‘Hasbara,’ the act or profession of explaining, has become an excuse for not seriously addressing Israel’s real problems, and a substitute for policymaking.
Hasbara is one of those wacky Israeli words that defy translation. I say Israeli, because the Hebrew term can be translated – hasbara is simply the act or profession of explaining. But in the world of Israeli politics and diplomacy, hasbara has acquired a much more complex meaning.
A hasbara campaign depicting foreign reporters as propagating myths about Israel. Photo by: Haaretz
Some would say that hasbara is a “laundered word,” the term used by David Grossman in his book “The Yellow Wind” to describe innocuous words used by Israelis to cover up inconvenient truths, and that hasbara’s true meaning is propaganda.
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