Bad PR Decision To Suspend Eylon Levy
In a terrible PR decision today, Eylon Levy the brilliant spokesperson for the Israeli government has been suspended. This decision comes after Levy’s response to British Foreign Secretary David Cameron regarding humanitarian aid provoked anger in the UK.
Levy is a very effective spokesman for Israel and the Jewish people during this war and suspending him is a bad decision. Eylon Levy should remain the spokesman for Israel worldwide for many years to come.
As the owner of one of the world’s independent PR firms, I know that Eylon has mastered media and is well-spoken, quotable, likeable, believable and so much of what a good spokesman should be. He is a native English speaker, quick-thinking, intelligent, quotable and is doing a simply brilliant job. Eylon should be given many more opportunities to defend Israel and is a wonderful voice. The state of Israel does not prioritize public relations and despite it this “prince of public diplomacy” as he has been deemed has succeeded.
The Zionist prophet Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the ideological forefather of Netanyahu’s Likud Party said about the importance of Public Relations: “The work of the publicist is a legacy from the Prophets of Israel…Our passion is to speak, to proclaim—“Shouting” is what the same audience calls it, ‘we have no need for words, give us actions.’ One thing that the audience forgets is that speech is also an action – Perhaps the most authentic of all other actions. Cities have been destroyed, and more will fall, but what was shouted in the wilderness thousands of years ago is alive and still relevant. The world was created by the Word. The world will be mended by the Article.”
Eylon Levy has been during this war a legacy from the prophets of Israel. From his raised eyebrows to battling absurd media questions, he battles day and night against a biased media as he brilliantly articulates Israel’s point of view on the world stage.
Having recently spent time with him in both Israel and the US, its evident that his degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge set him apart in an Israel where PR takes a back seat in its importance. He has mastered the art of pushing back in a world where Israel is regularly condemned, saying in a recent interview “It’s true that the role of the media is to challenge speakers with controversial opinions but it is also to filter out the bullshit and to know when you have been told nonsense that requires no further comment.” That is the way of the media.
Eylon captured me in an interview with Piers Morgan in London who showed pictures of Gaza and said, ‘this the most shocking thing I have ever seen.’ As Eylon immediately responded, ‘the most shocking thing we have seen in our lives was the slaughter on October 7.’ Piers said to Eylon: You are right.
News of Eylon’s suspension comes on the same day that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bemoaned the fact that Israel had a dearth of spokespeople who could “string two words together” in English. Well, Mr. Prime Minister, Eylon Levy was the best we have had in many years.
