The government is at fault for its own negative image in the international press because of its policies in the West Bank, former prime minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday. “I think it is inarguable that Israel’s main problem isn’t public diplomacy; it’s first of all a policy problem,” Olmert said. “We won’t be able to convince the world we’re right unless our reality changes.”

When he was in Israel, Robert Rehak, then-Czech Republic cultural attaché to the Jewish state, practiced soccer diplomacy. Specifically, he organized a model Euro Cup competition for Arab and Jewish school children.

There are about 20km (12 miles)—and lots of checkpoints—between the official residence in Jerusalem of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and the headquarters in Ramallah of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. This week, as both leaders made simultaneous official visits to China, care was taken to keep a much greater distance between them. Their itineraries put them in different cities at all times.

Following Obama’s visit to the region, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has embarked on shuttle diplomacy which signals that, perhaps, diagnosing the peace process as “moribund” is premature. But despite signs that the U.S. is attempting to resuscitate its engagement in the peace process, it is unlikely that such an effort will produce any favorable results.

“The Indonesian government has always been active in various international forums to push other countries to do the same thing, including ASEAN. We also discussed the issue in the Palestine Committee [in Tehran] during the Non-Alligned Movement meeting,”

Indonesia shared its experience with common developing countries at a South-South and Third Parties Cooperation Forum (SSTC) here on Wednesday, attended by among others, representatives from Palestine and Afghanistan. "This is part of our South-South and Third Parties cooperation programme aimed at sharing our experience particularly in sectors that we have been good at," the director general of information and public diplomacy of the ministry of foreign affairs, AM Fachir, said.

The public appeal came in response to a message written by Issawi and posted on Facebook, in which he asked Israelis to intervene on his behalf. The security prisoner has refused solid food for eight months and is now in Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot because of his deteriorating medical condition.

Turkey's National Education Minister Nabi Avci said on Thursday, "Palestine is the name of an honorable and prideful struggle for life."
He added, "this struggle will reach victory via works to be held in fields of education and culture."