For those who have been paying even modest attention lately, Israel does not seem to get fair press. Its achievements are ignored or marginalized, and its transgressions are magnified beyond proportion. Agree with that or not, such a picture became the consensus of three top-flight panelists at the latest IDC-Leadel collaboration that took place last Thursday, May 20.

In our age of truthiness, when what seems to matter to most folks is not the facts and reality but how things appear, the narrative and the image attain overriding importance.

An "Inside Look at Israeli Media," the discussion starred three clashing, interesting personalities who are doing their best to shape that image in differing ways: Arad Nir, the head of the foreign news desk and an international commentator at Channel 2; David Horovitz, Editor in Chief of the Jerusalem Post, Israel's largest English-language daily; and Marcus Sheff, executive director of the Israel Project, a leading hasbara group. Our own Leah Stern moderated the event.

"There is a disengagement from the Middle East," declaimed Marcus, who was by far the most formal-looking gent in the bunch with a suit and tie and leather briefcase and British-inflected air and voice. His mission is to promote the official Israeli party line abroad and to enforce that line for Israeli media domestically. He wants people to re-engage, but obviously on Israel's side, as the government determines what that side is.

This was most clearly countered by Arad's approach, which is also to connect with his audience but to do so more impartially. "I'm trying to put it all into context," Arad said, using "journalistic integrity, to follow the old-school journalist work in the new media framework." His mission, as he put it, is to deliver "the news wrapped properly." David also wants to deliver the right package in a way that runs ahead of the crashing wave of "speed and accuracy, the real-time effect" that plagues our information age. In a not-so-subtle dig at the charming propaganda agent to his right, David expressed his "horrific amazement" at "how inept official Israel" is in promoting itself and its interests around the world.

One key issue that our panel centered on was the war of perceptions. In our age of truthiness, when what seems to matter to most folks is not the facts and reality but how things appear, the narrative and the image attain overriding importance. This was certainly Marcus's specialty. "The messaging is important," he said, adding that it is a failure on the part of the press to not include Hamas rocketing, for example, "as part of their narrative." "There is no in-between," Arad mentioned, referring to the task of building personal relationships as part of the craft of news-gathering. "The Israelis are losing the narrative," he added, with the respect to the bigger picture.

David countered that reporters cannot "give [the viewer or reader] a history lesson. "Why did Elvis Costello cancel his concert in Israel? Not because he's an evil person," the head of the Jerusalem Post pointed out. "We're certainly not the bad guys." On that point all three seemed to concur, but not with the same voice in that agreement. Arad gave the event a closing note by stating that "the media in Israel is one of the most free in the world."

"Amen," Leah concluded. Mr. Jewlicious said to me afterward how absurd it was that they all hailed the wonderful press freedom in Israel in the face of three consecutive court gag orders.