Pristine Through Knowledge

Branding Israel as a Nation of Knowledge

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2 INTRODUCTION

3 CONTEXT AND IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM

3.1 Political Situation In Israel

3.2 Problem on the UCSD Campus (BDS Movement, Anti-Apartheid Week)

4 CRITIQUE OF POLICY OPTIONS

4.1 Critique of Current Nation Branding Strategies

4.1.1 Overview of previous nation branding strategies

4.1.2 Nation branding must be private

4.1.3 Knowledge branding may emphasize Israel’s efforts at peace

4.2 Critique of UCSD Hillel’s Nation Branding Strategy

4.2.1 Hillel must develop a stronger offensive.

4.2.2 Hillel must form non Jewish coalitions

4.2.3 Hillel must emphasize their stance on peace

5 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Israel Should be Branded As a Knowledge-Based Economy

5.2 Israel’s Environmental Achievements Receive International Acclaim

5.2.1 Drip irrigation

5.2.2 Wastewater management

5.2.3 Desalination

5.3 Nation Brand Marketing Strategy

5.3.1 The nation brand model

5.3.1.1 Table: The Nation Brand Model: Pristine Through Knowledge

5.4 Various Tactics for a Hillel Campaign

5.4.1 Going on the offensive

5.4.1.1 Hillel must point a stronger finger at anti-semitism

5.4.1.2 Israel must better advertise her knowledge

5.4.1.3 Hillel must form more coalitions

5.4.2 Going on the defensive

5.4.3 Timing

5.5 Proposed Hillel campaign

5.5.1 Israel’s knowledge is win-win

5.5.2 Student’s interests line up with Israel’s essence

5.5.3 Hillel will form coalitions with environmental and high tech groups

5.5.4 Hillel will form a relationship with the news media

5.6 Campaign recommendations

5.6.1 Hillel already engages in an offensive strategy

5.6.2 Developing the online community

5.6.3 At the UCSD’s iFest series, coalition events will include students’ designs in water innovation

5.6.4 During Apartheid Week, Israeli partners will present how Israeli water technologies help Palestinians

5.6.5 Year-round, Hillel will form coalitions

5.6.6 Hillel will stay ahead with social media and by updating the news media of upcoming social, cultural, educational, and coalition events

6 SUMMARY

7 SOURCES CONSULTED OR RECOMMENDED

8 APPENDIX: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS (not included on this page)

8.1 Transcript of Interview with Political Communications Professor at IDC, Dr. Gadi Wolfsfeld (2 June, 2015)

8.2 Transcript of Interview with Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to the UCSD Hillel, Edi Mesoznikov (4 June, 2015)

8.3 Transcript of Interview with Director of the IDC Hillel, Nilli Glick Asaf (9 June, 2015)

8.4 Transcript of Interview with JSU President at UCSD, Eric Palonsky (11 June, 2015)

8.5 Transcript of Interview with Social Networks Analysis Professor at IDC, Dr. Tsahi Hayat (11 June, 2015)

Copyright © Tal Feldblum

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1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Israel rapidly advances in science, technology, and business, surpassing most western countries. Israel’s international trade and financial flows are excellent: binational trade in defense, electronics, and scientific goods with Asia, Europe, and the Americas continue to increase.

Israel’s political image is tarnished by the animosity of her Muslim neighbors and the growing anti-semitism in many western countries (Gordon, 2015; Mandel, 2015; Navon, 2015; Shamah, 2015; Times of Israel Staff & AFP, 2015). The BDS campaign in western Europe and some college campuses in North America has not much affected trade and investment with Israel, but it is pushing some countries to support policies inimical to Israel. Even symbolic polies, such as the Vatican’s recognition of a Palestinian State (Reuters, 2015), may sway devout Catholics to withhold support from Israel. Divestment resolutions on university campuses are combined with anti-Israel events to create a climate of hate (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015; Shamah, 2015).

Israel has more natural allies than enemies. On college campuses, more students value science, technology, and the environment than the siren of Palestinian statehood. Many fundamentalist Christian groups in the Americas, Africa, and parts of Asia are appalled by the persecution of their co-religionists in Muslim countries and cherish Israel as a holy nation.

Innovative nation branding will help Israel succeed in a hostile world. Israel can build on its success in science, technology, and environmental issues to build coalitions with other groups and demonstrate its value to other countries and its service to all people. Hillel houses on college campuses would provide both support for Jewish students and joint activities with non-Jewish groups that support science and technology and wish a more ecologically friendly environment.

“Pristine through Knowledge,” the theme of our branding campaign, combines the purity of natural earth with scientific advances creating a better world. We use Israel’s three pillars of innovative and environmental water technologies to illustrate the nation branding: wastewater recycling, drip irrigation, and reverse osmosis desalination. The combined effect of Israel’s water innovations has turned Israel’s drought into a water surplus, and her technologies are sought by governments and water companies worldwide.

Jews have suffered anti-semitism for millennia, and peace between Israel and its neighbors is hard to maintain. Anti-semites cling to imagined sins of Israel and ignore global conflicts with worse human rights violations (Jacobovici, 2015). The nation branding strategy should improve Israel’s image in the global community and offset the poisonous efforts of anti-semitic groups.

2 INTRODUCTION

Israel’s image as valiant David defeating terrorist Goliaths plays well in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, as evinced by improved relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other countries threatened by radical groups, but it is less effective among European and American progressive groups who disparage military might (Wilson, 2015).

Israel’s image as a start-up nation plays well in Asia and Eastern Europe, as evinced by surging trade with India, China, and other entrepreneurial nations, but it irks European and American cultural elites who fear free markets and capitalist success. Even if western Europe is blinded by the anti-semitism of its Muslim immigrants, it provides the power of NGO’s, BDS, and the global media bias against Israel (Gordon, 2015; Mandel, 2015; Navon, 2015; Shamah, 2015; Times Of Israel Staff & AFP, 2015).

Some say that no good deed by Israel goes unpunished, and that perverted justice cannot be redeemed. This view is unduly sour. To counter this misperception, the branding of Israel’s image to fit the environmental concerns of advanced western nations may work to turn Israel from pariah to savior.

Israel’s water resource expertise portrays a pristine Earth contaminated by an exploding human population but restored by conservation, recycling, and efficient conversion of ocean waters.

Brand names are not constructed ex nihilo by government bureaucracies or academic proposals. They must reflect the products produced by Israel and desired by European and American consumers (Risen, 2005).

All nations portray themselves as children of Earth. Savvy consumers judge nations by differences in their performance (Gertner & Kotler, 2004; Hassman, 2008; Avraham, 2009). Israel’s image must reflect the environmental benefits of her products relative to those of other countries.

