'Waging A War of Words', Total Politics

Thursday, May 21, 2009

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As Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu's international media spokesman, Mark Regev has one of the toughest public relations jobs in world politics. He talks to James Silver.

Heat shimmers from the pavements on a sun-drenched Monday morning in Jerusalem. In the empty lobby of a high-rise hotel, a short walk from the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, a lone security guard rifles through bags, waving visitors through.

The coffeeshop is deserted too, apart from a pair of Orthodox Jews, who sip coffee in shirt-sleeves, talking loudly over piped pop music, their heavy black coats draped over the chairs beside them.

Then, a few minutes ahead of schedule, a sharply dressed man arrives, stooping to gather a pile of newspapers. He has closely cropped brown, greying hair, brushed forward, and, even from a distance, a familiar face. His name is Mark Regev and he has just been confirmed as incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman for the international media - a post he also held under former PM, Ehud Olmert.

With special responsibilities in the areas of national security, defence, foreign affairs and the peace process, Regev has become the face - and voice - of the Israeli government to millions of TV viewers around the world, particularly at times of war. "Usually when I'm out there talking on TV, it's bad news," he has said of his appearances before the cameras.

Arguably, 49-year-old Regev has one of the toughest public relations jobs in world politics. For many Muslims around the globe - and large numbers on the western liberal left - Israel has become something of a pariah state, which, it is claimed, occupies Palestinian land illegally and enforces its agenda, in a volatile region, with an iron fist.

When its three week offensive in Gaza flared last January - and throughout the Lebanon conflict with Hezbollah in June 2006 - it was Regev who argued Israel's corner vociferously, on the airwaves and in the press. It's a job which has made the government spokesman a hate figure in some quarters; vilified by bloggers, pilloried on YouTube and Facebook (where there is even a group with 393 members entitled "Mark Regev, you are a lying sack of shit").

To a British audience, he is best known for his numerous and bruising appearances on heavyweight news shows including Radio 4's Today, BBC2's Newsnight, and Channel 4 News. Indeed, one encounter with the latter's Jon Snow during the Gaza conflict has become a cult hit on YouTube.

So what does Regev make of Britain's combative broadcasting culture? "Professionally, those sorts of interviews can be very exhilarating," he replies.

"It's the media's job to ask probing questions. It's my job to defend my country and my government. I'd say that Israeli domestic politics is as tough, if not tougher than UK domestic politics, so I'm used to it. We also have a very aggressive media culture here - perhaps even more so than the British media."

However, while he's relaxed about robust interviews, he says he does have a major reservation about the way the UK and international media cover Israel. "Because Israel, like the UK, is a pluralist,democratic, largely transparent and imperfect society, it is very easy for an international journalist to work here," he says.

"He just has to go through the Israeli press in the morning. Like Britain, we are a self-critical society with a very critical media. You walk down the street in Tel Aviv with a TV camera and you'll get a cacophony of opinion, much of it anti- government, because that's the nature of Israeli political culture. So for the foreign media we are open and there in all our glorious imperfections for everyone to see every day."

He pauses significantly. "But we are in conflict with societies which have a much lower level of transparency and openness."

As an example, he cites the way TV crews covered the first anniversary of the war with Hezbollah. "In the summer of 2007, camera crews and reporters from all the big TV networks were going out and speaking to people in the north of the country, asking them how they felt a year on from the war," he recalls.

"Israelis being Israelis, they complained about the government. 'They haven't fixed the bomb shelters...' and 'the army should have finished the job...' or 'I'm scared...' They said those kinds of things.

"Yet, when the camera crews went to communities in south Lebanon, everyone they interviewed said they just loved [Hezbollah leader] Nasrallah," he says.

"No one had any criticism, they all blamed Israel. So there's a difference in political and media culture, but also a difference in fundamental freedoms. If you're someone living in south Lebanon in territory controlled by Hezbollah, are you going to criticise them to an international reporter who's gone a few hours later? If a foreign journalist visits Hamas-controlled Gaza, can people he's interviewed really be honest when they're living under a violent, authoritarian regime?"

