Anti Israel actions.

Burson-Marsteller Rejects Israel as a Client; Accepts Muslim Brotherhood

PR Giant Signs Tunisia Branch of Muslim Brotherhood But Thumbs Nose at Israel's Shekels

By Ronn Torossian | 09/26/14 8:25am

Rachid al-Ghannouchi, veteran leader of the Islamist Ennhada party, which has hired Burson-Marsteller (Photo by FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images)

ED. NOTE: This story has been updated to add a statement from Burson-Marsteller.

In the public relations world, Burson-Marsteller is a giant—one of the largest and most successful communications companies. The WPP-owned conglomerate operates 67 wholly owned offices and 71 affiliate offices in 98 countries across six continents.

The top-notch firm became legendary for its masterful work during the Tylenol tampering case. They do not shy away from controversy. And they currently represent The Washington Redskins to rally support for the football team to keep its nickname, are engaged in an anti-Google smear campaign on behalf of Facebook, handled the Bhopal disaster in India in which over 2,000 people were killed, and represented Blackwater USA in 2007 after it was revealed that some of its employees were involved in the shooting deaths of 13 Iraqis in Baghdad.

Despite this appetite for controversy—and the juicy retainers that companies in trouble will pay—apparently even Burson-Marsteller has its limits. They refused to work with the democratic nation of Israel to help the tiny Jewish state improve its image. In turning down a potential $3.5 million engagement, Sigurd Grytten, Burson-Marsteller’s Managing Director said, “We will not deliver tender to such a project… we are running a commercial venture. If we accept this project, this will create a great amount of negative reactions … Israel is a particularly controversial project.” Representing Israel, apparently is worse than offending American Indians, anonymous smears, and shady defense contractors involved in extra-curricular killing.

This filing, dated Sept 18, 2014, was signed by Sharon Balkam, the managing director of Burson-Marsteller’s Wash. D.C. office (screencap of Exhibit B Registration Statement, Foreign Agents Registration Act)

Newly released documents reveal that Burson-Marsteller’s squeamishness about controversial Middle East clients is rather selective. Just released government filings reveal that the PR agency has been hired to improve the foreign image of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party, the Muslim Brotherhood of Tunisia. They will “arrange meetings between Ennahdha representatives and stakeholders” and provide Ennahda “support on media and stakeholder outreach in advance of upcoming elections.” In sum, this Washington, D.C. PR firm will not work with Israel – but will represent Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood Party.

As a Jerusalem Post editorial noted, “Ennahdha’s members have been implicated in both incitement and violent actions against Tunisian and foreign targets. The party supported the 1979 embassy takeover in Iran, and evidence suggests it was responsible for bombing four tourist hotels in the 1980s.” The leader of the organization, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, has predicted the end of the state of Israel, described Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 as “the first step in the complete victory of all of Palestine and the holy places of the Muslim,” and supported Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The man has called for the liberation of “Palestine from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea” and has openly threatened the United States, saying during a time of crisis, “there must be no doubt that we will strike anywhere against whoever strikes Iraq … We must wage unceasing war against the Americans until they leave the land of Islam, or we will burn and destroy all their interests across the entire Islamic world.”

Many in the PR industry have worked with Middle East interests that harm the West. For a $5,000 monthly retainer, Brown Lloyd James famously coordinated a Vogue magazine profile and photo shoot for Asma al-Assad, Syria’s first lady—now, they want it forgotten as the Assad region has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of her own citizens. This same agency, Brown Lloyd James, worked to boost the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi. Fenton Communications, a NY PR firm signed contracts with Qatar to delegitimize Israel. There are others.

One understands the need for Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood to have such a powerful lobbying and communications firm. What is troubling, however is that Burson-Marsteller deemed working to improve Israel’s image as too controversial, while determining that the Muslim Brotherhood’s money is kosher. Interesting times we live in.

UPDATE:

Several hours after this piece was published, Burson-Marsteller Worldwide Vice President Jano Cabrera contacted the Observer to take issue with this article.

In a telephone interview, he maintained that the firm does not have a policy in place that declines to represent Israel. After much back and forth, Mr. Cabrera was asked, “Yes or no, would you represent Israel?” He replied, “I’m not going to answer a hypothetical question.”

A statement from Burson-Marsteller appears in full below.

The opinion piece written by Ronn Torossian was not accurate. He creates the false impression that Burson-Marsteller currently has or has ever had a policy about whether or not to represent Israel. He writes as if he recently contacted a member of the firm and received confirmation about such a policy.

Here are the facts. This firm has no policy about whether or not to represent Israel. The statement Torossian refers to was not made recently but in 2011. Further, the employee he refers to no longer works at Burson-Marsteller and has not worked at the firm since 2012. He was never a member of the firm’s global leadership. His sole role was to head our office in Norway. That employee, in fact, was responding to a hypothetical question from a journalist in 2011 about representing Israel in Norway. He answered hypothetically on his own without consulting anyone in the leadership of the firm, and his answer does not reflect the policy of this firm. Again, unequivocally, Burson-Marsteller has no policy about whether or not to represent Israel.

Burson-Marsteller works with the Ennahdha (Renaissance) Party. The party, which won the first democratic elections in Tunisia, helped to establish Tunisia’s constitution, which is widely regarded as one of the most progressive in the Arab world. For further understanding of the role the party has played in Tunisia’s democratic development, we refer you to an editorial from January 10, 2014 in The Washington Post entitled, ‘Tunisia’s democratic compromises should serve as a regional model.’

Exclusive: The Guardian Accepts the Elie Wiesel Ad Rejected by London Times

England's left-wing newspaper approves advertisement by Nobel Laureate

By Meredith Carey | 08/07/14 2:41pm

The Jewish Values Network ad accepted by The Guardian.

As we have been reporting, The London Times is in hot water after refusing to publish an advertisement written by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. The advertisement, condemning Hamas’ use of child sacrifice, was previously published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and The New York Observer.

First, The Times cited concern for reader sensitivities as its reasoning for rejecting the advertisement. A Times representative told the media buyer for Jewish Values Network, “In brief, [The Times] [feels] that the opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers.” The buyer later asked if the ad could be edited to meet The Times‘ standards and was informed, “The editorial decision not to accept The World ad is not open for a negotiation regarding the content of the ad. So, I don’t want to waste your time with possible revisions. Many thanks for thinking of The Times to begin with.”

Yesterday, the Observer reported that The Times has not been as concerned about those sensitivities in the past, after the Comment is Free Watch blog revealed the shocking published material. The paper has published graphic and controversial cartoons and advertisements that are disturbing, if not more, than the advertisement sponsored by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and the Jewish Values Network.

Now, The Guardian, known as the newspaper most hostile to the current Israeli government, has accepted the ad, a source with knowledge of the Jewish Values Network’s ad-buying practices told the Observer. Long known as biased against Israel, and a public editor acknowledged the paper’s reputation of antisemitism in 2011, the Guardian marks the sixth major news source that has run the advertisement without incident.

The ad in The Guardian cost roughly $20,000 and contained the exact copy and text as the $30,000 Times ad, a source said.

“The Guardian may be left wing but they obviously believe in free speech and allowing their readers to hear the voice of a Nobel Laureate about a very important issue,” the source told the Observer.

Read more at http://observer.com/2014/08/exclusive-the-guardian-accepts-the-elie-weisel-ad-rejected-by-london-times/#ixzz3EWvYXp1K 
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