Some fear that Western academic and media elites will not listen even to Israel's innovative technologies that help the West or developing countries if they do not also benefit Palestinians. (G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015). Many Palestinians do not recognize Israel's right to exist and prefer terrorist groups (such as Hamas) who seek to destroy Israel. Whereas joint projects with developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and even in parts of the Middle East may help both Israel and her partners, joint projects with Hamas or the Palestinian Authority are sometimes sabotaged before becoming realistic solutions. Israel’s nation branding efforts must compromise between the ideal and the practical.

3 CONTEXT AND IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM

3.1 Political Situation In Israel

Each generation sees the injustices of its day and forgets the passing of older threats. In 1948 Israel’s national image was one of David versus the Goliath of surrounding Arab countries: a place for Jewish immigrants who were building the only democratic country in the region. From 1967 on, Israel won more and more wars and asserted itself as a powerful nation. Media tends to sympathize with the weaker side, and Arab states exploited the victim image of the Palestinians. From 1967 on, Israel became the Goliath (Avraham, 2009).

This generation sometimes fears that Israel is losing a global competition with those who seek to destroy her. They forget how close Israel came to its death against the combined armies of Arab states, supported by the military might of the Soviet Union; how many Jewish lives were lost in wars and terrorist bombings. Israel now is safer than it has ever been, with its old enemies destroyed (Syria, Iraq, Libya), caught in deadly internecine wars (Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia), or quietly at peace (Egypt, Jordan). Even its most implacable foes, such as Hezebollah and Hamas, are trapped in death struggles that leave little threat to Israel.

Israel’s current woes are its image among elite western groups, especially in the media and on college campuses. The 2008 National Brand Index shows a low public perceptions of Israel (Avraham, 2009). U.S.-Israel relations have worsened during the Obama administration, though they may reverse in 2016 (Selzer & Company, 2015; Yaar & Hermann, 2015; YouGov, 2015).

Offsetting these woes are the blossoming international trade and good-will between Israel and most countries in Asia (especially India, China, Hong Kong), Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland), Latin America, and Africa. The media repeats the BDS invective, but many college students are not aware that trade between Israel and the advanced nations (the United States, Canada, western Europe, Australia) of the world flourishes. Even as some politicians support a Palestinian state to appease their Muslim citizens, their countries’ firms and consumers buy Israeli goods, invest in Israeli plants, and admire Israeli technology.

3.2 Problem on the UCSD Campus (BDS Movement, Anti-Apartheid Week)

Hillel houses provide safe environments for Jewish students and links to Israel and the Jewish nation (Newhouse & Blizzard, 2011; American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2015). Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, the founder and president of The Israel Project which co-funded the research explains: “It is critical to get young Jews comfortable enough speaking about Israel that they can do so with their non-Jewish peers” (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2015). College campuses are opportunities for students to learn of Israel’s support of other countries and to intensify their own support of Israel.

The BDS divestment proposals came before UC San Diego’s (UCSD) student government in 2010. The Hillel was unprepared but the director, her staff, and student leaders lobbied members of the student government before the vote. During the pre-vote discussion, some Jewish students were apathetic, some were confused, and a few even supported the BDS proposal. The bill eventually died, primarily because of Hillel’s intense lobbying efforts (Fishkoff, 2010).

During the early years of the UCSD “Israel is Apartheid” week, the Muslim Student Association’s 50-foot apartheid wall along the Library Walk with an integrated TV set blaring anti-Israel images was better planned than Hillel’s (and the pro-Israel student group Tritons for Israel’s) t-shirts with the slogan, “I’m pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, and pro-peace,” and their response seemed meager in relation (Fishkoff, 2010).

Over the recent years, the Hillel at UCSD has grown, and garnered support from local and national Jewish organizations. During “Justice in Palestine Week,” Hillel’s response was prepared. Artists 4 Israel and StandWithUs teamed up with the UCSD Hillel. Artists 4 Israel’s professional graffiti artists filled a wall with colorful images, and invited students to contribute to it with spray paint. Underwhelmed students explained that “this art project evokes a spirit of cooperation and togetherness and the other [apartheid] wall evokes a spirit of conflict” (Hillel San Diego, 2015). StandWithUs created large banners opposite the art wall with factual information about Israel, and handed out pamphlets that call out the misleading and inaccurate information portrayed on the Students for Justice in Palestine’s wall. The Hillel had friendly people there to chat, including Israelis (Hillel San Diego, 2015).

Not only does the UCSD Hillel have a well prepared response during Anti-Apartheid Week, but the Tritons for Israel pro-Israel student group have partnered with a Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to the UCSD Hillel and have started an iFest series in the weeks prior. Their iFest series includes a Yom Hazikaron Memorial with candles and students describing the occasion; a Yom Ha’atzmaut Party with an Israeli DJ, a Krav Maga workshop where students learned about the IDF and the Israeli art of self-defense; a public lecture and private meetings with Ari Shavit, the author of My Promised Land; and an Israeli Culture BBQ with Bedouin tent, Hebrew letter bracelet making, and a hummus making demonstration. The Hillel at UCSD is now partnered with UCSD Associated Students, David Project, ADL, Hasbara, Hillel International, Jewish Federation, IAC, Israel on Campus Coalition, Judaic Studies, JNF, MASA, StandWithUs, Triton Community, University Centers, and ZOA (Hillel San Diego, 2015).

However, the BDS Movement scored a victory two years ago. Their divestment resolution passed in the UCSD AS student government. The Muslim groups and the Justice in Palestine groups had been forming coalitions with minority groups for a long time, without the knowledge of the UCSD Hillel. The BDS support at the student vote surprised the Hillel and caught them off guard. Despite the Hillel’s coalitions with StandWithUs and the David Project who work to educate students about Israel, and Hillel’s coalition with the Nepalese Student Association to help fundraise for those in Nepal who have lost their homes, they were no match against the number of student coalitions on the other side (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015).

4 CRITIQUE OF POLICY OPTIONS

4.1 Critique of Current Nation Branding Strategies

4.1.1 Overview of previous nation branding strategies

Avraham (2009) summarized nation branding campaigns through a multistep model that factored campaigns through source-, message-, and audience-focused strategies. Israel’s image in the west has not improved to a significant degree from their campaigns.

Source focused strategies include Israel’s different levels of cooperation with the news media. Israel has tried cooperation and influence, pressure and censorship, and news media substitutes. The alternative media, including the internet, film industry, and using celebrities and opinion leaders lets Israel present themselves as they wish (Avraham, 2009).

Message focused strategies include different types of campaigns that Israel has run. Israel has directly handled negative media reports by posting images and videos conveying hypocrisies and misinformation in media targeted against them, and by publishing its real peace efforts. Israel has tried softening their image by running campaigns that advertise Israel’s women, children, and immigrants to promote its cultural diversity; and campaigns about sun, beach, and sand as well as campaigns with humor and sports. Israel’s foreign ministry attempts to expand Israel’s image beyond the conflict by advertising Israel’s technological and arts achievements. These campaigns have included branding opposite to stereotypes of the ultra-Orthodox Jew or the IDF soldier or Israel’s military arsenal. Israel has also ridiculed their stereotype by creating campaigns that mock-blow out of proportion the threat of safety in Israel (Avraham, 2009).