Regev serves as media liaison on one of the busiest news patches on earth. Several international broadcasters -including the BBC - have 'hub' bureaux here and Jerusalem serves as a regional base for covering the entire Middle East.

On an average day there are some 400 journalists based in the city, but when fighting breaks out in hot spots, that number can quickly quadruple. During such crises, Regev can find himself being interviewed on TV and radio stations around the world, around the clock.

"To be an effective prime ministerial spokesman you need to know the issues inside and out," he explains. "You also need to have good access inside government. I sit in on Cabinet meetings and security briefings. You have to know the stuff journalists don't know."

On a typical day, Regev wakes up to Israeli radio's equivalent to the Today programme and scours the Israeli press. When he reaches the offi ce, he checks the Middle East sections of the New York Times and the Washington Post web sites.

Then he turns to the "big five British papers" - The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Independent. "I go straight to their Middle East pages and see what they've written about us," he says.

"Reading the British press is very important. They follow the story very closely, and the British media is international. You'll see a story in the UK press that is repeated in Australia, South Africa, all over the world. And of course the BBC is a global network too. So I take the British media very seriously and I know all the correspondents based here personally."

When set against other troublespots around the world, from Sri Lanka to Sudan, some argue that the Israel- Palestine confl ict is over-reported, receiving too much attention from the British media. Does Regev agree?

Ever the silky smooth diplomat, he demurs. "I don't see myself as a theatre critic for the British media," he sniffs, evading the question, determined not to offend any of the reporters on his patch. "It's my job to work with them, and often when I have a criticism I'll make it directly to the journalist in question. And they tend to take my complaints seriously because I don't complain about every point I disagree with."

But does he think elements of the UK media are biased against Israel, as some in the British Jewish community claim? Again, he pulls his punches, choosing to rephrase the question himself.

"Do people in Europe look at our conflict with the Arab world through the paradigm of the European colonial experience; with Israel as the colonial power and the Palestinians as the indigenous people fighting for rights?"

He leaves his question unanswered, yet it's plain he believes this to be the case. "Of course, if you transfer that perspective onto our conflict then it's clear that Israel is going to be in the wrong, that maybe it shouldn't be here in the first place and that anything the Arabs do - even the most horrendous terrorist attacks - are justifi able because it's against a colonial structure."

On a trip to London at the tail-end of last year, Regev - then spokesman for Prime Minister Olmert - indicated that there might soon be some signifi cant developments in the peace process. Soon afterwards hope fizzled out as the Gaza offensive was launched by Israel in retaliation for continued rocket attacks by Hamas.

Does he hold out any hope for the peace process in the coming months? "It's true that the previous Prime Minster did hope very sincerely for a breakthrough before he left office, but it proved to be impossible," he says ruefully. "Now we've got a new Israeli government and a new American President. So let's see what 2009 brings."

One thing 2009 may bring - if you believe some international commentators and defence analysts - is a possible attack by Israel, perhaps supported by the US, on Iran's nuclear facilities. If so, it will be Regev who faces the world's press to justify the decision by his bosses.

What is the latest message from incoming PM Netanyahu? "I don't think anyone can overstate the seriousness with which we view the Iranian nuclear programme." He pauses gravely. "I think I'll leave it at that."

When pressed on how he plans to prepare the foreign media for a possible attack, he replies: "Without getting into policy, from a PR point of view, every time [Iranian president] Ahmadinejad opens his mouth to deny the Holocaust or talk about the Zionists controlling the media, or how there are no gays in Iran, he exposes himself to be extreme and hateful. He does our job for us and there is greater understanding around the world for the Israeli position."

The phoney war, it can be surmised from Regev's carefully chosen words, is already well underway.

James Silver associate editor of Total Politics

Posted by James Silver - On Thursday, May 21, 2009

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