“The ‘global creative class’ sets the terms for the international standing of a country these days. The soft power of the world’s opinion leaders – broadsheet journalists and commentators, artists of all kinds, and academics in the social sciences and humanities – is decisive in ‘framing’ a state to world opinion.

In our networked and mediatized global society, to lose this class is a strategic danger to Israel. And the danger is real. For decades, an intellectual separation barrier has been built-up between Israel and this global creative class. The barrier is formed by a system of concepts which structure thought: ‘nakba,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ ‘apartheid state,’ ‘colonial-settler mindset,’ Jews as an ‘invented people,’ ‘Zionism is racism,’ ‘one-state solution.’ Without over-dramatizing this movement’s success, there has been a shift in opinion against Israel among opinion-formers in political parties, media, NGOs, churches, universities, trade unions and the blogosphere.

Last week BICOM (Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre) launched ‘Fathom: for a deeper understanding of Israel and the region,’ a free quarterly journal, website and iPad app to open a new front in the fight against this simplistic and demonizing discourse and respond to a series of key intellectual challenges which we believe pose a profound threat to the future stability and security of the State of Israel.

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