Audience-focused strategies that Israel has applied include emphasizing core values they share with the target country, glorifying and honoring cultural symbols they share with the target country, and associating themselves with strong brands (Avraham, 2009).

4.1.2 Nation branding must be private

Nation branding must emerge naturally from the firms that have converted Israel from an arid land to the world’s foremost water manager. These firms focus on research and entrepreneurship. They sell their products world-wide to countries needing cleaner water.

Nation branding is not centralized government bureaucracy creating its own agenda. Effective nation branding publicizes the successes of Israeli firms through magazines, newspapers, conferences, and web sites to Western elites and college students. Nation branding highlights the environmental benefits of global Israeli water management that Western elites and college students consider important.

4.1.3 Knowledge branding may emphasize Israel’s efforts at peace

A government’s function in nation branding is changing policy and national architecture to match its branding promises (Risen, 2005). When real changes occur, private advertising will naturally follow.

Israel has discussed a major desalination project in Gaza, and offers Gazans private desalination training, but lack of funding is keeping the project delayed. Further, the plant could only run on Israel-supplied electricity (Tal & Abu-Mayladec, 2013). Israel is also doubling the amount of water they provide to Gaza to help with their water crisis (JNS, 2015). With an elected terrorist leader that does not recognize Israel in charge in Gaza (Hamas), sending engineering and architectural improvements to this situation may be sabotaged before being brought to reality. When Israeli settlers left Gaza to the Palestinians, they freely gave 5,000 recently built greenhouses that had turned the arid land into agricultural centers. The Hamas leaders destroyed all the greenhouses. Israeli concrete for reconstruction efforts in Gaza is taken by Hamas and turned into tunnels. For now, Israel’s nation branding must reflect its current efforts at private desalination training in and sending more water to Gaza; and its current efforts on the Jordan-Israeli pipeline and Israeli desalination project in Jordan (Tal & Abu-Mayladec, 2013; JNS, 2015; Justice, 2015; Leichman, 2015).

Israel is partnering with Jordan to build a wind- and solar-energy-powered desalination plant on southern Jordan soil that will pipe desalinated water from the Red Sea to Jordan, the West Bank, and Israel (Justice, 2015; Leichman, 2015). This can be accomplished, as Israel and Jordan are at peace. The project may be taken the wrong way if the desalination plant was physically located on Israeli territory as Israel would have control over the taps. And designing high tech architecture in the West Bank may not be possible while Israel and the West Bank are not at peace. Building on Jordanian territory seems like the best and most realistic solution. Further, the west may take to the environmental aspects of these projects. The desalination plant, most of which are fuel powered to boil water water for desalination, will run on wind and solar energy; the high salt-content brine that is generally seen as an environmental issue, as it would possibly ruin ocean floor marine habitats, will be piped to the Dead Sea.

Wolfsfeld (2015) explains that a nation branding campaign for Israel must include Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts to be successful (G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015). The director of the IDC Hillel maintains that a nation branding campaign for Israel may focus elsewhere than the Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts to be successful: such as on Israel’s innovations in technologies and medicine; the Hasbara campaign to teach about Israel; hosting Israeli speakers, ambassadors, scientists, celebrities, musicians, artists, etc; and other tactics (N. Grossman, personal communication, 2015). Whether one view stands higher than the other, it can’t hurt to advertise Israeli innovations that help the Palestinians. Promoting the World Bank funded Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline, the USAID funded wind- and solar-energy-powered desalination plant to be built in Jordan, and Israel’s private desalination education and its pubic doubling of water supplies to Gaza - would be one useful example of advertising how Israel’s technology solutions are sought around the world.

4.2 Critique of UCSD Hillel’s Nation Branding Strategy

4.2.1 Hillel must develop a stronger offensive.

Hillel’s offensive branding strategies have gotten stronger on college campuses over the last decade, as it develops relationships with new educational and lobby organizations allied with Israel such as CAMERA, the David Project, StandWithUs, Zionist Organization of America, and the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015; N. Grossman, personal communication, 2015). While Hillel is not a political organization, it may foster political student groups. These educational Hasbara-type organizations help Hillel’s political student groups combat inaccuracies in the framing of Israel by anti-semitic groups.

These are important relationships. However, Hasbara groups not only need to educate about Israel, but must educate harder about pointing out anti-semitism for what it is. They must enable youngsters to label those who delegitimize Israel for who they are; they must enable youngsters to point out the double standard that Israel is held to compared with the rest of the world (Berteaux, 2015). They must enable students to point to cases where all of Israel’s enemies are violating human rights to an exponentially more harmful degree than those violated by Israel. Education about noticing anti-Zionist statements as anti-semitic and responding on the offense, along with the current education on creating a rational dialogue about Israel, may jolt more students into higher awareness about the global issue surrounding their existence (Jacobovici, 2015).

4.2.2 Hillel must form non Jewish coalitions

Dr. Wolfsfeld (2015) maintains that any campaign that a Hillel wants to run will have a low impact unless the Hillel forms coalitions with student groups and organizations outside of its subsidiaries (G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015). Subsidiary groups to a Hillel are Jewish groups, Zionist groups, and groups whose funding comes from the Hillel or other primarily Jewish or Zionist organizations. Outside groups would be non Jewish organizations and student groups.

In order to brand Israel from the medical-social perspective, the Hillel at the University of Wisconsin at Madison talked about showing a video of Israeli cochlear implant technology helping Bedouin children to a university professor’s class for psychology, hearing, and the brain. At the same university, non Jewish ambassadors to Israel give talks to university students about the benefits Israel provides to their country (N. Grossman, personal communication, 2015). The Hillel at UCSD helped the Nepalese Student Association put on an open-mic and fundraise for the people in Nepal who lost their homes in the recent earthquake (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015).

The Hillel at UCSD must continue this strategy and form more coalitions with non Jewish student groups. One may think that possible groups with whom to form coalitions include those whose values are more aligned with Israel’s than with those of its surrounding countries in the Middle East. LGBT groups, conservative groups, feminist groups, high tech groups, and environmental groups have more in common with Israel than with most Islamist nations. Environmental groups are ubiquitous on the West Coast, and aligning Israel’s essence with such a critical value to this area may be a powerful tool to amplify the Israel brand.

The director of Hillel at IDC Herzliya claims that one aspect of a good strategy involves forming coalitions with all student groups, independent of the proximity of their values to Israel’s: any coalition would open a dialogue (N. Grossman, personal communication, 2015). Dr. Wolfsfeld gives an example of an improbable coalition from the film Pride that is based on the 1980’s strike against Margaret Thatcher and the minors. The conservative minors lived in back-counties in Britain and hated gay people. But the gays fundraised for the minors and the two groups formed a coalition. Dr. Wolfsfeld suggests a simulated peace conference, such as those put together by Herbert Kelman at Harvard. The pro-Israel and pro-Palestine student groups would present their positions and negotiate a peace settlement (G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015).

