing. Instead of the normal withdrawal this winter, the insurgents have kept up the pressure.

Where have we seen this kind of behaviour before?

Oh yeah. Here. And for what it's worth, this weekend I heard Kabul referred to as the equivalent of Saigon in the early 1970s: an armed enclave protecting a government and a military establishment that has no idea what's actually happening in the field.

Why would NATO suddenly issue this That wasn't the mission, but let's call it accomplished anyway announcement? Well look at the strange type of life the various reports have taken on.

An independent study co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former UN ambassador Thomas Pickering warned last week that Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state because of deteriorating international support and the growing insurgency.

On Sunday, a British cabinet minister called on allies to send troops to the south.

“We have made clear to our NATO partners that we do want to see appropriate burden sharing, not just in the number of troops on the ground but where those troops are committed within Afghanistan,” Douglas Alexander, British International Development Secretary, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Germany in particular has been resisting pressure to deploy troops to the south. Germany insists its parliamentary mandate is for its 3,500 soldiers to serve along the northern border, only helping out in the south for a limited period.

Canada is threatening not to extend its military mission in Afghanistan after 2009 unless another NATO country sends more soldiers to the south.

Well the Manley Report is a crock and it's being wheeled out as some form of policy document. As for the rest, I would say the good colonel got it wrong.

Spinning the Straits of Hormuz

Following up on this post, Cernig at Newshoggers has done an outstanding job of keeping a taught line on what is now appearing to be a massive spin-job.

When ships of the USN, led by USS Port Royal, were transiting the Straits of Hormuz an alleged encounter with Iranian Revolutionary Guard fastboats resulted in the Pentagon releasing an edited tape which the Pentagon suggested was a provocative act.

Things have changed, however, as the Pentagon's version of the tape, conveniently released just as Bush was leaving for the Middle-East, is now the short cut and has clearly been altered.

Cernig has provided the full version of the tape broken down into a five part playlist. There are some distinct differences between the long version and the Pentagon edit. In all five parts there are no suspicious white boxes in the water and there are no threatening voice radio calls. In fact, the first section of the tape jibes completely with the Iranian version of events.

There is a mystery however, and Cernig spells it out.

Is the US military covering up the events of 26 Dec 2007 at al-Siha?

You my remember this story in which an Iraqi soldier opened fired on his US allies, killing a captain and a sergeant, and wounding three others.

Cernig, noticing something out of whack, stayed on the story. Certainly, there was more to it than originally reported and while we all waited for some reporter to jump all over and fill in the empty spaces in the story, nothing really happened.

Cernig hasn't dropped the story and it is slowly starting to fill out. The Iraqi soldier, Kaissar Saadi Al-Jibouri, is being elevated as a hero, not because he killed US troops, but because he may have been trying to defend an Iraqi woman. From IPS:

Conflicting versions of the killing have arisen. Col. Hazim al-Juboory, uncle of the attacker Kaissar Saady al-Juboory, told IPS that his nephew at first watched the U.S. soldiers beat up an Iraqi woman. When he asked them to stop, they refused, so he opened fire.

"Kaissar is a professional soldier who revolted against the Americans when they dragged a woman by her hair in a brutal way," Col. Juboory said. "He is a tribal man, and an Arab with honour who would not accept such behaviour. He killed his captain and sergeant knowing that he would be executed."

Others gave IPS a similar account. "I was there when the American captain and his soldiers raided a neighbourhood and started shouting at women to tell them where some men they wanted were," a resident of Mosul, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS on phone. "The women told them they did not know, and their men did not do anything wrong, and started crying in fear."

The witness said the U.S. captain began to shout at his soldiers and the women, and his men then started to grab the women and pull them by their hair.

"The soldier we knew later to be Kaissar shouted at the Americans, 'No, No,' but the captain shouted back at the Iraqi soldier," the witness told IPS. "Then the Iraqi soldier shouted, 'Let go of the women you sons of bitches,' and started shooting at them." The soldier, he said, then ran off.

As Cernig says, there should be a full investigation into the allegations that US troops were abusing Iraqi civilians and exceeding their authority. If the story is true, then there needs to be further explanation. If it is not true, then the details now need to be aired.

