Indeed, FoEME's experience has shown that if trust is built around shared water issues, it can then impact positively on other aspects of human relations, toward working cooperatively for common gain.

Recently, Israeli leaders have made successive high profile visits to China, while engaging in considerable public diplomacy efforts vis-à-vis the Chinese people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even greeted the Chinese people in their native Mandarin during their New Year’s Festival.

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Public Diplomacy established a special web site and focuses much of its attention on this issue. While high ranking government officials grapple with this problem, a group of 14- and 15- year-old boys are putting on a clinic regarding how to improve Israel’s image – just be nice.

Israel spends NIS 40 million each year on hasbara, the oft-used Hebrew word to describe its public relations efforts, through the Ministry of Public Diplomacy...Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein told the Committee on Aliya, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs his ministry employed 150 emissaries overseas, funded 500 delegations and 22,000 speakers.

When Israeli pop superstar Rita Jahanforuz told her friends she wanted to record an album in Farsi, they thought she must have gone mad. The 50-year-old Iranian-born, Jewish singer, who is usually known just by her first name, recalled: "'They all said, 'You want to record an album in the language of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Who will listen to it?' I didn't know why I had to do it, I just did. It's like someone lit a match. What's happening now is beyond what I ever imagined."

Peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis resumed this week, in an elaborate tent off a dirt road south of this hotly disputed city where Abraham, the patriarch of both peoples, is believed to have buried his wife.

Israel has improved its ranking in the U.S. State Department’s 2012 Tracking In Person’s Report. The country was moved from a “tier 2” level, meaning it was considered non-compliant but improving, to “tier 1,” according to Haaretz.

Many Israelis do understand the importance of international cooperation and value the resulting professional dividend. It is because of our unique and sensitive regional and global position that we must embrace every opportunity for international cooperation.