"Brand Israel" isn't doing all that well this week, as anybody who listened to ABC News this morning would be aware.

<< Israel plays down diplomat's expulsion

Australia's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of faked Australian passports in the Dubai assassination of a top Hamas commander has met with varying reactions in the Jewish state.

Many Israelis are simply fed up with what they see as their growing isolation from the West, but Israel's government is playing down the diplomatic tussle and says its relationship with Australia will only grow stronger. >>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/25/2908252.htm?

<< Israel denies plan to sell nukes to apartheid regime

Israel never "negotiated the exchange" of nuclear weapons with South Africa, president Shimon Peres said, denying a report that he personally offered missiles to the apartheid regime in 1975.

The report, published by Britain's Guardian newspaper, quoted minutes from a series of top secret meetings in which Mr Peres, who was then defence minister, allegedly offered his then South African counterpart PW Botha warheads "in three different sizes". >>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/25/2908210.htm

Israel is the greatest threat to world peace at the moment.They lead the USA around by the nose getting them to do their dirty work.

They will need a lot more than an image make over to change the world's perception of them.

What amazes me is that Israel continues to try to fool the world when Blind Freddie could see through the infantile spin and duplicity it engages in.

The attempt to sell nukes to South Africa, the sixty years of brutal occupation of the Palestinians, the genocide when 1,400 Gazans were killed (including 400+ children), the looming attempt to block the aid convoy, Jenin, etc, all show what Israel is.

That nuclear-armed Israelis believe they are some icon of democracy and human rights shows how truly delusional they are.

And how dangerous!

A few things, firstly a reply to both posts. No, actually, cut that. Leftists rarely listen because they argue from emotion rather than reason, so as much as it pains me, there is no point.

I would ask the post above to kindly elaborate on exactly how the only liberal democracy in a region full of tribal, illiberal, racist, homophobic, and misogynistic cultures - who have repeatedly tried to invade it and - realising even their combined efforts militarily amounts to nothing more than impotence - now funds proxy terrorist groups to attack it, is such a major threat?

And if you indeed believe Israel is the world's biggest threat, how? It almost seems as if you are arguing from emotion rather than reason, because reason doesn't support such a view - even for a moment.

This tiny nation, which has been the recipient of a half dozen invasion attempts by it's nearest neighbours; daily terrorist attacks until the wall went up (stopping 90%, have you heard of any suicide bombings lately); is entitled to protect itself I think.

The arguments about Israel being a monster state are laughable. During the trouble between Fatah and Hamas, AND when Israel bombed Lebanon, AND when Israel bombed Gaza......in every instance, there were two land borders the Palestinians could have fled to. But....instead of trying to get into Egypt, Palestinians wanted to get into Israel! Gee they must treat them bad. Well no, even leftist pin up boy Chomsky acknowledged that Arabs are treated better in Israel than any Arab country.

And when that evil wall went up, Israel had tens of thousands of applications from Palestinians wanting to live on the Israeli side of the wall, because they have better hospitals, schools, and so on. That is not the action of people who are terrified of Israel, sorry, it's the opposite...

I think if Israel so clearly can run the place better than the Arabs, i.e. there is not even 1 successful Arab state, all are dictatorships, or...even worse, where they have had elections the racist genocidal public have voted in Hamas terrorists!

Israel should run the region, the Arabs would live happier lives. They turned Israel from a backward desert into a first world country in 50 years. That's why the Arabs hate them so much, it's envy.

I don't think the fraud of Australia's passports was a good idea though, but when one considers the reason the Israeli's did so, I.e. to kill a senior Hamas commander, I have no problem with it.

Oh, and I hope Israel bombs Iran's nuclear facilities soon...

In the article by Neve Gordon, it states clearly the positive things that are high on the list of brand Israel. What wasn't said was that Israel is the only apartheid state in the world, it believes in ethnic cleansing, it has little humanity for anyone who is not a Jew, it killed 43 US sailors in 1967 and covered it up, it engineered the Iraqi war and now the Afghanistan war, it promotes hate and malice towards Iran and is trying to start a war there as well, it tried to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa in 1975, it has foreign policy control over the US Senate and Congress, it is a pariah state, the most hated nation in the history of the world, WWII Germany included.

So if you are building on Brand Israel showing achievements don't forget assassinations, 9/11 complicity, control of the media and entertainment, corruption of politicians all over the world and the world's most successful marketing campaign, the 'Holocaust' Campaign, in force for 60 years and still going but with a noticeably diminished 'ani-Semitism' themesong, now seen as a the badge of honour for thinking peoples everywhere, instead.
So, Neve, one could continue for some time, so disgraceful have been the actions of this pariah state, well on the path to self- destruction, and for those in the world who would like to see news reports that are positive and friendly for a change and not hateful and one-sided, pushed along by the likes of people like Fox News, such an action cannot come soon enough for the peoples of the world.
The know-how that is the trade mark (brand) of Israel, is inhumanity, death and destruction.