Israel's image hits nadir

No great honor being an Israeli at Davos this year, but we deserve it

Sever Plocker

My advice to those planning to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at the prestigious Swiss ski resort of Davos is, I beg you, stay away if you haven't yet boarded the plane. Please don't come, because it's no great honor being an Israeli this year at Davos. In fact, it’s humiliating.

Israel is no longer viewed as a thriving, high tech superpower or even as a brutal occupation power. It is viewed in a completely different light:

It's seen as a declining and dysfunctional country whose president is about to face charges of rape, whose prime minister will be interrogated on suspicion of advancing his associates' interests, whose finance minister will be ousted from his post due to an affair involving finances and non-profit organizations, whose army chief already resigned due to the failures of the war, and whose defense minister will soon be forced to follow suit.

This is the sate of affairs in Israel in the winter of 2007 as seen by the world's surprised economic, political and academic elites, arriving in Davos for four days of sessions focusing on the fate of humanity.

Israel's image is at an all-time low. On Wednesday, when the conference's participants arrive at the local congress center to attend lectures, sessions, workshops and symposiums, they will be carrying European newspapers on whose front pages Israel will prominently star. And what kind of Israel emanates from these pages? The picture they will get is of a country of rapists and corruption at high levels, a country that is falling into moral decline.

'What happened to you Israelis?'

Reports of the indictment against the president open every news broadcast in Europe, and the presenters sound as though they find it difficult to read the text in front of them: The State of Israel and sex scandals at the top? Jews and rape? Jews and corruption.

A dark shadow has fallen on Israel's image worldwide. Until we remove it, these honorable people will hesitate to shake our hands, identify with us and invest in Israel. They are already hesitating.

Our long term friends, veterans of the Davos conferences, are pulling me aside and asking me in an embarrassing whisper: "What's happened to you Israelis? How did you get this way? Are you a country full of rapists and corrupt people?"

The International Monetary Funds' rosy reviews and the positive quotes forced out of some polite and stammering international CEO, or some Arab-Muslim statesman who didn't understand the question, will be of no avail.

The bitter and embarrassing truth of the matter is that Israel's image in Davos – a prism of the world's elite – has reached its nadir.

It's very unpleasant being an Israeli at Davos 2007; it's unpleasant but we deserve it.

Davos 07: Bush yesterday's man

Davos 07: yesterday's man

Most people seem to think that George Bush's time in office is a mistake the world would do best to forget.

January 24, 2007 08:30 PM

Julian Glover

George Bush might have just given his state of the union address but here in Davos he's definitely a lame duck.

One clue lies in the fact that no senior figures from the US administration are coming. In other circumstances that might be thought a snub to a meeting which aims to gather the world's most powerful business and political leaders. But now it is just a recognition of reality. Power is shifting elsewhere and the conference organisers seem happy to acknowledge it.

There's still lots of interest in the US, of course. Hillary Clinton, I am promised, isn't coming - though don't rule out a surprise. Her husband loves the place. The conference tried to persuade Barack Obama to show up, but he, too, is apparently too deep in his campaign on the otherside of the Atlantic to find the time. Maybe next year?

Still, John Kerry is coming and so is John McCain, who's routinely described as the Republican frontrunner.

In the meantime, most people here seem to think of President Bush's time in office as a mistake the world would do best to forget. There was even a small cheer at a session just now when a senior US business leader pointed out, with a smile, that he'll be gone in two years. Amen to that.

Chief leader writer of the Guardian since 2006, Julian Glover launched the Guardian Unlimited Politics website ahead of the 2001 general election, before joining the paper's news desk. He moved to report from Westminster in 2005. He worked with John Major on the former prime minister's autobiography and at the Economist and on several BBC Radio documentaries.

Davos 07: update

Thanks for the questions: keep them coming.

January 19, 2007 06:05 PM

Georgina Henry

Many thanks to those of you who have already posted some very good questions for the world leaders heading for the World Economic Forum in Davos next week. On Monday we'll work out which ones can be answered - we do, by the way, need you to specify who your question is aimed at. When the Davos Conversation page goes live next Tuesday (the day the forum opens) there will be a prominent link from Cif to take you there to get some answers.

For those of you who don't know what this is about, Cif is partnering the BBC, the Huffington Post, Jeff Jarvis's Buzzmachine and the WEF in a joint site integrating blogs, news, video, audio, pictures in an effort to open up the usually closed-door Davos to a wider online audience.

We hope that lots of you will also post video questions via YouTube: here's Jeff Jarvis, occasional Cif blogger and one of those who designed the joint site, explaining how you do it on video. Here's his step-by-step guide posted on his site. Here's Arianna Huffington's blog about how she sees it.

Cif's bloggers include Alan Rusbridger, Julian Glover, Larry Elliott and Ben Hammersley with guest appearances from Ken Livingstone and others.

Keep the questions coming.

Georgina Henry joined the Guardian in 1989 as media correspondent and took over editing the media pages a year later. She was appointed deputy features editor in 1992. She was deputy editor of the Guardian from 1995-2006 and on the board of Guardian Newspapers from 1996-2006. She is now the editor of Comment is free.