Students for Justice in Palestine groups pass divestment resolutions by forming coalitions with all the minority student groups, and the effect is that this makes student life harder for Jews on campus (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015). The Hillel at UCSD explains that their primary mission is to make sure crises like BDS and apartheid week do not take away from the Hillel’s overall mission of helping students develop a well-rounded Jewish identity: Jewish life on campus can’t just be about fighting divestment (Fishkoff, 2010). Hillel is correct: there must be a vibrant Jewish community outside pro-Israel efforts. The JSU president at UCSD enjoys the Hillel’s open atmosphere to the Jewish culture as opposed to tribalizing different Jewish sects (E. Palonsky, personal communication, 2015). But in order for Jewish students to feel less overwhelmed by anti-semitic attacks, the Hillel Organization must re-organize pro-Israel tactics higher in the hierarchy of their primary mission.

Israel sends aid and exports its technology around the world; Hillel can mirror Israel’s essence and support non Jewish student groups. The Hillel at UCSD has done this with the Nepalese Student Association (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015). This tactic must be leveraged harder by Hillel. If Hillel copies this tactic for other student groups, divestment resolutions in the student government may be harder to pass.

4.2.3 Hillel must emphasize their stance on peace

Hillel should take a defensive strategy in tangent with a stronger offensive. A defensive strategy would be to show that Hillel is committed to peace in Israel. In previous political environments, pro Israel groups were naturally on the side of the Israeli government. Nowadays, the political environment has allowed for more differences of opinion while still supporting the existence of the state of Israel (N. Grossman, personal communication, 2015). On some campuses J Street is at odds with Hillel’s strategy; on others, J Street works with Hillel. The UCSD student group Tritons for Israel’s t-shirts with the slogan, “I’m pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, and pro-peace,” are a good example of the stand Hillel’s student groups must take (Fishkoff, 2010).

The U.S.’s long-term commitment to Israel is based on Israel’s commitment to peace, and in order to gain higher ground in coalition building and public opinion the Hillel must reflect Israel’s intent (Lee, 2015; Steele, 2015). The Hillel may demonstrate how Israel is helping Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and advertise their humanity and desire for peace (G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015).

Importantly, this defensive strategy may be futile in a vacuum. Human rights violations are devastatingly worse in other locations, yet the world focuses on Israel as the primary issue. This is clearly a case of anti-semitism. A defensive strategy by itself is pandering to anti-semites who will never change their stance in desiring Israel’s nonexistence. Israel must use offensive branding strategies in tangent with defensive efforts.

5 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Israel Should be Branded As a Knowledge-Based Economy

Water shortages in the Middle East are fully documented by Daniel Pipes. His site (http://www.danielpipes.org/) provides references to each country’s problems. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has overcome its water shortages by conservation, recycling, and technology (Williams, 2009; Megersa & Abdulahi, 2015; Pipes, 2015).

“Growth of knowledge is the overwhelming explanation for economic growth” (Dopfer & Potts, 2008). Economic growth per capita was zero (on average) throughout the world until 18th century Europe. Growth was low until the Industrial Revolution (reflecting mostly additional land), and has then been followed by the accumulation of capital in the advanced western societies at about 1% to 2% per annum. After World War II, growth in the United States accelerated to 3% per annum. Dopfer and Potts (2008) explain that “growth of knowledge is the overwhelming explanation for economic growth.” Since the 1970s, economic growth from science, knowledge, and technology has replaced traditional growth from accumulation of land and capital (Dopfer & Potts, 2008). Tiger economies of Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore surged from 1970 to 1990, powered by technology, efficient production, and automation (Cortright, 2001).

The effect of technology on economic growth is often called endogenous growth theory. Endogenous means internally generated: the growth comes from the knowledge generated by the economy, not from outside sources (such as population growth, conquest of other countries, or capital investment) (Barro & Sala-i-Martin, 2004). Knowledge is the engine now powering economic growth, best reflected in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, with secondary centers in a few other places, such as Boston, Switzerland, and the Asian tiger economies.

Economic growth thrives in free countries; it is extinguished by centralized control, whether in communist countries or in overly-regulated social democratic countries. Growth has slowed to a standstill in Western Europe and much of the United States. Western Europe now looks to Israel for water management knowledge. The Wall Street Journal recently compared Israeli versus California regulation of water desalination plants, showing why California now lags far behind Israel (Finley, 2015).

Israel and Gaza illustrate the difference in freedom. When Israeli settlers left Gaza to the Palestinians, they freely gave 5,000 recently built greenhouses that had turned the arid land into agricultural centers. The Palestinians destroyed all the greenhouses. They elected terrorists as their leaders, who turned Gaza into thousands of cesspools. From the western media, it sounds like Israel imprisoned Gazans in a hell house. On the contrary: Israel provided greenhouses completely free of sewage; Gazans destroyed every greenhouse and flooded their land with sewage (Tal Abu-Mayladec, 2013).

The Middle East is the cradle of Western civilization: The three great monotheistic religions stem from Jewish ancestors. Agriculture, writing, and nation-states began in the fertile crescent, especially the Euphrates River in present day Iraq.

The Middle East was once pristine, giving birth to our civilization, but 4,000 years of human conquest have despoiled the land. In the 70 years since its re-founding, Israel has turned its own desert into an oasis, by the knowledge of its settlers and scientists. Now Israel is turning the deserts of the world into oases, sharing its knowledge with all mankind. This is the prophecy of Isaiah: Israel shall be a light onto the nations.

5.2 Israel’s Environmental Achievements Receive International Acclaim

Water Management Has Three Prongs: Drip-Irrigation, Waste-Water Treatment, and Desalination. Malthus foresaw a starving world as a growing population exceeds the food supply; others fear similar exhaustion of minerals, energy, and even clean air. Human ingenuity offset the Malthusian doom: food, energy, minerals, and clean air are more plentiful now than ever before.

Water is a disastrous exception: the Middle East, much of Asia, and parts of Europe and the Americas are running out of fresh water (CBSLA, 2015). The fault is human despoliation and over-use. The earth has thousands of fresh water rivers and lakes, but humans deplete nature’s bounty by flooding crops and contaminating lakes and rivers with their waste (Worth, 2010; Tal & Abu-Mayladec, 2013; Masood, 2015; Pipes, 2015).

Israel’s water management systems - alone in the world - have reversed human depredation. Israel was once a parched land, where our forefathers wandered, digging wells, and sojourning for years in Jordan or Egypt to find water. California was once a wine and surfing paradise. Now California is mired in drought while Israel - the world’s most efficient user of water - has a surplus (Odenheimer & Nash, 2014; Haaretz, 2015).

