Israel submitted its formal response

last month to a U.N.-commissioned probe that accused both Israel and

Hamas of war crimes during last winter's war in the Gaza Strip. Israel

defended its conduct and pledged to fully investigate the U.N.

allegations, but stopped short of a U.N. demand to appoint an

independent commission to probe its army's conduct.

The U.N. must now decide how to proceed. But Israel is focusing on the broader international opinion of the Jewish state.

"Public

perception today in the global economy and in the world as it is today

is not less strategic than having any other military strategic weapon.

Public perception is almost as important as existence," says Lior

Chorev, one of Israel's top public relations experts.

The Punch Line

There

is a common joke that, some say, reflects Israel's global image abroad.

But this time, it is an Israeli official delivering it.

Three

Israelis arrive at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. They

approach the immigration officer. He asks them, "Nationality?" They

say, "Israeli." He then turns to them and says, "Occupation?" They look

at each other and say, "No thank you. We're only here for three days."

Ido

Aharoni is head of the brand management division at the Israeli Foreign

Ministry. It's his job to generate an image of Israel that doesn't

include words like "occupation" or "conflict."

At a session of the Herzliya Conference,

a yearly gathering of Israel's top brass on security and economic

issues, Aharoni's talk on Israel's image abroad drew hundreds.

There is a timeliness to the session: Israel had just submitted to the

U.N. its defense of last year's offensive in Gaza, which was heavily

criticized in the so-called Goldstone Report.

Both

Israel and Hamas have rejected the report's findings that they had each

committed war crimes during the 22-day conflict and should form

independent committees of inquiries into their actions.

'Goldstone Effect'

But

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of the "Goldstone

effect," whereby the U.N.'s report creates a ripple that furthers

negative images of Israel.

There has been debate over how Israel

handled the Goldstone report. The government initially refused to

cooperate with the probe at all, Chorev says.

"I think that the

Goldstone report has managed to create an atmosphere because Israel

kept silent," Chorev says. "Israel did not play the PR power game with

the Goldstone report. Israel chose to play the game of an absentee. We

discredited the Goldstone report too late. We weren't there to give our

side of the story. We did not produce our own theme, and we became

apologetic. Everybody who deals with public perception understands that

being apologetic is being mostly on the losing side."

Is Twitter The Answer?

There are conflicting views on what Israel should do now.

Noam Lemelshtrich, dean of communications at IDC Herzliya, the

university that hosted the conference, says Israel should be using new

media - such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - to get its message

across to a wider audience.

"I think we are handling this very,

very poorly," Lemelshtrich says. "It's not being handled by

professionals, it's being handled by politicians. But fortunately, the

Internet and social networks allow the people of Israel, who are much

better than their government, to tell their stories to friendly crowds

across the world in the United States and in Europe. So I am

optimistic, because the new social medium allows us to bypass the

government."

But others, including public relations expert Eyal

Arad, think the message should be an organized, united voice led by

seasoned experts.

"What we need is to start a political campaign,

the way we campaign in elections - a global political campaign," Arad

says. "It's going to be tough. It's going to be expensive. It needs

leadership that can take choices - that can make choices and enforce

choices. It needs discipline."

And with newfound support and funds, Arad says Israel is poised to tackle Goldstone on a global level.

"Our

main problem in the world today has become a legitimacy problem," Arad

says. "It's not that people do not think that our policies are right.

It's that people that question whether we should exist or continue to

exist in the first place. We are more and more becoming the South

Africa of the 21st century."

For now, the U.N. has deferred its

decision on Goldstone. But in Israel, public relations firms aren't

wasting any time. They're already planning a new campaign, aimed at

future offensives. They're calling it "pre-emptive PR."