Recently during the Israeli anti-terror operation in Gaza Islaam TV carried a video produced by the IDF and addressed to the inhabitants of Gaza. The video spoke to them in Arabic and without any translators nor subtitles.

For those familiar with the manner in which Israel tries to get its message across to the Arab world the IDF video would not have come as a surprise. With a 20% minority Arab population of it’s own, Israel has tried to put its view point to the Arab world in Arabic before.

Israeli Flag Image by: Hoyasmeg

In this vain Zvi Mazel a current research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former Israeli ambassador to Egypt has launched a website aimed at putting Israel’s point of view to the Arab world in Arabic. In so doing he gives the Arab reader access to views the former ambassador says they would never otherwise see:

“An Arabic-language “hasbara” Web site edited by a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt offers a sampling of news items and perspectives that many Arabs in the Middle East are rarely served.

As a research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Zvi Mazel selects a variety of Western and Israeli news items related to Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world, which are translated into Arabic and then posted.

A recent glance at the site features short items centered on Operation Cast Lead.

“Americans sympathize with Israel more than Gaza,” states an excerpt of a January 24 Bloomberg article, which cites a CNN poll that found 60 percent of Americans polled sympathized with Israelis while only 17% sympathized with the Palestinians over Israel’s military operation…..

…Mazel, who served as the Israeli ambassador to Egypt from 1996 to 2001, said the 13-month-old Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Web site is meant to allow the Arab public to become familiar with facts and ways of thinking that are not being presented to them by their own media outlets…..

…The Web site, which Mazel said has a limited budget and garners between 2,000 and 3,000 readers a month, also features historical pieces about the Jewish people’s historic connection to the land of Israel, such as an article entitled “the Arab village of Aqbara was a Jewish village until the 13th century” and another about a Jewish presence in Acre since the time of the Mishna.

Many of the letters sent by readers from around the Arab world had been positive toward Israel, Mazel said.

A political researcher, who identified himself as an Iraqi Kurd, wrote to Mazel on January 28, saying: “I am among those who love the state of Israel and support what it did against Hamas – while I regret the killing of civilians – and I would like to communicate with you.”

Another reader from Morocco, who has a blog in French called “Fundamentalist Zionist Muslims,” wrote in French that he loses hope for change in the Arab world “when I see the Arab world reacting in a way that is far from reality concerning what is going on in Gaza.”

Some readers from the Arab world have even asked for political asylum or job opportunities in Israel.” (Source: Jerusalem Post)

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