Rivlin Calls for Special Task Force to Counter Arab Propaganda

Ambassador David Rivlin, the Consul General of Israel in New York, called on the Jewish community here today to create “a public relations task force” to help counter increasing Arab propaganda activities. Rivlin told a press conference that Arab propaganda has grown “in zeal and determinations since the Yom Kippur War. He said the Arabs are expected to spend $200 million for propaganda in the U.S. and Canada during the next few years while Israel’s information activities abroad are being reduced because of the government’s economic austerity program.

“We have to cope with this challenge,” Rivlin said. He said the Jewish community in New York. the largest of any city in the world, does not have a public relations organization which is urgently needed. He said his proposed “task force” would serve as an umbrella organization to coordinate public relations activities on behalf of Israel. He suggested that it could be set up under the aegis of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Rivlin said that Israel’s information efforts also could be helped by prominent persons sympathetic to Israel’s cause who could disseminate information from various platforms and through the media and by a “network of organizations” representing the professions, the clergy, women’s and youth groups.

The Consul General also called for help to Israel in the economic sphere. He urged a buy-Israel campaign, observing that if every Jew in New York were to spend $1 a week to purchase Israel-made merchandise, his nation’s hard-pressed economy would benefit. He said that purpose could also be achieved by increased tourism to Israel. He urged would-be tourists not to submit to threats by Arab terrorists. Rivlin added that a great deal could be done to increase aliya beyond the 3000 Americans who immigrated to Israel in 1974.