That, of course, is assuming that the truth is ever likely to come out. From Cernig:

Whether or not the story of US servicemen beating a pregnant women is true - and there should be a full investigation of those accusations - it is now, thanks to the US military's obsessive secrecy leaving the clear impression that something was being hidden, firmly fixed in the minds of exactly those who the military least wants to antagonize.

It is not like worse hasn't happened before. Back then Seymour Hersh dug the story out after speaking to someone who had second hand information, almost 20 months after the event.

So, yes, there is a history of this kind of thing happening when armies of occupation are fighting an elusive resistance and the US military has a track-record of trying to hide such incidents.

Harper chooses gay superhero to be new symbol of Canada

Harper is going to take a certain amount of flack for choosing a gay francophone superhero from X-Men to be the new symbol of Canadian, uh, pride, but personally I think it's just terribly terribly bold of him.

G&M : PMO sets sights on North Star's guiding light

"In a new bid to foster national pride and confidence in its leadership, the Stephen Harper government is urging Canadians to look up, look way up.

As the Conservatives search for a more inspirational way to deliver their message and replace the worn-out catchphrase "Canada's New Government," the lobbyists and strategists who deliver the government line were told after last week's Throne Speech to make use of a reference to the North Star that showed up toward the end of the speech.

"To help you effectively communicate with your local media, as well as your constituents, we have included general messaging on the Speech from the Throne," says a PMO memo obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Among the elements of the Throne Speech that the memo urges them to highlight, the first is this lyrical passage: "Like the North Star, Canada has been a guide to other nations..."

The memo does not say specifically how the strategists should use the reference."

Oh come on, strategists, how tough is that?

According to wikipedia, NorthStar is a Quebecois superhero who first joins the Front de Libération du Québec to gain Quebec independence but soon sees the error of his ways and renounces terrorism to join Alpha Flight, a superhero group financed by the Canadian government.

His X-Men bio divulges that in addition to being a world class Olympic skier who makes his home at the north pole, NorthStar is also a martial arts master, a trapeze artist, and an accomplished novelist.

Now what could be more Canadian than that?

"Sources have told The Globe that the North Star terminology was to have been peppered throughout the speech, rather than just at the end.

"When you're following the North Star you're always going in the right direction," said the source in explaining its appeal."

Strategists, start your engines.

As Impolitical says : Must...repeat...North...Star....

Full transparency on $1400 a day

The newly appointed five-member Independent Panel on Canada's Mission in Afghanistan, aka the Panel of Hawks, Deep Integrationists, ...and One Homophobe, appointed by Harper to advise parliament on the future of Canada's mission in Afghanistan four days before he informed us Canada will be staying till 2011 anyway if he has anything to say about it, will not be going it alone.

They will have minders. Six of them.
An appointed secretariat of six senior government officials will 'facilitate' for the Independent Panel. Three of them are from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, one is from CIDA, one is from the Afghanistan Task Force, and one is the former deputy commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for the shadow panel downplays the effect that being advised by the same government officials who have been overseeing the Afghanistan mission up till now might have on the official panel's independence :

"they are very independent thinkers and extremely accomplished and extremely worldly. I don't think anyone's presence here could influence them in any way, shape or form."

Over at Embassy Mag, Paul Hughes, chair of one of the four working groups on the American Iraq Study Group, patiently explains at length how complete independence is required in order for the panel's findings to be considered credible.

"If it comes across as a partisan document, people will treat it as a partisan document and not give it due deference," Mr. Hughes said.

Yeah, like we had complete confidence in them before.
And then there's this:

"The spokesperson said the panelists, who it has been reported will be paid between $850-$1,400 per day for their work through to March 31, 2008, will aim for full transparency."

Full transparency? For $1400 a day I expect they can become completely invisible.

Cross-posted at Creekside

CBC and their strange bedfellows

Dear CBC :
About that Environics poll that you state was "conducted in partnership with the CBC", the one all over CBC TV News tonight, the CBC website, CTV, the G&M, etc :

CBC : 51% of Afghans feeling good about country's direction

60 % of Afghans surveyed believe the presence of foreign troops has been good for their country.
43% say that foreign troops should stay as long as it takes to get the job done.
60 % in Kandahar have a somewhat or very positive attitude toward Canada's soldiers.
70% of Afghans surveyed said they think Karzai is doing a good job.
77% of Afghans in Kandahar said Karzai is doing a good job

In fact the poll was conducted by ACSOR–Surveys, the Afghan Center for Social and Opinion Research, which was founded by D3 Systems Int. whose client base include US State Department, the US Embassy in Kabul, the Afghan Reconstruction Group, Voice of America, (PIPA) the Program on International Policy Attitudes, Charney Research of New York.....

