When I lived back in the States, one of things I took for granted was the mid-afternoon daily briefings from the white house – the Americanized version of Wednesday “Prime Minster’s Questions” in England – the only difference being in the US, it was seldom the head of state answering the queries and it was never the congress posing them.  Nonetheless, I took them for granted as it was an everyday occurrence and more often than not, much of what was being discussed was quite boring as it related to everyday life in the States.

As I live in Israel these days the longing for information makes me lament the days when I would listen to the likes of George Stephanopoulos, Joe Lockhart and Ari Fleischer spinning the day’s events – and to be certain, they were spinning the White House’s angle on things, but it gave me the opportunity to know the information and form my own opinions irrespective of what the administration’s take on it was.   This is a big problem with Israel, the lack of information and governmental transparency – real or feigned – on a regular and consistent basis.

I believe this is important in a country so close to the world spotlight, and as small as we are we are often on the global stage and more often than not, putting on a crappy show.  In fact, the entire PR system in this country as it relates to the government is absurd, if not outright detrimental to our image. Take our esteemed Foreign Minister, Comrade Lieberman, for example.  In the face of rising tensions with what was arguably our closest ally in the region, Turkey, Lieberman lets leak that Israel will start talking and cooperating with a Turkish opposition entity and recognized terrorist organization, the PKK.  Not only was this statement inflammatory, as it was blasted in international circles there was no effort to try and spin it a different way and no mechanism in place to do so either.  Almost every report I read about it from foreign press all had the same line it, “up until the time of this printing, there has been no official response from the Israeli government.”

We (Israeli’s) live in the dark most of time regarding practically every decision being made in government – aside from the fact that most of us have no say and what we believe and feel and stand for makes no difference in how policy is shaped.  There is no accountability – and no one to tell us what happened today and answers questions as to why decisions were made one way or another.  We do have a highly scripted cabinet meeting once a week in which nothing really happens – how can it when the Prime Minster surrounds himself with the people he appointed?  Rarely is there any challenge to the decisions the Prime Minister makes in these meetings, and if there is – it is cast aside as a dissenting U.S. Supreme Court opinion is, a footnote not worthy of major headlines.

This country needs accountability, and that starts with a daily briefing open to reporters both domestic and foreign.  We need to explain to the world why we do what we do when we do it – and stop acting like a typical Middle Eastern Country with scripted photo-ops and pressureless engagements with the media at large.   The problem with Israel is that while we culturally try to identify with the West, we run our affairs like our neighbors.  In the era of the so called Arab Spring, where images of Mubarak, Asad and Kaddafi sitting around their cabinet tables smiling as if nothing is really going dominates the news coverage,one would think we would try and distance ourselves from similar images.  The world, our world in specific is exploding around us, we are alienating ourselves from almost every friend we have historically had, decisions are made on our behalf that are not decisions that most of us would make – and we have no idea why they are being made.

Freedom of the press in Israel does exist, do not get this wrong as our press and our public is free to say what it wants without fear of being strung up or shot in a dark alley one day.  But our freedom of information is severely limited by a governmental structure that does not offer any accountability and that has over its 63 year history failed to rationally explain practically anything to anyone, with few exceptions.  I go back to my statement that we act like our neighbors – in the way we make decisions and don’t make any effort to explain them and act dismayed when people question them.  Not everyone is happy with every decision, but a government that can account for the decision – a government that opens itself up to criticism not only in a newspaper but in person – a government that rationally lays out its logic for a decision is more respected.

We need better PR.  We need more transparency.  And we need a government that has mechanisms in place to account for its actions and convey its opinions.  As a first step towards reforming this flawed and corrupt system, this would go a long way to doing that.

Just imagine a Prime Minister or his Press Secretary having to answer in public why an unqualified man was just named to head a major post in the government.  Just imagine having to be held accountable for every decision made – and having the opportunity to address criticism of our policies in a logical and coherent manner each and every day.  For me, this is a good first step.