Diplomacy: Memorializing Shlomo Argov

was from Jerusalem [he was a seventh-generation Jerusalemite], this place had the right values. Reichman helped
to make [the Argov Fellows] a reality. He put together a team of people, dedicated resources to it. He is unusual,
because there are a lot of visionaries operating at 30,000 feet, and a lot of people who are tacticians operating down
here. There are very few people who can do both. He's a visionary who makes things happen, and I have a lot of
respect for that. Look at this place. There was nothing here 12 years ago.
What were your goals in starting the program?
This is a small step to make sure some good people end up in a position to make a difference in the future. We want
this group to be an elite group, to think of themselves as an elite unit and to feel a sense of mission and purpose.
And we want to give them the tools to carry out that mission.
That mission is hasbara or "public diplomacy?"
Israel has always had challenges explaining its policies and rationale for existence to a large part of the world. What
is different today is that the world of the media has become instantaneous, and the resources available to groups
and countries dedicated to the defamation and destruction of Israel have grown exponentially. The money behind
those people, the networks, the press... this has an impact over time. It's not just what [Iranian President Mahmoud]
Ahmadinejad says. It's a whole vortex of money, technology and innuendo and lies that come together to create a
perfect storm in which Israel is a colonial power, Zionism is racism, Israel is an apartheid state. If you take it to the
extreme, there was no Holocaust. But you don't have to go there. So I think hasbara, which has always been
challenging, is more so today.
Can the instantaneity of modern global media convey Israel's message properly? What can your 20
students, the first batch starting this year, actually do?
Contact with intelligent, forceful, eloquent spokespeople has an impact, especially on US college campuses where
there's a tremendous amount of anti-Israel sentiment by the Left. Much of Western Europe is an important venue.
You have to start at the micro level, to create the ingredients that help make positive change happen. Every one of
these kids who's going to come out of this program is another ingredient in this process. Some of them are going to
end up in government, some of them as diplomats, some of them businesspeople. [In the year-long program] they're
going to get a whole tool basket that will help them be effective spokespeople for the Jewish people. Our story is not
that complicated. It's a story of 2,000 years of exile; a return to our national home; a desire to compromise on
virtually everything in 1947; the lack of desire of the Arabs to do the same; an unfortunate occupation of land since
1967 which has really not helped.
Why is it so important to convince the world we're right?
Ultimately, the underpinnings of support for the State of Israel are at stake. We're living in a very interdependent
world today. Israel has always been dependent on the kindness of strangers. Without American support, over the
past 25 or 35 years, we would have been in a very different spot. That's the reality. My father knew this well. We
don't need to beg for help from outsiders. Israel is perfectly capable of providing for itself. But explaining ourselves in
an intelligent fashion is very important. Public opinion counts around the world. It makes a difference. You mentioned
the "occupation since 1967." Where do you stand politically? I would say I'm a security-minded realist. I do not
believe that Israel can or should hold on to a lot of this territory. I think that story doesn't hold water, unless we really