A previous PIPA poll conducted by the Afghan Center for Social and Opinion Research in November 2005 found :
80% of Afghans believe their country is going "in the right direction"
83 % of Afghan respondents said they had a favorable opinion of U.S. troops in Afghanistan
81 % expressed a favorable opinion of the United States
83% said they had a favorable (39 percent "very favorable") view of "the U.S. military forces in our country."
75% approved of eradication of opium poppy fields
90% had an unfavorable opinion of the Taliban
and so on....

Another ACSOR Surveys poll for D3 Systems client Charney Research found :
- 83% Support Hamid Karzai
- 75% Support Female Education
- 75% Support Woman Working
- 66% Support Woman in Public Office
- 83% Have Favourable View of the USA
- 8% Favour the Taliban

Do these ACSOR figures seem even remotely credible to anyone?

Nonetheless, they were extensively used in the US media to bolster support for the war.
Just like their new one will be used here.
Peter Mackay outside the HoC today:

"Afghans are now able to take part in democratic processes like polling, and I think that's another brick in the wall as far as building the [needed] security."

Another brick in the wall, indeed. Unusual use of that Pink Floyd metaphor, Pete.

Now even if you do not subscribe, as I do, to the notion that this "CBC/Enviromics partnership" poll is just another piece of bullshit brick-in-the-wall Afghanistan/Iraq/Iran warmongering being spun by yet another US thinktank/research company, this time with our CBC as a willing patsy, you have to admit that comparing the most recent ACSOR survey with their previous ones in fact shows the Afghan outlook for the future and support for foreign troops is actually plummetting :

2005 : 80% believe the country is going in the right direction

2007 : 51% believe the country is going in the right direction

2005 : 80% support American troops
2007 : 60% support foreign troops and Canadian soldiers

So, CBC, what have you got to say for yourself?

Research jointly conducted in the threads of Bread and Roses
Cross-posted, more or less, at Creekside

MMP and the MSM

Alison has a Do Not Miss post over at Creekside in which she disassembles some of the ridiculous and frankly, misleading arguments put forth by Canadian media pundits opposing the concept of mixed member proportional representation.

British Columbia had been presented the option of proportional representation in 2005 but rejected the chance to dump First-Past-the-Post in favour of Single Transferable Vote. On that occasion the media engaged in the same form of it's bad campaign.

Interestingly, the method employed by many pundits is to take the obvious advantages of PR and turn them into arguments against. It seems a great many many members of the media prefer an unfair system that only works in a pure two-party system, something Canada and most provinces have not had for over a century.

Greenwashing, now with extra spin!

Dear Canadian media :
Please stop printing crap like this about Patrick Moore's opinions on the nuclear power renaissance :

"A popular Canadian environmentalist said Tuesday it's silly for Saskatchewan to benefit from uranium exports but not from nuclear energy.
Speaking in Saskatoon at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Patrick Moore, former president of Greenpeace Canada and founder of Greenspirit, an environmental consultancy firm, said ..."How ridiculous is it for a province that supplies uranium to 441 nuclear plants around the world to have an anti-nuclear policy at home?"
Moore admits he was opposed to nuclear energy during his Greenpeace years, but changed his mind after researching the power source. The environmentalist hopes more people take a closer look at nuclear energy, saying general uncertainties about the fuel comes from concerns over nuclear waste, meltdowns and proliferation, all of which are not likely to happen or cause damage."

unless you are also willing to follow the money and mention that Moore's speaking engagement at that Chamber of Commerce luncheon was hosted by two Canadian uranium mining companies, that Moore's current cross-Canada tour is sponsored by TEAM CANDU, and that Moore is being paid to support nuclear power by the US Nuclear Energy Institute.

Thank you.
Cross-posted at Creekside