3Com chairman drives for a pro-Israel PR touchdown

While 3Com's name has disappeared from Candlestick Park, the soft-spoken chairman of the technology giant's board still can lob a sports analogy or two.

And when it comes to the public's perception of Israel, Eric Benhamou observes, "It's impossible to win if you only play defense."

With that strategy in mind, the 47-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who also serves as chairman at Palm, Inc., thinks the Israel PR campaign that he co-founded is scoring some touchdowns.

Started more than two years ago, the project called Israel21c strives to change Israel's image by promoting media coverage that focuses on the country's democratic values, high-tech and scientific developments and cultural achievements.

"This is not a message about bloodshed, about suicide bombing," said the Algerian-born Benhamou, who thinks that too often those are the images associated with the Jewish state.

The group, which puts out a weekly magazine on its Web site at http://www.israel21c.org has run commercials over cable TV and pitches pro-Israel stories to American journalists.

The idea for Israel21c began shortly after the start of the intifada. "Really it was born out of a reaction at the way Israel's image was being destroyed in the media in the eyes of the public," said Benhamou, who frequently visits Israel for business and volunteer projects.

Benhamou teamed up on Israel21c with Zvi Alon, the Israeli-born head of NetManage Inc. in Cupertino. The group's board also includes philanthropist Andrea Bronfman.

At first, Israel21c's campaign was aimed at American Jews, a group who Benhamou felt had become alienated from Israel after the eruption of violence. "Today, our audience is far broader than that," he said.

With articles focusing on innovations, such as a recent story about an Israeli cybersecurity firm, Benhamou and other backers hope to convey the image that "Israel stands for good things."

Larry Weinberg, executive vice president of the organization's office in Cupertino, said, "Our aim is to bring positive images of Israel to mainstream America through the media."

In December, it opened a Jerusalem office staffed by two veteran journalists and, with help from Ruder Finn, a high-profile public relations firm in New York, began proposing stories to American news media, said Weinberg.

Weinberg cited recent successes with efforts that resulted in media coverage about a Dead Sea Scroll exhibit in Michigan, mock Israeli elections on American college campuses and the political involvement in Israel of former San Franciscan Aryeh Green.

Israel21c is backed by donations of about $1 million annually, according to Weinberg.

Interviewed recently in San Francisco before giving a talk as part of the local Jewish Community Federation's Lessons from Leaders series, Benhamou said: "I feel a profound connection with the state of Israel. The reason Jews can live here, have built happy lives in the diaspora is because Israel exists and vice versa."

He estimated that 100,000 people monthly click onto the organization's Web site. It recently recorded 19,000 hits in a single day, during the week it carried the cybersecurity story.

A recent issue carried stories about a new line of Israeli-designed computer chips, Israeli teens preparing to make a humanitarian trip to India and the possibility that Steven Spielberg will film a movie in Israel this summer.

Last fall, the project aired 30-second pro-Israel commercials on cable TV. It got some unexpected publicity when CNN refused to broadcast the spots portraying Israel as a democracy, including images of an Arab woman casting a ballot in Israeli elections.

The cable network maintained that the commercial violated its policy about airing advocacy ads involving troubled regions, but rival Fox News and MSNBC ran the commercials. CNN's action "revealed a fundamental media bias on their part" and "really backfired for them," according to Benhamou.

Weinberg said that Israel21c subsequently sold the commercials to local CNN operators.

Surveys sponsored by the Israel Project, a coalition that included Israel21c and the American Jewish Committee, convinced Benhamou that the spots were changing opinions.

"The percentage of people who felt solidarity with Israel increased 20 percent," he said, referring to the polls commissioned before and after the commercials.

Benhamou said he does the "same analysis, same tests" when launching projects at Israel21c as he does in his business ventures, such as the Palm handheld device.

Since stepping down as chief executive officer at 3Com in January 2001, Benhamou said he's had more time for volunteer projects. Another effort, called the Israel Venture Network, is pumping about $5 million into teacher-training and other educational reforms in the community of Tiberius.

"I feel the existence of Israel is quite precarious," said Benhamou. "The last few years, Israel has lived in a state of perpetual crisis."

Benhamou's family was forced to leave their home near the Moroccan border in 1960 during Algeria's revolt against the French. They ended up in France after having "to leave everything behind," Benhamou said. "We had to rebuild our lives."

After studying engineering in Paris, Benhamou came to California in 1975 to get a master's degree at Stanford University. Attracted by the high-tech boom, he has stayed ever since.