Water management has three parts: conserve, purify, and convert (Netafim, 2007; Israel NewTech, 2014). Conserve agricultural use by drip irrigation, eliminating waste from flooding and sprinklers and reducing chemical fertilizers. Purify waste-water efficiently, minimizing energy use while eliminating human residues. Desalinate ocean water by using energy-efficient (reverse osmosis) techniques. Israel’s drinking water in major cities is pure, even though it is desalinated and often recycled.

5.2.1 Drip irrigation

Drip irrigation is environmentally friendly: water is not wasted, soil is not washed away, no pumps require energy, and fertilizer mixed with the drops increase yields with minimal damage to land and animals (Netafim, 2007; Israel NewTech, 2014; Megersa & Abdulahi, 2015; Untold News, 2015).

Israel has exported its drip irrigation technology to 137 developing and first world countries, including Australia, South Africa, Ukraine, Thailand, Japan, India, New Zealand, Myanmar, Egypt, the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, California, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, the UK, the Netherlands, Turkey, Russia, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden (http://www.netafimlegacy.com/, https://www.netafim.com/Knowledge%20Center). Early Zionists made the desert bloom in Israel; Israel now makes deserts bloom throughout the world (Colombant, 2009; Kenya CitizenTV, 2009; Kumar & Palanisami,2010; Bhattacharyya, 2013; Shamah, 2013).

The world’s water is running out, and farmers seek more efficient irrigation. But even farmers using drip irrigation are not always aware that Israel is the source of their technology (Shamah, 2013). Branding Israel as the engine saving the world’s water paints Israel as the environmental icon.

5.2.2 Wastewater management

Waste-water treatment (WWT), or sewage recycling, is the most environmentally friendly source of water. Even progressive Western elites hesitate to use recycled sewage (Odenheimer & Nash, 2014). But sewage is 99.8% water; if we contaminate this water, we should clean it. Sending untreated sewage into rivers or lakes pollutes drinking water and causes cholera. (Worth, 2010; Tal & Abu-Mayladec, 2013; Lemon & Daniel, 2015; Masood, 2015; Pipes, 2015).

Israel recycles 70%-80% of its sewage (the highest percentage in the world); Spain’s 30% is second. Most countries recycle less than 5% (Pipes, 2015). Israel’s Shafdan sewage treatment was cited by the UN as a model of environmental policy: The sewage is treated on-site, before most sludge forms. The treatment is energy efficient, minimizing energy loss and climate change. The facility which receives wastewater from 23 cities in the Dan region covers 125 acres and is operated by less than 50 employees. The treatment purifies the sewage better than methods used in other countries. Microorganisms digest organic materials in the sewage and special ventilators generate oxygen-saturated areas to accelerate the digestion process. The extracted waste is converted to industrial use. Oils and fats are recycled to industrial plants, and sludge is mixed with coal ash and lime to produce fertilizer. The purified water is further purified by natural sand, eliminating residues of medicines. The natural purification by sand takes 400 days, as the water drips down 100 feet of sand, and then is pumped back up. The Shafdan is a national source of pride and attracts government officials, environmentalists, and students from around the world who want to use Israeli technologies in their own countries (Galfund, 2014). Israeli experts also travel abroad to establish wastewater treatment plants in Argentina, Africa, India, Asia, and Europe (http://www.mekorot.co.il/).

An Israeli water treatment firm is working with the Netherlands. One city’s sewage is being treated first, and more locations will follow. The ultimate goal is to treat all sewage in the Netherlands (PR Newswire, 2013). Similar projects are underway in France, Canada, and Mexico (Environmental Leader, 2015). A norwegian firm partnered with Israel in recycling their oil barges into portable wastewater treatment and desalination plants (Udasin, 2015). The role reversal is ironic. The Netherlands is the cradle of banking and capitalism. Modern society was born in the Netherlands (Jensen et al., 1896). Israel, reborn 70 years ago, now provides the scientific knowledge to guide the Netherlands.

Sewage recycling is ideal for the environment. Consumers approve of paper, metal, and plastic recycling: books from recycled paper, cans from recycled aluminum, and bags from recycled plastic. Consumers do not want to drink water recycled from wastes or eat vegetables irrigated with recycled water (Odenheimer & Nash, 2014). Israel’s 70% to 80% recycling rate required a change in consumer behavior to using recycled water. The recycling methods purify the water and minimize the sludge at low cost. Israel is the global leader in all three areas: Purest water output; Sludge converted into raw materials for industrial use; Minimum cost (Galfund, 2014).

5.2.3 Desalination

700 million people worldwide do not have access to enough clean water. In 10 years this number is expected to increase to 1.8 billion people (Talbot, 2015). Two thirds of the earth’s surface is water. The large oceans are miles deep. However, ocean water is salty. Drinking salt water makes one more thirsty, not less thirsty. Salt water is deadly to a person dying of thirst. Water for drinking, irrigation, and washing is fresh water, from rivers, many lakes, wells (underground aquifers), and rainfall.

The first methods of converting salt water to fresh water were inefficient. Boiling salt water to separate the fresh water (steam) from the remaining brine uses too much energy.

Osmosis means that liquids cross permeable membranes to form similar concentrations. If salt water and fresh water are separated by a permeable membrane, they will seep through the membrane until both parts are half salt water and half fresh water.

An Israeli scientist invented reverse osmosis. With special membranes and sufficient energy, the mixed salt would separate into fresh water and brine (highly salty water) (Untold News, 2015). Today's membranes are 20x more efficient and 1/5 the cost of the first membranes tested in the 1950s (Pyper, 2014). Early reverse osmosis plants used too much energy for commercial applications. Israeli technology has reduced the energy use about 80% (Pyper, 2014).

The largest Israeli plants are now extremely efficient. Four mega desalination facilities in israel convert sea water into potable drinking water and contribute to 40% of Israel’s water supply. In fact, because Israel now treats and recycles 80% of its wastewater, the government has curbed production at the major desalination facilities, and 30% of their desalinated seawater is un-bought and used as an insurance policy against any future extreme drought (Talbot, 2015).

Desalination by reverse osmosis with energy-efficient technique can solve the earth’s water shortage. California stretches along the Pacific Ocean; desalination gives it all the water it needs. IDE Technologies exports its desalination technologies and manufactures entire desalination buildings to be shipped to other countries. IDE has recently closed a deal with a private water company in the USA to build and maintain a desalination plant that will help with the current drought in southern California (Odenheimer & Nash, 2014; CBSLA, 2015; Finley, 2015; Haaretz, 2015).

Desalination faces two hurdles in some western nations.

(1) Desalination uses energy, increasing CO₂ emissions and perhaps contributing to climate change. Advocates of desalination say that the energy use and potential climate change are less serious than the potential lack of drinking water or lack of fruits and vegetables (which need water for irrigation). Critics of desalination say that waste water treatment is more environmentally friendly (CBSLA, 2015).

