New Zealander Lim’s monograph derives from the author’s Ph.D. research into the use of political marketing by advocacy groups. The study focuses on two pro- and two anti-Israel advocacy groups: the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), the Israel Institute of New Zealand, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, and New Zealand’s Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.
Rather than passing judgement on the merits of the causes those organizations seek to advance, Lim seeks to “break new ground within the political marketing literature” and to ascertain whether the groups conform to specific types of marketing models and, if so, which type best describes their activities.
He describes the two pro-Israel groups as “sales-oriented groups” while the anti-Israel organizations, he deems “product-oriented advocacy groups.” Their activities are very similar with the only difference being that the former “were willing to use market intelligence to identify and target segments that were pro-Israel and could influence public opinion and government policies towards Israel.”
To arrive at these conclusions, Lim studied extensive primary materials from each group: 1,898 webpages, social media posts, audio-visual and printed material. He also explored secondary sources: writing by others about the groups, supplemented with interviews with officials from each group.
In describing the aims and activities of each group, Lim strives to maintain a neutral, non-judgemental tone, and largely succeeds, often placing anti-Israel slurs in quote marks, for example. At times, he adopts the rhetoric of the organization being profiled.
On occasion, the mask of neutrality slips a little towards the anti-Israel groups. For example, he regularly describes the boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) campaign as seeking “to advance Palestinian rights and self-determination by applying economic and social pressure on Israel” while accusations that the campaign is anti-Semitic are “alleged.” He also describes one AIJAC strategy as “shifting blame” onto the Palestinians, rather than, for example, “apportioning blame.”
Overall, the book is a mildly interesting if patchy rundown of the activities and strategies of the four groups profiled, albeit from someone lacking expertise in the groups’ subject matter. Its conclusions are directed at those interested in political marketing theory, rather than Middle Eastern politics.
