By Ellis Shuman and israelinsider staff September 22, 2002

CNN refused to broadcast nationally an advertising campaign emphasizing that Israel is a democracy and has a lot in common with the U.S.

Two American Jewish organizations - the American Jewish Committee and ISRAEL21c - have launched a national television advertising campaign designed to increase America's appreciation for Israel's democratic society and the individual freedoms of all its citizens. CNN refused to broadcast the advertisements nationally.

The two organizations launched the advertising campaign in Washington, DC on September 12th to coincide with the beginning of the Jewish New Year. The campaign's two 30-second spots utilize vivid pictures and words to convey the vitality of Israeli society, where, like in the United States, every citizen - Arab, Christian, or Jew - enjoys the right to vote; every individual - Muslim, Christian or Jew - enjoys freedom of religion, and every person - male or female - enjoys emancipation and equal access to education, employment and health care. View the ads in Windows Media player using a 56K connection or a 100K connection.

"The ads emphasize that Israel is a democracy, very much like the United States," said Ken Bandler, a spokesman for the American Jewish Committee.

"We want Americans to know just how much Israel and the United States have in common," said Zvi Alon, founder and chairman of ISRAEL21c, a Cupertino, California-based non-profit organization founded in 2001 which seeks to focus public and media attention on the Israel that exists "beyond the conflict." (The ISRAEL21c website, www.israel21c.org, is produced by the same company that produces Israel Insider.)

Alon noted that "in Israel, democracy means every citizen of Israel, both Arab and Jew, enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities as Americans have in the United States. We want every American to know that in Israel's democracy, Arabs and women vote, in fact 17 women and 10 Arabs have seats in the Israeli parliament."

CNN refuses to air ads nationally The advertisements began airing on Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC and CNN cable operators in New York and California's Silicon Valley, but CNN rejected a request to air the ads on a nationwide basis.

Larry Weinberg, executive vice president of ISRAEL21c, said he had sought to buy time directly from CNN to ensure that it would air on every CNN station, but that the request was refused.

Despite appeals to Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Atlanta-based network, CNN said it would not run the ads. CNN issued a statement saying the network "is not airing advocacy advertising regarding international issues from regions in conflict."

CNN spokesman, Matthew Furman, said that the network had decided earlier not to accept ads on behalf of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and several other Arab countries. ''We don't think it's appropriate to take advocacy ads from regions in conflict. We treated both sides the same way,'' he said.

The organizations behind the ads disputed the characterization of their spots as advocating any issue. "Calling our announcements issue advocacy is wrong, and it's a bad business decision," said Weinberg. "Our ad says nothing about conflict. It's pure and simple education, telling people that Israel is a democracy. It's CNN that is being political. Are they the media or are they politics?"

Unlike the ad campaign backed by the Saudi government, Weinberg said, his non-profit organization and the AJC are American and the funding of its ad came from American citizens.

Despite CNN's decision, the organizations are able to place the ads to run on CNN channels via local cable operators, which have discretion in which ads they can run in several time slots each hour.

Mr. Weinberg noted that the CNN refusal to air the ads on its network has generated far greater publicity to the ads. And he said that CNN Headline News had even run a report about the ads as a news story.

The American Jewish Committee ad, which begins with the statement "Israel is America's real ally in the Middle East," is airing on Time Warner in Manhattan and Cablevision in Westchester, as well as in the Washington area.

"We plan to roll it out nationally over the next several weeks and assess its effectiveness," Bandler said.

First Jewish American organization television campaign The television advertisements marks the first time that a major Jewish American organization has launched such a campaign to improve Israel's image. The new media approach is based on research by Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrachi, a Democratic political consultant, who worked alongside Democratic consultant Stanley Greenberg and Republican strategist Frank Luntz.

"It is astonishing, but even well informed American opinion leaders are badly informed about Israel," Laszlo-Mizrachi said, quoted in the Jerusalem Report. "They don't know what Israel has done for peace and they don't know that Israel has a voting Arab population that is represented in the Knesset. They buy the newspaper, but they don't read it."

While the Palestinians drill in the repeated message of 'occupation, occupation,' Israel's message had to be consistent and repeated: 'democracy and peace,' Laszlo-Mizrachi said.

-- Anonymous, September 22, 2002