Israel at Sixty: The Persistence of Vision

Adding colors to the green and black

By David Brinn

What defines Israel? It's a subject that's taking up a lot of thought lately among both Israelis and people that care about Israel. And … surprise! Not everybody agrees.

The folks in charge of this blog had some lively interaction on that subject when discussing the photo montage that appears at the top of the page. 60 years of Israel's existence naturally has to be illustrated with some historical figures and events, as well as some milestones that occurred along the way as well as a look to the next 60 years.

But what images should be used, specifically?

Is Israel Relevant?

by David Brinn

My friend and colleague, Amir Gissin, the new Israeli consul-general in Toronto, gave an interesting directive to his staff upon taking over last summer.

According to the Canadian Jewish News, one of Gissin's first acts in Toronto was to change his staff’s prior habit of reading mainly news reports from Israel when they got in to work in the morning. Instead, he told them to start the day with the local Toronto newspapers in order to determine what Torontonians and Canadians were thinking about.

“I want to know what’s relevant to [Canadians], and why," said Gissin, who before his posting, was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs man in charge of  public administration (meaning coordinating Israel's hasbara policy).

His statement touches on a cornerstone of the 'new' way Gissin and other forward thinking people in the government are beginning to communicate about Israel to the world: relevancy.

Looking at Israel through a different lens

by David Brinn

It was just another night in Jerusalem. I was having dinner this week with a visiting group from the Beachwood, Ohio Chamber of Commerce 

We're into our first course and some wine, and discussing Israel's perception among Americans and how Beachwood's efforts to woo Israeli startups to open US offices in their fair city dovetails nicely into our efforts at ISRAEL21c to inform people around the world about the 'other' Israel that they don't read or see about on the news.

Suddenly, all eyes turned as into the restaurant walked  Kofi Annan followed closely by CNN founder Ted Turner.