Wrote this with Haviv Rettig Gur

The most important advice a communications and PR consultant can give a client is: Choose a message that works for you, and stick to that message.

So what would a communications consultant advise the Israeli government now? Would it be that on Iran, Israeli spokespeople should stick to the message formulated under Ariel Sharon, that “Iran is not only Israel’s problem, but rather a challenge for the entire world”? Or should the message be “Iran is seeking nuclear weapons to perpetrate a second Holocaust on the Jewish people”? Continue reading →

It’s German-Israel time again, and I’m currently attending the Bertelsman Stiftung German-Israel Young Leaders Exchange Program Reunion 2009 at the Dead Sea.

How coincidental that, just a few days ago as I was arriving at the Latrun base near Jerusalem for my miluim [reserve duty] the IDF marching band was practicing the German national anthem, for a ceremony later that day in honor of some German military delegation.

One of the guys in my unit took this video, I believe it’s quite interesting:

Several of us, Jewish soldiers performing reserve military duty, stood amazed at what we were seeing and hearing: this is the Israeli army performing the German national anthem, quite surreal. I’m sure it’s been done many times before, and vice versa too, but for the 30 or so soldiers watching, it was the first time. I don’t know what all the others thought about it, but I felt it was a special moment.

Some of the younger soldiers at the base who were also looking at what was going on thought the band was playing the American anthem…