Doing the big men’s job.

Ask any person who’s been to Israel what’s it like, and they’ll tell you about the beautiful scenery, the warm people, the everlasting summer, the never-sleeping Tel-Aviv and the enchanting holiday season. A person who has never been to Israel but met an Israeli, will probably say the same. When it comes to someone who is a complete stranger to Israel, someone whose relationship with this country is composed entirely from second-hand information coming from foreign media, the answer you’ll get is quite different. This person will tell you about a country that does not deserve to be a part of the Western World; a country that once was weak and now shows no mercy towards those who are weak; a ruthless conqueror that, for an unknown reason, is receiving almost blind support from the American government.

The gap between the two perspectives is quite large, and it is partially due to the biased foreign media that is hooked on a certain David and Goliath narrative it must tell. Why partially? Because another source of our poor PR is our government. The people sitting on top of the Israeli food chain, doing as they please, caring not about what the outside world, might think, those people were elected in a democratic election, and received their mandate from the people. But in a country like ours, where security is always the top priority, it is easy to overlook topics of high importance, such as foreign affairs.

The outcome is our reality nowadays, where we the people are doing what should be the work of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We browse the web, searching for false information about Israel, and correct it in the comments. We get involved in virtual arguments on Facebook, providing truths to counter the lies that are being spread. We track down anti-Semites and expose them for who they are. We try and convince people to not be swept by the BDS movement, because Israel is not really an apartheid state. When we go abroad, we make sure everyone we meet knows the truth about Israel, including the fact that it is a beautiful and fun place to visit. When we encounter tourists here, we insist on showing them around and taking them to the best places to visit.

At the same time, our government approves another construction site on Palestinian Territories, and our Prime Minister play childish ego games with President Obama . It seems as if they don’t care what it looks like or what people may think. They don’t care that as part of the peace talks, they chose to release terrorists over ceasing the construction work. This “we don’t care what the world thinks” attitude even led them to shut down the Israel Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs last May.

The more our government ignores the outside world, the more we get involved. We are all unofficial but productive ambassadors of our country, working around the clock to show the big picture behind our government reckless actions. Even those of us who are not strongly involved in politics realize the importance of defending our country to the outside world. In a small place like Israel, solidarity is a common feeling, and when needed, we all “gather ‘round the flag.”

We don’t do it to defend our elected government, we do it to defend ourselves. We do it, because we realize what some of our elected representatives fail to realize, that what the world thinks is something of high importance. The moment we stop being alert and lay down our guards, a small group of haters will become the majority, and we may stop being.

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