(2) Desalination leaves brine, which must be buried underground or flushed back into the ocean. Advocates of desalination say that the oceans are so large that the brine flushed back does not harm the environment. Critics of desalination say that the brine may damage the earth’s ecology (Odenheimer & Nash, 2014; CBSLA, 2015; Finsley, 2015).

Efforts to build desalination plants in California are stymied by environmental groups, who want to reduce human population and the fresh vegetables that use so much water (Odenheimer & Nash, 2014). Desalination plants in Saudi Arabia are inefficient and poorly constructed. They emit too much brine and cause permanent damage to the ecology (Todorova, 2009).

Israeli technology can solve the world’s water problems. Land, labor, and capital (machines) are rivalrous: if one firm uses the land, labor, or capital, other firms can not use them. Land, labor, and capital have decreasing returns. The first worker on a plot of land may produce 100 bushels; the second worker produces 90; the third worker produces 70; and so forth.

Technology (ideas, knowledge) is not rivalrous: it is a blue ocean strategy. Other nations can adopt Israeli water management with no loss to Israel: a win-win game. Technology has increasing returns as people learn from the existing ideas to invent better methods (Cortright, 2001; Dopfer & Potts, 2008). The first desalination plant was inefficient. Each subsequent plant became more efficient.

5.3 Nation Brand Marketing Strategy

5.3.1 The nation brand model

The brand architecture has a parent brand and three sub-brands. The parent brand is Nation of Knowledge. This parent brand associates Israel’s comparative advantage (knowledge) with the values prized by peoples of each region. Sub-brands are: Pristine through Knowledge, Strength through Knowledge, and Quality through Knowledge. The nation brand model illustrated in the table below is the Pristine through Knowledge sub-brand, that is geared toward Western elites.

The parent brand associates Israel with knowledge. For Christians and Jews, Israel is the source of knowledge. There are 1.5 to 2 billion Christians world-wide (North America, Latin America, Africa, Europe). This traditional association will not be emphasized in this policy report, since the elite college student audience of the Hillel brand may not subscribe to this view. The branding in this report relates knowledge to three other characteristics of Israel.

For developing countries, Israel embodies scientific quality. The nation brand model for developing countries would be Quality Through Knowledge. The major audience for this brand is eastern Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia.

For people under threat, Israel offers security and military engineering. The nation brand model for people under threat would be Strength Through Knowledge. The major audience for this brand is Africa, Asian tigers, and parts of the Middle East. For example, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia envy Israel’s military prowess and ability to curb terrorism. The rise of the Islamic state and the U.S.’s compromises on the Iran nuclear deal are creating pressure for other Middle Eastern countries build their own nuclear programs in one of the most unstable regions in the world. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia may be willing to form alliances with Israel (Wilson, 2015). For these countries, Israel represents strength through knowledge.

For Western elites, Israel exemplifies purifying the environment through knowledge. The nation brand model for Western elites is Pristine through Knowledge, and is primarily discussed in this policy paper. The major audience is the cultural elite in Western Europe and North America.

Israel promotes an image that best resonates with the people of each foreign country. Countries threatened by wars, terrorists, or powerful enemies care about strength through knowledge. Africans are threatened by Islamic groups and civil wars. Latin Americans are threatened by drug gangs, leftist uprisings, and right militias. Asians are threatened by regional power structures (China, India, Russia, and the Asian tigers). These countries admire Israeli military technology.

Developing countries seek rapid growth through scientific progress. They look to Israel for the quality of its entrepreneurial success. They want to improve their economic output as Israel has improved theirs.

Progressive Western elites (college students, media, academics, artists) are: Anti-guns, defense, and military; Anti-capitalism and material wealth; And pro-environment and pristine nature. The sub-brand for a Hillel in southern California stresses pristine, not strength or quality.

Brand personality for Nation Of Knowledge encompasses three subjects: Israel as the source of Western culture; Equal rights; and Restoration. The nation brand model Pristine through Knowledge emphasized in this policy paper fits under Restoration.

Israel as the source of Western culture would be seen through three routes: in an Israel trail shown through Google maps, through the archaeology of David’s reign and of Jesus’s land, and through scientific discoveries of dead sea scrolls.

Israel is an oasis of equal rights in the Middle East. Israel is an example of equal rights by gender (men vs women), sexual orientation (gay vs straight), and immigrants vs native born. Regardless of individuals’ religious customs by gender, Israel’s government supports equal rights by gender and has created a system of civil marriage that excludes the need for a get or the all-male monopoly of the Rabbanut. Israel boasts gay clubs, gay pride parades, and is working to change policy on gay marriage. A 2015 Peace Index finds that while 62% of the Jewish public supports giving equal rights to same-sex couples, 77% of the Arab public oppose doing so (Yaar & Hermann, 2015). Israel is a nation of immigrants of all locations and races, and supports agencies that help each group acculturate.

Israel’s personality of restoration encompasses the restoration of the Hebrew language, the restoration of clean air, and the restoration of purified water. This report deals with restoration of purified water for human use.

The brand symbol of Nation Of Knowledge should be the Israeli flag. The Star of David would have six vertices: Israel, Knowledge, Pristine, Oasis, Strength, Quality. The Star of David within the flag may be replaced with a symbol for each vertice, depending on the target audience. Pristine through Knowledge will have a blue raindrop in between the flag’s blue horizontal stripes.

Israel’s main products are investments and exports. The Pristine through Knowledge nation brand would encourage investments in Israel’s infrastructure (desalination plants, sewage treatment, and irrigation). Israel’s water companies export their knowledge and technology to other nations, cities, or private firms.

5.3.1.1 Table: The Nation Brand Model: Pristine Through Knowledge

5.4 Various Tactics for a Hillel Campaign

There are two main camps in branding Israel: creating offensive strategies that target center and right-wing groups; and creating defensive strategies that may pander to anti-semites within the left-wing. Nation-branding efforts are a means to try to defend against groundless attacks and lies. Israel is not the guilty party that anti-semites try to portray it as. It doesn't help to try to be understanding when somebody is slandering and lying about you. Better to go on the offensive and fight back against the calumny.

5.4.1 Going on the offensive

Offensive strategies include pointing a finger at anti-semitism and advertising Israel’s strengths that help the world.

5.4.1.1 Hillel must point a stronger finger at anti-semitism

Natan Sharansky explains that criticism of Israel passes the line to anti-semitism when it involves the three “D” indicators: demonization, delegitimization, and double standards (Berteaux, 2015; Jerusalem U, 2015; Sharansky, 2004). Pointing a finger at anti-semitism include tactics such as education of the double standard over which Israel is scrutinized; the Jewish evacuation from more and more countries around the world; and pointing out the atrocities of Muslim countries in the Middle East against women, children, gays, and non-Muslims.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the world’s biggest issue despite it claiming under 50,000 lives. In contrast, the civil war in Syria has claimed over a quarter of a million lives in the last four years alone; over half a million people have died in Darfur; about 5 million Africans have died in this past century in the Congo (Jacobovici, 2015).

