Seminar at Hillel Center addresses spreading pro-Israel message

Monday night, students watched as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace that his dream was for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace. Then, in direct juxtaposition, viewers were shown Palestinian television footage of Arafat delivering speeches in Arabic calling for a holy war and encouraging young people to become suicide bombers. Students also watched clips from the Palestinian version of "Sesame Street" in which children sang of spilling their blood and giving their lives for the Palestinian cause.\nThe video, entitled "Arafat In His Own Words," was shown to students by Neil Lazarus, an Israeli advocacy trainer who is the founder and director of AwesomeSeminars.com and TrainMe.org , which provide seminar information and resources to people who wish to become more effective in defending Israel. \nLazarus conducted a training session aimed at improving students' abilities to spread pro-Israel messages and counter propaganda Monday evening in the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center. The seminar was sponsored by the IU chapter of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).\nLazarus began the workshop by pretending to be a Palestinian propaganda speaker and giving attendees the opportunity to challenge him. The exercise was a jumping-off point in explaining to students what they did wrong and how to respond to anti-Israel sentiment on campus.\nHe said Israeli public relations in the United States is poor because professional Israeli speakers face a language barrier and national pride prevents them from portraying Israelis as victims of terrorism. Lazarus also said many Israeli speakers respond to accusations against their homeland with long historical explanations of the conflict in the region. He said they should instead focus on a single message and replay it in their answers to questions about Israel.\n Lazarus had workshop participants practice replaying short messages such as "Israel has the right to defend itself" and "terrorism is wrong" when responding to accusations against the country. \n"You have to remember that the speaker sets the agenda," he said. "You have to think 'How do I brand Israel positively?' and set your own agenda when you speak."\nLazarus told students that they need to keep their audience in mind.\n"We're trying to convince the majority of people who have opinions about Israel, but no knowledge," he said.\nHe also discussed various public speaking techniques, such as beginning all statements with "it's like," "it's not like," "it's similar to," "it reminds me of" and "you have to understand" in order to speak in a common language that all listeners can relate to.\nHe instructed students not to excessively focus on Israeli history when defending the country.\n"If we focus on the past, we're not going to move forward," he said.\nLazarus told his audience that a pro-Israel stance can be effective if it is presented correctly.\n"We have an agenda that wins," he said. "We have justice on our side. In 2000, Israel offered the Palestinians 95 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza to form their own state, but their leaders turned down the offer."\nHe said students should travel to Israel to show support.\n"It's not enough to just advocate Israel," he said. "You have to talk the way you walk."\nSophomore Calli Schiller, co-chair of the IU chapter of AIPAC, said she felt Lazarus' workshop taught students how to respond to inaccurate information about Israel in the media.\n"Most students don't have time to read four or five newspapers, so they turn on CNN to get quick news," she said. "The problem with CNN and a lot of other networks is that they give people a distorted view of what's happening in Israel. We're trying to be more pro-active with events like this to correct misinformation."\nJunior Joe Brown said he picked up new techniques to use when defending Israel.\n"I learned that it's more important to concentrate on a future context than to focus completely on the past," he said.\nThe next AIPAC event will be a lecture by AIPAC Midwest and Southwest Regional Field Organizer David Newman March 20 at Hillel.