Davos 07: the conversation starts here

Now's your chance to post the questions you'd like to ask the world leaders attending Davos next week.

January 18, 2007 12:02 PM

Georgina Henry

Davos, the exclusive Swiss ski resort, is host next week to the annual World Economic Forum - with its stellar cast of world leaders, global businessmen and smattering of politically engaged celebrities. This year's participants include Bill Gates, Tony Blair, King Abdullah of Jordan, Angela Merkel, Joe Biden, Rupert Murdoch, Eric Schmidt, Hua Jianmin, John McCain, Mohammed El Baradei, Sergy Brin, Gordon Brown - and Bono. As Julian Glover blogged, this year's themes are geopolitics post-Iraq, climate change and technology - the shifting power equation, as Davos puts it.

True to that last theme, the WEF is trying to change its closed-door image this year by opening up the discussions to a wider audience online. The Davos Conversation page, which launches next Tuesday (January 22), is a collaboration between them, us at Comment is free, BBC News, the Huffington Post and Jeff Jarvis's Buzzmachine and will integrate blogs, news, video, audio, pictures and reader comments. What we'd like from you from today is questions for participants: every day at least one of the questions posted by text or video will be answered by whoever it's addressed to at the meeting.

If you want to record a video question you need to put it up on YouTube (tagged "davos07" to make sure it's posted on the Davos Conversation page). It's not difficult to do - in fact it's incredibly easy to record and upload a video to YouTube. But now there's an even easier way: go to YouTube's Quick Capture, let it take over your webcam, and you can record and upload a message in one easy step.

Davos say they want an open conversation - so let them have it. Below are some of the 2,000-plus participants to aim questions at - and some of the topics they'll be discussing and which we'll be blogging about. Our main bloggers include Alan Rusbridger, Julian Glover, Larry Elliott and Ben Hammersley, with guest appearances from Ken Livingstone and anyone else we can persuade. On the Davos Conversation page itself, which we'll highlight prominently on Cif from next week, you'll also be able to read all the Davos blogs/news/video/audio from the Huffington Post, Jeff Jarvis and the BBC. We hope that once it's up, you'll also contribute thoughts and comments as the debates unfold.

Heads of state:
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority;
King Abdullah II Ibn Hussein of Jordan;
Bertie Ahern, prime minister of Ireland;
Prince Albert II of Monaco;
Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan;
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, president of the Philippines;
Shaukat Aziz, prime minister of Pakistan;
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, prime minister of Malaysia;
Tony Blair, prime minister of the United Kingdom;
Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, president of Mexico;
Jakaya M Kikwete, president of Tanzania;
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil;
Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa;
Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany;
Ahmed Mahmoud Nazif, prime minister of Egypt;
Nguyen Tan Dung, prime minister of Vietnam;
Fouad Siniora, prime minister of Lebanon;
Viktor Yanukovych, prime minister of Ukraine.

Heads of international organisations:
M El Baradei, director general, International Atomic Energy Agency;
Pascal Lamy, director general, World Trade Organisation (WTO);
Paul D Wolfowitz, president, World Bank;
Koichiro Matsuura, director general, Unesco;

Webcasts include:
The Shifting Power Equation: Lord Browne of Madingley, Michelle Guthrie, E Neville Isdell, Angela Merkel, Sunil Bharti Mittal, James J Schiro, Eric Schmidt, Klaus Schwaz
Connectivity: Sergey Brin, Chris DeWolfe, Chad Hurley
Climate Change: A Call to Action: Margaret Beckett, Lord Browne of Madingley, John McCain
Arab Peace Plan: Amre Moussa
Energy 2007: The New Era of Petropolitics: Ilham Aliyev, Bi Jingquan, Samuel W Bodman, Alexander Medvedev, Jeroen van der Veer, Viktor Yanukovych, Thomas L Friedman
European Identity: David Cameron, Christine Lagarde
China as a Global Player - A Conversation with Hua Jianmin
Who Shapes the Agenda? Gordon Brown, Rupert Murdoch, Eric Schmidt
Is Freedom Over-rated? Shimon Peres
What Is Today's American Dream? John F Kerry, John McCain
A Business Manifesto for Globalisation: Lord Browne of Madingley, Carlos Ghosn, James J Schiro, Joseph E Stiglitz
Delivering on the Promise of Africa: Tony Blair, William H Gates III, Bono
Iraq and The Future of the Middle East: Adil Abd al-Mahdi, John F Kerry, Mohammad Khatami, Javier Solana Madariaga
The Impact of Web 2.0 and Emerging Social Network Models: Chris DeWolfe, Caterina Fake, William H Gates III

Georgina Henry joined the Guardian in 1989 as media correspondent and took over editing the media pages a year later. She was appointed deputy features editor in 1992. She was deputy editor of the Guardian from 1995-2006 and on the board of Guardian Newspapers from 1996-2006. She is now the editor of Comment is free.