Three million refugees fled Syria, and 6.5 million more have been displaced. The world does not focus on this. The Jews of Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, and France are disappearing or have disappeared. The world focuses on the fate of those that had to live with them. 90% of the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza are under Arab rule: but the left says that Jews oppress them. While 1.5 million Arabs live in Israel and sit in its Parliament, not a single Jew or un-demolished Jewish cemetery remains under Palestinian rule (Jacobovici, 2015).

Israel must put her enemies on the defensive: Israel must remind the world that Israel’s enemies practice clitorectomy on millions of Arab girls, rape little girls, throw gays off tall buildings; they decapitate those who oppose them, murder minorities, crucify Christians, and destroy archaeology (Jacobovici, 2015).

In pointing a finger at anti-semitism, Hillel must push for academic equality on campuses where professors - who are in levels of power, authority, and credibility - are pushing the anti-Israel agenda. As Hillels are not coerced by professors’ grades, the efforts of their staff would be stronger than student efforts.

5.4.1.2 Israel must better advertise her knowledge

Israel also must advertise that they are innovators in global technologies that work toward a cleaner and more knowledgeable world. American college students are influenced by Israeli prowess in science and technology (Shamah, 2015). This strategy may push Israel’s notable achievements to the forefront of their narrative. Tactics include knowledge branding and coalition building (Gordon, 2015; G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015; Mandel, 2015; Navon, 2015; N. Grossman, personal communication, 2015; Shamah, 2015; Times Of Israel Staff & AFP, 2015).

5.4.1.3 Hillel must form more coalitions

BDS movements across the world gain advocates through their efforts at forming coalitions. Hillels form many coalitions with Jewish organizations and house multiple types of Jewish student groups. Hillels on some campuses are less focused on coalitions with non Jewish student groups, although Hillels at other universities do this well. To ward off divestment resolutions, and help their other efforts in maintaining a pro-Israel and pro-Jewish environment for the students at their university, Hillels should look to build coalitions with more non Jewish groups.

5.4.2 Going on the defensive

Defensive strategies include tactics such as engaging with the anti-semitic left and showing how Israel is helping Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and is committed to peace. Israel branding would establish a platform of efforts for peace.

Defensive tactics may work well if aligned with offensive tactics. Israel branding may show how globally exported Israeli knowledge is also helping the Palestinians.

5.4.3 Timing

When employing defensive and offensive tactics, one must focus on the timing. The Israel response must come prior to divestment campaigns and apartheid weeks. Many campuses work on tactics all year long (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015; N. Grossman, personal communications, 2015).

5.5 Proposed Hillel campaign

5.5.1 Israel’s knowledge is win-win

The proposed Hillel campaign uses a mutually supportive blue ocean strategy (as opposed to a competitive red ocean strategy) and an attractive win win game that displays soft power (instead of a zero sum game that displays hard political and economic powers). Israel has a knowledge economy, and must be branded as such. Israel is the world’s leader in the innovation and integration of water-saving and efficient environmental water technologies, and Israel’s technologies are exported to help other countries. Knowledge economies have no competition: each new technology builds on the one before it and aids the world. This blue ocean strategy takes away from world focus on Israeli Occupation, a red ocean. This branding strategy will mesh with the win win game theory, where all countries win in the end. Further, a win win game theory uses soft power, which naturally attracts other countries interested in advancing their economy and international perception - a direct contrast to strategizing Israel as a hard power which naturally comes up against sanctions.

5.5.2 Student’s interests line up with Israel’s essence

Jewish college students are proud of Israel's technological achievements in healthcare, the environment, and energy (Newhouse & Blizzard, 2011). Israel is ranked fifth in Bloomberg's 2015 Innovation Index - ahead of the US and the UK (Shamah, 2015). Israel's reputation as an environmentally aware high-tech innovator of efficiency and knowledge should be leveraged by university students as a blue ocean strategy and win win game to promote Israel's global image.

5.5.3 Hillel will form coalitions with environmental and high tech groups

The Pristine through Knowledge campaign should be developed in partnership with environmental, agricultural, and high tech groups. The goal is to change the focus of college students - from anti-semitic anger at Israeli success in building their country vs Palestinian failure to create equal opportunities - to Israeli coalitions with developing countries and even some western countries to create sustainable water and other environmental programs.

Coalition groups would organize joint events for related speakers, productions, and demonstrations (G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015; N. Grossman, personal communications, 2015). In the Pristine through Knowledge campaign, environmental coalition groups would partner with the UCSD Hillel when organizing events that display Israel’s innovations in water technology and its global solutions. (Examples are under “5.5.1 Campaign recommendations.”)

In other examples of coalitions that would line up with Israel’s values, LGBT coalition groups would partner with the UCSD Hillel when promoting and putting on filming events for the plight of the gay Jew. Feminist and women’s rights coalition groups would partner with the UCSD Hillel when promoting alternative policy on the Rabbanut’s religious monopoly of divorce. The LGBT and women’s rights groups would partner with the Hillel in the first place because Israel supports the most egalitarian freedoms for women compared with Palestinian women’s rights and women’s rights in every other Muslim country in the Middle East (Jacobovici, 2015). As a defensive strategy, perhaps a UCSD Hillel pro-Israel student group and a Muslim group would create a joint movie night for the plight of the Palestinian and Israeli in love.

5.5.4 Hillel will form a relationship with the news media

Hillel will also form relationships with student media organizations and the general news media, and alert them to their own events, as well as events with whom they are in coalition with. StandWithUs, CAMERA, the David Project, Zionist Organization of America, and the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), similar to education efforts by Jerusalem U, are organizations educated in talking about Israel and breaking down the inaccuracies claimed by Apartheid Week supporters. These professional organizations would provide a powerful educated front in the news media when broadcasting and combating anti-semitism and untruths by Apartheid Week activists. As a defensive strategy during Apartheid Week, the media would include the Hillel’s Pristine through Knowledge presentations of Israel’s cutting edge and environmental contributions to Palestinian water architecture.

Ideally, the environmental benefits of Israeli technology would lead to strong coalitions of Jewish groups with other progressive groups. In practice, anti-semitism blinds some students to any good among Jews, and most Hillel efforts are to sustain normal college life for embattled Jews.

5.6 Campaign recommendations

5.6.1 Hillel already engages in an offensive strategy

Hillels across the USA currently engage in an offensive strategy, and are continually strengthening their efforts. Hasbara groups such as Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), AiPAC, CAMERA, StandWithUs, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the David Project, and others, work to educate on, broadcast, and lobby for the Israel truths. These groups must put more emphasis on pointing out and labeling modern day anti-semitism.

5.6.2 Developing the online community

Pristine through Knowledge would start a well rounded online strategy to advertise Israeli water technologies with a focus on technology as opposed to Israel (Hayat, personal communication, 2015). A social media marketer would create and optimize for SEO a Pristine through Knowledge landing site, and accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Quora, and other social media platforms that have the abilities to relate to high tech, agriculture, and environmentalism (Johnson, 2015).

A social media marketer would then look for relevant information and contacts within the online landscape of high tech, agriculture, water technologies, and environmentalism. The marketer would locate the active people, the opinion leaders, the relevant forums, the relevant terminology and hashtags depending on the platform and forum, and the topics other people are writing about within the field. The social media marketer would monitor content and strategies that were popular in the past and the content that is likely to be accepted and raise interests. The marketer would form relationships with opinion leaders and bloggers in the high tech, agriculture, water technologies, and environmentalism fields, and provide them with relevant information - maybe even footage, videos, and experts who are willing to talk to them - and the social media marketer would do the PR work for the bloggers. Nocamels is a website interested in news about Israeli innovations: a Pristine through Knowledge social media marketer could send content to nocamels, and vice versa (http://nocamels.com/). The social media marketer would research the social media landscape around high tech, agricultural, water recycling and treatment, and environmental innovations, and then implement relevant social marketing strategies per platform and forum. In this way, people would be exposed to Israel through learning about innovative water technology (Hayat, personal communication, 2015).

Wolfsfeld (2015) recommends that Hillel hire a professional PR expert to deal with the marketing, news media, and social media aspect of any nation branding campaign. This can be done on a low budget because of the nature of the global Jewish community. Hillel has many Jewish and pro-Israel allies, and it may not be hard to find funding for such an important position (G. Wolfsfeld, personal communication, 2015).

5.6.3 At the UCSD’s iFest series, coalition events will include students’ designs in water innovation

Pristine through Knowledge would also form coalitions with environmental, agricultural, and high tech student, national, and international groups. Pristine through Knowledge would advertise events, and upload images and videos of its events to their social media pages. A regular update would be called “Did you know?” that would broadcast water technology around the world that was engineered and installed by Israeli water companies.

Design and engineering students from UCSD who have created small-scale water solutions would participate in the UCSD Hillel’s iFest series. The new event would advertise students’ innovative and environmental water technologies for disaster-ridden areas, as Israel is always looking to collaborate with or support academics and professionals in alternative energies and water technology. These projects would be promoted as the types of innovative, environmental, and low-cost technologies that Israel helps with in developing and disaster-ridden areas. This event would advertise water technology in small-scale displays similar to those of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design students. For example, one Bezalel student created a small scale water filtration unit that houses layers of sand, gravel, and healthy bacteria to naturally purify the water (Udasin, 2012). A poster or digital display of the Shafdan wastewater recycling process in Rishon Leziyyon could decorate the stand. Another example is a Bezalel student’s small scale water filtration carrier designed for disaster-ridden areas. Her model is capable of carrying up to 50 liters of water, can filter the water during transport, and has a vacuum pipe to suck up water from a polluted lake for filtration (Udasin, 2012).

In this way, Pristine through Knowledge would further add to UCSD’s iFest series, as well as to other multicultural or high tech events on campus. Included in the events, Hillel would invite ambassadors to present how Israeli water technology has helped their countries.

5.6.4 During Apartheid Week, Israeli partners will present how Israeli water technologies help Palestinians

In a defensive strategy, representatives from global startup water companies in established and developing countries that Israeli water companies have helped would stand with the Hillel during Justice In Palestine Week and present an interactive model of Israel’s water solution. For example, passing students could taste salty water from cups at one end of a desalination model and compare it to the potable water byproduct from cups at the other end. Israeli and Jordanian representatives would present a billboard of the map-location and plant-plans of the Israeli wind- and solar-energy-powered desalination plant on Jordan soil and the Jordan-Israeli Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline - and explain how the project would provide desalinated water to both Palestinians in the West Bank and to Israelis. The desalination plant located in Jordan could be leveraged as the most neutral ground to host the plant. The demonstration will show the plant’s and pipeline’s environmental benefits to the UCSD environmentally-conscious west coast campus, as the plant will be run with alternative energies, and the high salt brine will be piped to Israel’s receding Dead Sea (Justice, 2015; Leichman, 2015).

5.6.5 Year-round, Hillel will form coalitions

In addition, Hillel would form coalitions with university student groups. The Hillel opens its community to all. Hillel can demonstrate this proactively by forming alliances with other student groups and helping with their goals and events.

5.6.6 Hillel will stay ahead with social media and by updating the news media of upcoming social, cultural, educational, and coalition events

Hillel would upload to their website photographs and videos of events with groups they are in coalition with to advertise their active support and fundraising of all types of non Jewish groups. In addition, the Hillel would promote their cultural, social, pro-Israel, and pro-peace events. Hillel would also update the news media when these events are set to occur. A vibrant Jewish life, as well as proactive Jewish support of other groups, would be publicized.

6 SUMMARY

In branding Israel, Hillel must focus on a combination of offensive and defensive strategies to push the Pristine through Knowledge blue ocean and win win game theory strategies. Israel’s private innovation and public integration of all three prongs of high-tech alternative-energy water management strategies is an inspiration to governments, investors, and university students worldwide. Israel is working with countries all over the world in water management, technology, science, and the environment, and these countries (and their people) are gaining respect for Israel.

Hillels continually strengthened their relationships with allied partners and Hasbara organizations to educate about the Israel narrative. However, Hasbara groups must work harder to broadcast and educate about what constitutes as anti-semitism and the double standard against the world’s Jews.

Advertisement of Israel as a knowledge-based economy, stronger Israel and anti-semitism education techniques, more focus on coalition building, and the current social and cultural Hillel programming may not only slow the BDS movement on university campuses, but it may also work to increase the Jewish and center’s perception of the Jewish and Zionist core essence as a light unto nations, and far-reaching narrative of purifying the environment through knowledge and sharing its water efficient technologies with developing countries and the world.

Defensive strategies, such as dialoguing with anti-semitism and focusing on how Israel’s knowledge-based economy is helping the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, may be employed along with offensive strategies. Realistically, Israel is not going to persuade anti-semites to love Jews except by handing over Israel to her enemies and eliminating the Jewish claim to the only Jewish state in the world. Defensive strategies should be taken with caution: pandering directly toward BDS calumnies may in essence be delegitimizing Israel and work to ensure the death of Israel and annihilation of the Jewish people. Israel must target its strategies to center and right-wing audiences.

Timing is important: these strategies must be pushed all year, and not just before a divestment vote or on apartheid week (E. Mesoznikov, personal communication, 2015; N. Grossman, personal communication, 2015).

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